Mundo aberto: os jogos, a cidade e os corpos na construção de lugar como experiência afetiva

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether the urban game is capable of producing place, how this occurs, and what kind of place it produces. The investigation is grounded in concepts of place and space developed by authors who emphasize mobility and the perception of the urban environment, such as Yi-Fu Tuan, Michel de Certeau, and Tim Ingold. Situationist psychogeography and the method of the dérive provide tools for exploring the city, enabling subjective experiences and multiple perspectives through the movements carried out during the game. The reflection on the ludic nature of games is based on the theories of Johan Huizinga and Hans-Georg Gadamer, the latter being fundamental for understanding the game as an interpretive, meaningful, and discovery-oriented experience that connects action and understanding. Projects such as Can You See Me Now? (2001, 2024) and Rider Spoke (2007), developed by the British collective Blast Theory. These works illustrate the articulation between theory and practice in the context of urban games, as they bring together and examine theories of place, games, the city, the dérive, and the capacity of games to transform our experience and perception of the built environment. In this thesis, theoretical reflection inspires and guides the creation of the game, while the game itself is positioned as a field for experimental inquiry within the scope of the urban poetics the research seeks to explore, challenging and critically examining the concepts discussed. The game Céus constitutes the methodological core of this thesis: an urban game designed to establish and re-establish connections between places, stories, and players. Finally, the thesis examines the emerging poetics of the urban game, considering how narratives produced by players shape our perception of and connection with places, making the game simultaneously propositional, experiential, and place-producing.