Created in collaboration with Specialmoves, DIY City 0.01a (alpha stage) is a project conceptualised by Usman Haque some five years ago and now prototyped and demoed at the Specialmoves HQ. It allows users to create own creatures and let them “hijack the city”.

Up front we agreed that our aim was to create a prototype which empowered people to redesign their city. We’re so at the mercy of our often grimy and faceless urban surroundings; what could we do to give city dwellers a little more control over their habitat? We also agreed to mark the end of the 2 week hack sprint with an event to let friends play with what we’d created…although we had no idea what that would be.

Specialmovers pulled together a team of developers and technical directors to create something to test and share within 24 hours and iterated from there. At their disposal were two developers, one UX’er, one concepter, three projectors, five laptops, one big idea and ten working days.

What was made included a mobile interface that allowed people to create sprites that were projected onto the walls of their courtyard space. Using a jQuery based mobile application, people could design and manipulate own creations. .NET, node.js and canvas were used on the projector side, to present the mass of creatures “hijacking the city”.

Supported by onedotzero.

Usman Haque Research | Specialmovers Project Page