Wayfinding in Playable Cities

Troy Innocent, Swinburne University of Technology Part of CW17

Cities can be sites for self-discovery and transformation; they are also constantly in the process of becoming. Urban codemaking is a framework for decoding and reimagining cities, a programming language for urban space that marks locations in the city using codes enabling multiple alternate readings of that city – by machines, humans, and other entities.

This workshop will invite feedback on the current iteration of this system following a series of interventions into public space situated around experimental and playful approaches to wayfinding using urban codes.

For the best experience with this workshop, you should bring along an iPad running iOS 11.


Troy Innocent is an artist, academic, designer and educator whose hybrid practice traverses multiple disciplines. His public art practice incorporates pervasive game design, augmented reality, and urban design supporting a long-term investigation into interactive and speculative experiences of the city as an emergent process.

In 2017 Innocent was awarded the Melbourne Knowledge Fellowship to research and develop playable cities in the UK and Europe leading to a crossdisciplinary collaboration with urban designers, policy makers and creative facilitators to transform the city through play. This approach is also central to his public art practice through ‘urban codemaking’ – a system he developed for situating play in cities such as Melbourne, Istanbul, Sydney and Hong Kong.

Innocent teaches pervasive game design at Swinburne University; and is represented by Anna Pappas Gallery.