This is a presentation of two creative placemaking projects with primary school children in three schools in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh. The projects were undertaken with local arts centre WHALE Arts and researchers from Â鶹ÉçÇø. Both projects were participatory and used psychogeography to capture the lived experience of the young people who participated in the project. Both projects involved playful creative technology activities.
The first project, Digimapping was funded by internal public engagement funds. This involved building large scale physical interactive maps that incorporate children's drawings of places of local importance. Touching pictures triggers sound recordings made by the children. The second project Let’s Play Wester Hailes involved the children making games for bespoke arcade machines. This project was funded by a Royal Academy of Engineers Ingenious fund.
Wester Hailes is listed as a site of multiple deprivation and has historically been the beneficiary of top-down government interventions. The aim of these projects was to engage local children in a playful activity that would help communicate their values and lived experience. We would like to offer conference attendees the opportunity to play with the maps and games made by our participants.