WNDRLND Urban Scavenger Hunt

Wanderland is a co-designed alternate reality scavenger hunt, using a collaborative map as an interface to mediate between player’s movements and green thumb’s community garden network in the Lower East Side. An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs trans-media storytelling to deliver a story that is altered by player’s actions. Wanderland worked with three community garden organizers, Irene Meisel, Carolyn Ratcliffe, and Peter Cramer to translate the life and poetry of local puerto Rican activist Carmen Pabon into a series of clues and riddles for players to decipher.

The aim of the project was to provide experiential learning for the positive mental health benefits of community gardens as urban biodiversity strongholds, and critical hubs for human connection among isolated city dwellers. As an art form, the scavenger hunt also plays a role in preserving local histories.