Can You See Me Now?
23-28 July 2007 

Blast Theory are an internationally renowned artist group who explore the role that new technology can play in the creation of social space. Following meetings with the In Certain Places curatorial team and site visits to Preston, Blast Theory decided to present a version of their Bafta nominated work, Can you See Me now?

About the work

Can You See Me Now? is a chase game which is played simultaneously on the Internet and the real city streets. The game explores the impact that new technologies can have in a city in the 21st century and their potential to offer new experiences of the urban environment. Through a series of research visits to the city, the artists created a 3D virtual representation of Preston city centre, which formed the basis of the game. Between 1pm and 4pm daily on 26th – 28th July 2007, people across the globe were able to explore the streets and landmarks of the city by logging on to the World Wide Web and participating in the game. Whilst these players moved through the virtual streets, they were chased by ‘runners’ who, tracked by satellites, were out in the real streets of Preston.

The game was hosted in an empty shop unit in the Guild Hall shopping centre. The In Certain Places team worked closely with Preston City Council’s E-city initiative, who installed Internet access in the space and supplied 10 laptops on which members of the public could play the game. The decision to host the work in the Guild Hall arcade proved successful. Around 300 people used the computer terminals to play the game during the 9 hours that it ran (over 3 days) and many others visited the space to find out more about the work and how to join in at home, or to watch others playing the game. The space also acted as the control room for the game, transforming the shopping centre into a performative space and ensuring a visibility for the work as the runners left and returned to the control room throughout the duration of each game. E-city also provided laptops which were situated in Brew café on Lune St and Brucciani’s on Fishergate. In Certain Places volunteers demonstrated the game and invited customers to explore the virtual streets of Preston whilst looking out for glimpses of the runners through the café windows.

Educational activities

Can You See Me Now? was preceded by two days of free workshops in which members of the Blast Theory team taught 15 participants how to access and work with Google Earth and Google Sketch-up (programmes which are free to download and are used by the group to create the virtual gaming area for Can You See Me Now?). Participants also had the chance to try out the GPS and radio technology used in the work and to test the game out in the city. The participants came from different backgrounds and places in and around Preston. The workshops were open to all ages above 12 years old, the average age of the participants was 15, with the youngest participant 13 years old and the oldest 60. The workshops were very well received by all and a number of people involved later joined the team as volunteers and information assistants throughout the 3 days that the game ran.

This commission was supported by the Granada Foundation 

• In 9 hours of the game, 705 games were played, totalling a new game every 45 seconds.

• In the three weeks leading up to, and including the games, the website was visited 165,977 times with 35,439 visits to the gaming page.

• Over the three days (3 hours per day), the game received 3,121 unique visits (note: the computer terminals in the Guild Hall unit and cafes were only counted by the system as one visit per day, despite the large number of players throughout the 3 days).

Can You See Me Now? brought the rest of the world to Preston city centre. Players from as far a field as Brazil and Saudi Arabia logged on to explore the virtual streets of Preston, initiating discussion about how new and innovative technology can be used to put Preston on the map. The top ten countries were: US, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, Spain, Japan, France, Netherlands and Ireland, with visits from more remote countries including Singapore, Israel, South Africa and China.

Click on the play button below to see a feature about the game on Northwest Tonight...