Skidipeli, a giant board game and art installation located on the Helsinki inner-city streets, will tour Helsinki libraries and cultural buildings during 2022. Tailor-made for the libraries, the game introduces a variety of literacy skills. The players themselves are pawns, throwing dice to advance from one city landmark to another. The players are encouraged to read and interpret various texts.
The game is an exhilarating combination of media education and stories and, with the help of a smart device, also augmented reality. The AR technology enables players to access various literacy-related tasks to explore themes related to image, communication, advertising, audio and poetry literacy skills in more detail.
At the end of the game, players can visit a book kiosk with an opportunity to borrow diverse literature about Helsinki.
The game, designed with cooperation between libraries and schools in mind, is mainly reserved for guided use by school classes on weekdays. However, in the evenings and at weekends everyone can play and literacy adventure through the city landscape.
Developed jointly by the Skidit collective, Helsinki City Library and Media Education Centre Metka, the project is funded by the Regional State Administrative Agency of Southern Finland. The City of Helsinki’s Lukuinto (‘Love of Reading’) project and AR studio flyAR, which produces added reality content, also participated in the design and implementation.
Skidipeli tour schedule:
SPRING 2022
Kanneltalo: 5–19 March
Rikhardinkatu Library: 26 March–10 April.
AUTUMN 2022
The Helsinki Central Library Oodi: 27 August–9 September
Malmitalo: 24 September–8 October
Oulunkylä Library: 7–19 November
For more information about the literacy adventure, visit helmet.fi/skidipeli
Photo: Katja Tähjä — City of Helsinki