Barcelona’s recently introduced civic bylaws have imposed a series of rules of play for the users of public space. The bylaws thoroughly regulate the behaviour of pedestrians, and penalise cases such as the occupation of public space for behaviour ranging from begging, the supply and demand of sexual services and physiological needs, to the consumption of alcoholic drinks and unauthorised hawking. Any infringements may be punished with fines of up to 3.000€.
To allow us to experiment with, and try out strategies and actions that will later be applied to the real world, we have suggested retrieving another type of game: the typical board game played with counters, which seeks to reflect (by reproducing on a microcartographic level the same place where the game is being played) changes in the movements of the occasional occupation of public land which the bylaw causes among a wide range of groups.
The attached book, entitled Rules of the game, is a printed facsimile of the civic bylaw. All the rules, as well as those who fall foul of them, are the subject of the game. The game we are proposing has no rules and it is up to the players to invent them. It features a map, counters – the expressions of the space and its users – and dice, but it doesn’t dictate how to use them.