Sports Complex District, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia History through Sports (PHS)
Media and Technology:
Booths will be set up at checkpoints
Checkpoints will be located outside of historic sports sites
Booths must include at least one type of sensory media (visual, interactive, audio)
Booths must be clearly marked with a PHS icon
Booths must be non-linear in relation to each other, so participants may explore the area freely.
The last booth is used as an input and output booth. Participants can upload pictures, videos or text to share their favorite sports memories and add to the historical value of the area,
Visitors will navigate through the Sports Complex District to discover the gateways to the past through their interaction with multi-media, sound, pictures, and artwork. Participants will use the booths to explore the historical significance of the buildings and people who helped make Philadelphia sports so influential to modern day sports fans and Philadelphians alike.
Participant’s Rules:
Visitors may move freely throughout check points and explore as they go
Visitors must be prepared with their own set of standard headphones to participate in some booth activities such as audio and video clips
Visitors are encouraged to explore the area with others, such as their children to help create a fun and interactive learning experience
Participants must walk through the Sports Complex District to get to booths
Participants are encouraged to upload and share experiences to the last booth, as well as view others' experiences
Proposed Narrative:
A divorced father of one, takes his child to a Phillies game at Citizen Bank Park on a summer afternoon. With the awkwardness of free time at hand between this broken family, they decide to take advantage of the PHS tour. Through the first booth visited, they have a chance to experience and learn about Phillies' great Mike Schmid. They are able to watch videos of great plays and audio of interviews with coaches and players alike. The father begins to act funny. The child wonders why and asks what is wrong. The father replies, “Great things have happened here, not just including sports.” The child pesters their dad to tell them what that means. The father goes on to tell his child about the best Phillies game he has ever seen.
“There were twenty thousand people there that day, and I was the most nervous. I didn't think that I could be more nervous than the players! I took your mother to that game. She was a Cubs fan, but I was bugging her for weeks to come to a Phillies game with me. During the seventh inning stretch, everyone stood up, but I dropped to one knee. I asked your mother to marry me that day, and it was the best day of my life.”
The child, young and naïve, asks why they got a divorce if he loved her so much. The father just took his child's hand and told him that sometimes things don't always work out as planned, but great things still happen. At the end of their little tour of the sports complex, they upload a photo to the booth to share this day, time, and place, to share with others to come and have their adventure.
This proposal of the Philadelphia Sports through History walking tour makes use of walkable space throughout the Sports Complex District. There would be no need to renovate a any particular place, just use the open space available. The walkable space in itself is not very large, and is very exciting and enticing to walk, as opposed to an intimidating, long walking tour, allowing people of all ages to enjoy.
This element of a close walking area is very important in the success of PSH. The idea of having the walk and the media booths so close to one another is vital in not only bringing people in to participate, but to give the feeling of a small, tight-knit community, which some would argue, to be a vital part of being in the City of Brotherly Love.
This Locative Narrative reminds me a lot of the Jeremy Hight article Views from Above: Locative Narrative and the Landscape. These activities act much like the blues record discussed, but instead of just reading the past grooves, it is able to record new groves for the next participants. The idea of the PSH tour does not change the space or area of the sports complex district, but simply enhances the history, value, and memories that have made this area so successful.

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