Riders of Metro Transit’s B Line can now participate in a community-wide art project through individual mobile game play during their daily commute. 4Culture, Metro, and Hornall Anderson today introduced “B Line PULSE,” a new mobile game designed to enhance the transit experience for riders on RapidRide buses connecting Bellevue and Redmond.

The B Line PULSE - an innovative social gaming and public art experience (Photo: Business Wire)

An artist team comprised of designers, developers, writers and strategists at branding and design firm Hornall Anderson were commissioned by 4Culture to design a mobile game for Metro’s new, WiFi-equipped RapidRide B Line. B Line PULSE invites riders to interact with artist-designed visualizations based on their real-time input and literally see how they relate to fellow riders. B Line PULSE is a project managed by 4Culture Public Art, using Percent-for-Art dollars designated for the commissioning of artwork for shared public space.

“With the increasing significance of mobile devices in our daily lives, game-like behavior is becoming increasingly prevalent outside of typical game-play settings,” says Joseph King, Design Director of Hornall Anderson. “B Line PULSE was designed to push the boundaries of what a game is and to explore the relationship of transit, information and art in this digital age.”

The creative team behind the project included King, Tim Hudson, Zachary Menkel, Gordon Mueller, Corey Paganucci, Julian Strait and Halli Brunkella Thiel.

Using a mobile device, riders opt to respond to daily prompts based on varying weekly themes. Their responses, as well as other “unconscious” inputs such as time of day, location, and speed of response are used to create a unique visual representation of the rider’s specific input. These data points are then plotted together with the data of fellow riders from that day, in real-time, to create a unique, “hybrid” visualization, transforming statistics and numbers into a collection of evolving public artwork. All data is kept strictly anonymous but participants are able to see the “pulse” of the B Line community on a given topic as it develops over the course of a day.

Metro’s B Line is one of six existing or planned RapidRide routes in King County. The B Line debuted in October 2011, and six months later ridership is already 20 percent more than the routes RapidRide replaced in that corridor.

“RapidRide offers a frequent and reliable connection between two Eastside communities with a lot of people interested in the latest and greatest in technology,” said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond. “We think our riders on the B Line can have some fun with B Line PULSE and increase their connections with the community along the way.”

Enhancing the rider experience and strengthening community around public transit is core to the art project commissioned by 4Culture. However, the initiative also deepens public understanding of how games and social networking tools can be artistic and culturally significant, with the potential to reach and connect people in creative and inspiring ways.

“We commissioned an unconventional team of game designers to create an art experience that would resonate with the B Line’s tech-savvy commuters,” says Tamar Benzikry-Stern of 4Culture. “B Line PULSE recognizes game designers as artist and games as a genre of art.”

For more information on the project and how to participate, visit www.blinepulse.com.

About Hornall Anderson

Hornall Anderson (www.hornallanderson.com) specializes in the design and execution of customer experiences that bring meaning to brands and consumers. We use a 360-degree design approach to create branded experiences from print to digital and packaged goods, to environments, virtual worlds and beyond. Hornall Anderson is a part of Diversified Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) and has offices in Seattle and London.

About 4Culture

4Culture (www.4culture.org) is a unique integration of arts, heritage, preservation and public art; committed to advancing community through culture. Public exhibitions and performances, public art, preservation of significant sites and interpretation of local history deepen our connections to the places in which we live and work. 4Culture stimulates cultural activity and enhances the assets that distinguish a community as vibrant, unique and authentic.

About King County Metro

Metro Transit serves more than 1.9 million area residents who take approximately 370,000 trips each day on metro buses. It is one of the ten largest public bus systems in North America. RapidRide is Metro Transit’s new bus rapid transit service. Launching across six corridors between 2010 and 2013, RapidRide provides streamlined access in the form of frequent and all-day bus service.

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