Jewish Time Jump: New York

Abstract

Jewish Time Jump: New York (Gottlieb & Ash, 2013) is a place-based mobile augmented reality game and simulation that takes the form of a situated documentary. Players take on the role of time traveling reporters tracking down a story “lost to time” to bring back to their editor at the Jewish Time Jump Gazette. The game is played in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, New York City. Players’ iPhones become their time traveling device and companion. Based on the player’s GPS location, players receive digital images from their location from over a hundred years in the past as well as contemporary video footage. They encounter simulated historical events, interactive digital characters, and digital artifacts including primary sources and ephemera of the time. The game opens as players “land” in 1909 on the eve of the Uprising of 20,000, the largest women-led strike in U.S. history as shirtwaist workers are led by organizers like Rose Schneiderman and Clara Lemlich out into the streets in protest over working conditions. Players are tasked with gathering different perspectives from labor organizers, manufacturers, and journalists of the time, by partaking in dialogues with digital characters while tracking GPS clues on a satellite map of the park.