2K-Reality: An acoustic sports entertainment augmentation for pickup basketball play spaces

In this paper we describe 2K-Reality; an acoustic sports entertainment augmentation designed to enhance the enjoyment of playing and watching the cultural practice of pickup basketball. 2K-Reality is an interactive digital artefact for pickup basketball play spaces that recontextualises sounds appropriated from a National Basketball Association (NBA) videogame to create interactive sonic experiences for players and spectators. We discuss how the design blends NBA videogames and real basketball play spaces using broadcast-style commentary, stadium-style crowd sound effects and contemporary music break beats activated by spectators interacting with a touchscreen interface connected to a public address (PA) system. Using an ethnographic approach, we analyse the different ways spectators orchestrate the different sounds, and the subsequent effects 2K-Reality soundscapes had on social interactions and the experiences of playing and watching pickup basketball. We conclude from our study that 2K-Reality is a demonstration of a compliant sports augmentation, a term we use to describe a digital enhancement of playing and watching grassroots sports without modifying existing spatial, temporal and cultural practices or the standards codified by a sport's governing body.