Paul Conneally recently presented Invigilator at the Pecha Kucha Night Coventry Global Cities event.
Watashitachi ha kono basho de iroiro na koto ni kizuiteimasu.
As for us, by means of this place, various things are being noticed.
Having made a hat to measure my posture as I walk around different parts of the city, I’ve spent the last few days testing it and getting a feel for what sort of results it produces.
Diagram showing position, direction I'm facing and the angle of my head. Click for a much larger version...
Pretty much exactly as I was expecting really, which is probably a good reason to avoid drawing any sweeping conclusions from it – at least until I’ve got to the stage where I collect data without being aware that I’m doing so…
On the plus side, it does reveal lots of unexpected things – posing yet more questions in the process – and that, I believe, is the sign of a good tool!
For these renderings, green represents a neutral head position, with the pointer getting redder as my gaze is lowered. Here are some noticings:
The lower, horizontal section shows me walking along a fairly busy road: eyes front, head direction and angle reasonably constant. The upper section is along a footpath next to a river: my interest is drawn in all sorts of directions and this is shown by the inconsistency in pointer direction and colour
Close-up of a high interest area - head angle changes a lot, as does the direction I'm facing
Head angle decreases slowly as I approach the High Street, but returns to a neutral position a lot quicker as I leave it behind me
It’s becoming apparent that I need to include some sort of calibration so that I can more reasonably compare tracks from different walks. Currently, differences in how I’m wearing the hat are too easily read as differences in head angle when I put all the traces on the same diagram.
I’ve also expanded the arduino code so that I log date, time, latitude, longitude, altitude, course, speed, bearing, pitch and roll. I think there are some very interesting potential correlations to investigate (for example: when my head angle decreases, do I also walk faster?) and, whilst I may not be investigating them right now, I want to make sure I’ve got the data when I do!
[or the Shin Up Shapeau. Or the Chin Up Chap! Oh!]
The Chin Up Chapeau
I’ve been thinking a lot about how my posture changes in relation to whereabouts I am as I walk around Birmingham.
As I approach what I perceive to be high risk areas I believe I adopt a significantly more defensive stance: lowering my gaze and stooping slightly. Of course, there are hunches and there are hunches…
I made the Chin Up Chapeau to measure the angle of my head and log it along with locational data so I can see exactly how my posture relates to space. Do I really stoop, or is it, y’know, all in my head? Where are the danger zones? Are the boundaries clearly defined?
The Chin Up Chapeau sports a gps receiver [EM 406a], a tilt-compensated compass[CMPS10], a logging device [OpenLog] and an arduino clone microcontroller [RBBB] along with a few other accoutrements like a soft switch and an indicator LED.
There are still a few niceties to be sorted out, but here’s a visualisation of a quick walk last night:
Head angle, bearing, location ...and a loaf of bread from the Co-op
I’m going to log data as I walk around the city, but I’m very aware of how easy it would be to ‘fake’ the outcomes to match what I think they should be.
Or perhaps I’ll be concious that I’m watching myself and instead make an effort to keep my chin up at all times…
At the very least I now have an electrically heated hat to keep me cosy!
A few days ago I was on the Mobile, Location and Games panel at the Hello Culture conference.
Along with Oliver Williams (chair), Jon Bounds, Katie Day and Jason DaPonte we were tasked with talking to cultural organisations about “developing a new generation of mobile and location-based experiences and services”.
The audio for the whole session is available (very quietly) on this Hello Culture site. Below is the audio for my presentation alongside the slides I used. I gave an overview of the main things that get me about working in this area, with illustrations from various projects and experiences.
Looking at them now, the slides seem to be mostly people pointing and gesturing towards the things around them – I think this is A Good Thing!
For the last few weeks I’ve been walking across Manhattan from East coast to West and back again gathering GPS data.
West of West 81st Street
East of East 79th Street, about 50 minutes later
I’m interested in how the land use (and therefore the effect on the GPS) varies as you move inland, gradually moving into more affluent areas, then the open space of Central Park, then out to the coast again.
As I repeat the process for different streets, I also get a sense of the change in landscape as I move further North: Midtown East becomes the Upper East Side becomes East Harlem; Midtown West becomes the Upper West Side becomes Morningside Heights.
I’ve recently reached the stage where I’ve been able to get the traces printed out and it’s interesting to see the ghosts of the city in the lines.
First printout of the processed GPS data
I’m looking forward to getting back home and being able to print them out full-size to enjoy and explore in more detail.
Whilst prowling the corridors of ITP yesterday, I chanced upon a second great project by the Guggenheim: stillspotting ( ) nyc.
The current iteration is located in the borough of Manhattan and features a collaboration between composer Arvo Pärt and the New York City and Oslo-based architectural firm Snøhetta.
Five sites have been selected, each with a musical piece and one or some large weather balloons installed at them. Each provide space for contemplation and slowing down.
The magazine at Fort Jay, Governors Island
Fort Jay, Governors Island
The labyrinth at the Battery
At the Woolworth Building
7 World Trade Center
Each of the locations were something special in their own right – you can see a slideshow of all my photos – and the addition of gorgeous compositions resulted in some moving experiences.
Several times I was also aware of how we looked from the outside – particularly at those sites where the musical accompaniment was secret to us, listened to via headphones.
It brought to mind recent conversation with Hannah Nicklin about creating ‘magnificent moments’, but I’m still trying to decide if these were they or not…
Following the success of my Ministry of Rules project with The City Gallery back in February [Museum 2.0 interview], they’ve asked me back as project manager for their Summer programme of activities.
This time we’re linking in with the 2Player exhibition at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery (“exploring the abstractions of game play and computers as a form of communication”) and I will talk with anyone who will talk with me at the LCB Depot (“looks at the nature of conversations, the creativity that can come from the gaps, stutters or breakdowns in speaking and the spontaneous production of new ideas that can occur when people meet for conversation and collaboration”).
The Graham Hudson installation housing the exhibition at LCB Depot
From my starting brief I’ve put together a framework to allow us to really explore the potential of the gap and journeys between the two exhibition sites. Loosely based on the idea of a Choose Your Own Adventure gamebook, rather than getting a bit grumpy about having to shepherd people to an unfamiliar venue, or even just working on a fixed route between New Walk and the Depot, we’ve defined a group of possibilities. The workshops will work with these to explore the layering of stories and characters over the top of the routes and the decisions made along them.
The workshops will run for the two weeks between the 15th and 26th of August, with different workshops aimed at different age groups ranging from 0-2 years through to 12-17 years. We’ve got an absolutely top-notch team of artists lined up to lead these sessions: Graham Langley (storyteller and one of the Traditional Arts Team), Lindsay Jane Brown (who has worked on early years programme with the REP), Sian Watson Taylor (a narrative-weaving artist who’s worked with more galleries and schools than you can shake a story dice at) and Ashley Brown (digital artist to be found in ludic rooms of all sorts). That’s a pretty amazing collection of skills and expertise we’re unleashing onto the streets of Leicester!
If you’re under the age of 17, you and your responsible adults can sign up for workshops here. (They’re all free, most will include BISCUITS! and most will involve exploring outdoor space – be prepared!)
The Routes, Roles & Rules programme also has its own blog where you can read more about the artists and the workshops as they take place. We’re very much interested in the idea of building on themes that come out of the workshops, so keep an eye on the activities section where we’ll be posting stories, tasks, and trails that you can download and do yourself. Here’s the first one – Story detectives – to get you started.
The Story detectives worksheet - can you find all the story clues and mark them on the map? Bonus marks if you can then make a story using them. Suitable for all ages!
Don’t forget to share your results with us!
~~~
Oh, and whilst we’re on the subject, I also had a bit of a hand in planning the activities for The Herbert‘s Wild Worlds early years summer exhibition. You know it’s a good sign when you’re sat in a planning meeting trying to figure out what small children you can borrow to be able to take part yourself!
Thursday came and saw us doing the second round of user-testing for Colony as part of the Platinum showcase.
We walked, stood in smelly corners, manoeuvred in and out of fortified alleyways, got shouted at from cars and stared at from a variety of directions.
It was pretty great.
Moving on from the prototypes I had in March that simply vibrated at random, these prototypes were now loaded with code that made them responsive to their surroundings. Our task for the evening was to find out what that meant when you put that mathematical analysis of data a) into the hands of people and b) in to the streets.
The first group of participants set out to find out how all this works.
Another development since the initial testing was that this time there were two organisms. We’re getting incrementally closer to finding out what it might be like to have that colony of them.
The protoshape I used in March was a “small human sized” pear/water-drop/fish/swaddled baby kind of thing. This had seemed to be an ideal blank canvas upon which to project empathy and from which to project emotions and desires.
Grappling with the over-sized prototype (photo: Pete Ashton)
After a bit of a false start the weekend before, where I had made one that was too darn big, I remade it a lot smaller. And therefore a lot more huggable.
For the second of the two organisms I wanted to try something different, so I added an awkward limb/tentacle thing. Whereas with the drop-shaped blob the feedback vibration motors were very strategically placed along anticipated contact areas with the carrier’s body, the plan for this one was to make something less intuitive to hold and to see how people dealt with it.
A pause at the crossroads
Sash and shoulder; lock and load
Ant probes the streets of Highgate/Digbeth
JV goes for the torso wrap
The photos above show a few of the many solutions people came up with: headwear, neckwear, waistwear and gripped in a variety of different manners. It seemed to me that people were much more inclined to experiment with different ways of holding this creature, whereas with the other … well, this next photo sums up the different modes of interaction very well, I feel:
One blob gets a hug, whilst the other is borne down the street atop of a head
That's not to say that the baby-shape didn't get experimented with too...
A few next steps were identified over the course of the evening:
Ashley gets his first buzz as he begins his journey with new companion
As well as a selection of interesting interactions with some of the few other people on the streets at that time, I was very pleased at the way the colony organisms provided an impetus for the testers to interact with their surroundings. Ultimately, this is what the project’s all about.
I've no idea what they're talking about, but I'd like to think it's a discussion about the architectural qualities of the local urban environment :)
A reassuring pat on the back for an organism unhappy to find itself in a narrow alleyway with no clear view of the sky
A corner not normally stood in
Not only not enough sky, but a hefty amount of barbed wire between it and you - no wonder they're not happy
A few moments of paying attention to a rollershutter alcove
Many thanks to everyone who helped get the prototypes working in a technical sense, and to everyone who experimented with and offered feedback on how they worked in a practical sense. More photos can be found in this Flickr set.
Myself and the other artists from the current Platinum cohort will be presenting our various works in progress at a public event to be held at The Edge on the evening of Thursday 2nd of June.
The artists involved come from a diverse range of backgrounds, and the work on show will range from performance through to endurance; presentation through to exploration.
An exploration into personal fears. This work will involve sharing a series of experiences.
A playful device that aims to gently nudge and augment people’s perceptions of the urban landscape.
An exploration of the stimulatory effects of adrenaline. The physical act is militaristic.
A research-led investigation of the cultural history of the arts in Birmingham from the perspective of recent graduates.
Researching the commodification of the ritual of funeral, while exploring death within its wider social and cultural meaning.
John Napier and CLUB HOT ZEUS present BAD MUSIC.
The first prototypes being tested around Digbeth. This time they'll vibrate in response to their surroundings!
I aim to have two prototype organisms there as part of the development of my work in progress Colony. I’ll give a short introductory presentation and there will be a limited number of slots available for you to take the prototypes out for an exploratory walk around the streets of Cheapside.
Do come along if you’re in the area. Free entry; cash bar; FaceBook event.
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