Locative Community Project: The Individual in the Place
and Space of Locativity:
Locative media is a diverse
topic area, which includes projects and installations involving themes of
geographical space, experiential mapping, mixed reality and hypenation[am1] [1]. The nature
of communities and the relationship of individuals within these communities,
has formed both the context and the content of many locative project works
This
project is an investigation into others. Choose a person you have sighted, but
do not know, who outside of your usual experience. Observe them and imagine
their life -- then get to know and
experience the person, their life and the community they live in. Document the
experience in negotiation with them. This content will then be adapted into an
interactive physical computing environment for end of year exhibition.
Recommended reading is Drew Hemment Locative Dystopia 2 http://www.drewhemment.com/2004/the_locative_dystopia.html
Respond to this brief and present for assessment in week 4 the beginnings of your investigation (part 1) and an outline of how you will go about parts 2 and 3. For this project ethical clearance will be required and covered in class.
An investigation into others:
Part 1: Background,
Research and Ideas
Teams of three investigate
and assume the identity of someone they would encounter in the area around the
Ipswich CBD or Brisbane CBD (constrained within an four block radius). The
person chosen needs to be somebody you are intrigued by and who is outside your
'usual' experience. For example if your grandfather is fireman, do not choose a
fireman. Sample identities might include: somebody who runs a market stall, a
newsagent with a friendly manner, somebody you notice walking about a lot.
Consider gender, age and ethnicity, and somebody who would also be a likely and
willing participant.
- Go first to the chosen area and observe people.
Spend some time doing this. Choose a person.
- Then go into the designated area to document and
collect artifacts that the assumed person might need or encounter during
the course of one day.
- These artifacts could include objects, detritus
or you may take photographs.
You should be aiming to
present the collated artefacts in a documented visual format (i.e. a flip book
or similar). Make the format fits the ŌstyleÕ of the person being displayed.
Comparing the artifacts of one teamÕs imagined personÕs with another collides
the identities and illustrates in a tangible way, the tensions in the topology
of an urban landscape.
Expected Outcomes:
Report
back on the first four weeks of this project in a manner, which demonstrates
your intent and sells you idea clearly. Your presentation of work should
consider:
- What is your idea? How will you go about
completing parts 2 and 3?
- How does it relate to the themes of communities
and individuals in the location?
- Show the context of your idea – present
your analysis of the locale, context and the person and their life
- Your intended audience is the attendees at
the exhibition and the
community surrounding your chosen person - explore ideas of ways to
present how they may act/react with your ideas
Part 2: Exploring Details and Prototypes
Each group then has to find
the real person to re-visit their
vision of the imagined person and
after confirming ethical clearance is complete, negotiate with the person how
to go about finding out some actual information and how to document this
information. You might ask permission to interview them with a video camera,
and to spend time with them on an average day (perhaps in small sections). It
is important the person is able to contribute to the result as this will give
more insight into that person, particularly when seen in contrast to the others
that are on display. The result may be interviews and understandings where the
distance between what was imagined and who the actual person is, becomes
vividly illustrated. The artifacts and the quality of the time spent will also
add extra dimensions, insights and understandings about a formerly unknown
person and their life.
It would be envisaged you
would spend at least one week (total) in constant contact with the person (as
well as the lead in negotiation time). As the material is formed you will be
considering the nature of the installation design through which you will engage
the audience in the experience. Design a physical computing interactive work to
reveal the place and the person. How do you convert this information into a
snapshot of the two experiences of the person (the imagined and the actual) and
make it readable within an interactive physical computing or ubiquitous
computing environment for the end of year exhibition?
Expected Outcomes
- Outlay the extended exploration of people and
place. Use this material to develop your intended installation format.
- Demonstrate you have considered the technological
boundaries of your problem space.
- Show that your group has explored the details of
your intended experience with regards to the technology and its
appropriate mapping to the content (i.e it fits with the persons
sensibilities)
Part 3: Finishing the Story[2]
Design a physical computing interactive work to reveal
the place and the person. How do you convert this information into a snapshot
of the two experiences of the person (the imagined and the actual) and make it
readable within an interactive physical computing or ubiquitous computing
environment for the end of year exhibition? Allocated and dedicated space in
1-352 will be available -- 4 corner sections or 2 internal wall sections that
you begin to build in the wood working session (and complete that week), so
student teams can design their installation within an actual physical space (as
well as designing and building the actual space). A way to begin might be to
envisage the floor space the audience walks on as a mini-map of the 'walk
paths' of that persons life and triggers bring up --for example online and
mobile phone .movs -- and other actual activities (not only the documented
aspects).
Other ideas might include
archiving interviews and photo documentation of the books into small segments,
linking the segments to each other and annotating the segments to a
neighbourhood map. Small clips of audio with still pictures and text could be
reformatted for downloading to mobiles.
Expected Outcomes
- A holistic, crafted installation, which
demonstrates the groupÕs intent for the problem space through experience
- It must be easily disassembled and durable
- This will be the final step of your project, it
should be completed and have a professional finish
This project is an adaption
of a work Based on Neighborhood Narratives by Hana Iverson, Steve Bull, Nick West, School of Communications and
Theater, Temple University, compiled with an adaptation of Surveillance
Project run at Koeln Institute of
Design, 2003 by Ann Morrison, and now with Matthew Simpsons and Ann
Morrison, 2006 for Physical Computing and Locative Studio.