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AntiVJ Showcase Event | Victoria Tillotson | AntiVJ, News
Thursday 10 Sept | 1800hrs | Watershed | Fee £3.50.International visual label AntiVJ create monumental projections in public spaces, combining powerful video projectors with digital mapping techniques and holographic illusions. Stepping away from conventional techniques, the artist’s offer an alternative perspective on social spaces and cultural communication.
This event will include a showcase of AntiVJ’s recent projects, plus an in conversation presentation between AntiVJ members Nicolas Boritch, Joanie Lemercier, and Watershed’s Head of Programme, Mark Cosgrove. They will discuss how artists are utilising today’s emerging technologies, and what impact this might have on the future of gaming, fashion, architecture and advertising.
Tickets to this event can be booked through Watershed Box Office: http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibits/2028/
There will also be an opportunity to see a demo of AntiVJ's new experimental stereo and tracking prototype:
Snacks, Aardvarks and ideas: media sandbox update event | Clare Reddington | News30 people gathered in the studio tonight to share ideas, progress, tapas and beer at a Media Sandbox event. Designed to update the community on how projects are getting on, the event also served as an opportunity to extract knowledge from the gathered crowd of innovation, web, TV, mobile and social media people.
"Mobile networks were actually built originally to carry voice. People forget this" Sam Machin, Orange
Nomos Media kicked off with an overview of how their AudioEnable mobile podcasting platform is progressing (so far easier than they expected). They are using the .NET compact framework for development, initially just for Windows Mobile as it is the schools' platform of choice. Having cracked basic functionality with a test device, the next phases will include file management, compression, upload and editing functionality (potentially the more difficult bits). Richard Hull from HP Labs and Sam Machin from Orange jumped in with some technical questions around encoding and Brian Condon asked the Audioboo in the corner question. Part of the discussion was around the user need to upload recordings 'made in the field'. Could they be uploaded later? Could the application instead use telephony to dial and record straight to a server (cue Sam's brilliantly dry comment). In the wider project, Radio in Schools is still being taken up rapidly across the UK, with schools using it to create audio newsletters to parents, communicate with twin schools in India and record school plays. "We created a platform and they are running with it".
"Stunningly we have made one sale already. And they jumped through many hoops to do it"
Next came Calum Lasham from Street Art Dealer who opened with an explanation of QR codes, lamenting the lack of UK uptake in both QR and mobile micro-payments. One of the aims of this project is to spread the gallery across the city; enabling artists to sell their work directly and cut out the middleman. As QR can encode a lot more information than a normal bar code and you can lose 70% of an image and still scan it, they are perfect electronic price tags for the street. Having sold one print already, they are planning a test installation with an unmanned gallery in Broadmead, but still have many challenges around the lack of parity in scanner quality across phones (I rate Optiscan for the iPhone), trust and payment mechanisms.
At this point we took a break and I conducted some 'special' research of my own, ripping and crumpling QR codes to see just how robust they are. My very scientific study says crumpling is fine, ripping and putting back together is sometimes not and you can lose rather less than 70% and not have a chance of reading anything. But I still think they are good.
"Big brother and Crimewatch are the most success interactive TV formats ever"
When Rik Lander started the Viral Spiral Sandbox project, he proposed to investigate how the passive nature of watching TV could be combined with the many types of interaction made possible by computers and the internet. Rik discussed how many of the TV production people he had discussed his ideas with had expressed dismay at the idea of creating a live, interactive programme; outside of the rather crass output of Channel 5 quiz programmes, the two worlds rarely meet. Rather than starting from thinking about formats, Viral Spiral is looking at what may or may not work for audiences (both those who do and don't want to interact), testing studio-based games which utilise audience interaction through things like search and messaging, the project will then develop TV formats, depending on success. Rik gave an overview of their first test session (described in his blog here) and asked his Tricky interactive question of the week: is there an inverse relationship between audience participation and quality? Rik then employed the community brain with some technical questions around the search and ARG type audience tests he is planning next.
This seemed to be a good opportunity for me to try out Aardvark for the first time, a new social network which enables you to IM questions and get live answers from your network and beyond. So, I instant messaged out Rik's question "what is the standard delivery time for an SMS?" And this is the chat transcript of what came back:
17:47 Aardvark: Got it. I'll find someone in your network who knows about *consumer electronics* , and send them your question now. I'll send you an answer in a few minutes!
17:49 Jose L./25/M/Venezuela: 3 seconds, more or less.
17:50 clare reddington: Thank you. Does it depend on traffic?
17: 54 Jose: It depends on how far are you from the closest cell (antenna). the closest, the better transfer rate you'd get. Of course It is all theoretical, in practice there's more variables to consider.So there, not sure how useful Aardvark was, but a great event with lots of chatting, snacking and useful interjections. Thanks to all who attended.
Recommended Research | Victoria Tillotson | NewsWe’ve asked each of our commissions to recommend a research link that will help to demonstrate the wider context of their ideas…
What is mapping technique?…
AntiVJ recommend watching their short video demonstration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9y1Tesw4YY - the paper structures have been mapped prior to Joanie producing the content he is projecting. The mapping software will enable anyone to easily map simple shapes, quickly turning them into a display.Have a look at Street Art Dealer…
C6 and Steal From Work invite you to peruse their beta test site of Street Art Dealer, http://www.streetartdealer.com/
Audio Capture and Touchscreens with Nomos…
Nomos Media recommend having a look at http://www.ribbit.com/. Interestingly, they've created an API for developers to embed web phones on their pages that link up to a real phone exchange, effectively allowing the users to call any phone from a webpage. This kind of technology could be really interesting for AudioEnable if you could store the audio as well.These links are related to the particular challenges of designing an application for the small screen:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/13/mobile-web-design-trends-2009/
http://www.blueflavor.com/blog/2006/jul/21/designing-for-mobile/… and Nomos have also provided a link to some interesting stuff about designing for touchscreens. Although they're working with a windows mobile device at the moment, most devices will be touchscreen and that presents some challenges:
HMC Interactive research Audiograms…
Research into Tonal Therapy has led HMC Interactive to consider the potential use of audiograms within their project. Learn more about what an audiogram is here, http://www.pacificaudiology.com/audiogram/uya.html
U-Soap Ponder Formats, Venues and Kit…
Rather than a link, U-Soap Media ask you to consider this graphic.
Rik has been coming up with format ideas aimed at different demographics and offering different levels of interactivity for a home audience. Some of formats will then enter the testing phase. Greg has been thinking through the testing plans and getting quotes from potential venues, kit and so on. Ruth Farrar, who works with Greg, has been doing research into how TV game, quiz and panel shows are constructed time-wise. This example shows how the rounds in Never Mind the Buzzcocks get successively shorter.
Field Research, part 3, Distance | Dan Course | Thought PieToday we checked the distance we can deliver our content from when broadcasting from a raised position in the office.
Field Research, Part 1, Chased by 'fanny'! | Dan Course | Thought PieWow, what a lovely day it was Wednesday the 30th!
So not a good day for Thought Den and Mobile Pie to stay in, and as such we headed out into the big wide "real" world to do some initial Gopping tests.
We mainly focused on a few areas around town Fountains, KFC, Galleries and the Watershed (for drinks) in the hope all these areas would pull in splendid results like, every-one accepting the file we bluetoothed to them and then bought us drinks 'cos we were so clever.
How-ever,
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