| Locative Media Workshop |
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The Interpretive Enginea locative media workshopNaomi Spellman, Jeff KnowltonArtists, designers --both graphic and sound, programmers, gamers, writers, composers and thing makers of all sorts are invited to collaborate. This workshop will develop The Interpretive Engine for Various Places on Earth, a location aware, computer based work, to be shown in concert with the Fresno Metropolitan Museum in May 2006. What the heck is this locative media business? Think of it as computer based art that is context aware and tailorable to one of many specific locations. Interaction is based not on mouse movement, but on the user's location and movement in the real world. In the Interpretive Engine, users' laptop computers utilize WiFi to determine the user's location and deliver audio, narrative and other components in a manner that is context aware and geared toward one of three specific locations in the real world. There is more to it than that of course. See below for a more detailed description of the the Interpretive Engine. This workshop will meet every other week, Monday mornings. Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman will be available on campus outside of the regular meeting time on corresponding Sunday evenings and occasionally other days as time and capricious whims allow. In particular we encourage people with backgrounds in programming, graphic design, mapping and sound design to participate. Monday morning 9-12
The Interpretive Engine for Various Places on Earth Seated in a downtown park, an outdoor cafe, or other active WiFi space, the participant opens the Interpretive Engine on their WiFi enabled laptop. The Interpretive Engine determines the participants general location by examining the IP Address of the WiFi access point, then slides the map into place indicating the general area surrounding the participant. The participant sees a local map from over a hundred years ago. A marker indicates their position and the position of other nearby story participants, and helps orient one in the strangely familiar environment represented on the screen. While many buildings and streets are familiar, others offer indications of Fresno's past. Early industry exists side by side with tenements, saloons, churches, and a myriad of makeshift businesses. Onscreen, navigational icons based on the Hobo alphabet lend navigational clues. The hobo alphabet is a set of visual codes used in the early days of railroad travel by transient travelers to give information about resources in the immediate area. Here, they allow the participant to access story layers specific to characters and to various setting details. The icons shift with the evolving story, such that different kinds of detail are available at different points in the story evolution. The participant is prompted to input information about themselves, such as place of residence and recent travel destinations. Based on this information, current location, and other criteria, the Interpretive Engine queries a number of online databases and generates elements of the story unique to each participant and time. Through onscreen text-based dialog, characters discuss a current local event – derived from an online news source. Through a text to speech computer generated voice, the narrator knits together the predefined with the generative story elements. An image of a regional plant appears on screen (pulled from an online database) as a character mentions planting. A story character visits a pub – located a block away from where the participant is sitting. If the participant views the piece in the evening, the visible stars are indicated onscreen as one of the story characters considers the effects of artificial city lighting on the night time sky. Throughout, Ghosts in the machine and ghosts in the landscape are evident. |
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