Mediascape Commissions

My piece is now a collaboration with Dave Morgan-Davies, who created the locative art walk ‘here nor there’ using the original Mobile Bristol toolkit.

After thinking about the theme of images, we considered:

• Building up images in a series of layers, such as a watercolour wash or a gradually emerging picture
• Using simple animation with still images or a slideshow to give the illusion of movement
• Signs and graphic devices such as arrows and universally understood symbols
• The impact of sunlight on the iPaq screen; contrast; brightness; colour

One constraint of the brief that helped us was that of a mediascape that could be re-located. A further self-imposed constraint was that the user should ‘get it’ as soon as possible, without spoken or written instructions which would require translation in different languages.

How to make universally understood content that isn’t dependent on national or local landmarks? Well two-thirds of the world’s surface is ocean, so we’ve gone underwater.

Only a lucky few get to dive the coral reef, but everyone has an expectation of what it will be like and what they would see. We aim to allow to allow people to explore the hidden depths without getting wet!

Wearing the right equipment is crucial, and the ‘diving suit’ is replaced by the iPaq - the headphones could be the air supply. As soon as you run out of oxygen, or patience, you can re-emerge to the surface.

The experience may not be factually correct, but in the true spirit of interactivity it will create an immersive environment - with a few surprises…

Any thoughts?

Posted by Paul and Dave 

Hello everyone…

Been thinking quite a lot about the way people interact with a handheld device, also how people generally act and interact when walking or moving.

Also, I’ve got a little more freedom of action due to my piece being Flash based, so I’m wondering how to use that as well…

I’ve ended up with a few too many ideas, but have decided to post them all here, I’d love some feedback if you have a second. My first step is to create a very quick ‘wireframe’ test program, which should give me a better idea of the accuracy of movement and what kind of scale this needs to work at to feel responsive. The ideas need various amounts of scale/accuracy to run. So answers from the test should decide the idea to go with.

Paqzilla

This is an idea that’s been floating around for the last few months when we started talking about Mobile game ideas. It’s slightly stolen from a set of MTV
Mobile Channel stings, you can read a little more on my Blog

(please excuse bad drawing)

The basic idea is that you are a big monster of some kind (or that you’re on a small world), and you get to stomp all over a city causing chaos in your wake… not the most friendly, but done with plenty of humor.

Pluses: Works with the usual walking playing position, godly power always goes down well, could be colourful, expandable

Minuses: Needs accurate positioning on a small scale, needs quick rotation (which doesn’t seem that responsive, and can freak out), could need complete screen animation (which will be horribly slow)

Alien Invaders

Similar to the above idea, but played over a larger scale: ‘Alien Invaders’ is an idea dropped in my head by Ollie. It utilizes the same top down idea, but as if you are holding (and controlling) an alien space craft. This craft is then moved to the correct position to perform a number of potential tasks (most likely only one of these tasks would get sorted for this test).

The tasks could include: Beaming up cows, Leaving crop circles, generally causing mischief… while all the time avoiding being seen.

In fact the Paczilla and Alien invaders could easily fit together as a much larger game, for a general take over the world type adventure.

Pluses: Let’s you hold the Ipaq like a flying object, lets to run around in a fun way, could be colourful, expandable, better distance’s and less accurate than Paqzilla but:

Minuses: Still needs reasonably accurate positioning on a small scale, reasonable amounts of animation needed, potential to drop the Ipaq, looking at screen while running… hmmm.

Satellite Attack

I’m just noticing that all these games seem to involve blowing things up, I promise I don’t have violent tendencies.

This one would be a great two player game, but that’s a problem. It would still work against a computer opponent but without the cleverness.

It’s plays on the idea that you can control Satellites. For little boys, the fact that the Ipaq uses Satellites for the GPS will be enough to help them believe that can also control them.

The game plays pretty simple. If you stay still then you charge up your big Satellite laser (think Japanese cartoons), once you’ve got it powered up you can fire somewhere on the map… The problem is someone else is doing the same, which means you’ve also got to keep moving.

Pluses: Easy to understand concept, the Ipaq becomes a believable interface, reasonably simple development, ready for multiplayer

Minuses: Currently against computer (not very cunning), not much room for expandability

Paqmon

This was my first idea, but I believe a little too obvious (and probably done already). It plays off similar ideas to Pokemon, finding and collecting. It would be played over a lot larger areas (Towns or Schools rather than playgrounds). It involves finding and collecting creatures… these creatures could then combine creating new creatures to be left in new places…

It hasn’t really got much further than that right now… but there potential in there somewhere.

Other stuff

Other ideas include ‘Mini Extreme’, based on mindless games played using your fingers while walking along… think pretending to run/bmx/skateboard/surf along a wall while walking. Your fingers get replaced with the ipaq. Unfortunately this would need the Ipaq to have accelerometers to pick up movement… much like the Wii Remote. And finally investigative stuff, that make you use your Ipaq like a magnifying glass or analyzer.

seem to be the only one on the blog at the moment… wondering how everyone else is getting on?
I have been getting to grips with the Mediascape Editor application and have created a very rough version of the ‘Bristol Short Film Walk’ piece. It seems to be working when I try it in PC mode but I need to get out there when it stops raining and give it a proper test. Once the general script is doing what i want it to, I plan to spend much more time refining it and adding more visuals. I haven’t found the Mediascape Editor too tricky but it can be frustrating if one tiny bit of the script is wrong, as it can take a while to work out why as i’m not used to it.
I’ve been trying to imagine how it will be experienced, because people walking along won’t always be looking at the IPAQ screen, i am using sound as a prompt when they enter a location so they stop and look at the screen to view a new film. Hope this works, i have lined up a few people to try it out for me…

hi all, for various reasons there’s been a slight change in the people producing these commissions. New people involved are Dan Efergan who is doing the flash piece, and Steve Woollard who’ll be working on audio (they have replaced Liz and Joe).

As well as being the Watershed coordinator for this project, I am also contributing a piece to this Mediascape. It’s a little different to the other commissions as rather than create a piece from scratch, I have been asked to create a ’short film walk’ through Bristol. I am going to select some films from Watershed’s online archive (www.dshed.net) and place them on the Mediascape so that users in the real world can view this located content during a walk across the city. I have some ideas of films to use but need to check what works as they should be suitable for viewing on a PDA, then i need to get permission from the filmmakers to use them in this context. The training day on the HP Mediascape software takes place tomorrow, hopefully all will become clearer then…

Welcome Joe, Ollie, Paul, Liz, and Gill to the Mediascapes blog. As you create your piece during January, you can post your comments, thoughts and queries here.