Sunday, December 13, 2009

Mobile project links

Here are links to various elements of the final mobile projects:

BeeTagg tour of public art on campus

These are meant to be viewed on mobile devices while standing near the artwork.

The Wailing Bell

The Pillars of Fulfillment

Opening the Secret

The Golden Section

The Firstenburg Family Fountain

Got BeeTagg (group information site)

Mad Liberation

A Mad Libs-based interactive game, involving text messaging and Web publishing, intended to encourage playful interaction with the WSUV campus and its stories.

Photo tour of WSU Vancouver
The images of this abstract narrative predominately were produced by mobile devices

Mobile campus map

Through the Wikitude platform

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

If Twitter had been invented sooner ...

What it might have been like, for example, at Gettysburg:

TwHistory

"Twitter is being used for many things. Here at TwHistory we feel the service can be a novel way to tell the stories of our past. We pick historical figures, especially those that kept detailed journals or histories, and tweet the experiences they went through. By doing this, followers get a feel for what has happened many years ago. Consider it a type of Twitter historical reenactment–reliving history in real time.

But this is more than a ‘what happened on this day’ service. We are interested in telling stories. The Battle of Gettysburg, or the Cuban Missile Crisis were more than a couple of random events over a few days. There are exciting backstories of many characters who witnessed these events. We feel these stories can be told in 140 characters or less, over the course of many months.

We currently have one active project - the Battle of Gettysburg; care to follow along? If you are new to Twitter, please visit our getting started page. Or, if you are a seasoned Twitter veteran, visit our Battle of Gettysburg page to follow the historical characters."

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

MadV's "One World"

A YouTube collaboration of significance (reportedly generating the most responses in YouTube history, at least up to that point), involving just web cams, Sharpies and personal messages that people wanted to share with strangers:



If you want to participate in the new version, MadV recently posted this:

Free Hugs campaign

The web site

From the creator, Juan Mann:

"I'd been living in London when my world turned upside down and I'd had to come home. By the time my plane landed back in Sydney, all I had left was a carry on bag full of clothes and a world of troubles. No one to welcome me back, no place to call home. I was a tourist in my hometown.

Standing there in the arrivals terminal, watching other passengers meeting their waiting friends and family, with open arms and smiling faces, hugging and laughing together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me.

So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words "Free Hugs" on both sides.

And for 15 minutes, people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling.

Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven't compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time."

And the video (more than 50 million views):

Charlie Bit Me!

This video amazingly enough has been viewed by nearly 140 million people on YouTube (and, almost equally as amazing, generated 260,000 responses):



As part of that response, it has generated a vast amount of remediation and examples of participatory culture, with a few of those examples below:

A remake, framed as 15 years later, (2.9 million views) ...



And a remix (nearly 10 million views):

Monday, November 30, 2009

"Star Wars Uncut"

Just heard about this on the radio over the weekend, "Star Wars Uncut," so had to share:

"You and 472 other people have the chance to recreate Star Wars: A New Hope. Below is the entire movie split up into 15 second clips. Click on one of the scenes to claim it, film it, and upload it. You can have up to three scenes! When we're all done, we'll stitch it all together and watch the magic happen."

An example of both participatory culture and remediation, among other ideas we have studied this term --

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.



What's your favorite scene so far?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Mobile examples

Here are a few examples of how mobile technology has opened up new ways in which we can experience the world:

Amsterdam RealTime, collected over two months in 2002; click on "view map"

34North118w, what about instead of moving around, you just stay still and look at what comes to you?

I Like Frank, or what about if you start talking to strangers, about a virtual quest?

Also, mobile technology can subvert media and government monoliths:

This footage, shot with a mobile phone, of a young woman in Iran, Neda Salehi, protesting the questionable elections there in June of 2009:



Her death, but also this footage, turned her into a martyr around which the Iranians have rallied for dramatic changes in their government.

Technology on the way:

Look past the thin surface of this video promo piece for mixed reality, and what do you see?



And this sort of research is being done at the University of Washington, by Babak Parviz, with computer-enhanced contact lenses: