Locative Media at ISEA 2004 – Tracing Space Panel

This was another panel moderated by the intrepid Marc Tuters. The panelists were Chris Byrne, Jaanis Garancs, Drew Hemment, and myself.

I don’t feel as though I should say much about the presentations of others, since as one often does when one is on a panel, I was reviewing my own presentation before I started, and so my notes on the presentations of others is a bit sketchy. I’ve asked Chris, Drew, and Jaanis to forward me their notes, and will post summaries of their talks here when I’ve received them.

Below is a brief summary of my talk, entitled “Performers and Parasites”, that mainly addresses how artists piggyback on systems already in place in the city to deliver experiences that can entice the public to become more performative.

An opening question: How do users perform the space?
When we think of performance we think of artists, but when the conditions are right people can be “tricked” into performing in public. What separates great art works in public spaces from good ones is often the element of “engage-ability” that allows the public to lose inhibition and become performers, truly activating the space with their actions.

The public sometimes performs in public already, and it is up to us (artists and technologists) to determine how to enhance this latent tendency. Witness the little performances people give everyday as they use their devices in public – chucking and gesturing upon receiving an SMS or playing with a portable gaming device. Witness karaoke. Witness an elegantly placed hopscotch outline.

Artists are resourceful people. Ever ones to grasp a chink in the armour of context to insert radical content and commentary, artists often use the systems of the city that are already present to create interventionist media projects that are not necessarily “locative media”, but certainly located.

Some of these pieces demand high performativity from the public, some demand less, but they all involve some kind of “call to action” that inspires them to trigger or engage the piece. These works are elegantly interwoven with existing urban infrastructure to provide subtle opportunities for delight and surprise.

Case Studies:
Teletaxi by the Year Zero One Collective – piggybacks on a failed advertising system in taxicabs
Transmedia by the Year Zero One Collective – piggybacks on one of those ubiquitous video billboards
[murmur] by Shawn Micallef, Gabe Sawhney, and James Roussel – piggybacks on the pervasiveness of cellphone use
Vilnus Voice Track by Will Kwan – piggybacks on automated telephone systems

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