ASSIGNMENT TWO
suggested time expenditure: 6 hours
As a group (three people) develop a locative media sound project to be presented in class on November 1.

Objectives:
• To allow you to support each other as a group in the development of a locative media audio-based project. You will share available resources (media tools, computers), provide encouragement and analyse each other’s work constructively.
• To provide a way for you to explore the concept of identity through comparing your sound observations to the observations of other members of your group and the class.
• To practice using two readily available mapping tools—platial and googlemaps--and identify pluses and minuses of these tools
• To explore differences between vernacular and traditional measures of location and to practice geotagging
• To explore the concept of what a sound-based neighbourhood narrative might be
• Develop best practices for documenting sound with media

Part 1. Individual work [[suggest you take one week to do this]] Each group member should provide an assets archive [[you will need to hand this 1, 2, 3 in to me via CD or email depending on file sizes]]. You will need to decide as a group what the minimum number of recorded sounds will be. This assets list should include:
• name of sound file
• the actual recorded sound: file format to be determined by group depending on sound resources
• location of sound: please provide (a) vernacular reference and (b) corresponding traditional location reference e.g. postcode or longitude/ latitude
• screenshot of saved sound locations mapped on google map: http://local.google.com/ [[You will need to create a google user account to save map locations. Later on we will pull this data into shareable maps. See http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/]]
• create a palatial map of your sounds, videos and corresponding images if you have them. Don’t make this map public but we will all put each on as buddies www.platial.com

Part 2. Group work [[Suggest you take one week to prepare this as a group using the assets from Part 1.]] The group as a whole should present a locative sound work that includes location, media, narrative—this can be anything you choose. Your presentation should include an album cover and accompanying narrative/ script.

***I would like to video this and will provide video camera, but need volunteers to record***

Walking the Cabbage ...

In 2000, Han Bing began his first major interrogation of the meaning of ordinary practice and our proprietary relationships to the material world with his ongoing performance of "Walking the Cabbage." On streets all across China, from his home village to Tiananmen Square, from the Yunnanese minority village of Dali in China's Southwest, to the Westernized Bund in Shanghai, Han Bing walks his cabbage—the quintessential Chinese comfort food of common folk—on a leash, challenging dominant conceptions of normal, everyday practice, sparking contentious debates in the arts world, in society, and across the Internet, about the meaning of a young man walking a cabbage on a leash, and what this act says about the state of contemporary society.

Scanner: Listening to the sounds in-between

Seminar with: Robin Rimbaud/Scanner
During this seminar Scanner will give a compressed walk-through of his work that slips between the cracks of time-based arts, installation, performance, digital media and music; from soundtracking a working morgue in Paris to exploring recordings of the night.

Robin Rimbaud/Scanner is a composer, multimedia artist and writer, whose work traverses the experimental terrain between sound, space, image and form. As well as producing compositions and audio CDs, his diverse body of work includes soundtracks for films, performances, radio and site-specific multimedia installations.

Committed to working with cutting edge practitioners he has collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Radiohead, Laurie Anderson, D-Fuse, MTV, The Royal Ballet, Mike Kelley and Douglas Gordon. His work has been presented through the United States, Asia, Australia and Europe.

Date: Wednesday 27 September - 2.00 - 4.00pm (we will have a follow up meeting afterwards til 5 p.m.)
Location: Art, Design & Museology studios School of Arts & Humanities
Institute of Education 20 Bedford Way London WC1H

networked_performance

networked_performance

An interesting blog on network enabled live events, or "networked_performances" for short. So sayeth the site:

What the blog revealed and continues to reveal is an explosion of creative experimental pursuits made possible by the migration of computation out of the desktop PC and into the physical world (where it is becoming increasingly woven into the fabric of our lives), and by the continuing advances in internet technologies, wireless telecommunications, sensor technologies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In these explorations artists are utilizing pervasive, ubiquitous computing technologies that are inexpensive, readily available, and most importantly, mobile and wirelessly networked. These include technologies, devices, and protocols such as mobile phones, PDAs, GPS cards, wi-fi, Bluetooth, sensors, and open source software. The blog further reveals that these technologies are being utilized by a growing generation of programming capable artists and artistically minded engineers and computer scientists.

Well worth poking about on a frequent basis...www.turbulence.org/blog/

Domus Night: House of Cards with Enzo Mar

Domus Night: House of Cards with Enzo Mar

I know everyone is going away for the weekend, but if by some strange chance you get stuck in london... make your way to Domus Night at the Serpentine Gallery on Friday September 15.

Stefano Boeri presents a project published in the September issue of domus magazine, consisting of a reprint of Living, an architectural card game first published in 1976. The presentation consists of a card game played by: Stefano Boeri, Rem Koolhaas, Enzo Mari, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones and other special guests.

Incidentally, it is worth having a walk about the serpentine gallery. This year the gallery pavilion was co-designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas and innovative structural designer Cecil Balmond. Very Kool. Go here to see previous year's galleries: http://www.serpentinegallery.org/architecture/

MI: London Time Travel

MI: London Time Travel

Oskar Karlin's attempt to redesign the London Underground map. I found the process information (photo essay-esque) he presented quite interesting. http://www.oskarlin.com/2005/11/29/time-travel/

First impressions

First impressions

Right now we're exploring concepts of place and location, considering where you've come from and where you've arrived and what happens when the two collide. Most of you set foot in London just a few days before the class and I can't stress how exciting it was to hear your first impressions of London. Of course, it will be interesting when we really start investigating (especially in terms of location and media) the tensions that are simmering below the surface: on the one hand there is the obligation, need to be loyal to home; on the other the desire to succumb to temptations offered by a very compelling London. We covered an impressive array of themes in our first class, ranging from strolling to surveillance... An initial hour long city exploration exercise revealed keen observation skills (somebody please post that pic of the knife return box!) and insightful commentary. Don't forget to go pick up 84 Charing Cross Road and a copy of the Mini London A to Z at Waterstones on Oxford Street (19-23 Oxford Street) AND BRING YOUR WHITE SHIRT TO CLASS ON WEDNESDAY!


Key topics
I just want to remind you of a few key concepts we covered (remember the ppt?):
What is locative media and the idea of needing to develop locative literacy: See "Preface" to Mapping Hacks
Importance of documentation for learning, self-reflection and sharing what you are doing; Also Rinaldi's take on Listening: See"On Documentation and Assessment"
The ethics of documentation: thinking about the ethics of giving someone else a "voice" (newspaper article about Steve Irwin, irwin jpeg)

Readings we'll discuss next week:

How to do things with pictures, William J. Mitchell
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
Theory of the Dérive, Guy Debord: http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314

Week 1 Exercises

Tonight: Initial Explorations
Spend 45 minutes wandering the area around FIE (see A to Z map). As you explore the neighbourhood mark down/list anything you note that is interesting (remember you are noting location too), you might want to photograph or collect interesting objects. It doesn’t have to be visual either, remember smell, sound, etc.


During the week
1) Go to this Waterstones: Waterstone's Oxford Street
19-23 Oxford Street
GB - London W1D 2DL
Tel: 020 7434 9759
Opening times:
Sun 12-6 Mon 9-9 Tue 9-9 Wed 9-9 Thu 9-9 Fri 9-9 Sat 9-9

2) Purchase two books:
• Charing Cross Road
• Mini London A to Z Streeet Atlas and index (pocket size) (about £4)

3) When you have done so text/ mms to let me know you’ve got it (get my mobile numbe off the syllabus).

4) Read 84, Charing Cross Road and keep track of your thoughts on points Hanff is making and the locations she mentions. If possible, visit the locations and make a note of your experiences there. We will discuss next week and aim to map these as a group.

For next week
Please bring a plain white t-shirt that you are comfortable destroying.