This projects requires us to explore invasive media within public spaces. We have to work within a space outside of the university and to work with mobile technologies in order to place our projects within peoples public domain.
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Dan Lake is a midlands based multimedia developer and designer studying BA(hons) Digital Art and Technology at the University of Plymouth. The work displayed and documented within this blog has been produced for the second and final year of the degree.
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January 13th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Note for dan: Group 8: Social Networks.
- Come up with a site/location. Next week give a short presentation on what direction i want to go with.
January 13th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Ideas for locations:
- student union? 2 diferent uses (night club/general use)lots of people with mobile devices. Sports and social meetings. Wireless network accessable. Bar! Can make use of sound systems and visual systems (big screen/lcd screens)
- Portland Square? Not particulary social but has Archos System to hack into and use.
- University libary. Social place, can acess wirless network…plenty of people with mobile devices (laptops, mobile phones with bluetooth)
- A Bar on north hill (can choose between RIDE/RIDE Cafe, Carpe Diem, Joint, Fuel ect) Most of these places have a accessable wireless network and all of these have a diverse range of people/cultures/social status.
January 13th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Ideas for what to do:
-Mobile Tecnologies (bluetooth, Java (aarrggghhh!), GPRS, ect)
-A Game of some discription
-Someting using webcams
Still thinking…
January 19th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Decided as a group to use multiple spaces within the same context, as in we are using 3 cafe bars on north hill due to their diverse range of people from suited buisnessmen and women on their lunch break to student out on a bender! Also they have accessable wireless networks and a range of portable devices at any one time. There is a map of the venues we plan to use below.
January 20th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Ive found a website on social network analysis which may come in handy. It explains social networks. http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html
January 20th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
A definition of social networks from wikipedia:
“A social network is a social structure between actors, mostly individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking
January 20th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. In its most simple form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.
From wikipedia
February 16th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Researched some of the Cafe/Bars we will use, Below is what we found:
CARPE DIEM:
LOCATION: on Plymouth’s North Hill, up from Derry’s Cross and Uni
OPENING HOURS: Food served 12-10pm (Mon-Sat)
CAPACITY: 52 upstairs, 30 down
CHILDREN: Welcome daytimes
WINE LIST: 6 champagnes, 4 reds, 6 whites, 15 cocktails
SPECIAL DEALS: Pizza 2-for-1 (4pm-6pm). Bottle of house wine, £6 (6pm-8pm). All cocktails £2.50 (8pm-9pm).
NON-SMOKING AREA: Smoking ‘outside’ in raised seating area with sail roof
PARKING: Car park opposite
VEGETARIAN: Options available
FUNCTIONS: First floor for hire for 50+
DISABLED: Access and toilets
INTERNET: Wi-fi broadband connection
TYPES OF MUSIC/ENVIRONMENT: Chilled out, relaxed
COMMENTS: Nice logo showing a distinctive identity, furniture all matches, modern contemporary feel to the whole brand. Feels very light, open, Types of people in these places Why they opened these places in the first place. Security cameras, CCTV- do these exist in these buildings, where are they, what are they surveying-why? Schematics: -The bar -Equipment -Furniture -Lighting -Toilets -Outside areas -Food
Joint Cafe:
Opening times: Open till 8pm
Types of music played: Only in 2 rooms, quite random types of music, pop, chilled out, cheese etc.
Adult story telling every Wednesday night- mid summer myths story telling
Food: Breakfast menu, baguettes, sandwiches, paninis, salads, jacket potatoes, pizza, some good large meals.
Drinks: Coffees, teas, milkshakes, laughing gas, legal highs, seeds, sell art , soft drinks
Wifi is available but it costs money to use- £1 hour
Comments: Crazy, trippy logo, website for it, definite café place, All varied types, from students to old people
Ride Cafe:
Opening times: 12pm – 12am everday
Types of music played: Chilled out, relaxed
Happy hours: 4:30pm-9pm every day:
selected draughts -£1.50
selected cocktails 2-4-1
selected bottles £1.20
Wednesday night, pound a pint – can get quite busy in here
Food: Breakfast menu, baguettes, sandwiches, paninis, salads, jacket potatoes, pizza, some good large meals.
Drinks: Wines, champagnes, cocktails, shooters, spirits, draft beers, bottles, soft drinks, non alcoholic cocktails
Comments: Distinctive logo, industrialised look, rugged, matching furniture blending with the logo, Students, locals, older students
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Ive come up with a few ideas:
- Something with video, maybe a projection and live feed of the different bars so you can network the people in the 3 different places.
- Using bluetooth technologies to network people (as most people will have a bluetooth enabled phone.)
- Maybe something using text messages (similar to the existing systems they hav epresent in night clubs) where people can text in to a central number to network.
- Maybe something simialr to a project i saw where a park bench was rigged up with heat pads and networked to another bence accross the world so whenever someone sat down on one bench, you could feel the heat of where they were sitting on the other bench.
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:21 pm
After a discussion with Dom (tutor for this project) most of my initial ideas seemed to be a bit crap! An idea that did stick though was the bluetooth technologies combined with sensory devices. The idea of a Bluetooth whoopie cusion was mentioned and i kinda like it!!
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Ive looked long and hard into this bluetooth whoopie cushion. It seems all i need is a pressure switch (the bit you sit on) and a blutooth emitter (which i have!) and someway of connecting the switch to a computer to perform a bluetooth push. Ive looked at ways of connecting pressure switches to the compter and there are many products available that are designed for special needs kids to use switches instead of keyboards and mice in the form of USB switch interfaces that can translate a switches on or off signal into either a mouse click, enter key, space bar ect. see here However these are very expensive so im still looking. Also it seems that PC’s arnt to happy with bluetooth pushes and it is a lot easier to do with a mac along with the automation of it all so I have to see if i can get my hands on a mac!
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Ive found a code for Automate on the mac to perform bluetooth pushes but am not able to test it just yet as i dont own a mac…will see if i can test it in the labs! take a look
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:44 pm
found cheap pressure pads on maplin.co.uk but am not sure whether they are compatible with computer interfaces. As they are quite cheap I may buy one to experiment with.
March 5th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
After a chat with Dom, ive decided to use the bluetooth whoopie cushion as a metaphor for sensory wireless technologies. I have decided to look into the idea of accessing a mobile phones ESN (electronic serial number) and using it as a way to identify a person when they sit down on a pressure pad and change the ambient music around them to the genre of their choice.
March 5th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Had to email my Java tutor for this one as finding a way of accessing the ESN via bluetooth is proving a bit tricky! He came back to me with a few search results which werent as promising as i hoped. Below is the question and answer from jguru.com.
Q: Is there a way to access a wireless phone’s Electronic Serial Number (ESN) using J2ME?
A: The J2ME APIs do not specify any mechanism for accessing an ESN. (An ESN is a number built into a phone which may be used to uniquely identify that particular mobile handset.)
One of the reasons: Many devices do not contain ESNs for cost reasons.
It is possible that a manufacturer could provide an OEM- or device-specific Java API to access ESNs, in which case if you used the API, you would need to realize that your J2ME application was no longer portable to all devices.
Alternatively, you can track a user’s access with a standard server-based mechanism such as username/password.
Here is the web page from jguru.com
March 10th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Bluecasting is a product that enables bluetooth pushes for corporate advertising. “Bluecasting is a highly flexible tool which has multiple applications for delivering marketing messages, digital content or applications to mobile devices” http://bluecasting.com