// age-brown.co.uk :: BLOG

Forgot to upload this earlier in the term, but here is a project working on people in space produced with numerous photo’s with blur and lighting effects provided.

Had a relatively successful recording session using the GPS camera in Brunel Labs.

The idea of this session was to get some factual data and some real effects of a conversation that i could use as part of my project.

I set up my friend Pete to have a conversation on a mobile for 15 mins, to test the thermal effects on his head. Then i turned a mobile off, placed on a table and recorded from off to being turned on and again a 10-15 min phone call alongside some other items, namely some change (coins)…

Check out the results:

The images below represent a phone on the table just after its been switched on and commencing a phone call, the image after is after about 10 mins…

Ok, so having produced the model for my project i now have a better understanding of what i want to produce. The foundations of my original idea still remain, so there will be a website where people are able to sign up to and login. Once there, they will be able to select a location (Exact available locations have not yet been decided - having looked at a number of projects, such as Urban Tapestries and Iain Moss’s studies of sound mapping and assertion in space, these have all been done in specific locations, such as the city, but i’m not sure if i want to repeat this idea, as the project at this time is not about a specific location as such, it can be anywhere), and then view this location’s content on the site - photos and comments specifically.

The big dynamic feature here will also be the ability to upload your own soundtrack that is specific to that location and to you OR create a composition from a provided gallery of ambient sounds. The choice is still in there currently, because i’m waiting for more feedback from questions that were posted on the DAT forum. Currently there seems to be a mix of preferences between ambient sounds to embed the location in their minds and playlists that others have made. But i’m also considering the possibility of being able to listen to either, depending on the users mood.

The other big aspect of this project will be the locative media aspect - where the compositions and soundtracks people add or create for a specific location, although listenable throught the website, will only then be listenable when you are in that specific location. This will need to use GPS technology to allow this, which i’ve found to be quite a well used area, with sites such as MediaScape offering a starting point.

The idea is hopefully to build up an online user base if i can get the system up and running quickly enough and get a number of different compositions created or uploaded for use with the system.

A future thought about this project is also the idea of having a constant playlist available to anyone in a specific pre-determined location. This means people could upload soundtracks for somewhere, such as where a lot of people exercise (eg the gym), and then have a constant playlist available at that location available via a GPS device. This takes away the need for memory and space on your mobile device, because you can simply connect to the soundtrack or composition via GPS. This digresses a bit from my original idea, but it is another aspect of the project to perhaps consider…

Below you can find my personal project model. This shows the various aspects of research i have produced in conjunction with my personal project and it has helped me clean up a few areas i wasn’t too sure about in my initial proposal. The relevance of the research material is positioned closer to the central topic if it is more relevant and further away if it is less relevant. This is not true of all the statements on there, such as the technology, because all of the technology i have written about has equal relevance at this stage. I am now fairly sure of how i want to progress with this project in terms of design style and content, and also the kind of cultural area i think my project would fit into. In the post above i have written an overview of my Project Idea and you can view my project model by clicking on the image below.

Facebook is a huge social networking tool designed to connect people from all over the world allowing you to share details, photos, events etc and get to know the people you meet better.

The main focal point of Facebook for its users is the typical Facebook profile consisting of a number of different sections, including Information, Status, Friends, Friends in Other Networks, Photos, Notes, Groups, and The Wall. Most of the sections are self-explanatory but some are specific to Facebook, with new applications and features added weekly by developers. The groups and events pages, more often than not, are specifically linked to the user real life network of friends and events, which is why the system is so appealing and why it grew so quickly from its routes in Harvard dorms to 30,000+ recognized schools and colleges around the world.

Graphically, Facebook is very simple again, although the structure of the system behind the scenes is hugely complicated. the home page has one of two main choices, login or sign up with your details.

The Site I have chosen for my project is a cove called Freathy Cove, which is part of Whitsand Bay on the south coast. I initially selected this site because I love the location, it is beautiful from an aesthetic and a natural point of view, it’s functional i.e. there is cause for a lifeguard station there, bathers use it, surfers use it and people walk dogs and generally spend time there, but largely because it is fascinating to see the traces of what has been left there. There is no better place then sand to view histories of people’s as well as animals visits to this place, and with the passing tide history can be wiped clean for the next lot of visitors. Its also fascinating to look at from the air, with the paths clearly mapped out to see where people or even nature has decided it is possible to get to this location instead of anywhere else (ref google maps).

So I’m viewing my site from a number of different viewpoints – the average user or visitor in the area, and how they use the location in particular their journey to and from the beach on the paths laid out from the car park. I am also interested in the traces of people’s visits and indeed their use of the location whilst they are there. Another interesting study of this would be to look at the areas people clearly use on the beach when they are there and those that they don’t and establish a reason for this perhaps – maybe look into developing something to represent the space they don’t use, a whole new beach perhaps represented by unused space, or even eroded space from overuse of a specific area (from one of these view points).

I’m going to study the place in more detail, in different weathers so I can capture paths and footprints etc in different conditions and also when people are actually on the beach – I will need to look into perhaps Sunday afternoons or something like that – traditional walk on the beach. Monitor people’s use of the space, where they walk, where they gather themselves (i.e. sheltered coves, on certain rocks) and look into utilising this data in conjunction with more linear data that I’ve already gathered, such as the wind-speed and temperatures. It will also hopefully be possible to view the prints of people previously visiting this place for more information.
I would like to address specific uses on the beach by the people who use it most regularly and create a project from this, looking in to the major ways of actually reaching the beach via man made paths or natural paths and what they do on the beach, whether its surfing, kite flying, football, photography, dog walking, running etc. Having thought about the location, the beach is a fascinating medium between the land and the sea, which is used by humans as a form of entertainment and somewhere to visit, so I would like to consider this aspect for the project and ask the question of why that is.

The Image below is a thermal representation of the temperatures i gathered of the site location. It does not specifically represent the actual temperatures there - it is just a visual enhancement of the data, but i would like to look into a way of representing this in a factual way if i use this kind of information in my final project:

The Image below represents the wind speed, with larger arrows representing larger gusts of wind and vice versa:

The image below represents one of the cliff view images from the location:

Upon visiting my chosen site, a small cove near to Whitsands Bay, i took numeorus photos of the area and gathered some information using my recently purchased equipment, in this case the Anometer. The Image below represents a combined view of the Cove up the side of the cliff stretching out to the sea, where i gathered my data. The numbers represent each spot i took a recording from (not 100% accurate, but as close as possible without using GPS or another technology). The recording i took at each point was Windspeed (in Mph) and Temperature in degrees centigrade. The Windspeed i took was the largest gust an a period of 30 seconds and the temperature i allowed 60 seconds to settle on a number. The white line is a general guide of the path i took down the cliff and across the beach.

Windspeed / Temp.

  1.  0.8  /  12.7       2.  2.2  /  13.5

  3.  2.8  /  13.4       4.  3.5  /  13.1

  5.  4.1  /  12.6       6.  3.8  /  12.0

  7.  2.1  /  13.0       8.  1.2  /  13.2

  9.  0.9  /  13.3     10.  1.8  /  13.2

11.  0.7  /  13.5     12.  1.1  /  13.3

13.  1.8  /  13.5     14.  1.6  /  12.8

15.  2.8  /  12.7     16.  2.6  /  12.5