Bodystorming

Today I came across this rather interesting concept. I would like to explain it to you, but I am still trying to understand it fully myself. Instead let me show you an extract from an email which came in this morning.

Bodystorming is is the transformation of abstract ideas and concepts into physical experiences. Fun and tactile, this approach allows us to investigate different qualities that an idea may have when applied in a physical setting. It enables rapid iteration and development of ideas and relationships through a dynamic, continuous and creative process of trial and error.

OK, got that? All clear? Good!

Now into this comes something called Urban Tapestries, which "seek to sketch out the various boundaries, barriers and parameters of 'communities' within a defined geographic area, and explore how technologies like Urban Tapestries might be used to transcend them for social and cultural benefit."

Ok, ok, I am right with you - more gobbledegook and it stil isn't making much sense is it?

So, now, take a look at the following site called Tag & Scan which, as far as I can work out, is a type of bodystoming service. Great fun assuming you have a camera on your phone, but I have to say I am not heartily impressed with the quality or the size of the photographs.

I am sure these projects are all very worthy, and probably quite exciting, but I just with the technodweebs who are putting them together would employ some people who can construct english sentences to help them put the concept across.

To me it seems as if they are trying to construct the sort of annotated picture of a landscape which William Gibson describes in one of his books (can't remember which one at the moment either Idoru or Neuromancer) where the protagonist finds a pair of spectacles and when he puts them on all the buildings of the city can be seen with little annotations over them explaining what they are and the future plans for them.

Both the Urban Tapestries and Tag&Scan sites seem to be just high tech and commercial versions of something which has been going on for quite some time - informal, unedited geographic guides on the web. Perhaps the best example in the UK is The Knowhere Guide, which started out as a skateboarders guide and has now turned into the alternative urban gazetteer. Another global success is the Wikipedia - the free global encyclopedia where if you can't find whay you are looking for, you can write it yourself.

It seems to me that the most successful public contribution memes on the web are those where there is a basic structure supplied and folk are invited to contribute as they like with no restrictions placed on their creativity.

I can't help feeling that these new commercial and socially engineered initiatives will put too much constraint on the concept and as a result the prospective contributors will not feel any ownership for the eventual result.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon....

...and what better time to idle away a couple of hours playing some silly computer games.

My favourite at the moment is Penguin Shuffle - don't ask, just try it for yourself.

It took me a while to sink my first penguin but once I got the hang of it they were plopping though the ice on a regular basis.

There are lots of other games on offer, but there is only so long one can spend in front of a computer screen pushing wildlife about before it gets boring.

Seamless City

I enjoy taking photographs, especially when I am travelling. The challenge is to capture an image which is a little bit different. Something surprising.

Today I found a site which is selling really long photos of street scenes taken in one of my favourite cities - San Francisco.

When I say long, I mean really long - about 30 miles long. Somehow these seems like a project only the very dedicated, or completely insane would undertake.

Wow - has it really been so long?

I just realised it has been absolutely ages since I last properly updated my Blog.

Well, alot has happened since then, but it has mainly been work. A really exciting project working with a new high-tech company. I don't have time to produce a really long update now, the details will just have to trickle out over the next few days and weeks.

It has however involved a lot of writing, so much so that I really haven't felt like writing creatively - hence the paucity of entries.

Things are getting a little easier now, so expect more regular updates, and of course a return to the odd creative project.