Day of the Figurines
May 30, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Innovation | Technology | Gaming | Mobile | 1 comment so far
05:49pm, 4 soldiers walk in, calmly ushering a handful of police through to the cells at gunpoint. There is a GUITAR here.
I visited Blast Theory's Day of The Figurines in Wolverhampton last week, and this is a sample of one of the messages I have received on my phone since. So far Heidi Burton, (my bikini clad in-game avatar/character) has rescued a sick dog, tried to solve a murder (unsuccessfully) eaten a saveloy and met some of the locals. And there is still a couple of weeks of game play to go.
Day Of The Figurines is part board game, part secret society. The game is set in a fictional town that is littered, dark and underpinned with steady decay. It lasts for 24 days and each day represents an hour in the life of a small English town that shifts from the mundane to the cataclysmic.
Each of the 1,000 players is represented by a small plastic figurine which is moved by hand every hour for the duration of the game. To play, players are invited to create a figurine to enter the town: to name it and answer questions about its past. Thereafter participation in the game is via SMS on your mobile phone.
The town created by Blast Theory is beautifully produced and the SMS messages are intriguing if not unrelenting. However, the interactivity afforded via a text-based game is limited, so I will wait and see how players may or may not collaborate when the darker days I hear rumoured arrive.
mscapers website launched
May 13, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Innovation | Technology | Gaming | Mobile | Add a commentOn 9 May HP’s mscapers website had its international launch in China, taking location-based experiences to the next level of sophistication. The mscape platform was built by a team from HP labs in Bristol and trialled in early 2007 by Watershed commissioned artists in and around Queen’s Square. From zombie games to soundscapes, specially created content was used to demonstrate the service, which allows authors to trigger digital media to mobile devices by moving around.
Mediascapes are mobile, location–based experiences that incorporate digital media with the sights, sounds, and textures of the world around you. A mediascape blends digital images, video, audio and interactions with the physical landscape. Games, guided walks and tours, and destinations are among the mediascapes created to date. This communal website allows you to download, create and share mobile, location–based media, and there is a web-based wizard online to help beginners.
Shocking technology
May 8, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Innovation | Technology | Add a comment
'A book I can use. I can take it in two hands and bash it over the heads of every techno-nerd, computer geek and neophiliac futurologist I meet.’ Simon Jenkins, The Guardian
David Edgerton, author of The Shock of the Old, makes an appearance at Watershed in the Festival of Ideas on 22 May at 6pm, to challenge the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change, interweaving political, economic and cultural history to show what it means to think critically about technology and its importance.
Whereas standard histories of technology give tired old accounts of the usual inventions – planes, bombs – The Shock of the Old is based on a different idea. Its thrust is that for the full picture of the history of technology we need to know not about what a few people invented, but about what everyday people used – and when they actually used things, if it was a long time after invention. It therefore reassesses the significance of, for example, the Pill and IT, and shows the continued importance of technology such as corrugated iron and sewing machines.
Read more at 'What Else Is New? How uses, not innovations, drive human technology', Steven Shapin for the New Yorker.
iShed is recruiting
May 6, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Innovation | Ideas | Technology | Recruitment | Add a commentiShed is looking to recruit a full time Coordinator to work closely with the iShed
Producer to support the development of collaborative research projects
and to organise and project manage related events and activities.
The successful candidate will be highly motivated and eager to learn about and contribute to iShed's vision. For more information see the recruitment page or to download an application pack and job description, visit http://www.watershed.co.uk/jobs
