To work on padding out our concept, we narrowed our options down to four possible locations and expanded on the possibilities of these in terms of the meaning behind the screen, the location and the impact the context would have on the content of our screen.
The "outdoor arena" which I discussed in my previous post presented itself as a setting which, like a screen, can offer an escapism from your immediate surroundings, in this case, a chance to stop, slow down and sit down away from the bustle of the city. The screen in this context is reminiscent of the traditional domestic ad private use of the screen in the home where everyone would escape the outside world to sit around the TV. In this sort of situation, our content would bring the notion of the virtual public sphere into the pysical, showing the viewer that while they were in this physical setting, it would be showing the wider physical world changing which we can access through the screen through the expansion of technology. We have however had to write off this idea as the logistics in getting a screen and powering it outdoors would be beyond budget, as well as risks with the weather.
The screen in the shopping mall too had to be written off as it's predominant focus is for advertising which would put an entirely different meaning to our content, as well as the fact that the nature of it's location is that it is only glimpsed for a few moments by passing people and would be difficult to hold their attention.
The two ideas we are focusing on at the moment are The Link Bus and The Electronics Store. Again, as outlined in the previous post, the Link Bus already contains existing screens to provide a diversion from the everyday mundane activity of the commute. The public space is only accessible by paying a fare and the passengers which occupy the space often facilitate little interaction, focusing instead on the screen. The disengagement experienced with the immediate physical space is substituted with the engagement of the virtual world displayed on the screen, that is the virtual public sphere. The notion of the bus and transport enable easy access for the commuter to the wider public sphere, the same way that technology has integrated into our lives to enable easy access to communicate with the wider world around us which we may not otherwise easily be able to physically access. This is relfected in our content and runs parallel to the existing content on the screens which display information about the businesses and services offered near the bus route.
Where this one of our strongest ideas so far, it carries a lot of potential logistical problems which we will look into before writing it off completely. Otherwise, we have also identified electronic stores as another potential location. These store often have entire wall displays of television screens displaying the identical content, often for entertainment such as music videos. The effect is that the viewer is confronted with these screens, filling their entire field of vision in what is almost a hypnotic effect. This quite literally represents the presence of screens in our everyday life but on a scale which is unignorable; one may think that it is an exaggerated example but just walking down Queen Street, the viewer encounters probably the same amount of screens. The content also raises the idea that where it is there for the customers entertainment, it is at the same time displaying and advertising the product itself and keeping the customer in the store longer. While the customer watches the screens, they too are also being watched on the store's surveillance system.
The setting also literally places the viewer in amongst the technological advancements which has resulted in the expansion of the public sphere into the virtual. The main kinds of people who go into electronic stores are the younger generation who have grown up with the technology, and the adult population who has seen the exponential growth of the technology. The product appeal to our 'want' instincts: we WANT the latest and the newest gadgets, we WANT to be in touch and keep up to date, we DON'T WANT to be left behind. By having the latest, we are convinced we are in touch with the expanding world. Despite their high price tags, we often sacrafice to have them, or just go inside the store to have a look around at the things we want, even if we know we can't have them.
Logistically this is the most feasible idea as we would be dealing with more directly with the people involved in their operation and location and we have several options with the city area.
Presenting these ideas to the class on Wednesday, I realised we broke the rule of presentations by placing far too much words and content on the slides (which are viewable by the clickable links above) which makes the presentation less successful as the audience is conflicted by trying to focus on the exessive content on screen and the presenters speaking. I also realised as soon as we got up there that we had not yet put any though into the visual aesthetic of the content. We had focused on the concept, the locations, the logistics, how to pull the content together but I had only very quickly and crudely thrown together a vague visual representation of our intended content. This was quickly called up during presentation and so our next phase is to plan how we will visually present our content in a way which will unify our concept, screen, location and content into a coheive whiole. I see this as an opportunity too to pull at my design skills which I haven't used much this year.
Next step too is to put the wheels of the logistics in motions by writing up letters outlining our intention and requesting permission from both locations and potential rescources (such as news websites, Flickr, Twitter etc.) to ensure we don't encounter problems around copyright. This way, once our concept and visuals are soundly established and we get the go ahead from lecturers, we will be ready!
The "outdoor arena" which I discussed in my previous post presented itself as a setting which, like a screen, can offer an escapism from your immediate surroundings, in this case, a chance to stop, slow down and sit down away from the bustle of the city. The screen in this context is reminiscent of the traditional domestic ad private use of the screen in the home where everyone would escape the outside world to sit around the TV. In this sort of situation, our content would bring the notion of the virtual public sphere into the pysical, showing the viewer that while they were in this physical setting, it would be showing the wider physical world changing which we can access through the screen through the expansion of technology. We have however had to write off this idea as the logistics in getting a screen and powering it outdoors would be beyond budget, as well as risks with the weather.
The screen in the shopping mall too had to be written off as it's predominant focus is for advertising which would put an entirely different meaning to our content, as well as the fact that the nature of it's location is that it is only glimpsed for a few moments by passing people and would be difficult to hold their attention.
The two ideas we are focusing on at the moment are The Link Bus and The Electronics Store. Again, as outlined in the previous post, the Link Bus already contains existing screens to provide a diversion from the everyday mundane activity of the commute. The public space is only accessible by paying a fare and the passengers which occupy the space often facilitate little interaction, focusing instead on the screen. The disengagement experienced with the immediate physical space is substituted with the engagement of the virtual world displayed on the screen, that is the virtual public sphere. The notion of the bus and transport enable easy access for the commuter to the wider public sphere, the same way that technology has integrated into our lives to enable easy access to communicate with the wider world around us which we may not otherwise easily be able to physically access. This is relfected in our content and runs parallel to the existing content on the screens which display information about the businesses and services offered near the bus route.
Where this one of our strongest ideas so far, it carries a lot of potential logistical problems which we will look into before writing it off completely. Otherwise, we have also identified electronic stores as another potential location. These store often have entire wall displays of television screens displaying the identical content, often for entertainment such as music videos. The effect is that the viewer is confronted with these screens, filling their entire field of vision in what is almost a hypnotic effect. This quite literally represents the presence of screens in our everyday life but on a scale which is unignorable; one may think that it is an exaggerated example but just walking down Queen Street, the viewer encounters probably the same amount of screens. The content also raises the idea that where it is there for the customers entertainment, it is at the same time displaying and advertising the product itself and keeping the customer in the store longer. While the customer watches the screens, they too are also being watched on the store's surveillance system.
The setting also literally places the viewer in amongst the technological advancements which has resulted in the expansion of the public sphere into the virtual. The main kinds of people who go into electronic stores are the younger generation who have grown up with the technology, and the adult population who has seen the exponential growth of the technology. The product appeal to our 'want' instincts: we WANT the latest and the newest gadgets, we WANT to be in touch and keep up to date, we DON'T WANT to be left behind. By having the latest, we are convinced we are in touch with the expanding world. Despite their high price tags, we often sacrafice to have them, or just go inside the store to have a look around at the things we want, even if we know we can't have them.
Logistically this is the most feasible idea as we would be dealing with more directly with the people involved in their operation and location and we have several options with the city area.
Presenting these ideas to the class on Wednesday, I realised we broke the rule of presentations by placing far too much words and content on the slides (which are viewable by the clickable links above) which makes the presentation less successful as the audience is conflicted by trying to focus on the exessive content on screen and the presenters speaking. I also realised as soon as we got up there that we had not yet put any though into the visual aesthetic of the content. We had focused on the concept, the locations, the logistics, how to pull the content together but I had only very quickly and crudely thrown together a vague visual representation of our intended content. This was quickly called up during presentation and so our next phase is to plan how we will visually present our content in a way which will unify our concept, screen, location and content into a coheive whiole. I see this as an opportunity too to pull at my design skills which I haven't used much this year.Next step too is to put the wheels of the logistics in motions by writing up letters outlining our intention and requesting permission from both locations and potential rescources (such as news websites, Flickr, Twitter etc.) to ensure we don't encounter problems around copyright. This way, once our concept and visuals are soundly established and we get the go ahead from lecturers, we will be ready!
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