e-merge walks

Updates, post-project....

2010-01-01T23:59:00.032Z

For news on work developed from e-merge, and other updates, have a look at:

Ambience, collaborative film-making mediascape for the Bristol Festival 2009
Strata Collective - Soundlines music and mediascape project with schools and community in Weston super Mare, exploring ways of seeing the layered histories of the landscape of Sand Point, on the North Somerset coast.
Soundlines project development blog
PMStudio residency
PhD research practice with Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University
Contact me for information on papers/presentations.

Documentation

2009-07-29T13:13:00.003+01:00

It's report-writing time, to bring the project to a close, and to submit to ACE.

A lot of documentation has been generated along the way - this blog, the website, the walks and films themselves, photos, video, interviews, on and offline surveys, email comments, programmes, etc. etc.

I'd like to collate things through the blog. However, as I found at the start, that's quite tricky given the range of formats and file sizes involved.
Maybe something to bare in mind from the start on a future project.

- If anyone has suggestions for apps that would work seamlessly that would be great!

Meanwhile, I'm aware that a lot of things get filed away at the end of a project, possibly never to see the light of day.. so I'm going to do what I can in adding documents, photos etc - to have an easily accessed reminder of what's been involved, and also to make this as comprehensive a record as possible. I'm going to cheat the timeline though, and add them in at dates that seem most appropriate... labeled 'documentation' for easy reference.

For a few of weeks (since the Worle workshops) I've been thinking about new blogs to take on elements of e-merge. They're not all live yet, and more may develop along the way, so I'll just add a short post introducing each one - a kind of family tree of new friends and relationships!

Visitors...to the Worle mediascapes

2009-07-16T23:59:00.003+01:00

Here's some beautiful creative feedback from the primary school children who visited to try out the Worle students' mediascapes....

Remapped, and remade...

2009-07-15T11:50:00.004+01:00

Remapped again, this time to an area of Worle Community School at Weston-super-Mare. 6th & 7th July 2009.

This 2 day intensive workshop for student, staff, and visiting primaries, is the final part of the e-merge project.

e-merge remapped, as experience of the central London iconic sights here in Weston. Stimulus for discussion, and design of new content and a new format - 2 new mediascapes made with content created during the workshop by students from years 7, 8 and 9.

The second day visitors from 2 local primary schools joined us to experience 'Welcome to Worle' - a more conventional mscape with photos and sounds placed around the area. And 'e-merge Student Videos' - a filmmaking walk with the London videos replaced by 38 short videos of life at Worle.

Observations..

2009-07-15T11:00:00.001+01:00

I asked Worle workshop participants what they'd particularly noticed about the London films, and what they had noticed or would want to highlight about Worle/school in the mediascape content they were about to make.

London:

Birds

I like the squirrel running through the trees

Trafulgar Square

London Eye

I liked the movement of people and cars amongst large monuments

Sped up sunrise, walking. Time manipulation.

I liked the horses and animals

Liked the moving people part

Birds

Dappled sunlight

Worle:

Buildings - different viewpoints

Grass

Different height levels

Friends and some lesson

I noticed how different the school feels with no children

Environment

Animals

D.T.

Trees

Worle was very flat

Show the school animals

Environment

Nothing except PE

Environment

Animals

Sports Facilities

Web Listings

2009-07-10T23:59:00.000+01:00

Websites/url's featuring e-merge:

http://www.e-merge-walks.com
Temporary page with links, logos & outline info, live from 23/2/09. Full
site live and functional to include walks & films made etc from 5/3/09

http://www.e-merge-walks.blogspot.com Project development blog started 12/1/09 and updated regularly. Public access including comments.

http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/news/2009/02/21/jackie-calderwood-tells-us-more-about-innovation-project-e-merge/#more-704 Article featuring background to e-merge,
21/2/09. Incl. public comments

http://www.ica.org.uk/emerge_a%20filmmaking%20mediascape+19135.twl Festival listing

http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/563/innovation/emerge_-a-filmmaking-mediascape.html Festival listing

http://birds-eye-view.co.uk/585/training/pervasive-media-studios-presents.html Festival listing

http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/266/innovation/innovation.html Festival listing

http://www.mscapers.com/msin/ABA0000559 Development sketch, uploaded 19/2/09

http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/news/2009/02/21/birds-eye-view-film-festival-gets-a-touch-pervasiveness Article

http://www.visitlondon.com/events/detail/4528630 Event listing (multi-lingual site) visited
26/2/09

http://tntonline.co.uk/whats_on/specialevents/5754941402WhatsOnEvent.aspx Listing

http://shootingpeople.org/calendar/index.php?mode=detail&event=9552&day=2009-03-12&event_type=single Listing

http://twitter.com/BirdsEyeViewFF/status/1237611785 Announcement

http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/whatson/single/515809/1
Listing article with images

http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/525417 Review with images

http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/project/e-merge with links to journal entries etc.

http://sandpit.hideandseekfest.co.uk/sandpit-10/
e-merge at Sandpit#10 22^nd April 2009, at ICA

http://www.jackiecalderwood.com/home.php
e-merge listed and linked from website.

http://www.creativewiltshire.co.uk/index.php/2009061868/News/dotbiz-Last-In-First-Out.php e-merge remapped for students and industry
partners as part of workshops and presentations by Jackie on Pervasive Media at
dot.biz, Wiltshire College, June 2009.

http://www.wlv.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=20750 Jackie discussed e-merge as part of a
presentation ‘Pervasive Media: Experience of Landscape and Short Film’

http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/events/fri-17042009-100pm
Talk by Jackie at Pervasive Media Studio, April 2009, about work to date and
the e-merge project.

https://www.enyan.co.uk/article/show/7054
Case Study of Jackie for CPD section of ENYAN website (and e-newsletter March
2009) featuring e-merge project.

http://stratacollective.blogspot.com/2009/03/absence-and-presence.html feature & listing about e-merge

e-merge, pervasive media and Dot.Biz

2009-06-26T21:42:00.007+01:00

e-merge remapped again - this time to the playing fields at Chippenham for Dot.Biz: 'Last In, First Out?', an industry day for current and prospective digital media undergrads, organised by the Interactive Media Centre at Wiltshire College, yesterday. The day focused on how the creative industries can survive recession, positives of innovation, technologies and different ways of doing business; with a range of activities, talks, workshops, panel discussion and screenings. I gave a talk about pervasive media, Jane and I ran a drop-in session and mscape workshop, as well as the panel discussion (filmed for future student resources... well planned day, great!)

It was sunny, so the only obstacles for mediascaping were a football game and a barbeque, also on the fields!
I put a mixture of mscapes on the ipaqs, so there was something for everyone - narrative, drama, film, games - and the obligatory mole stamping, which entertained observers!
Some good feedback from the remapped e-merge, and interesting to hear people's responses to seeing the London footage in Wiltshire - with several people commenting on the similarity of shots - sky, trees, grass, seagulls on screen and off - whilst others noticed the contrasts more, the busy cityscape and roads.

Thanks to Jane for help throughout the day and sharing her experience as a musician and composer for e-merge. Also for her comments on experiencing e-merge live for the first time. Great!

Art Space

2009-06-22T23:42:00.001+01:00

I'll be presenting a paper on 'Pervasive Media: Experience of Landscape and Short Film' at the Art Space conference at CADRE, talking about e-merge and Something More.

Living Landscapes

2009-06-22T21:53:00.001+01:00

I went to the rather sumptuous Living Landscapes AHRC conference at Aberystwyth last week - packed with interesting performances, installations, papers and plenarys.. and a performance workshop (7am in the woods - nice weather, phew!) Ideas emerging, areas of interest re-inforced, met a few old friends, and many more new.

There's a bit more about it on the Strata blog

Descending Angel on National Library Sounds, forest art and simultaneous intercontinental performance - documented in the summary session!

View from above...

Simon Whitehead performance...another inter-continental collaboration...magical

In the woods, ideas for a future piece of work...

And more music collaboration...

2009-06-10T10:23:00.003+01:00

Soundlines, an educational pervasive landscape project with Strata Collective, has been simmering away in the background for the past 6-7 months, and last night we had our first sample audio-walk with music created by Russ and Jane in response to Sand Point, North Somerset.
Contact me if you'd like an invite to a Soundlines hilltop experience celebrating the launch of the Cultural Olympiad at the end of July....

Kukicha Live

2009-05-28T10:53:00.006+01:00

Extract from the Kukicha gig at Bristol's FolkHouse with visuals by Jackie.
[Kukicha provided track 2 for the e-merge mediascape. 'Falling Sky' is a new piece, first performed in May 2009]

music for film -> film for music

2009-05-20T11:32:00.003+01:00

Roles reversed as Kukicha asked me to make images to accompany their music. We've gone for a nature/machine glitchy film look to complement their wonderful mix of sounds (oboe, clarinet, electronic, voice) and explore how the images work with live performance.

I'm interested in making an abstract, portable filmmaking version of e-merge - so these sequences have been compiled with that in mind. Sophia's excited about triggering images through her own movement/ableton, so something interactive on stage is also on the cards...

Meanwhile, pop along to the first local gigs...

e-merge SouthBank

2009-05-12T08:35:00.003+01:00

Experimental re-mapping of 73 film regions from St James's Park to a small grid of backstreets in Southville.

e-merge SouthBank was available for people to try out on the South Bank Arts Trail last weekend, 9th, 10th May. Based at The Garage, Ashton Gate Terrace, along with other short film, mscape tasters, print, sculpture and photography - kindly hosted by Constance and Featherhouse (who do the BEST rice crispy cakes ever....)

Here's Sophia, composer and lead musician from Bristol-based Kukicha, whose music is featured in e-merge, finding new ways to walk and watch in Southville.

And venue no. 4...

Photos from BEV

2009-04-27T22:58:00.002+01:00

Birds Eye View has post-festival news and photos from the festival - with some of the mediascape in use.

e-merge reviewed

2009-04-27T17:05:00.004+01:00

A review of e-merge by Alexander Starritt is published on the a-n website's Interface.

2009-04-27T15:00:00.000+01:00

sandpit evening

2009-04-26T15:04:00.009+01:00

e-merge was one of 8 events at the sandpit evening at the ICA last Wednesday.
It was a buzzing evening, and over 30 people took part in e-merge, with 62 new walks on the website (numbers 102-163).

Thanks to everyone that gave feedback - 64% of those commenting rated the overall experience of e-merge as good or excellent, and 76% said they'd consider playing e-merge again. Great! Good to hear too about the things that didn't work so well, and suggestions for improvement.

Just managed to squeeze in two short interviews - here's one, after dark, with a mystery walker...

Sarah Mosses helped me with ipaqs, forms etc throughout the evening. So I asked her how she'd found the evening - as co-composer of one of the music tracks, innovation programmer and commissioner from BEV ...

Tate chimney scaffold

2009-04-23T10:04:00.000+01:00

There should be a picture attached, emailing this post from my phone...

live from london

2009-04-23T09:33:00.001+01:00

e-merge was back at the ica last night for the sandpit games night.
with a new mini film version of 70 short clips, all theplayers could watch their films live in st james's park. the park's chaanged a lot over the last month since bev. trees in leaf effected the gps a little bit. flags are out all along the mall, and of course the event ran through dusk and into the night - quite a different ambience to the walks.
62 new walks are up on the website, & i will be emailing individual walkers over the next couple of days with the no. of their unique walk.

e-merge plays well on my new htc touchphone, so i hope to use those devices for another event....
for now i'm still finding new things to do with it - like writing this post whilst sunning on the southbank waiting for the tate to open! (where does this idea that artists arent up before 10 come from?!)

e-merge Workshop Plans

2009-03-20T23:59:00.000Z

Part of the e-merge project is a workshop with school students in Somerset. I wanted to include this, to bring the project back into the SouthWest region and to share it within an educational context. It will be interesting to see how the content transfers to a very different space, and whether the iconic images of central landscape would have any significance or value to young people who may or may not have visited the capital. I anticipate that it may be a good strating point to consider their own environment, and what features of it they would highlight to share with others. It will also be interesting to potentially map the new journeys and films, and/or create new content for the same structure of filmmaking mediascape.

This is the workshop outline sent to the school I hope to work with.

101 walks on the web

2009-03-15T23:59:00.007Z

Saturday was lovely and sunny - and time for a leisurely walk around the park! After taking all the remaining logs off the ipaqs, checking them all for software and storage files, and packing up at the ICA, it was great to just go out for a walk and explore parts of the park that other walkers hadn't visited so much.

So the final 4 films of 101 walks on the web are from my walks. There's one walk I have yet to do - a walk avoiding the film regions, to see if I can make a film-less film with the film-making mediascape whilst walking in the park!! (My sense of subversion, pushing the boundaries... or simply bending the rules!) Anyway, that's for next time...

There's lots more documentation, video interviews, and more on the ideas behind the mediascape that I'd like to add to this blog.. so do come back and visit after the festival!

Oh, and if you tried the mediascape (or just watched films on the web), please take a couple of minutes to answer the survey about your experiences, thanks! (You could even win a copy of the limited edition print!)

Thanks to everyone who helped, took part, and told friends...

And watch this space for news of our plans for an e-merge day in the Park in late spring/early summer.

news from BEV

2009-03-11T23:40:00.006Z

Harriet's video reports are up on the BEV blog - read and watch more about the mscape workshop and e-merge walkers (with me explaining it to them!)

walks & films go live!

2009-03-10T00:35:00.004Z

The walks and films from Friday, Saturday and Sunday are now live on the website!

Here's the opening scene and trace of the walk by the ladies pictured below.
So, what's the connection with this image - any guesses to what's being planted, why, and how it relates to the park?....

Wo-manning the event

2009-03-09T23:59:00.012Z

I had to pop back to Somerset & Bristol for a day, missing a couple of sessions. So time to set out a brief for the BEV volunteers wo-manning the table & equipment, who have been great. Over the weekend it was essential for me to be going out with walkers, making sure they were happy with the equipment and seeing how they (and the technology) behaved with e-merge - and therefore what information people need to be given when they first come to the event.

This was the emergent brief...

mscape workshop at Birds Eye View

2009-03-09T21:19:00.007Z

Yesterday about 22 people, all new to mediascapes, came along to Constance's mscape workshop at the festival. One woman I recognised from e-merge the day before, who took lots of notes and seemed very interested to make her own mediascapes. It was great to have people from different backgrounds there - filmmakers, music composers, directors, editors... And interesting for me to sit in on the workshop and see people go through a rapid learning curve with fun, total engagement and innovation in just 2 hours!

After a great introduction from Constance, and an experience of a basic mscape outside the ICA, I showed a bit of the 'behind the scenes' workings of e-merge.

Harriet's got some video interviews that should be up on the BEV blog shortly, and Constance has written a post on the PMStudio blog too.

inside and out, Sunday

2009-03-08T23:59:00.001Z

The BEV info stand at the ICA box office (spot the e-merge poster in the background!). It's near the cinema entrances, which is difficult when there's a huge queue waiting to go in (as for the premiere of wonderful The Time of Their Lives today - with Wiltshire guests!); but also great to catch people who've come out after other films - like the lovely ladies below!

Online survey

2009-03-07T23:59:00.000Z

Everyone who asked to be emailed with their unique walk numbers from the website was asked to complete an online survey, with links from the website feedback page too.

Here are the questions:

1. Have you tried the e-merge mediascape?

2. How did you hear about e-merge?

3. Have you experienced a mediascape before e-merge?

4. Would you describe e-merge as any of the following?

Film; Game; Tour; Walk; Mobile media; Pervasive media; Art; Narrative

5. Did you encounter difficulties with the ipaq/ technology?

6. How did the mediascape alter your experience of the park?

7. Have you watched any of the e-merge walks-films on the website?

8. Would you prefer to watch your film?

In the park; Anywhere; On the website; In the gallery (ICA); Other

9. Please rate the project / your experience:

Very poor; Poor; Average; Good; Very good; Other

10. Please add any other comments, feedback, development suggestions.

Enter your e-mail address if you would like a reply, and for a chance to win a limited edition (1/10) e-merge print.

Thankyou!

How was your walk?

2009-03-07T10:03:00.003Z

The mediascape goes live today...
add comments here to tell us how you got on, what you thought of e-merge, how you heard about it, development ideas and all your feedback!

e-merge live all week

2009-03-06T23:59:00.000Z

creativite consultation & synchronicities...

2009-03-03T23:59:00.004Z

Today was fun - I went to visit 2nd year digital media students who are making interpretation for a local museum. They've already filmed some beautiful footage of the Wiltshire landscape - Stonehenge, Avebury in the snow - as well as using images of artefacts and other info on finds from our rich heritage.

And we got onto talking about mediascapes as a tool to take the content back out into the location... bluetooth downloads, podcasts & all sorts of fun ideas. (Sounds a familiar connection...)

Afterwards I went to the Wiltshire Community Arts Network meeting in Devizes, to get the latest on the changes to Unitary authority, and what that means for the arts. I spoke about thevery successful Dads Matter Too film and media arts project, as one of several examples of the arts in Wiltshire. The host for the evening told us about a great film showing this Sunday by a Wiltshire colleague at the ICA for Birds Eye View.... small world!!

for the walls...

2009-03-02T20:53:00.002Z

Part of the funding from the Arts Council covers my design & printing of the postcards and some large format print - to entice people new to mscape to have a go!

The poster's to put up in the ICA during e-merge sessions and encourage new audiences to book out an ipaq and try the walks.

sneaking a peep

2009-03-02T18:53:00.002Z

at film playback for the website... work in progress.

Tricky stuff, as there's a lot of possible video clips that the film could comprise, in any sequence; plus long audio tracks that form the soundtrack - but don't start from the beginning.

... and that's after getting all the information about the walks out of the mediascape!

I'm glad I'm not the one making it...... ...thanks Ben!

Tracing the Park

2009-03-01T11:07:00.011Z

'Tests and traces' was yesterday's theme in the park... look out for some video snippets of the first e-merge walkers at http://www.e-merge-walks.com/ when the festival starts. It was great to see the images playing in the location they're made for, and some useful feedback from the Zeph & Alex, thanks.

Pretty quickly the walks were up on a test-site on the web (with wifi & hot chocolate at the ICA cafe), so thankyou to Ben who is busy on the web side of the film-making, right now!

The Royal Parks have kindly agreed to use of their illustrated map in e-merge, so the first task was to walk around the park marking where I was on the map at various points, so mscape could turn the image into a 'real' map.. clever stuff.. 50 points later, and there's a bit of give, but pretty accurate for the central area of the park, so walkers will be able to view their journey on the map if they want to.

Then checking precise location of 'no-go' areas (like the new dredging site, and the park police station) so that the content regions will be in just the right places.

Interesting observation: mscape logs a trace for every map in the mediascape, so as I had Bristol still in there from Friday, as well as the illustrated map I was testing out, it recorded 3 traces...

creating a 5.5mb file for a 95 minute walk, and a trace overlay that made me gasp for a moment!!

Fortunately it was all salvageable with a few tweaks in excel (thanks for the tips, Zeph!) - so my legs didn't ache in vain!

testing time

2009-02-27T23:10:00.004Z

... there's a lot about time in e-merge, but that's for another post.

Postcard 2 is ready for print.

How do you get one?

Come and try the mediascape!

Today was test-time for e-merge at the Pervasive Media Studio, with a rough version mapped into the pedestrian area at the head of the waterside and horseshoe area. Several people from UWE and the studio tried it out and gave useful feedback from their perspectives of games designers, interactive arts, IT, photography and media. Thanks!

Tomorrow's test-time in the park with a trip to London to finalise maps, regions, active areas and where the content will be 'hidden' as well as test out and document a few other bits & pieces.

print

2009-02-26T23:59:00.000Z

postcard design 1

Bingo!

2009-02-26T11:51:00.005Z

We got all the regions today - some more than once. 23 minutes and a pretty efficient route!

The dogs think this is a great project - lots of extra walks, perfect for the border collie nature - 'random' twists and turns, not following the usual trampled path !

I found myself thinking about gaming as I walked. Mscapes, interactive and mobile technologies are used a lot for gaming, and whilst it's not something I spend my time doing, I've enjoyed and learnt a lot from the few games I have tried out - especially live real & virtual games, like the Come Out & Play urban games festival in Amsterdam I went to a couple of years ago. But I also find games a bit too prescriptive. It's more fun when you can change the rules and try your own version - do you get £400 for landing on go? Does all the cash really go into 'free parking'?!

So is there a game element to e-merge?

What interests me more than creating plots and puzzles is to provide a rich environment and then see what happens. More of a creative play I suppose - if you want to play with e-merge, you can make different walks, you could walk in circles (which someone did with the sister mediascape Something More), you could run backwards and forwards, try and 'catch' all the content regions - and see what happens if you catch them in different sequences or more than once. Or just explore the park - on and off the trodden pathways. You could arrange to walk with a friend, start together, go different routes and then meet again at a 'viewing' point. Or experiment with the same small area but choosing different music for your walk; maybe play with where and when you watch your film, the synchronicites with the surroundings that that could present. Or anything else to find out what's possible...

So I hope e-merge will have a light, fun, playful element for those who want it, and encourage the walkers to be adventurous and experiment. To me that's a bit like switching off the TV and going out to play with your own video camera instead....

samples

2009-02-25T22:59:00.003Z

Two versions of the same clip - dusk at the west of the park.

Low quality then medium quality (although both then recompressed by blogger).

I'm editing in Final Cut, which then goes into flash as the mscape needs swfs and the web will need flvs. Size versus quality... or shorter edits!

growing

2009-02-25T18:40:00.003Z

Here's the best test yet - now with real video and slideshow content from the park. The ipaq performed well, and the screen was very visible in the dusk! The battery seems to have held up fine, and even with a lot of media playing there were no real problems. That's a very happy feeling after the last couple of days of systematically figuring out some niggling playlist errors - which ones were bugs, new features in 2.5, quirks of my method, errors with the device, or inconsistencies within the programme.

The walk starts at the top (near the lane) and snakes around to end about a third of the way down the left side. It lasted 21 minutes, and then the film lasted for 15 minutes. The park is a lot bigger, so the scale of regions will be different as well as the layout, so the relative length of films will be much shorter.

With this walk I was watching my position on this map showing all the content regions and trying to walk through as many as possible. That's harder than you may think, in a bumpy muddy field on a slope, with no obvious physical mark of where the regions are!

It's interesting how different the route of my walk was because of this. I haven't decided yet whether to show people in the park where the regions are, or just show them the map of the park. They don't have to look at the map - just walk and enjoy the sight without needing to watch the screen.

lots of strands...

2009-02-23T23:53:00.004Z

... these 2 shown below are from 10 second and 30 second traces of the same walk made thismorning and used to test the website bits that will go live next week... thanks Ben!

... there's also some background to the project on the BEV blog , and a page up on the e-merge walks website (where the films/walks will be shown during and after the festival).

... content-wise, it's coming together well, informed by the mscape region layout as well as the music, park layout and the footage captured.

... organisation also involves things like booking forms for equipment, checking logos, making sure the correct software's installed on ipaqs, user-testing and another visit to the Park etc... so quite a lot of strands to weave together into one!

step by step

2009-02-22T12:52:00.006Z

Once again, trying to fix a couple of unlikely scenarios ended up making things that worked go a little peculiar... So enough fiddling around.. here's another walk made thismorning.

I do like the images traces make!
(The scribble at the top is when the device lost fix for a bit, and tried to work out where it was.)

Making and posting them here is a welcome little break - bit of a visual treat and tiny celebration or waymarker - whether it's successful or not, it's still a step closer to the destination.

Good news from 2.5 - it remembers the logger configuration!

x 30 x 3 = 2.5

2009-02-21T19:56:00.003Z

... or something more even! 30 content region pairs, each with video, slideshow, state and scripts. Moved into mscape experimental 2.5, and everything's going well except that the playlist seems to behave differently to 2.1 (probably doesn't need the workarounds I'd built in to it before any more!) so there's still a few bugs to iron out, but this is pretty much what will transfer to the Park. So it's over to Ben to add in the flash parts and extract data to recreate the films on the web. Exciting stuff!

Why is there no red trace (showing my walk)? Every time the mscape gets saved as a new version it needs the logger re-configuring, and in my excitement to run round the field again I forgot! Maybe tomorrow...

wild geese

2009-02-21T12:00:00.001Z

Friday was a bit of a wild goose chase - I got carried away with trying to

pre-empt any kind of user action that would cause the mediascape to work differently from planned. Eventually I got to the point where building in lots of precautions was starting to 'break' it for ordinary use... A few steps forward, a couple back again.. in both the muddy field and on the computer!

The things that happen in the tester or on a micro-walk are less likely to happen in the Park-scale version.

Setting expectations and introducing the context of the experience is really important for walkers, and that will happen through the intro. narrative, instructions on screen, as well as giving any advice needed when they book out their ipaq at the ICA. Those bits are missing from the sketch at the moment, so it's easy to get over-vigilant about what people may do! There's also a fine balance between wanting it to be robust for public use, but also being a piece of innovative development, part of ongoing r&d - without the commercial end product that (should) necessitate a further level of usability. - and there's also the reality of one person's time!

So the latest stage has been adapting the local test to a sensible scale and making sure it works for the kind of scenario I want to create in the Park. That's the first trace below.

I will be extending the regions over the next few days so I can try out how the content runs together, and check performance of the ipaq once it's got a lot more imagery loaded. So the second trace shows the edge of an easily walkable area of the field - without falling into hedges, boggy land, or the neighbouring building site!

Looking SSE across the field-test...

A different blog..

2009-02-20T23:59:00.002Z

Harriet asked me to write an article for the BEV blog about making e-merge... after having a look at some of their other recent articles, it seemed the chatty, easily explained style would work best.

‘e-merge’ _ A film-making mediascape by Jackie Calderwood

Interactive exploration of landscape through walking, music, artist’s moving image and mobile technology.

I’m making a mediascape for the festival.. with media drawn from and linked to the landscape, and experienced by walking around.

How does that work? Easy! Collect an i-paq (hand-held computer) from the ICA , plug in headphones, and listen to the instructions... you’ll be asked to choose some music, made especially for e-merge by three different women composers/bands. Then it’s over to you for a walk in the park. St James’ Park is right opposite the ICA and perfect for a stroll, run, or to meet the wildlife – from pelicans to squirrels that’ll take nuts from your hand! – you choose where to walk, how far, how fast – the music may encourage you to twist and turn as you meander the paths around the lakeside. When you’re ready, find a comfy place to watch your film – with images taken from the places you’ve walked, you may find a few surprises too! Make one long film, or several short films, and when you’ve finished we’ll upload a selection of films to the e-merge website so you can watch again, show your friends, and compare films!

The making process has been ticking away since November when I met Sarah Mosses, BEV’s innovation programmer, whilst visiting another interactive project. In one of those synchronistic conversations where I told her about my work using mscape to make short films, she told she was looking for a woman mscaper to create a piece for the film festival! Discovering the festival base would be at the ICA was a real bonus – with St James’ Park on the doorstep, perfect for a film-making walk. I’d made a similar mediascape last summer[www.jackiecalderwood.com/transitions.php] as part of extended practice completing my MA Media (Interactive Arts) at UWE, so would base e-merge on that, and create new content from and for the park.

How did I get involved with mediascapes?

I started working with moving image 12 years ago within a sculptural environment, moving into short film and community media arts facilitation. 2 years ago, during my MA, I began to work with HP’s mscape software and love the freedom to make work that moves people in an outdoor environment, placing the user, context, work and artist in dynamic equilibrium.

Mediascape offers an exciting new medium to explore my interests of contrasting relationships: movement & stillness, audio & visual, time & timelessness, limitation & choice, ultimately the way we respond to choice, how we interact with the world around us.

The commission for BEV is a great way to bring mediascape to a new audience, and for me to contrast rural and urban environments, and contribute to the discussion about film and mobile technology. Mediascapes often seem to be used for gaming, information, and education. So bringing e-merge for women in film, and the general public, feels very enjoyable! As part of ongoing research, it’s just fun to have the opportunity to work alongside more creative people, develop ideas and test out work in new situations – and hopefully get some interesting and useful feedback!

Making it...

So, in brief, the process to date has included meeting BEV and working out logistics of equipment, audiences, and all those things... a successful application to the Arts Council to support e-merge, commissioning music, meeting with the Royal Parks and photographing and filming in the park, researching historical images, editing still and moving images, building and adapting a structure for the mediascape with hp labs’ mscape[www.mscapers.com] software –( imagine it like a map of time and place, with media content dropped in.)Testing and more testing, ‘iterative’ is the essential-word for this kind of work! Coming from a fine art and community media practice background, I think it’s really important for innovative work to be well documented, accessible to the general public, and visually presented, so I’m keeping a project blog [www.e-merge-walks.blogspot.com] and designing postcards to promote the website which will go live with films made during the festival [www.e-merge-walks.com].

Challenges? Inherent in using a mobile device is the small screen and small quantity of film that it can play, so it’s a constant balance of what’s going to work well within the technology. Also how to be interesting and engaging to a wide audience, and the good old question of interactive design – how much freedom and choice can the end-user really have? Let me know when you’ve tried it!

field test = in the field

2009-02-19T22:23:00.004Z

It's a long way to London, so field tests are needed closer to home. Hopefully we'll be at a stage to test the structure and content with some experienced mscape-users in Bristol by the end of next. Meanwhile it's a muddy field in Somerset for wellies and walks!

This is the structure mentioned in the previous post, but mapped into a nearby field. It's shown up a couple of things already that didn't happen when tested on the office computer... proving once again that regular field visits (& therefore local as well as located) - iterative testing - are essential for any development with pervasive media. The worst bit was while I was chasing satellites, my dog was free to roll in something very,very smelly!

sketches in time

2009-02-19T10:15:00.005Z

Building the mediascape structure...
Following on the theme of change and archive, it was time to move on from using Something More as the structure to develop e-merge. I suppose one of the things with moving image of any kind is that you have to sketch it out in time. With locative media the dimension of space needs sketching out too (topography or place at least - height/volume doesn't feature much yet).
What happens when someone moves outside the 'active' space? What happens when their device doesn't recognise the place? To what extent do they need to see their journey as part of the mapped landscape, or does that detract from the experience of landscape, or experience of the piece?

My use of mscape explores ways to use pervasive media in harmony with an unencumbered direct experience of place. When you go to a beautiful place, is it really enhanced by looking at a screen or listening to a commentary? Is there a way to use the technology to enhance experience that both adds to the occasion and evokes a memorable artistic experience? And of course there are all the concerns of interactive media design about meaningful user input - to what extent can, or would we want to, control our choices and the freedom we offer to others?

Those are the indulgent philosophical thoughts of the morning, reflecting after the midnight hours that birthed a working sketch (of time and space) unique to e-merge.
It has a beginning, middle and end! It knows where it is and what to do if it doesn't; it can choose music; doesn't drift (too much); knows when to play the film and is even polite enough to ask if you'd like different music or another walk!

Now back to the finer details - timers and finding the most reliable way of logging are the tasks for thismorning. [Note: sketch including timers & log here]

change and archive

2009-02-18T17:01:00.009Z

There will be visible changes in the park by the time the mediascape's completed..
As well as the budding spring, the lake's going through a big change - being drained and dredged for it's 20+yearly clean-out, as I discovered on my visit last week! How different will it look when people are walking with e-merge?...

Here's a previous change - in 1940 there was a suspenson bridge across the lake:

This is one of the archive images, as shown in the Royal Parks Historical Survey: St James Park by LUC, 1981. Thankyou to Land Use Consultants and to the Royal Parks for permission to use some of those images in e-merge. Look out for a few surprises when the first walks are made and first films go online...

Drifting

2009-02-18T16:09:00.002Z

One of the 'upgrades' planned from Something More was to add a buffer around each zone to minimise the effect of drift on the end film - so that if you're drifting on the edge of a zone you only get that content once, but equally you can walk in and out of the same area lots of times and that will be reflected in your film by repeated sequences.
Here's a test for a single zone:
http://www.mscapers.com/mediascapes/558

Mapping & first traces

2009-02-18T13:39:00.007Z

Here's the traces from parts of my walks whilst filming etc.

OpenStreetMap seems to give the best (gps-accurate) visuals for the Park (as below). There's quite an interesting mix of maps and images out there including aerial photo and road layout, street maps, showing different interpretations of the park. Royal Parks have kindly given permission for me to use their illustrated map of the park in the mediascape, so that may feature too...

There are 3 ways maps will be used in e-merge:

as a maplib in mscape to create the mediascape
for map display to the walker while they're e-merge-ing in the park
on the e-merge walks website to show the routes of the walks with the films generated

St James' Park

2009-02-16T14:01:00.001Z

View Larger Map

Filming in the park

2009-02-14T23:59:00.001Z

Two days later, through rain, snow (!), wind and sun, day and night... 800+ photos and several hours of video later...

The music sounds great wandering around the park. I found I was focusing on different content when listening to the different tracks, so it'll be interesting to see how/if that's reflected in editing and in the walks themselves.

I've tested out a short version of Something More in the park, to check a few things like gps trace, playlist and log, pace etc, and have a good 'to-do' list ready to go...

Thanks to Niki and Graham at the Royal Parks for being so helpful and interested in the mediascape. I'm hoping to get the go-ahead to be able to include some images from an historical survey of the park, made 28 years ago, and full of interesting snippets, maps and snaps since it's origins in 1531. That may be the subject of a future post...

And thanks to Zeph & Mima for the usual overnight accomodation. And a fun night out at the Club Zigana Swedish Klezmer evening. Romanian sausages kept me from feeling cold or hungry all the next day! Bon apetit! Or rather - bună !

coffee and cake

2009-02-11T23:59:00.000Z

make great companions to creative thinking! Lots of meetings today in Bristol about e-merge and other mediascape projects . The Watershed does great wheat-free sustenance: orange polenta cake, chocolate truffle cake. Beats flapjacks!

Thanks to the Pervasive Media Studio for loan of an ipaq kit to use in developing e-merge; Constance Fleuriot for mentoring support; Ben blindfish for help with the clever stuff (more to follow about mscape/web and log/playlist technicalities).

Music for e-merge: Laura Harrison with Sarah Mosses

2009-02-10T08:52:00.005Z

'Park: City: Sound... '

Composed by Laura Harrison with Sarah Mosses

Laura Harrison is a Brighton based composer and sound artist. A recent graduate from Sussex University in 2008 with a BA in Music, Laura is currently taking a year out teaching and composing before embarking on an Mmus in Music Composition at Trinity College of Music, London. Laura is an active musician and currently plays in a number of ensembles including CoMA Sussex and Sussex Jazz Orchestra.

www.laura-harrison.co.uk

Sarah Mosses is the Innovation Programmer and Live Music Coordinator for BEV. She studied Music and Film Studies at the University of Sussex, and this composition with fellow graudate Laura shows her interest in both these mediums. She is currently in development for a documentary on the modernisation of Ballet.

walks on the web

2009-02-08T10:38:00.002Z

www.e-merge-walks.com is the newly registered domain for the films made by e-merge walks. - Not sure yet how they will appear or how the site will be constructed; the aim is to show a selection of walks made using the mediascape, with the time, date, an image of the gps trace (route of the walk through the park) and the resulting short film.
What I'm hoping is that people will revisit their film online, adding to the experience after the walk.
The films will become a celebration of the diversity of walkers and their interactions with the place and the technology.
The site might also include space to comment, or links to other online feedback or discussion.

smiles in the snow

2009-02-06T09:50:00.006Z

Fantastic news! ACE has offered to fund my proposal to Grants for the Arts for the e-merge mediascape.

So now it's full steam ahead with e-merge, rather than the zero-budget skeleton back-up version (-phew! )

Music for St James' Park : Trees/ Water / Paths

2009-02-05T20:55:00.005Z

Jackie asked me to create music for the e-merge mscape and, now I've done it, to write about me - and explain the process.

I'm a musician - guitar, bass, harp, flute : I play with two bands, teach and lead workshops. What leads me on is engagement - the power of sound, and participation. So many ways to participate!

You can see what interests me at www.stratacollective.org

Site specific music, and music for mscape, really fires my imagination.

It was a journey in itself, finding the right way to record what I wanted to create for the e-merge walks. Firstly, I'm a country lass - so how to find a way in to an ordered urban landscape? History is a trigger - but the history of this small piece of place is layer upon layer upon layer. Dense and tangled.

I came to simple, single, visual things - three pieces which I've called trees, water, paths.

It seemed important to break with linear experience. I anticipate the end user to be swept up, inspired, locked in.

I chose to break from what would be the usual process of a constant rhythm (easier said than done) and mirror the experience of becoming engaged - stop : look : listen : turn around : wait awhile. Look up, look down. Reflect.

Maybe it's a city thing, the chance to be alone in proximity to others.

Music for e-merge: Jane Harwood

2009-02-05T13:23:00.000Z

Jane is a multi instrumentalist (guitar, bass, flute, harp) who plays in two bands, teaches and works as a community musician and mentor.

The soundtrack for the e-merge walks has been created with the help of Russ Stanley, sonic artist and fiddler.

http://www.malarchy.co.uk/

http://www.countmeinarts.org/

Music for e-merge: Kukicha

2009-02-04T16:20:00.001Z

Kukicha is a new all female Bristol based Electronica/Modern Classical band. Delicate, unsettling and menacingly beautiful compositions written for flute/oboe/voice and technology. www.myspace.com/kukichauk

Sound and Image

2009-02-03T08:57:00.000Z

The way the soundtrack worked in Something More was essentially a choice of music to listen to. After a short spoken intro to the piece, explaining what to expect, health & safety etc. , the walker seleted music from a choice of 3. They could reselect immediately, so hopefully noone would get 'stuck' listening to something they really didn't fancy. The music was the soundtrack to their walk, and then became the soundtrack to their film as they watched it.

It worked well, so I'm using that format for e-merge, but with more variation in the styles.
Following BEV's theme of celebrating women as makers, I invited 3 women musician/composers to contribute music for the mediascape: Sophia Loizou with Kukicha, Jane Harwood and Sarah Mosses.

The brief is for approx 15 minutes, in some way relevent and suitable for St James' Park, for a public audience includng families. The music needs to work without images as well as with images, and expect to work with images in an unexpected/unpredictable way! The film could start (and end) at any point within the soundtrack, and continue for any duration - so the 15 minute piece needs to work as a loop also. It will be played through headphones, which could be open (ie. letting in surrounding sounds), closed (blocking out the outside sounds) or anything people may bring with them...
Challenging? Unusual? Innovative? Exciting!

All three women have been fantastic and responded by creating or adapting music especially for the project, working collaboratively with others to compose, play and record some wonderfully visual sounds. Thankyou girls!

I'm really delighted with the music, and can't wait to try it out with a few test images actually in the park...

There will be more about the musicians shortly. Meanwhile, the music will also impact on the video editing and photo-composition.

With Something More I tried to find a new way of combining images, thinking about the attributes of locative media, gps, and how that is very different to TV, cinema etc. Using a different relationship to space, perception and time to try and build a short film that could have been made by a locative medium.
The Bath international music festival celebrated it's 60th birthday last year and as part of that a 60 second challenge was launched, for film-makers to use music available through the festival, and create short film celebrating music, 60 or the area.
'Whitesheet: 6 walks' was my response.
Tom Ellis' piece Magnetic Spheres was not what I would have previously imagined as music for Whitesheet, but when I heard it had a similar quality of energy as the landscape, totally loved it, and knew it just had to be the soundtrack! So that was the structure to combine photos and video from 6 walks on Whitesheet into an experimental short film.

Having heard the music submitted for e-merge, I'm putting my previous ideas about image compilation on one side, and going to try out 3 short films led by pure response to the sound (in the context of the park/images gathered), and see what happens... could be a total sidetrack not to be used, or could lead into something interesting for the mediascape... we'll see what emerges!

Early Days

2009-01-29T08:52:00.004Z

London in the cold

2009-01-18T09:36:00.001Z

St James' Park is pretty cold in January! But I had a good mix of grey skies, frost, rain and stark bold shadows from the winter sunlight on my visit from 15-17 Jan.

Lots of footage for speeding up - dawn looking east beyond Horse Guard parade to The Eye.
Dusk looking west beyond Buckingham palace.
People and vehicles, parades and wanderers. Empty spaces and full.
Lots of photos, especially series for montage and moving sequence composition.
And some interesting conversations along the way - like the lady who comes up from Kent twice a week to crush walnuts for a particular squirrel who lives near the western tea hut; he has a damaged mouth, and she thinks he gets hungry in between. There's another squirrel she feeds too; his mouth is OK so he's given whole hazel nuts to run away with.

The shot from the eye has had to be dropped. I contacted them for permission to film, completed the online request form, and got a very speedy reply. Permission granted, but I'd have to hire a whole pod (for 3-25 crew) at £440 + vat. Unless there's a group of people desperate to appear in the mediascape who all want to contribute to the fare, I think that one's for another day!!!

I'll be working on the test photos and footage during the last week of Jan, so will post a few examples and experiments here then.

And hopefully the licensing for filming in the park proper will be sorted ready for the start of Feb(at the moment it's personal use only - hence filming from the roads and public spaces around last visit).

Something More: 3 short films from walks on Whitesheet

2009-01-14T23:59:00.010Z

These 3 films are taken from the walk traced in the previous post on Whitesheet Hill with an early r&d version of the mediascape 'Something More'.

The content for Something More explored my own response to this ancient, panoramic ssi landscape through video, photography and work with fused & cast glass.

The edits of the different films are the direct result of the walker's choice, path and pace.

This early r&d version uses just a small selection of content to test different combinations with the mediascape technology. The full version would offer choices of theme (peopled landscape, natural landscape, glasswork) in addition to music, and would comprise many more specific zones and extended content.

Something More re-visited

2009-01-12T23:24:00.002Z

Yesterday and today I've been up Whitesheet re-visiting the Something More mediascape, and experimenting with traces and logging info - audio play, location, angle, playlist events - ready for the BEV e-merge mediascape, to extract data and recreate short films made by people's walks. (To go on the web and to promote the mediascape to the festival audiences).

Here are the first couple of traces overlaid, a reminder of the Something More layout (this was a working pilot for development and expansion).

The films made will follow in a few days.

3 walks in wind and rain:

I want to upload the log file in google documents, but it's bigger than the 500K max. Looking out for another online system.

In the meantime I tried to include it as a new post, but it's too big for that too! Tbc...

Aim...

2009-01-12T23:21:00.002Z

One of the first tasks... a brief biog and outline of e-merge for the BEV promo materials - brochure and website.

Intentions

2009-01-12T23:18:00.002Z

I've been thinking about replacing elements of my sketchbook and project development books with a blog...
Now seems the time to experiment with this, privately at first. Although I may invite specific people to visit as and when appropriate.

The intention of e-merge-walks.blogspot is to record the working process/progress of the e-merge mediascape, and related film-generating walks.
I will try using it to collate documents, photos, video etc as I go. Hopefully it will also become a document to demonstrate the work and enquiry to others on the future. And will be good practice to see if this kind of documenting suits me... although a pad and paper are still treasured allies in the field!