Updates, post-project....

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

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

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

Remapped, and remade...

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..

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

e-merge reviewed

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

sandpit evening

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

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

live from london

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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?

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

creativite consultation & synchronicities...

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...

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

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

'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

... 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.