iButterfly is a quirky example of the implementation of Augmented Reality, in which Japanese users chase butterflies with their iPhones.
For those of you still getting up to speed with the concept, Augmented Reality is the mash-up of digital imagery and our physical environment which encourages new forms of interactivity. If you want a less whimsical and more educational example – check out the Museum of London’s Streetmuseum app.
From functional to frivolous, Augmented Reality puts a new spin on Picasso’s quip that “everything you imagine is real.”
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Low-fi Meets Hi-fi at the Corner of Send & Receive
During my last trip to India I was intrigued by the social norms, occupational cues and semi-uniformity surrounding the ear-cleaning profession.
Kaan-saaf wallas often don red head-gear and subtly sport a fresh cue-tip alongside other professional apparatus. This alerts folks to their services without the need for brash announcements of their humble and sensitive trade. More images.
Gotta love those who’s work revolves around enhancing our ability to listen.
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Walla: Pavement Purveyors
Disrupting Urination Norms
One can find ample instances of mobile phones enhancing the lives of those on low and unpredictable incomes at the base of the pyramid across the world. Today I came across a small yet active example of the advantage of mobile connectivity in the context of my current research endeavors at Dharavi in Mumbai.
Jan Mohammed runs a knife-selling and knife-sharpening enterprise, which he operates from his bicycle, to service the Dharavi-Mahim-Sion area. He conducts business by going door to door in these neighbourhoods and often parks up in one of the busy marketplaces during evenings. Since buying a second-hand mobile phone he has been able to attract the business of local restaurants and caterers who provide bulk sharpening work and have become regular clients via the accessibility his phone assures.
The aspect he likes best about his phone is the prepaid payment method. Having a wife and five children back at his village in Uttar Pradesh means that he makes frequent calls home – but when he is low on money and hasn’t topped up his phonecard he can still receive calls ensuring business. In fact he had just last week paid to replace his knife-sharpening grinder so had no money left for phone credit, yet was still able to receive a lucrative call from a wedding caterer to sharpen 75 knives.
Knife-wallas elsewhere in Dharavi who conduct business without mobile phones.
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Pavement Purveyors (Flickr)
Tuned-In
I was scoping out Dharavi yesterday for upcoming ethnographic research and came across this pair sharing headphones to catch the India/Sri Lanka cricket match via a mobile phone. The aspiration value of this part-shared, part-private use of a cellphone feature was evident – as onlookers could sense the excitement they were missing, through following the men’s expressions as the game progressed.
Check out images over upcoming weeks on my Dharavi Flickr set.
[Research updates were previously posted on the the now defunct Prepaid Economy blog]
Last week I received a box set of Drivers of Change cards from Arup’s Foresight and Innovation team in London. They are part of an on-going research programme exploring those issues most likely to have a major impact upon society. Some time back they had requested an image I had photographed to be included in the publication and its been great to view the entire package which is designed to ignite minds in our transitory times.
The box contains sets of cards on issues that drive change: energy, waste, climate change, water, demographics, urbanisation and poverty which are further divided into categories: social, technological, economic, environmental and political. Each card covers a single driver and presents a provocative question and image appended by a challenging fact and sub-issue. The reverse features further research, figures, maps and supporting detail – all coming together to prompt exploration of emerging trends in brainstorming sessions. The questions were derived from Arup’s own workshops with professionals on what is driving change in their sectors.
The cards have been used in a number of events by Arup to promote dialogue – always encouraging interactivity and often involving a sense of play. At a Tokyo Designers’ Week the cards were circulated round a sushi bar within the shipping container venue where visitors selected cards and wrote their responses to the drivers.
The image I took in Worli, Mumbai from the card featuring the sub-issue Livelihood Opportunity – posing the question “How do you make ends meet?”
Arup is a global engineering consultancy which has a history of employing a holistic multi-disciplined approach in engineering design. With a global staff of over 10, 000 Arup provides an array of services for the built environment sector including engineering, design, project management and consultancy. Notable projects include the Sydney Opera House, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, CCTV headquarters in Beijing, Casa da Música in Porto and 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) in London.
I feel the Drivers of Change cards are a relevant tool for curating conversations as are other sets such as the Method Cards by Ideo and the NextPlays card set from Moxie Design Group. By breaking groups out of linear thinking they engage minds in a participatory manner and are more likely to gather a brain storm of deep insights than a passing shower of shallow talk.
Related Article:
Solution Seekers at Play
I was particularly heartened to come across the recently launched mash-up of fashion and fundraising: The Uniform Project in which a pledge has been made to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion.
Actually there are seven identical dresses – one for each day of the week. Every day the dress is artfully reinvented via layers and accessories and images posted online in the effort to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation – a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India.
The project’s brainchild Sheena Matheiken recollects “I was raised and schooled in
India where uniforms were a mandate in most public schools. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality… Girls obsessed over bangles, bindis and bad hairdos. Peaking through the sea of uniforms were the idiosyncrasies of teen style and individual flare. I now want to put the same rules to test again, only this time I’m trading in the Catholic school fervor
for an eBay addiction and relocating the school walls to this wonderful place called
the internet.”
It all made me reflect on my past delvings into fashion and connectivity which I covered in my paper Fashion, Humanism and the Online Environment (1.8MB). Written in 2005 I’m the first to admit that the dialogue has definately moved on. However at the time Web 2.0 was still a fresh enough topic to win me a junior faculty travel award to present at the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes conference in the US. (disclosure: my main driver for submitting the proposal was the thought of a two week escape from the excrutiating heat of high Indian summer – to which, as a New Zealander, I was entirely unaccustomed.)
The Uniform Project goes a long way in exemplifing my suggestion:
“through the internet, fashion holds the power to create space for social, cultural and altruistic discourse… the multi-layering of internet based communication affords the opportunity to participate in the arena of commerce while remaining culturally relevant, responsible and active.”
While I was more speaking about fashion brands leveraging cultural connectivity The Uniform Project is instead an online fundraising initiative masterfully leveraging fashion itself. Great to see the Manolo on the other foot!
Aligning himself with Buckminster Fuller’s notion of a comprehensivist, Carnegie
Mellon industrial design student Nadeem Haidary is one to watch. His provocative
forays into interaction design, anthropology and information visualization command
fresh perspectives.
In his Food of Art exhibition in Pittsburgh he analyses the nutritional content of twelve celebrated still life artworks including pieces by Van Gogh and Cezanne. He points to the data’s indication of the artists’ respective economic means and I’m also interested in the underlying implications encompassing taste, value and the consumption of art.
A delight for label checkers and talent hunters.
From top to bottom:
Still Life with Fruit, Vegetables and Dead Game, Frans Snyders, c.1635-1637
Still Life with Onions and Drawing Board, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
Still Life with Basket of Apples, Paul Cezanne (French), 1890-1894
Still Life with Fruit, Hermenegildo Bustos, 1874
Related post:
Fruitful Pursuits
Cultural Confectionery
Public space can be a contentious concept. Here’s a selection of global interactions encompassing New York, Palestine and Liberia – all aired out in the open – and thus subject to the court of public opinion.
New York’s lively Public Ad Campaign aims at “expanding curatorial responsibilties in the city”. It seeks to question the commodification of public space via outdoor advertising. This week it co-ordinated the volunteer whitewashing of over 100 illegal street-level billboards between Soho and Chelsea and their subsequent transformation by street artists.
[Via Wooster Collective and the Gothamist. Photo by Ji Lee]
Brings to mind another global activism platform in the public space – Palestinian peace efforts at Send a Message. You pay: Palestinians spray. For €30 you get your message sprayed on the Israeli Palestinian separation wall and 3 digital pictures disptached to you by email. Proceeds go to local NGOs. Check out the Guardian interview with the project’s co-ordinator Faris Asouri.
[Photo by delayed gratification]
And finally on a less activist note but definately in the realm of ‘public’ is Liberia’s Blackboard Blogger. Alfred Sirleaf chalks up daily news on blackboards which are centrally located in the country’s capital city, Monrovia. He co-ordinates news feeds through his mobile phone – and as part of his objective to deliver news to those who can’t afford newspapers, includes symbols and pictures on his boards so as to assist illiterate viewers.
[Via AfriGadget]
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Indo-French Street Skills
Illuminating Urban Imperfections
No longer patronisingly for ‘dummies’ – it’s a welcome relief to note the emerging host of savvy communications for clarifying complex information. These de-mystifying initiatives are not only potentially transformative but have implications of being powerfully inclusive as well.
First up: a timely animation explaining the Credit Crisis which is the result of “exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world” by Jonathan Jarvis over at the Art Centre College of Design in Pasedena. In fact it also shows up the failing of mainstream media to shine a clear light on this subject and raises the notion that they have then traded on the resulting confusion.
Xplane, the Visual Thinking Company who employ the method of visual collaboration and acknowledge that “effective communications… move people to action” have co-created a plethora of visual initiatives aiding understanding of complex information – rendering concepts like How Obama Reinvented Campaign Finance both palatable and digestable.
And on a topic dear to my heart: co-design. I’m over trying to bumble my way through explaining this concept to people and this beauty from thinkpublic does a great job. If this is combined with case studies from public & corporate arenas then one can easily begin grasp the concept. But hey – that’s another post!
Finally – if you’re still confused about Twitter: here it is in plain English and perhaps check out more humorous clarifications over at More New Math.
We increasingly need better filters for information (in both commercial and public spheres) and I’m a big fan of these being executed in a compelling way. If more people understand stuff surely we can expect better dialogue. And lets face it – life isn’t getting any easier – and attention spans certainly aren’t getting any longer.
[A nod to TBWA Media Arts Mondays over at PFSK]
