Outlined the technicalities of my Mobile Media project, which I’ve decided to call “Key to the City”. Excuse the crude format, I’m a fairly sketchy person and I’m in Scotland this week without my graphics tablet, so I wanted to do it by hand rather than crudely with a mouse. This is very much a first draft though, so expect a neater, more resolved version soon.

As you can see, it’s pretty simple. It’s not very complicated in terms of technical details, which will hopefully make it easy to implement. I also drafted a user scenario – again, still to be neatened up!

In terms of equipment and materials, here is my current spec (to make one working prototype):
1 x key
1 x RF receiver
6-8 x RF transmitters
1 x on/off switch
1 x vibration component
1 x battery

On the prototype front, I’m aiming to have one key working, picking up signals from approximately 6-8 transmitters. I’ll need to do a bit more work first, but if I can’t get the aesthetics I’m aiming to achieve, I suspect I’ll make a functioning prototype and and experience/aesthetic prototype.

ASSIGN EX6A: Make a public spectacle, amplifying an unnoticed or overlooked aspect of urbanity. This can be brief, subtle or prolonged and brash, but must be documented in some way, and presented at our class.

I had lots of big ideas for this assignment but, sadly, little time. Last week I was talking to a friend of mine who is looking for space to rent, to create his own studio/shop. He told me he’d looked at somewhere but that it had been sitting empty for months, so he didn’t want it. I asked why not and he said “well if no one else wants it, neither do I”. It made me feel sort of… sad? almost, to think of all these empty buildings and shops being abandoned because no one will give them a chance.

I then suggested a vacant shop I know of (which had also been sitting empty for months, but I didn’t tell him that bit!) and despite repeatedly telling him where it was, he had no idea what I was talking about. When we drove past it, he went “ohhh you mean THERE. I’d forgotten that even existed”. So it had dropped off his radar completely, purely because it wasn’t “being” anything.

So, I decided to give an empty shop on the corner of my street some love. I said “hey, don’t worry little shop, someone will rent you again someday”.

I also quite like that the statement has meanings to passers-by. At the moment, there are roadworks on the street and there is often a queue of traffic waiting at the [disturbingly long] red light. When I was just finishing up (I did it at night, as to not look like a complete vandal on a busy street during the day!) a taxi pulled up to drop someone off and the guy said to me “I was sitting in the queue for the traffic lights a few minutes ago, and your message gave me a little faith and made me smile”.

Just for the record, it’s only chalk! Can’t wait to see how long it lasts though.