Landlines: Mobile GPS drawing tool

Landlines software was developed by artists Jen Hamilton & Jen Southern in conjunction with ONTECA Ltd to gather live GPS data. The unique tools becomes an interactive vehicles for people to learn and talk about the nature of a place, and its meaning to local people. These projects can be seen at portable TV.

>> your journey outlined on google maps <<

Landlines is a multi-user drawing tool for mobile phone and bluetooth GPS, that allows users to draw by moving in real space. As you walk through the city with Landlines your latitude and longitude is periodically sent via mobile phone to a database. A website then displays your live tracks.

Mobile exploration of location & place - NW

The artwork of Jen Hamilton, Jen Southern & St Amand investigate social and tactile approaches to technology and work with audiences to explore location and sense of place. Their projects explore how new technologies influence the way we inhabit an environment and collaborate with industry on the development of new tools for creating collaborative maps.

Distance Made Good: Flow Lines (2004), Hamilton and Southern worked with local people to make a new map of Lancaster and Morecambe, UK, by using the Landlines system based on the lives of the people living and working there, and of the places.

The walkers (a group of local residence) were invited to make journeys that in some way represent who they are in conjunction with being a landmark for the city they live in (e.g. A participant in Morecambe took us for a walk along the seafront, as for him the seafront represented Morecambe, and it was a route he regularly took when walking his dog).

Thirty four walks were recorded using a GPS device, and were represented together in the gallery on two map like screens folded into the space.

In their project: Running Stitch (2006) the artists gave exhibition visitors a GPS-enabled mobile phone to track their journeys through the city centre. These walks created GPS line drawings of the walker's movements projected live in the gallery to disclose hidden aspects of the city. Each line drawing was sewn in real time into a large 5m x5m hanging fabric to show an evolving tapestry that revealed a sense of place and interconnection between the walkers and the city. (re:blogged from their respective websites)

Question >>

What are the transformative qualities of digital technology - specifically those of mobile and wireless media - and how do these new channels of communication inform and inspire young people to think and act creatively?

Mapping & Community Engagement - Liverpool

Liverpool-based artist Alan Dunn worked in collaboration with Re-Dock throughout 2009 to develop a series of creative consultations, inviting communities from North Liverpool to put forward imaginative ideas for the future of Leeds-Liverpool canal.

Cultural mapping projects and working in situ with communities is becoming a strong methodology for creating interactive and participatory projects involving mobile and wireless technologies. Through the use of location aware media mobile technolgies (these include GPS location devices) audiences are given tools to author or input their own information about where they are or what they find important in their surroundings at any given moment.

Mobile technolgies are tools that can inspire >> real world << interventions as well as allow people to network between each other sending and sharing creative content including photos and videos.

Short Shap Shorts - NW of England

Short Shap Shorts was a ground breaking mobile phone film making competition commissioned by North West Vision+Media in 2007. The competition was open to 18-24 year olds to create stand alone films by just using the video function on their mobile phones. The idea for Short Shap Shorts was for the NW screen agency to identify, meet and support hot new young talent in the region and to engage them in the latest of film making techniques - using mobile media devices!

To see the selction of winning flims please visit the short sharp shots myspace site.

This project followed a growing trend for exploring new broadcasting models to reach new audiences especially those of younger people. Example of film festivals exclusively for mobile film content are now creating a new strand of digital entertainment and creative talent forums all over the world.

MOBI FEST
made for mobile movies

Mini Series
Experience the visual seduction stories told for the mobile generation.

The Burgess Project - Manchester

The Burgess Project was an exciting project produced by the-phone-book Limited, exploring new technologies, new modes of writing and engagement with new audiences. It was launched during the innovative freeplay strand of the inaugural Manchester Literature Festival, in October 2006, where Literature, Technology & Media came together.

Through the use of Bluetooth and mobile phone media, the public were able to par-take in the Burgess narrative whilst taken on a grant tour, a promenade performance through Manchester that linked several venues across various city centre venues. A full story line and project description can be found online with a link to a video screening.

How Will It Happen

From 2009, young people from across Lancashire and the Fylde Coast will be making, researching and discussing art, culture, and sport and deciding on the best digital platforms to be able to share experiences and opportunities and to direct people to make new cultural journeys. Young people will be our guides through this new digital world that is forming around us.

Ruth Raban, Director of Creative Lancashire says:

Technologies revolutionise how we communicate with each other, with virtual worlds, mobile gaming and augmented reality technology, and who better to pioneer new uses of the technology than young people? They 'get it' and can see the possibilities. As future innovators young people will shape the way we work, play and create to 2012 and beyond.

New Cultural Journeys will be created and developed by the young people in Lancashire and the Fylde Coast and will offer a range of ways in which people and organisations can get involved. The programme will excite, surprise and engage residents and visitors in the area and beyond.

The journey is beginning and the possibilities are endless.

New Cultural Journeys

A major youth led culture and sport programme for Lancashire and the Fylde Coast which empowers young people as dynamic participants and creators, engaging them in active lifestyles and place shaping.

By 2012, the people of the North West will be taken on voyages of discovery both outdoor and online. New connections between people and places, sport and art and physical and virtual worlds will be created.

The programme will be led by young people in Lancashire and they will be creating, commissioning and sharing their engagement with new events and activities.

Lancashire County Council, the Fylde Coast authorities and Creative Lancashire have come together to create this ambitious programme that puts young people at the heart of the project. The decisions, the ideas and the vision will be theirs, the enjoyment and the experience will be for everyone.