The seminar took place in ZAIM, Yokohama on the 20th and 21st of september. In attendance were various practitioners in the field of ‘locative art’ practice from Japan, Uk and further afield. I’ll briefly summarize some of the talks and ideas presented within this session.
Vensha Christ, an Indonesian based sound artist, spoke about his work and associated art organisation “HONF” (see http://www.natural-fiber.com/about.html).It was commented that his portfolio is very much in response to the social/political conditions within Indonesia and thus raises the question of how this work then impacts an international audience not familiar with the locale. In particular, how the wording used in description, such as “control” and “bureaucracy” although understood, mean very different things from nation to nation.
A representative of Proboscis (www.proboscis.org.uk) spoke about the organisations creative output. In particular, projects such as “Snout” in which traditional carnival characters armed with sensing devices were sent out into the city to theatrically investigate the environmental conditions of the host city and “Urban Tapestries” which provides a platform to attach multi-media content to location through a mobile device and then share this with other users. Proboscis see many of their works as providing communities with the tools to create “evidence” of their environments and through deliberation upon and presentation of this information they can insight change within these locales.
From this talk several points were made:
- The lifespan of locative media work, difficult for individuals post ‘event’ to experience the work or even understand it. Problems with shifting to differing media upon achieve.
- People are already in possession of ethnographic tools: the mobile telephone provides these
- Environmental sensors just give numbers, it is a citizen’s understanding that can transform this into context/content
Open city described their investigation into ‘Stillness’ within the everyday urban centre and how we are conditioned to feel this to be inappropriate – creating blockage and disturbance. Their work is organized public intervention – asking participants to stop at traffic lights far too long or stand in mass swaying – through this absurdity they bring the patterns of everyday into focus. They comment that technology has provided a permission for stillness – the individual stops to answer their mobile phone or take photos (the tourist).
It is commented that Open city grants the individual permission to be ’still’ and independent from the mass through instruction (delivered through ipod) – hence, a new form of control – a strange contradiction.
Exonemo spoke mainly of their work entitled “The Road Movie” which involved artist from Japan and Germany touring through Japan working with varying groups along the way. On-line participants could download a specially created origami bus onto which images from outside the real bus were printed. These images were updated regularly. Check: http://exonemo.com/RM/index.html for more detail.
Matt from Blast Theory introduced their work which mainly takes the form of city-wide narrative based gaming which utilizes personal devices such as the mobile phone. In particular he spoke of two ‘events’: “Day of the figurines” where plot content was delivered to participants through sms and “Rider Spoke” which explored areas in the city where individuals could ‘hide’ from surveillance/signal - particularly wireless coverage. From this discussion Matt provided an interesting statistic: Regarding participation within locative games – 90% are ‘watchers’, 9% provide a small contribution and 1% a very detailed contribution. Matt also referenced Matthew Charmers and his ideas upon ’seamlessness’ where complications and limitations in the technology utilised become facets within the game – they are not eradicated or dampered but illuminated.
Drew Hemment curator of the FutureSonic Festival, Manchester spoke of this event and the recent works that have been exhibited through it. The art output of this festival is always in description of the urban location and the social actions delivered within this environment particularly those mediated through technology. Of most interest was Drew’s discussion upon the complications of attempting such a festival – of gaining access and permission to utilize public space. He suggests that these administrative efforts help expose the hidden bureaucracy in operation within these centres – and are thus works within themselves.
