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My data jam project has the form of an ongoing event. It began on Monday the 13th of december 2010 and will be left active on site until major causes (removal, discharge of batteries, damages or else) will bring it to an end.

The idea is to involve people passing by the Thames to share their thoughts, their feelings, their experiences related to the river and its surroundings with other people under the form of vocal messages. Orality and aurality are the channels through which informations will be exchanged in order to create an emotional Data Jam.

The event is meant to be open and interactive and is not addressed to any particular target nor has other goal but creating an everchanging narrative to which everyone can add his small contribution. A collection of short stories based on the river.

The place chosen for the intervention is on Tower Bridge, on the stairs leading from the bridge to the quay by the north bank. The place is suitable as it has a continuous traffic of people so the chances for the interactive system to catch the attention is high. The proximity to the river also makes the background noises such as boats going by, birds singing, sound of the waves etc. a constant part of all recordings binding the system to the media ecology of the river.

The place was also chosen as, strangely, has no surveillance cameras. This allowed me to set up the system without being disturbed by our friends The Police.

top view of the chosen site

Local map of the place

Down the quay

Access from the quay

Access from the bridge

Wall where the system is placed

In practice, the system is composed of a small microphone and a speaker connected to a circuit board on which a small memory chip will store the recordings. A Record button and a Play button allow interaction with the system which is sticked with Velcro onto the wall people face while going down to the quay. A short instruction sheet is placed by the device to explain how to use it (although is essential and intuitive) and briefly tell what the project is about.

Electronic components of the system

Graphic components of the system

The system

The system into the context. Up and running

And last, the interaction of the people with the system which proved to work as expected.

A passenger

Theo

Some passengers

Miriam

Luciana

Here’s a short clip of the system in action

Data Jam from femtoplankton on Vimeo.

And here’s two recording samples

luciana

claudia-audio

Equipped with ‘video sniffing’ devices, namely a 4 channel 2.4 GHz wireless receiver connected to a monitor with an embedded DV recorder, we went around New Cross trying to ‘sniff’ video signals from the surveillance cameras and record them. Sadly, even switching the channels, we were not able to pick up a single image, only glitches here and there. We realized most of the cameras were cabled, thus not ‘sniffable’ wirelessly. Although unsuccessful, the mission was important as we noticed how many cameras are around, even in a non-sensitive area such as New Cross. Not only governmental organizations, banks or big companies use surveillance cameras, also small shops, hairdressers, grocery stores.

The massive presence of surveillance cameras can turn into a powerful free medium if appropriate devices are used and certain rules are followed. The ‘Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers’ by AmbientTV defines the principles for free filmmakers that have been used by Manu Luksch in directing ‘Faceless’. MediaShed, using the technique of ‘video sniffing’, which is slightly different from the one used in ‘Faceless’, have created 2 short films with a very low budget. Both techniques claim the same thing: ‘Free the media’. I am really fascinated by the idea of using the media ecology of the environment we live in to empower people and I want to explore it much further in my Free Media project.

Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers (1) from AmbientTV.net

Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers (2) from AmbientTV.net

Faceless by Manu Luksch

The Duellists by MediaShed

Video Sniffing by MediaShed

This command lines explores the communication between two different users logged in in two different sessions. Multiple command lines are used in order to create a sort of automated batch process.

Several Command Lines Joined to Create a Batch

Terminal of User 2 Before Receiving Messages From User 1

Running the Batch on User 1

User 2 Gets the List of Directories on User 1

We went up to Telegraph hill to test a homemade acoustic locator. After several attempts changing positions and distances, we couldn’t really spot big differences but an echo in wearing and not wearing the device. It was fun to notice that it actually changed the visual perception more than it affected the auditive one for which it’s meant.

Testing the Homemade Acoustic Locator

My command line explores the communication between terminals and users.

Opening Two Terminal Positions

Looking for Other Terminal Positions Open

List of Terminal Positions Open

Sending Messages from Position 0 to Position 1

Message Is Received on Position 1

Position 1 replies to Position 0

Chat Begins

Chat Ends