tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post1894765743073048634..comments2024-01-06T03:54:46.267-05:00Comments on the sceptical futuryst: London's burningStuart Candyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-14780348872053179742008-08-04T10:24:00.000-04:002008-08-04T10:24:00.000-04:00Guy, thanks a lot for these links. The article on...Guy, thanks a lot for these links. The article on "cities at sea" was very good, and I'll certainly try to catch the radio series on utopias.Stuart Candyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-4359114114205014832008-08-04T07:31:00.000-04:002008-08-04T07:31:00.000-04:00Referencing UK media, I just wanted to offer you a...Referencing UK media, I just wanted to offer you a 'heads-up' on a short, 3-part series of programmes BBC Radio 3 is scheduled to broadcast this week (from Monday 4th August).<BR/><BR/>Details as below:<BR/><BR/>The Future is Not What it Used To Be...<BR/><BR/>http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/theessay/pip/lqcrl/<BR/><BR/>As a child of the 1950s, Richard Foster thought that by now he would be wearing a silver jumpsuit and spending endless hours of leisure zooming around on a personal jet-propelled backpack - all in a world where poverty, sickness and religion had been banished by technology. So what went wrong?<BR/><BR/>Duration:<BR/><BR/>15 minutes<BR/><BR/>Playlist:<BR/><BR/>Part 1 - Monday 4 August 2008 23:00-23:15<BR/><BR/>Broken Dreams: Richard investigates two contrasting utopian worlds in novels from the 1880s: caring capitalism in Looking Backward by American author Edward Bellamy and communitarian socialism in William Morris' News from Nowhere.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Part 2 - Wednesday 6 August 2008 23:00-23:15<BR/><BR/>Trust me, I'm a scientist: How the technological age is measuring up to the utopian visions set out in the speculative novels of previous eras, focusing on Wells' The Shape of Things To Come and Huxley's Brave New World.<BR/><BR/>Part 3 - Thursday 7 August 2008 23:00-23:15<BR/><BR/>Dystopian visions: Nevil Shute's cold-war era On The Beach depicted normal life after a nuclear holocaust and Samuel Youd's The Death of Grass imagined a virus that destroys all grain crops.Presenter Richard Foster looks at the aspect of the human psyche that craves apocalypse, and wonders if that fear is used as a political tool.<BR/><BR/>I'd imagine that the programme would remain available for the 7 days after each broadcast via the 'The Essay' website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/theessay/).<BR/><BR/>You may also be interested in a recent Guardian Weekend article on 'cities at sea', extract as follows:<BR/><BR/>"...Cities at sea have long been a libertarian dream, but concerns over climate change have now pushed the idea on to the environmental agenda. Do they hold water?"<BR/><BR/>URL - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/19/climatechange.greenbuilding<BR/><BR/>Guy, St. Paul's ReachAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-14616434511348039732008-07-04T07:32:00.000-04:002008-07-04T07:32:00.000-04:00Many thanks, Judy. I'd forgotten about mscape, bu...Many thanks, Judy. I'd forgotten about mscape, but it's certainly an avenue for location-based storytelling that could be used for a futures project to "go forward".<BR/><BR/>We did consider handheld computers as a platform for this kind of project, but the challenge was that, according to our best estimates, market penetration, hence accessibility, was much lower for these devices (see <A HREF="http://www.mscapers.com/home/hardware" REL="nofollow">mscape's hardware requirements list</A>) than for audio players. We felt the access hurdle needed to be low in order to maximise the potential audience. (Converting possible, that is, suitably equipped, audients into actual ones is another challenge again.)<BR/><BR/>From that point of view, mobile phones, especially the growing subset of mp3-playing ones used with earbuds, could be among the best platforms for urban audio walks.Stuart Candyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-19635185368074918012008-07-03T22:48:00.000-04:002008-07-03T22:48:00.000-04:00Abbe Don looked back from the present in her colla...Abbe Don looked back from the present in her collaborative project with HPLabs/KQED in 2005. Why couldn't you use the same platform to go forward? Let me know if the links don't appear and I will email:<BR/><BR/>Scape The Hood (fall 2005, Hewlett-Packard/KQED) – An interactive, situated mediascape. Working with HP Researcher Abbe Don, I (David Lawrence) co-produced the Project Artaud section of this experimental design/research project in locative media. Using HP's Mobile Bristol Mediascape platform, we brought a city block to life with GPS-triggered stories and sounds. See these press links for more details:<BR/><BR/>Hewlett-Packard site<BR/>San Francisco Chronicle<BR/>San Jose Mercury News<BR/><BR/>For more information on the Mediascape platform and to download 'Scape The Hood, visit the Hewlett-Packard mscape site at these links:<BR/><BR/>http://www.mscapers.com<BR/>http://www.mscapers.com/msin/ABA0000022Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10523615867638369806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-85446821505224560532008-07-02T14:08:00.000-04:002008-07-02T14:08:00.000-04:00Thanks for dropping in, John. I'd be interested t...Thanks for dropping in, John. I'd be interested to hear more about how you'd put this medium to work -- or if you know of anything comparable that has already been done.Stuart Candyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-54258167507468943342008-07-02T13:17:00.000-04:002008-07-02T13:17:00.000-04:00Stuart,I was glad to hear about this, and began (b...Stuart,<BR/><BR/>I was glad to hear about this, and began (before scrolling down) to think, why hasn't he mentioned doing a futures/immersive experience using this technique? I was glad to see you thought of it, and sorry to see that it's expensive to do. It sounds like a great idea, and I've been trying to use a street setting from time to time to do some more comprehensive thinking. In other words, sitting (perhaps at an outdoor cafe table) and thinking forward 20 years, what will this scene look like. This is a powerful thing to do, as you know. THANKS!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com