Today is OK
2008
2008
[ production still ]
Image
;request('media','media.php?image=today_1.jpg&caption=production+still')){kind=small}
Today is OK is a dynamically constructed series of videos broadcast to mobile phones (via bluetooth transmitter) in public space. The videos depict a character; as she becomes familiar with the viewer through repeat encounters, her expression changes to reveal her shifting emotions. The system recognizes viewers via custom software from the bluetooth IDs of their mobile devices.
The project has several goals. Expressively, it explores the emotional impact of anonymous yet familiar encounters between people in the public spaces through which they habitually commute. Further, it comments on the increasing use of "proximity-based" advertising and the emergence of individually targeted communication in public space. The intimacy of the mobile phone establishes an ambivalent relationship between character and viewer; this highlights how our emotional dependence on device-mediated communication is susceptible to hijacking by commercial or artistic conceits. The aesthetics of video on small screens is also a concern, as is the novelty of state-based content used with Bluetooth delivery.
Today is OK is intended to be installed as an ongoing, ambient installation in a public space with regular pedestrian commuters, such as a Manhattan sidewalk. It is viewed entirely on participants’ phones (or other bluetooth enabled devices, such as laptops), which, according to the model of the device, will alert them that someone is attempting to send a video.
This work is a synthesis of my interest in experimental modes of storytelling inspired by cognitive theory and a politically-motivated investigation into our relationship to place and to technology.
Thanks to
Katherine Byrnes
The project has several goals. Expressively, it explores the emotional impact of anonymous yet familiar encounters between people in the public spaces through which they habitually commute. Further, it comments on the increasing use of "proximity-based" advertising and the emergence of individually targeted communication in public space. The intimacy of the mobile phone establishes an ambivalent relationship between character and viewer; this highlights how our emotional dependence on device-mediated communication is susceptible to hijacking by commercial or artistic conceits. The aesthetics of video on small screens is also a concern, as is the novelty of state-based content used with Bluetooth delivery.
Today is OK is intended to be installed as an ongoing, ambient installation in a public space with regular pedestrian commuters, such as a Manhattan sidewalk. It is viewed entirely on participants’ phones (or other bluetooth enabled devices, such as laptops), which, according to the model of the device, will alert them that someone is attempting to send a video.
This work is a synthesis of my interest in experimental modes of storytelling inspired by cognitive theory and a politically-motivated investigation into our relationship to place and to technology.
Thanks to
Katherine Byrnes
Exhibition
Glowlab: Conflux 2008 @ Center for Architecture
New York City
2008 September 11
Glowlab: Conflux 2008 @ Center for Architecture
New York City
2008 September 11