one part truth, two parts mixer

Pseudo-science

So off and on this week, I've been nosying about the (inaugural?) Psychogeophysics Summit, a meeting of enthusiasts in the pseudo-scientific pursuit of erm, pyschogeophysics. Which is in essence, adding a measurement angle to psychogeography. Participants had come from as far afield as Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Austria and Italy.

Basically, the guys made lo-fi equipment that recorded or was guided by light, sound, radio waves, etc, and used it to look at the city in a new way. The interesting part for me was the looking at a city in a new way, not driven by utility, as opposed to the tinkering with kit to make devices.

Some of the workshops and walks that I found interesting (didn't get to go on them all):

• The GPS walk/game: Where one group of walkers tried to avoid accurate detection by GPS by heading underground and walking down narrow streets, etc and the other group trying to be 'found' by sticking to high ground and walking down the middle of wide streets. Definitely forces you to think about yout
• The idea of 'walking algorithms': Seeing where a  'programmed' walking route, i.e. forward, 6th left, 1st right, 1st left, repeat... takes you. A different type of structure to impose on urban exploration - as opposed to tourist attractions for example.
• One of the guys, Ryan (don't have a link, sorry), managed to record a nuns choir practice from outside the convent with basically a plastic crate wrapped in copper wire, which brings up all sorts of privacy issues but was quite a beautiful thing.

On Thursday, there was a bunch of informal talks given by members of the group.
A guy called Gordo, who kinda does this for a living, talked about a project he'd done where he'd got people to walk around the city with a skin sensitivity device (basic lie-detector, records change in skin resistance, i.e. sweat) which was attached to a camera. Whenever the subjects were stressed, the camera would take a picture. Apparently there were lots of pictures at traffic lights.

Another of his projects involved a corset (think airplane seatbealts not Moulin Rouge) which tightened the more wi-fi was about. Scary.

Our friendly neighbourhood Dutchman Peter Kazil, took us through his heroes, some obscure Dutch scientists who had made breakthrough observations about the world around them for their time. Including a guy who found rocks in The Netherlands.

He also went through the stuff he'd noticed on his trip, like the wear on the city from how its used and pigeons showering in the rain (tangentally he brought up the idea of birds speaking in dialects, which i like). It was really nice to see the city through foreign eyes. "The city has a memory about how it's used". That's a nice quote that will stay with me.

Christian Nold did a similar study to Gordo's, using galvanic skin response sensors, but on a much larger scale, creating emotional maps of cities and towns (see more here). 

I kind of feel guilty about the ideas I had, which take psychogeographic principles and commercialise them, so earnest were the summit participants. So I'll keep them under my hat a little longer and bring them out only when I've exhausted the last Lolcat idea.

Some more pictures:

Rise of the machines

I read about the FuChat today (via Tuvie), a 'emotion-sensing' concept phone that monitors your tone of voice and body temperature to gauge your mood and could warn you to calm down before you take a call. I kind of like the 'stops' we can put in technology to stop us from doing stupid things. Like the gmail plugins that delay sending emails by 5 minutes or require you to fill out CAPTCHAs if you're sending late night emails, or that bag concept that has a sad face light if it doesn't contain mobile, phone, keys, wallet.

Imagine if these phones could transmit status? I.e. not a good time to call, call later or some shit? I'm intrigued by the possibilities.

The androids are coming

Wow, there are going to be a lot of Android handsets coming out this year. I wonder if that alone will be enough to convince brands that they should be making Android versions of their apps as well as the obligatory iPhone one? Because from the user perspective the only thing letting Android down is access to the ‘it apps’. As usual, its all a bit of chicken and egg. 

In other news, these Android collectibles are awesome: 

Created by Andrew Bell, available via DYZPLASTIC soon
via TheDieline

Trust

I found this interesting...

Smell-o-vision

Just read an interesting example in this year's Trendwatching:

"Cinescent has successfully tested its scented-ad technology in German theatres for Nivea, with 60-second ads showing a sunny beach scene while the aroma of Nivea sun cream permeated the theatre. Exit polls showed a 515% rise in recall for the Nivea ad when compared to moviegoers who saw the spot without the scent.

Smells are pumped through the cinema's air conditioning system in a way that minimizes the allergy and irritation problems associated with previous attempts to dispense aromas via boxes places among the audience."

Martin Lindstrom was right!

The city speaks

Adam Greenfield's talk at dconstruct was interesting because he was talking about a lot of things that I've been thinking about generally. His talk was about the networked city, where objects talk to each other.

One point he made was that 'urban savoir faire' - the ability to be a 'power user' of the city because of specialist knowledge gained by discovery - is under threat from search. I think this could be a good thing because it makes good local businesses easier to find, and therefore more profitable, less likely to close. There is a part of me that doesn't want these hidden finds to become busier, but if this is what is needed to save them from the inexorable march of homogenity, then I'm all for it.

And those that still seek the satisfying feeling that discovery brings can just opt out of 'search urbanism' by turning off their phone. When we were in Moscow, I forced Jas to go on a pilgrimage of all the spots in the Master and Margarita, and we chanced upon loads of cool boutiques. When I worked in Adidas Originals, I remember them saying they purposely put the shops off the beaten track to make the shoppers feel like they'd discovered them. Actually the whole merchandising idea was built around some weird flea market idea, but ended up looking like a clinical interrogation room (those lights were bright!). 

Photo by Henry, hope he doesn't mind me using it

You know by now how much I love buzzwords (ugh, trends what have you done to me?!) and so I obviously lapped up 'wayshowing' (although it maybe doesn't top 'dimensional synesthesia' by Ben Cerveny). If Wayfinding is about us looking up things digitally, wayshowing is about digital showing us the way. The Microsoft concept video that August de los Reyes showed us what that might look like, with our tablet/phone/mental thing guiding us through life. While all this stuff does make our lives easier, it also robs us of the skills to survive alone, but more importantly trains us not to enjoy discovery.

Set you free

I've been testing a phone for 3 as part of the new campaign - all about setting phones/contracts free with free Skype to Skype calls. I remember when the ad was first aired, I didn't really see how it was such a big deal, but Scouse made the point that they are the first company to offer a deal which doesn't rely on you using their network - quite radical. 

For me personally, I never pay for actual call minutes because I never go over my limits. Thinking about it, there are probably lots of people who actually have to pay for minutes every month. This would really benefit them.

 

So this little cage arrived at my work, with a phone to test it on for a couple of weeks. By the by, the phone, a Sony Ericsson C905 is quite sweet. But to the matter at hand, the reality of Skype calling at the moment is usually this:

When I think of how I use Skype, it's usually to my family abroad or to make a comedy video call to my mum, but this is probably because I don't have a minutes issue. I also always use my computer. I guess it's the same for most people, because there was rearely anyone on Skype to call, not even the other people on the trial. Still though, there's definitely promise for the future. Like take up of anything, we need a bit of critical mass.

Manual/automatic

While I was brushing my teeth this morning I thought about how most of the responsbility has been assigned to my toothbrush. It tells me when to move to a different section of my mouth, when to stop, if I'm brushing too hard. I don't know if I could actually brush my teeth correctly in manual. Ah, the rise of the machines.

The healer

I've been in Wales over the Easter break kids, have you missed me? Just catching up on some light reading. Saw a really interesting article in Fast Company about self-healing paint. I don't know why stuff like that excites me, but the idea of inanimate, manmade items having organic qualities and well, just getting on and doing stuff, should have some impressive implications for the future. The fraudcaster in me still lives.

The iShift

Armano wrote  a post a while ago about how having an iPhone had shifted the way he treated phones as objects, i.e. from careless to careful. I quote: "Steve Jobs and his merry band of desingers, engineers and marketers had given me not only a product, but practically a new member of the family.  In fact, I have only dropped my iPhone once and I still feel badly about it." That's quite a feat, but then it's quite a phone.

Scouse and I noticed another shift in behaviour that the iPhone has bought about. Phones used to be an expression of your self-image, in a Hebdige kind of way. If someone in your social circle got the same phone as you and you'd got it first, that would be kind of lame of them. Having a different phone to your friends used to give kudos, but now having the same phone is more important. It might not seem like a big thing, but it's pretty interesting how products can shift our behaviour en masse.

You've got to be amazed at Apple's total takeover of the mainstream, first through music and now in telephony. We're now individuals through different iterations of Apple product. Crazy.

In other news, I desperately need a new phone, but am having dilemma. Any suggestions? My dream combination would be a StarTac and a Peek, but you can only get Peeks in America.