1. Intro to Interactive Media Arts
Concept Pitch, iteration 2
by Yulia Besplemennova
(z3406397)

2. Concept №2 Good Vibrations
* Changing people’s behaviour
* Connecting social aspect of the city to physical
* Stimulating exploration and rethinking relations to
the spaces
* Novel way of navigation

4. Share it!
+
with your comment
Add it to the map or music

5. Meanwhile in the city...
~1km ~500m ~100m ~5m

6. Feedback?
20 people enjoyed
sunset at your
suggested place!

7. Changing map
According to the seasons, time of the day and weather...

8. What is needed
Database: website to suggest places
*
* GPS locations database
audio storage (partnership with iTunes =))
*
Application: access to GPS data
*
* access to acceletometer data
* vibration output
* sound output
* connection to the database

9. Timeline
* first mock-up sketch
Weeks * install Android emulator - try the sketch
* get Android phone - access the sensors data and
10-11 vibro/sound outputs
* try inputs-outputs with Processing in the city Interaction
prototype development
Week 12 * change the sketch for the Android - try
* improve! - try - improve!
Week 13 * assign sound to places around COFA - try
Week 14 * have fun!
Month 2 * build the website and database
Month 3 * connect application to database Application
Month 4 * alpha testing - troubleshooting development
Month 5-6 * beta test with public envolved - troubleshooting
Eventually * release

10. Concept Statement
In my work I got inspired by the Situationist movement and their relation to the cityspace, especially
the derive practice, and some of other concepts including the city and the interaction with it. (For
example the GPS-drawing idea and different ways of its realization, The Drift example showed in
the class). Thinking of different ways to navigate in the city I remembered the old techniques of
dowsing which are claimed to help finding the water or minerals under the ground. And adding the
possibility of interaction with the phone I’ve chosen the pendulum dowsing as a metaphor. Moving
from the first concepts of walking along the random shape in the city drawn by other participant, I
decided to add more meaning to the activity and also a bit of more playful element. So I got to the
final concept of using the phone to “sense” the city and find places which have special value for
its inhabitants.
“Good Vibrations” is an application allowing people to share and find nice places in the city and
stories connected to them and experience the city in a new way. It consists of in-phone application
and a database of places suggested by the users and audio-files stored with them.
Citizens are invited to share their places through the same application or the website. In case of
using the application person has to be present at the space which he wants to add. The phone
will store the GPS position and add the comment or music to this place. To find other people’s

11. suggestions one has to go to the city and use phone to search. After starting the application users
have to sway the phone as a pendulum and walk with it. Phone will define user’s position using
GPS and find the nearest place from database. Participant is navigated by the vibrations of the
phone, which become stronger as person gets closer to the place. As soon as the location is
reached the audio file associated to it plays, revealing the story or the music connected to this
place in mind of other citizen. This “social map” can be changing with the seasons, weather and
time of the day to bring the best experiences matching the current conditions in the city.
This application helps to connect the social dimension of the city to the physical space showing
that the places include not only the “bricks and mortar” but people inhabiting them. The selected
way of navigation takes user’s attention away from the phone screen bringing it back to the city.
On their way around people can see new places and try to guess what can be interesting there
and where are they are guided to. Mainly they can share others’ experiences and see the city with
the different eyes. But besides that they are getting their own experience of the city while searching
for other’s places. They may get disoriented or even lost on the way, which brings back the need
of the navigation skills and exploration spirit which are forgotten with the appearance of GPS-
enabled devices with the maps of the entire world.