SpeakersCorner Flash/SMS (website link)
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SPEAKERS CORNER
Interactive Street Interface by Jaap De Jonge
Speakers Corner is
a 15 metre long interactive LED text display fixed to
the outside of The Media Centre in Huddersfield. Running 24 hours a day,
365 days a year, Speakers Corner will display a wide range of content,
information and news, providing entertainment and services to people using
The Media Centre and the local area.
Users can interact
with content on the screen in three ways by sending a
text message, by using the phone booth outside The Media Centre which
converts speech into text, or by adding comments from the web at
www.speakerscorner.org.uk. Users' comments are then archived in the
database and sent to the display, building a dialogue between the street,
the web and people's mobile phones.
Over the next five
years, The Media Centre will be regularly commissioning
new content for the interface, exploring the growing use of mobile
technology and introducing new services, such as Third Generation (3G)
mobile phones, when they become available. Initial content on the screen
includes news feeds from Ananova, Text-message poetry from local schools,
and Quizoola! a text piece by Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment.
Matt Locke is Creative Director of The Media Centre, Huddersfield,
responsible for developing research in creative uses of emerging digital
technologies. Current research activities are focused on exploring social
technologies and urban space, particularly developing interfaces and
content for mobile and architectural sites. Recent projects include
Speakers Corner- an innovative public interface connecting the street, the
web and SMS; Surrender Control - a new narrative SMS project by Tim
Etchells; and interaction development for The Guardian's SMS Poetry
Competition.
In addition to developing
research projects, Matt writes and lectures
regularly on issues related to digital technologies and urban space, and
teaches modules on Visual Culture & Technology at Huddersfield University.
Here's the biog for Jaap de jonge, the artist:
Based in Amsterdam,
media artist Jaap de Jonge works on a wide range of
projects, from interactive design to public art. His installations and
kinetic objects have been shown in major museums and festivals across
Europe, Japan, Australia and South America. His work is characterised
by
strong conceptual structures that are matched by a deep understanding
of
technology as a medium, never merely as an end in itself.
curator@voyd.com
