<Walk>< Assessment><Technical requirements> 

/////////////// Walk: ////////////////////

60 x 1 min / 6 x 10 mins / 12 x 5 mins / 20 x 3 mins / 24 x (3+2 mins)

Walk for no longer than 2 minutes, assessment for no longer than 3 minutes – continually for 1 hour. giving minimum of 12 sites.

Defining the Route: Starting in centre of Frankfort Gate

Begin by doing a ‘spin’ –  turning around on the spot blindfolded for 10 seconds, at participant’s chosen pace.

After making first assessment, commence walk in direction faced after ‘spin’.

Each walking period will last up to two minutes. For each possible turning that emerges on the route, a coin will be tossed, and direction taken as defined by the following rules:

1. Heads – continue in current direction

2. Tails – take the turning and proceed

 - if there is a choice of turnings, ie. at a cross-roads, a further coin toss will be required:

1. Heads – take left

2. Tails – take right

Participant cannot enter buildings

//////////////////Assessment:////////////////

After the participant has ‘spun’, he/she makes their first assessment.

1. Participant selects an area to be assessed 

2. Define area on map – draw with pencil 

3. describe strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the area 

4. give a ‘positivity percentage’ rating of the area to be written into defined area on map – 100% = most positive.

5. Commence walk in direction previously travelling in.

//////////////////Technical Requirements://///////////////

Video Camera / battery / 1hr tape

Map of area / tracing paper / pencil / clip board

Coin

Stopwatch

Emotion mapping – christian nold (brentford)

Lefebvre, in his posthumously published ‘Rythmanalysis’ (1992) stated that one could arrive a the concrete through developing a full consciousness of the abstract. However, where particular mundanities of everyday life may seem constant or unchanging, it is anything but concrete.

For the individual, the constant flow of data that passes through the conscious and unconscious steadily informs and remediates the perception and interpretation of the everyday. However much popular forms of commercial and entertainment media strive to standardise experience, through the creation of audience parameters and user groups, diversity of individual experience still reigns across the social stratum. Individual perceptual frameworks, based on life histories, give fluidity to the reception of commercial media, and, ironically, thanks to the popularisation of the content-driven paradigm, these frameworks go on to re-inform and re-generate. 

Yet, experience often feels unobtainable – a commodity to be fetishised, a desire never to be fully quenched. While we strive for the glittering pinnacles of experience – the extreme sports, the exotic cultures, the fall into love – the point of arrival, the experience we’ve been working so hard towards, is superseeded by will-to-being; the desire for the next goal. Slavoj Zizek, in his ‘pervert’s guide to cinema’ states that the enactment of one’s sexual fantasy transforms the experience into a nightmare. Nightmare occurs through the participant’s inability to be outside of the experience. One is locked into the act, thus depriving the individual of the real fantasy – that of persuit itself.  

Whereby the commodified experience is linked so tightly to fantasy, so we return to the everyday experience; the mundane, that hides its exuberance in the second fiddle it plays to fetishism. The subtlety of everyday’s dynamic nature is what allows us to neglect it, and in some circumstances, to villify it. Perhaps the most effective way to bring this form of experience to the fore, is to frame it in the light of another dynamic yet neglected facet of existence – the city.

As the city evolves, continually transforming social space to the tune of a million motives, it shares the plethora of mundane experiences with the individuals whom pass through every day. As the beauty of everyday experience rests peacefully in the absence of desire, the cityscape cradles these experiences. In providing a site for the playing out of neglected experience, the urban contributes to their being. It provides a stimulus for their perception, and a context for their interpretation. The city’s dynamism breathes life into the mundane.

It is this relationship between everyday experience and the city that I propose to explore. Specifically, I aim to record the individual experiences of the city as one passes through. Taking analytical tools from the urban regeneration discourse, and navigational tools from the psychogeographical works of Situationism, I will facilitate, interpret and represent contemplations on individual experience. The concrete result of this work will manifest in an online interactive map, archiving and making accessible the recorded experiences of the city of Plymouth.

Process:

I will ‘curate’ a number of individuals to take part in separate walks. These individuals become classified as artists making phenomenological performances.

individual takes a ‘drift’ around Plymouth’s West End (the ‘independant quarter’ who’s regeneration is imminent), which is documented by video and guided by the toss of a coin (symbolic of the economic contexts of the area)

individual vocalises thoughts, comments and observations as they pass through the site, defining the area they are referring to and drawing this on the map provided.

For every defined area, the individual must make a brief SWOT analysis, mimicking the process used by planners and developers. This also makes reference to the process ‘public consultation’ that developers are required to complete, which adds to the sphere of data needed to qualify development plans.

Each area is then given a ‘positivity percentage’ by the individual. This number will be written within the area defined on the map, with ’100′ being the most positive assessment.

Once the walks have been completed and the data collected, I will set the videos aside and get to work translating the maps into digital 3D format.

Each map will be scanned in and imported into Google Sketch-Up. I will then trace around the areas defined by the individual. The flat shape will then be given height on the z-axis according to the ‘positivity percentage’. Eventually, I will end up with a series of shapes with varying heights that make up the ‘experiential cityscape’ of the individual.

I will create one master map containing all experiential cityscapes

Presentation:

There are a number of ways in which I may present this work. The final outcome will be based on research and development carried out whilst the project is live. Some potential avenues are:

web – map with hyperlinks to associated video clip of the walk

gallery – interactive sculpture of map, where sensors trigger audio/video

talk – presentation and discussion of the project and the theories behind it

This magazine bills itself as the ‘essential guide to height data’. The section that i’m referring to is ‘Creating a 3D World with Google Earth’. It describes how to apply a style template to a 3D map. 

STYLE TEMPLATE PROCESS:

import 3D map into google earth pro (GEP) > apply HGT style template > select colour fields > assign icons > OK

APPLICATION IN MY PROJECT:

how to generate 3D map based on SWOT analysis: 

1. define numerical translation of qualitative data – after making swot, rate the area numerically,  e.g. 0=neurtral, 100=very positive, -100=very negative… or a ‘positivity percentage’, all based on the individual’s perceptive impression of the site. The SWOT comments will be interpreted by the artist’s perceptual framework at the same time as he/she is producing them. This interpretation will inform the numerical figure and will thus be part of and a direct result of the SWOT analysis.

2. when on walk, define area/points of analysis by drawing on a map. areas/points can vary in size and nature, from material objects to sounds, smells or other immaterial features. The the elements subject to analysis are defined by the artist as and when they experience them, selected as a result of their perceptual framework – (combination of material and immaterial reading of the element) 

The walk will be recorded by video in order to capture qualitative data. The quantitative data will be recorded on the map, within the applicable drawn area. 

3. once the walk is complete, we will have a map of the W.E. with shapes defining swot areas, and their related quantities.

4.  This map will be scanned in and imported into a 3D modelling programme (Gooogle Sketch-up). I will then proceed to trace the map’s drawn-on swot areas, and define their height based on the numerical value given by the artist (e.g. ‘positivity percentage’).

5. once the shapes are made in 3D, we will have a ‘virtual map’ of the artist’s experience of the W.E.

6. Import into GEP and follow the STYLE TEMPLATE PROCESS.

Further notes on the final visualisation.

1. assigning icons – the qualitative swot analysis can be transcribed and imported as an ‘icon’ linked to it’s specific site.

Presentation of project in a gallery setting:

elements: video footage / map 

methods of display? realtime demonstration? group walks, using gps and data [negotiated by group] sent to my mobile? – that’s a project in itself!!!

make an experience map of the gallery space, whilst viewing the material – each person who visits the gallery is given a voice recorder and clip-board with which to record their own data as they experience the exhibition. this data can then be translated into map form on-site. [one copy to be added to exhibit, one to take home!) it’s all about perception informing perception… text informing text…

ok, i need to stop this mental diarrhoea.

GEP style template help

- I got thinking about how a member of public’s SWOT analysis of the W.E., their contributions to the SWOT fields, would contrast to a professional analysis. the concrete, ‘objective’ nature of professional analysis, as a justification for development, against the fluid, subjective, [and thus undervalued] nature of public experience -the charade of public consultation as exercise in box-ticking, rationalised ‘analysis’ of public contexts to justify urban development. SWOT could be my contribution framework, rather than searching for specifically ‘psychogeographical [in the situationist sense]‘ fields of analysis (fields by which to define the public contributions – thus ‘contribution framework’). The project is psychogeographical by nature and so doesn’t need further grounding in its material structure.

so, in the shower, my chain of thought went a bit like this:

right, i’ll get the public to make contributions to the W.E. map based on SWOT analysis fields.

to supplement the map, i should do a walk, some kind of derive around the W.E.

i’ll need to do a prototype walk, recording my own experiences

hey, the project doesn’t have to collect public data… the collection of individual data is symbolic of ‘public’ contributions… public perception 

… i could curate an artist to take the walk and record their data… a twalk, exploring the perceptions of the individual…

record their observations on film for the duration of the walk, as well as get them to make SWOT contributions at [specific/arbitrary] points.

I know an artist who’d be good to work with on this project… MG. Contact asap. t

i’ll need to set some sort of geographical parameters for the walk

This could be a project to propose to the arts centre…

DEFINE PARAMETERS, WRITE PROPOSAL THIS/NEXT WEEK, READY FOR 3rd DEC

So, here i am, typing this up.

ok, i’m happy with this development. The project has evolved from me being an artist, working with a medium i’ve no experience of, having to collaborate with someone technical, with lots of marketing and public involvement [basically opening up a new field to me, inducing a very heavy workload]… to me being a curator on a project that is in keeping with my strategic professional development towards working in this field, and which contributes to my areas of research on perception and experience in art… more traditionally art based.  

I should do a SWOT analysis of the two projects. maybe ask the public what they think.

relate elements – relationships between these elements, how one may affect the others.

overarching theme – don’t confuse the central theme, but feel free to reference from other themes, but rein in and re-relate to centre.

to particular areas of FG…

when contributing to the wikimap, users need to define the specific area of the square… so that the experience is attached to an exact area within the site.

think about lefebvre’s ‘Moments’… 

focussed reading:

Hawkins, P. (06) An enquiry into fully lived moments’ Plymouth: UPP, held in store no. 701.15 HAW

understanding supply

understanding demands/needs

map constituent parts for the presentation… (all aspects of the proposal) on inspiration? – install on macbook… 

email paula re. work in frankfort gate. can i get involved with the existing project’s development? will my bit be useful?

email rw – perhaps our collaboration needs to be nodded at, but perhaps could fit in in the future… 

reading…

Experience Kant – just pick up on the tension between relativism and positivism – difficulties of consultation data. write paragraph.

mapping experience psychogeography – find a book on this in the lib, write a paragraph

ecology / Anthropology gregory bateson – ‘ecology of the mind’ - levels of communication… check this out – be strategic.

matarana ‘theory of doing’