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The ubiquitous conference lanyard-pass (which is basically a wearable device combining properties of ‘ticket’ ‘pass’ and ‘identity badge’) allows individuals entry to talks and events and is worn to indicate membership of this temporary and exclusive community.   Different coloured passes are given to different actors within the conference (‘delegate’ or ‘artist’ or ’speaker’) and different passes also indicate different levels of involvement (‘weekend pass’ ‘day pass’ ‘organiser pass’ ‘punter pass’…)

The combined properties of ‘exclusivity’ and ‘around-the-neck-ness’ mean that the device is, in a sense, a medal*.

The lanyard pass communicates an individuals name and affiliation and acts as a ’social signifier’ indicating the individuals own specialist status and subscription to the specific conference concerns.

I intend to develop a device for use within conference environments which would facilitate individuals in sharing (rather than hiding!) gaps in their knowledge.  I think it is appropriate that such a device might be incorporated into the design of pre-existing conference lanyards.

The device would have an electronic display with two states:

1. passive/dormant state – electronic display shows usual delegate information: name, affiliation, role etc.
2. activated state – when in the presence of another device further information is revealed – the wearer displays a ‘gap’ in their knowledge

* ‘Thinker of the Year 2008′ medal awarded by close friends on my birthday that year – to this day I am still unclear about the irony:sincerity ratio of this gift.

Invented in 1994 and very popular in Japan for ages, QR codes* are increasingly being adopted in the UK by cultural institutions and corporate entities alike, signposting participants/consumers to additional ‘digital content’ accessed there and then on their mobile phone (typically a website or application providing further information).

QR codes were originally a tool devised for global logistics – the primary function of these markers is to reduce unique artifacts in ‘real space’ to mere place-holders for a meta-data doppleganger within a digital database.

I happen to think that QR Codes might be a rather useful thing, by the way, but I’m also interested in how such signs might be subverted or hi-jacked to tell alternative stories.

I thought that it might be interesting to use these codes (which are free of licence) and try to create an interesting poetic and conceptual feed-back loop for unsuspecting users:

Scanning the QR code below…

…takes you to a single page website (demo here.)

I made stickers ov the code…

…with the intention that these will be stuck over existing corporate and cultural portals wherever they may be found.

The stickers intefere with user-requests for more information and offer a re-direction service to the immediate ‘now’.

The reassuring ‘you are here’ red dot – typically a feature of tourist maps – is recontextualised as a kind of confounded statement; “but you are here?” “you don’t need anything else” “this is enough.”

I hope that the stickers can create some interesting temporary disruptions into otherwise smooth transitions away from our present moment.

You can download the template for those here: QRtemplatefinal.pdf

(use Matt White Waterproof Labels in laser printer.)

*QR CODES: Davey Smith wrote various posts about them/I’ve mentioned some uses of QR codes previously over here /and if you’re not at all sure what I’m talking about take a look at the the wikipedia entry /or take a look at a can of Pepsi!

The Mobile Media and Media Ecologies module (MMME) requires our consideration of ways in which ‘cutting edge’ interactive and mobile technologies might play a role alongside traditional interpretive signage in disseminating context-specific information and media for tourists and ‘the general public’ in and around the area of the Castle Keep, Black Gate, and St. Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle.

I have to admit – I’m no great fan of ‘History.’  The word ‘History’ evokes for me period-drama images of kings and queens, castles and peasants, heavy stone engravings, cosy explanations and linear timelines of ‘important’ dates.

I am however interested in contemporary notions of our collective heritage:  ‘Where we are coming from?’ and ‘Where we are going?’

The historic ‘Old Town’ comprising the Castle Keep, Black Gate and Cathedral is in many senses birthplace of the City of Newcastle so I decided to visit the city’s local history library and try to get some sense of how a city is ‘born’.

Rather than turn this blogpost into my own phony-historic sketch of Newcastle I’d like simply to share, in a scrapbook fashion, various clippings and notes:

In 1168 the burgesses of Newcastle were fined 100 marks for compelling a knight to swear, which was an infringement of the then laws of honour; but the sum was remitted for their services in the king’s Castle.

King Henry I. granted laws, customs and privileges to  this infant community.*

*An ancient parchment register, in Northumberland House, contains an article entitled, “These are the laws and customs which King Henry granted to his burgesses of Newcastle.”

“In the borough there ought neither to be given merchet, heriot, blood-wit or stengedwit.”

“No foreigner be allowed to cut fish to sell.”

“Whosoever shall hold land in the borough a year and a day justly, and without claim, if the claimant be within the kingdom, he is not bound to answer such claimant.”

“Every burgess may have a furness and mill.”

“No foreigner ought to buy cloth to buy, unless he be of the custom of the borough.”

“A burgess may carry his corn out of the country whithersoever he pleases without licence.”

1. Hue and Cry to be raised against obstinate offenders against the peace of the town, who are to be punished by the extremity of law;  one half of the fines imposed on such persons by the Mayor and twenty-four of the town to go to the King, and the other half to the Corporation.

My Digital Media Research Masters Final Project will require a theoretical understanding of the alliances and interactions between law and digital technologies and it is my hope that this learning can be aided through discussion with both the designers, programmers and theorists resident in Culture Lab and also legal academics across at the Law School.

Tomorrow, at 2pm, I’ll be making a presentation to a PHD Research group at Newcastle Law School to introduce my research and thinking regarding areas where technology, art and law appear to intersect:

Title: Interfacing with Law

John O’Shea is working on an AHRC Research Project at Newcastle University’s Culture Lab proposing and prototyping new kinds of technological ‘interface’ between citizen and law.
The convergence of digital-media collaboration tools (such as wikis), G.P.S. enabled mobile devices, and ubiquitous social networking technologies present not only new challenges for legislation but also new possibilities for governments, corporations, communities and citizens to interact with legal frameworks.
John will present examples from his current avenues of research and open up a discussion regarding the implications of current technologies for citizens and the legal profession.

As well as discussing current examples of “Web 2.0″ technologically enabled initiatives between citizens, government and legislation I would also like to direct some focus onto instances where the two streams – technology and law  – seem to merge and hybridise instigating problematic scenarios brought about neither by citizen nor government BUT instead simply through the advancement and free proliferation of new technologies.

Real practical examples of these unanticipated pairings are often evidenced in the tabloid media:

Top: Recorded data in G.P.S. systems (potential evidence of wrong-doing) causing headaches for businesses and lawyers.
Below: Low unit cost of fingerprint scanners is enabling new, non governmental, identification schemes.
Bottom: To counter thieves, designers technologically ensure that mobile phone owners keep their device on their person at all times (again using G.P.S.)

In each of the three story examples, technological innovation is portrayed in an unswervingly positive light and, although each of these developments could have very obvious implications for the privacy of individuals involved, these concerns are not voiced.

In his ISEA2009 keynote, Clive Van Heerden of the Phillips Technology ‘Design Probes’ division discussed these kind of throwaway news articles and used the phrase ‘weak signals’ to liken them to a kind of cultural indicator.

This idea has parity with one of Marshall Mcluhan’s 1969 conceptions of the role of art and artists in relation to technology:

I think of art, at its most significant as a DEW line, a DISTANT EARLY WARNING system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.

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