Balloonascope

John and Neil were out on the road a couple of times last month sharing their BALLOONASCOPE.

bigblip sess 01 burnley from Re-Dock on Vimeo.

First up, on October 22nd, was an invite to Newcastle University’s CULTURE LAB, celebrating their re-launch and showing off a diverse cacophony of hi-tech (and not so hi-tech!) works and facilities to a VIP audience.

Highlights included motion capture demos, high-definition cinema projection, the digital proto-typing workshop and Andrea Pozzi‘s  final project for the Digital Media MRes. : SOMETHING WENT WRONG – the viewer’s physical manipulation of a projector’s beam disturbs what is revealed or hidden in an onscreen, computer generated landscape.

Next, Halloween, and a presentation at  RULE OF THIRDS, at Ulverston’s Lanterhouse.

“HANDS-ON INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE” introduced the BALLOONASCOPE to attempt to open a broader discussion about Re-Dock’s use of simple material props – cardboard cut-outs; sports equipment; old rope; balloons – in order to transfer digital realm metaphors onto physical spaces such as shopping centres, libraries, social clubs and green spaces.

The BALLOONASCOPE originally emerged as part of a research and development commission by digital arts agency Folly and Lancashire County Council and was originally conceived to facilitate discussion in Libraries, and public spaces across Lancashire around different aspects of ‘Digital Culture.’

bigblip sess 03 lanc a from Re-Dock on Vimeo.

 

Through facilitated discussion the BALLOONASCOPE device, allows participants to cumulatively plot and graph information, over time, in physical 3D space – sharing knowledge, thoughts and feelings about ‘Digital Culture’, in terms of accessibility and the over-all value to their lives.

In the end, we arrive at a constellation of helium balloons – an analogue measure – which in turn is collated and shared using the 3D modeling program Blender.

IMPORTANT – The BALLOONASCOPE project is a Creative Commons Licenced work: We invite artists, scientists, psychologists, educators, policy makers (everyone!) to take, use and develop the BALLOONASCOPE device to facilitate groups of individuals in collaboratively visualising their emotions and ideas in 3D physical space.

 

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