Phone Stop
It takes a while before new technology is integrated into society’s complex system of norms and values. Take the mobile phone for instance: sometimes people talking on the phone can be really annoying. When is talking on the phone socially acceptable? Phone Stop offers a way for anyone in the room to anonymously cancel unwanted...
Gifted – What is your popularity worth?
Gifted is a participatory installation that was built in 2008 for the Impakt Festival in Utrecht. It is one of our biggest and most eye-catching works. The installation explores the future of social networks as reputation quantification systems, and the repercussions this could have for interactions in society. The tagline “what is your popularity worth” was...
ikGnome
If you visit the Mediamatic website/network, one of the largest cultural networking sites in the Netherlands, you will have probably spotted them: pictures of people with gnome hats on. During the 2009 PicNic Conference we participated in the Mediamatic Social RFID hackercamp. Hackercamp? In three days groups of talented nerds and creative develop installations for...
Bluetooth Photobank
The bluetooth photobank is a participatory urban screen. Visitors can send pictures to the screen from their mobile phones, where they are all displayed. This creates a continuously updated communal gallery in public space. Aesthetic The gallery showcases the unique aesthetic of mobile phone photography. Imperfect, light-hearted, intimate, and unpredictable. We have been surprised by both...
Citizen Journalism
For the 2008 ZXZW festival we joined forces with designer Ruben Pater to create a participatory installation based around mobile photography. We asked festival visitors to use their cameraphones to capture and share their festival experience, turning the visitors into our army of reporters. Pictures could be sent to a large urban screen right across from the...
BelBellen
During the 2007 Cinekid Exhibition kids were surprised to find an enormous phone that displayed a phonenumber on it’s screen. As soon as they called that number (often a parent would assist), the phone lit up and it started blowing soap bubbles for 30 seconds. The title refers to the double meaning of the word “bellen”...
NotSpots
Usually when you connect to a wifi hotspot you expect to be able to surf the internet like normal. But with our NotSpots, no matter which website you try to visit, you will always be shown just the one that we want you to see. Cruel and unusual, but by modifying wireless router this way...
Voicemail Stories
In 2006, creating locative media was a daunting task usually involving complex and expensive iPaq computers. For the Wireless Festival we thought up an alternative cheap and accessible solution that allowed us to create some of the functionality of locative media for just a few euros. How it works Voicemail stories consisted of 10 different phonenumbers that...
Wireless Festival 2006
In September 2006 we organised our first and perhaps biggest project: a “Wireless Festival” in the center of Utrecht which explored the merging of mobile communication and city life. The festival lasted a full two weeks. The original festival website is still online, and hosts more pictures. Another visual overview can be found here. Installations...