(small) creative initiatives that challenge (big) traditional ideas
• ( egoistic ) • activistic • architectural • audible • cinematic • conceptual • graphic • strategic • surface • urban • wireless
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 15, 2006
A viral SMS from a ghost is currently infecting the minds and mobile phones of Danish pre-teenagers, according to the local newspaper Politiken.
The SMS contains a message saying: "Hello, I am Cordelia. I died in a fire 10 years ago. Unless you send this message on to 10 other people, I will come to your room tonight and stare at you. I look like a three-year old - without a face. I will show up every night. You have seven minutes to send this".
No product is being advertised here, just good-old-fashioned chain-letter spam in a new medium.
Danish based website LommeFilm.dk (PocketFilm) is running a cameraphone shortfilm contest (which is actually over by now).
In line with previous contests of this kind, the idea is to challenge the artistic and technical constraints of the cameraphone.
Participants must obey a few curatorial rules, such as limiting the duration of the film to 60 seconds as well as relating the content to the theme "in motion".
Happy slapping does not qualify.
The best films will be screened Nov. 10-19 at the documentary festival CPH:DOX.
Conflux #2
Pause is flashmob related performance that takes place during the Conflux festival in New York.
On each day of the festival, a group of 30+ participants will gather in public space to pause together at a predetermined location.
Upon receiving an SMS, all participants will freeze simultaneously and will remain frozen for five minutes. Upon receiving a second SMS, participants will unfreeze and go on with the rest of the day, resuming life as usual.
Pause plays with the speed and ceaseless movements of the city. The performance is conceived and conducted by: Toby Lee and Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga
Opel has launched an interactive campaign that combines the web and telephone.
On the campaign-website users are asked for their name and phone number (for unknown reasons, it asks for a mobile number, but a fixed line should work as well).
After filling in the details, a movie sequence starts playing and a male character dressed up as a lab-engineer type is seen making a phone call.
If you filled in your phone number in the beginning, this is the moment your phone will ring. When you answer it, the character delivers a short speech - in French.
The concept is not entirely new but nonetheless, the direct and tactile interaction is somewhat intriguing.
Again this summer Nokia was visibly and physically present at music festivals across the Netherlands and Belgium.
At the selected festivals Nokia installed a silence booth, which offered festival goers a place and a moment of silence while making a phone call.
In the booth, users could use their own phones or try out Nokia 3250.
A list of related concepts is available here
An interview that I made with Nicola Roope is now up at MocoLoco.
Nicolas Roope is the creative mind behind Hulger (formerly Pokia) - the retro-handsets that can turn a dull cell- or VoIP conversation into something special.
Amongst other things, Nicolas talks about Hulger's transformation from concept to a normal(ish) design product.
• Mocoloco
Canal*ACCESSIBLE is an online mapping project that shows Barcelona from the perspective of people who have difficulty walking.
40 handicapped particpants use their camera-phones to document every problem and obstacle they encounter on their way through the city.
The images are posted to a website and each location and obstacle is described and placed on a map. The result is a map of the parts of Barcelona that is inaccessibility for people confined to wheelchairs.
3,578 architectural barriers and stumbling blocks have been documented on canal*ACCESSIBLE since December 2005. The project recently won Ars Electronica's Digital Communities award 2006.
Posted by Sebastian on May 14, 2006
Mobile Marathon is a camera phone contest, which takes place at the upcomming Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
Festival-goers are invited to create a story, based on five images taken with their camera phones.
Participants can edit their text and images up to a week after the last day of the festival after which the best stories will receive a prize. Prizes are also awarded during the festival for the best daily image.
With approximately 100.000 visitors annually, the Roskilde Festival is one of the largest music festivals i Europe. The festival runs from June 29 to July 2.
The exclusive department store ILLUM in Copenhagen recently launched an SMS-auction concept called Window Shopping.
Between March 2nd and 24th, the store is putting three luxury items on auction everyday. The items are placed in the window, facing pedestrians who can submit their bids via SMS.
The latest bids are displayed on plasma screens, so that people can follow the action in real time.
• ILLUM
In the boycott against Danish products, muslims in Saudi Arabia - and possibly other countries - have launched a viral anti-marketing campaign using SMS. The SMS contains information on how to determine whether a product is Danish by looking at the first two digits of its barcode (the country code for Denmark is 57).
In response to the boycott, member of the Danish parliament, Louise Frevert tried to catalyze a counter SMS campaign, which encouraged Danes to boycott muslim owned stores. The campaign was a total failure and has been ridiculed by all sides in Denmark - including her own right-wing party.
Related: Mediamatic runs a mini-feature on the cartoon subject. They give credit to the blogger who discovered that a delegation of Danish imams where circulating a phony Mohammed drawing during a visit to the Middle-East. You can also find a 'stay out of trouble' guide for the ignorant cartoonist.
Contact: Sebastian Campion