Remapping Los Angeles

As always, smorrisey you are the god of media archaeology.

rawbird. I guess I don't mean to be a technophobe about it. I am reflecting on what technology has recently become. with "2nd Life" and "Simms" and video games I see this all as distraction from actually being with people. It takes time to develop a rich relationship. Even here, on CurrentTV website, there is a feeling of overload of information. Things are posted here at a rapid fire rate yet actual conversations about these postings have a very short life. Is CurrentTV a community or a dumping ground for loads of individuals who found something they think is nifty? Can we create, or see, our history without community? I think the choices and options for such an idea are great. My worry lies in our human need to self congratulate ourselves with how cleaver we can be. This ends up being a distraction from the mundane, the slow-beautiful, the gradual building of a strong community. Can we understand our history without community? I see our attention span shrinking. This looks like a direction towards fragmenting our world into even smaller compartments. I really do love technology. It is our use of it that is suspect.

twodee, your technophobia has you not seeing the potential of such technology to help people "observe and learn [about] their environment." Our idea is that history (first as family, second as community, thirdly as historical knowing and remembering) is the basis, the structure for identification, with specific places. History is a malleable thing stored in pictures, words, books, and oral traditions. If we can capture the historical images, videos, pictures, maps and deliver them to people using handheld technology we can provide opportunities for individuals to acquire the basic historical knowledge to connect people, to places, through history.

And to Chola, this historical knowledge and emplacement will enable people to see their neighborhood as having a history that is worth defending. Secondly, they will see themselves making the history. This is an activistic historiography. Makes me think of your Chola/constitution pod. You claim that the cholos and cholas were embedded in constitutional practices from the beginning.

Thirdly, an individual with this device will be able to bring up whatever geospatial layer on their device. Options will be like current GPS units, culture, history, and other more frivilous folksonomies will be created by creative people tagging their experiences differently. You will be able to navigate to or be notified when you approach an place where an 'erotic' or a 'bizarre' or a 'tender' moment occurred. This has a number of experiential and capitalistic utilities.

The fact this pod has generated such a lively discussion speaks to its success. Content-wise, it is incredibly thought-provoking and intriguing, while visually it evokes a Blader Runneresque Los Angeles that reminds me how alienating contemporary society can be.

"I am right here. The technology will prove it"
kinda scary.
kinda sad.

The pod is very nicely put together and clearly tells the story. The concept of this project is not about actually observing and learning our environment. It is just about storing it in digital space with the rest of the noise we have created.

The introspectiveness of the project connected to the history of a place (LA) may work and IT IS in fact interesting as a project! But I find that it is when people start attaching attributes base on subjective appreciation of "others" that this project lack credibility or is then no longer take serious. Rawbird MY MAN honestly I think thus far this is your best Current TV pod. I mean it!

Well, the ultimate purpose of this technology is to give people who live in LA or who visit a perspective of the city's history. This is necessary because LA, probably more than anyplace else, has a nasty habit of forgetting the past, tearing down cultural/historical landmarks to build new structures and constantly replacing the old with something new. Think of it in terms of a city like Rotterdam, Netherlands. In WW2 the city was bombed to the ground and almost no structures survive from before the war era. All around Rotterdam are very old cities where the history can be seen in old buildings, monuments, landmarks, etc. Los Angeles is like Rotterdam - there is a rich history that keeps getting paved over, torn down, and forgotten.

RE: Being constantly "plugged in." There are some who theorize that the future will bring some kind of human/technological integration (nanotechnology, etc.) On the road to that destination we have a scenario occurring in present day with some kids spending every waking hour outside of class on their computers, cell phones and TVs sometimes simultaneously. Some theorize that the logical next step is integration of those technologies into a single media device delivering what I call ubermedia. Not TV, not email, not internet, not iTunes as we think of those today but a synthesis of all of these and more.

RE: Why? Well, there's probably a psychological component that I'm not really knowledgeable enough to speak about. All I can say is that I see the way things were 7/8 years ago when I was my closest cousin's age and I see what his lifestyle is like now that he is in high school and the difference is astounding over a short period of time. So, the future of technology may not look that appealing to all of us, but that's okay because it will leave most of us behind and cater to another generation who has the desire, need, reliance, symbiosis with it.

What is the ultimate purpose? Plugged in all the time? History as a current activity? It does not seem to me that where I am situated on this planet is as important as figuring out ways to keep life stable on same. Help me understand the import of this test of existing technology.

Tell us why this is interestingI think the video itself is extremely well done, like all Rawbird videos. The visuals and the choice of background music, etc. I guess I'm just having trouble understanding the project itself. Maybe I should watch this again. I'm a fairly tech geeky, person, so I value the internet and new media, blah blah blah. But I guess I don't understand how using all these cell phone thingies is going to promote civic participation and result in a collective sense of shared "history"... Really? Maybe in theory, but... I don't know... In practicality, how many people are going to be doing this? How many people are actually aware of these technologies and will likely be using them in the future? Do people compartmentalize cell phone use in a way that doesn't affect how they conceive of and 'remap' the real world? Or is it at least different in some way? Probably? It's still a very intersting theoretical question and that's one of the reasons, along with the aesthetic presentation of the video, that I gave this a greenlight.

Thanks rawbird. I guess I was hoping b21gato would go with me on my imaginary voyage into the ubermedia future where we're all plugged in all the time. I think the technology the remapping uses is very practical, both in the sense that it is capable of being used or put into effect and concerned with the production of something useful. I don't deny that further technology does not yet exist, to wit: we're not yet walking around on our cells watching and interacting with TV.

Some people already "get it" and others will come along later. Some will resist it, but they will find it increasingly difficult.

Rawbird: Sorry to turn your topic here into a discussion of future technology. I just see this pod as representing another example of the way the world is moving. Friday I witnessed my school-age cousin text messaging his mother in the same house from his bed to say that he was sick and staying home from school. We think we're plugged in now, but the kids behind us have got even us beat.

It is healthy to be skeptical of emergent technologies. By definition we aren't sure of their possibilities and implications. This pod isn't bracketed by a The End. We don't know. For now this is experimental social software in the hands of an academic class (sponsored by Nokia, mind you, who must think there is SOME worth to this trial). Aschneider's contribution was just the imaginative possibility we sought to provoke. Aschneider, here is my edit on your great idea. I'll put it in the pod.

"image a future where your walking to the corner store, watching amateur television on your mobile device, and as you stroll across a specific boulevard, in the upper right corner of your little screen appears a link to a short documentary about a race riot that occurred at this very spot in 1992. You choose to follow the link as you cross the street. You are prompted to take a picture or submit a spontaneous vlog to be embedded for future travelers across this boulevard. You tell a story about race relations in America."

ascheider: I think the example you offered really illustrates why I said this technology isn't completely practical yet. I'm walking to the grocery store (possible, but more likely I'm driving) and a link to a pod pops up. If I'm driving I ignore this; it'd be like spam, except more dangerous. If I'm walking I would still probably ignore it. I don't want a history lesson. I want to buy some bagels and a six-pack. And check out what's going on in the neighborhood on my stroll.

As for posting fotos and texts of my experience, i don't know how useful or interesting that would be. Look closely in the video and at the demo event we see a bunch of folks taking low-quality fotos of other normal looking people, cars in a parking lot and generic landscapes. One guy even says something like, "Look, it's me. I'm here, now. And technology will prove it." Yawn.

My initial reaction is that this would just create a lot more digital clutter in an already overcrowded world.

That being said, I'd refer back to the first words of my first comment. "Intriguing technology." This stuff amazes me and is incredibly interesting. I love the potential of it. I thinks it great that the professor and others are exploring ways to make all of this make sense. But for me, right now, I don't see it.

As for the video itself, it was well edited and moved nicely through an interesting narrative.

Intriguing technology, not sure if it's completely practical yet. But that day will come, I'm sure. Nice work.