Cartography, mobility and video games

This workshop launches a reflection on the issues of data representation, new forms of urban and sensitive cartography. This workshop is in line with a wider thought on mobility and ICT. The work also integrates the logic of creation in video games to favour playful uses.
When local authorities multiply cartography initiatives on their territories, as new communication tools between decision-makers and users, we decide to question the links between representations, imagination and memory, as well as the possibility of access to and appropriation of data by users.
This workshop proposes urban, social and artistic experimentations, inviting speakers to a sensitive and artistic re-reading of the territory. Special emphasis will be put on collaboration and cross-fertilisation of pluridisciplinary competences (artists, video directors, documentary and web-documentary makers, interactive writing experts, graphic designers, web developers). The workshop is lead by the Swiss artist Ulrich Fischer.

Concrete realisations can emerge based on a creation plateform of 5 devices:
- The territorial SmartCity corpus, gathering multimedia contents of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris since 2008
- The Digital Asset Management Memoways , for indexation and editorialisation of content
- The SmartMap, sensitive, collaborative and interactive cartography device, to propose inovative representations
- The projet Heritage Experience , mobile device of mediation of heritage, offering the visitors a sensitive reading of the territory of the Cité internationale
- The project OTERP , developed by Antonin Fourneau.

M.A.L. it is a space of work, reflection, investigation and exchange for the development of projects of artists, programmers and collective of creators who work using  mobile phones as tool devices.

During days 17 to the 21 of October, the selected ones in this call worked  with 3 recognized artists like tutors and with a select group of expert programmers in artistic projects, developing specific software for the accomplishment of the projects and adapting software tools preexisting.

On the 21st of October was made the presentation of the projects and results obtained during the workshop.

The developed methodologies and tools set up the conceptual and technical bases contributing to the development of Mobile Art Laboratory (M.A.L), platform for new creation within the context of the Hangar, Center of Production and Investigation in Visual Arts.

The projects selected in this call are:

La màquina d'escriure de Google Maps, Marc Antoni Malagarriga-Picas

AR Route/Tactical AR Tools, Mariano Maturana, Consol Rodríguez

Mapa Mut, Sandra García

Re-Colectores, Lester Barreto, Pedro Coelho, Pedro Dias, Enric  Carreras

Goals

• To promote art projects with the use of open technologies in locative media and augmented reality.
• To bring new technologies at the heart of social relationships, networking and mobility
• To facilitate the interaction of cities, creativity and technology

Development
The workshop was held from 17 to 22 October 2011 and put together 9 participants, divided in 3 groups

Coordinators
Antoni Abad, artist, creator of megafone.net : www.megafone.net
Roc Parès, artist and researcher in interactive communication : http://www.dtic.upf.edu/~rpares/
Sander Veenhof, artist : http://sndrv.nl/