Living Streets, a national charity, launched its election campaign, “Talk to me about streets”, by making street items like paving and signs talk back to passers-by in Meard Street, Soho, London.
The charity is campaigning for the need make streets and public spaces safer for residents and available to local communities for socialising and play – in our eyes a worthy cause.
At the risk of giving acid flashbacks to aging hippies wandering by, the charity installed micro-electronics to animate everyday objects in an attempt to get across their message.
Paving ‘squealed’ underfoot to point out the dangers of tripping over broken paving while spooky whispering windows resonated with the sound of absent children, no longer able to play in our dangerous streets.
Living Streets Director Tom Franklin explains, “The streets are the one public service that everyone uses. Politicians can directly improve people’s daily lives by improving the street environment.”
“Pavements for people” is one of the campaign themes. At the moment pavements often seem to be for everything except walking – parked cars, road signs, litter, fly tipping and dangerous clutter. For older people and the blind and partially sighted, it can put people off going out at all.
Many people and companies volunteered their time to make this event a success. Fergus Rougier created the audio for the Whispering Window, and the Clock Tree. Both of these produced sound that would be most unexpected in a city.
Verity Parker, who is doing an PhD at Brunel investigating electrical conductive fabrics, worked with Stock Displays to produce talking street signs, labelled in standard UK form, but with short audio samples.
Verity’s work also worked by referencing the street where the demonstration ran, one example being a stone nose placed apparently randomly on one of the building, lead to one of the pieces of work using voice samples of “I spy” and sneeze (mp3, ogg).
When we spoke to Verity about the project she was full of enthusiasm for it, telling us it was a “privileged to work on the project”.
‘The street that talks’ has the support of the Royal National Institute of the Blind, (RNIB) which also campaigns for streets and the built environment to be more accessible to blind and partially sighted people.
Steve Winyard, Head of Public Policy at RNIB said, “It is vital that people with sight problems are able to walk safely around their streets. The Government surveyed three hundred people with sight problems and found that every one had had an accident whilst walking. A safe environment is fundamental to independent living and for accessing public transport.”
An accompanying new Living Streets’ pamphlet – written by two of Britain’s most eminent architects, Lord Richard Rogers and Sir Terry Farrell – was also unveiled at the event.
The ‘talking pavestones’ concept was based on the ‘tune stones’ exhibition created for Eureka! The Museum for Children in Halifax when it opened in 1992, while the event has some resonance with the aims of the direct action, eco- activist group, Reclaim The Streets.
Audio samples
Fergus-Rougier-1 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Fergus-Rougier-2 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Fergus-Rougier-3 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Fergus-Rougier-4 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Ah mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Sneeze mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Kiss mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Teehee mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Whistle mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Relevant links
The Royal National Institute of the Blind
Living Streets
Eureka! The Museum for Children in Halifax
Reclaim The Streets
Stock Displays
Photo credits: Living Streets, Fergus Rougier & others
Online retail giant Amazon.com has scooped up the ‘printing fulfillment’ company BookSurge, which maintains a catalogue of thousands of book titles available for users to print on demand.
The company will now offer (cue: North American accent) “inventory-free book fulfillment” to publishers through BookSurge Publisher Services and to authors through BookSurge Publishing.
Although e-books are still a small part of the current online book market sector, significant growth is expected by publishing companies and online retailers.
Cappuccino-supping Hoxtonites will be cheered by new figures showing that online advertising spending grew by a thumping 60% in 2004, edging ahead of radio in terms of market share for the first time.
Online spending went against the overall general advertising trend, with total UK spend rising just 5.8% in 2004 to £16.9bn (US$31.7bn/€24.7bn) in 2004, based on figures from the Advertising Association and WARC.
Pace Micro Technology, a cutting edge UK digital set-top box provider tasked with developing emerging technologies across all television platforms, has trumpeted the launch of a number of STB’s and PVR’s, including the Laguna DC551HD and DC 501 Chicago all-digital set-top box.
Pace is also offering the Tahoe DC775 HD-DVR, claiming it to be the most advanced high definition DVR for North America, and the first cable set-top box to offer features based on next generation silicon. Interestingly it offers a number of ways to save video content to the 160Gb hard drive – Standard Definition (SD), High Def (HD) and enhanced analogue. With multi-room video distribution and support for high-speed data connections for home computers, wireless routers and VoIP included you might be wondering what isn’t included.
Pace Americas’ VP of Technology Chris Dinallo had clearly feasted on a diet of buzzwords before adding, “All-digital and digital simulcast are critical industry initiatives, and uniquely, Pace is proud to be the only set-top box provider that can support all-digital on both networks.”
In a break with cinema-tradition, HDNet Movies viewers will be able to see Alex Gibney’s highly acclaimed documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” on the very same day the movie premieres in US theatres.
Samsung have jumped into bed with Digeo – a leading provider of media center software and services – and announced a deal to produce the next-generation Moxi II Media Center product family.
US cable companies Charter Communications and Adelphia are set to be the first two cable companies to start dishing out the boxes to customers.
The cost-reducing chip will also offer improved graphics performance with Digeo cranking up the speed of the microprocessor from 733 megahertz to 1 gigahertz.
Orange, the UK’s most popular mobile network, has wheeled out the initial line-up for its Great for Music handsets; the Nokia 6680 3G handset, Nokia 3230 and Sony Ericsson K300i handsets.
“The Official UK Chart’s decision to include music downloads from Orange World in its Chart demonstrates that the music industry has recognised the rising importance of mobile music downloads within the digital music sphere,” said Mark Ashford, head of music, Orange UK. “The advent of digital music downloads on mobile means that up-to-date phones also act as music players, making digital music accessible for one in three people in the UK.”
Orange will also be trying to look hip and radical while promoting their corporate brand at the forthcoming Glastonbury and T in the Park events.
Napster UK has teamed up with Channel 4 to broadcast a short series of live TV music shows, creating the first national terrestrial television programme to be run by a digital music service.
Building up to a crescendo of mutual backslapping, Sharman added: “Channel 4 has a deserved reputation for groundbreaking and forward-looking programming as well as championing live music, so we’re delighted to make our TV debut on their platform. Napster is also extremely fortunate to have a partner like Blaze TV whose production skills, expertise and contact book have proven invaluable in creating this series.”
Video Networks, providers of the HomeChoice entertainment and communications service, has announced the addition of a brand new R.E.M. video-on-demand (VoD) channel to its platform.
While useful, this isn’t quite as slick as it sounds: if a viewer hears a track they want to buy, they have to click on the onscreen information button which will provide a number to text. A code is then sent back to them which they can enter when they log onto the Internet to download the music track. When we spoke to HomeChoice, they told us they were working on a more integrated way of getting pay-for content to their customers.
Roger Lynch, Chairman and Chief Executive, Video Networks Ltd said: “The addition of this on-demand channel is not only a true coup for R.E.M. fans but also ensures Video Networks continues to offer the most innovative music content on TV in the world today.”
News of the Pope’s death was broadcast to the media from the Vatican using text messages and email enabling the 2,000-year-old Church to meet the increasing demands of real-time news.
Minutes later, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri informed the crowds, who greeted the news with a long round of applause – an Italian tradition – with the spectacle being captured on television in real time.