Content-Centric Conversational Spaces

Yonatan Ben-Simhon / Brittany Binowski / Naliaka Wakhisi / Carlin M. Wragg

October 17, 2011
CREATING CONVERSATIONAL SPACES ~ ITP NYU

Transcript

1. Content-Centric Conversational Spaces Yonatan Ben-Simhon / Brittany Binowski / Naliaka Wakhisi / Carlin M. Wragg October 17, 2011 CREATING CONVERSATIONAL SPACES
2. IDEA ONE
3. Virtual Curator : Gallery Conversations Virtual Curator transforms art lovers into curators through a unique conversational space that lets them tour museums they might not otherwise be able to, and empowers them to talk with each other within the virtual gallery. next
4. USER INTERACTION user Google Art Project artwork listens to audio commentary comments on audio commentary Records response Writes response
5. Background & Effects •At Virtual Curator, users take modular virtual gallery tours through artworks featured on Google Art Project. Users become curators as they follow one thematic thread -- Symbolism, for example -- then branch off to explore another -- Post-Impressionism -- record responses to curator prompts, add audio or text comments about a piece, or curate their own tours for others to follow. •Virtual Curator brings together Google Art Project's street view-style galleries and high resolution images with SoundCloud's powerful comment tool, creating a unique space for online, art-centric conversation. While neither SoundCloud nor Google Art Project is new, the act of combining them is. We hope that reconfiguring the context for asynchronous audio-based conversation will transform comments from annotation to dialog, and empower fine art enthusiasts to build a strong virtual community around Google's excellent content. •This could go wrong. People might try to replace the art, Banksy-like, with their own pieces. (This might be interesting.) People might defame iconic pieces, use the space as a personal soapbox, add erroneous content, hijack the conversation for other topics, crowd the space with self-promotional links to their own art, or "damage" the piece with too many virtual highlights. We may need to closely moderate the conversation, which, with audio content, may be very time consuming.
6. IDEA TWO
7. DO NOT NOW SEEK THE ANSWERS
   Answering questions inscribed in New York’s cityscape.
8. Users photograph a question, add a timestamp, upload it to a map, offer an answer on-the-spot, or visit the website later. USER INTERACTION WEBSITE PHOTO TAKEN WITH PHONE CAMERA Comments Comments PHOTO TAKEN WITH PHONE CAMERA
9. Background & Effects • Users are able to upload questions they see around the city to a map where they can be geotagged. Users can also answer questions and have discussions around those answers. • For those who are asking the questions (graffiti) to have a place to find their answers. For people to have conversations about questions posted around the city before they get covered up or painted over. • There may not be an interest in photographing questions to post (perhaps we can photograph the questions to get a buzz going). Some of the questions may not be compelling for conversation. People might add strange things, street art, or things that aren't there.
10. IDEA THREE
11. Postbox Tracking snail mail, virtually.
12. The sender enters the letter’s destination city and date sent, emailing the recipient a tracking link. The recipient receives the letter, records the date it was received, and adds a photograph of cancellation stamps, an image of the envelope, a written response, a quote or comment. These exchanges are mapped through an interface that allows visitors to explore the world through the space and time of postal distances. USER INTERACTION
13. Background & Effects • Users can add textual responses, or respond with a physical letter, posting a photo as proof it was sent. They can also use Postbox to track postal games, or begin a correspondence with other letter-senders. • We hope Postbox will inspire people to experiment with sending and receiving physical mail, encourage them to participate in games that use mail as a medium, and help them explore the tension between public and private in expanding social networks. • If this goes wrong, people could use Postbox as a way to steal other people's addresses and inundate them with spam. They might push the postal games to a hurtful extreme. They could be accused of illegal activities by the postal service because the mail games encourage people to break postal rules. They might not use Postbox for letters, but for packages or other things. There may be little interest; writing and sending letters could take too much time.