GPS IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE from Hypercomm.info on Vimeo.
In this visual experimentation, we've wanted to highlight the limits of the use of GPS in a urban setting. Is this tool of liberty absolute or is it an instrument exercising control on the body?
It's Human Nature to want to discover, to conquer and reconquer territory. The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus or the Napoleonic battles in Eastern Europe and similarly the Space Race between the Americans and the Russians; the investment of humans to mark, shape and appropriate territory has never ceased and never will. However today, there seems to be nothing else new to uncover, I don't need to practise the space to discover him; I can virtually invest him in front of my computer (Google street view). To move in the city just becomes a compulsory route between 2 points of interests, now, what the goal is efficiency. For a majority of people whom we questioned, 'to move' is not really a pleasure, it's not really playful. You can just look at the face of people in the street to realize the gloom of their routes. Since we are lost in the city, our first reaction is to take out our Smartphone and find our location on a Google map. Consequently, we aren't interacting with random people in the street asking for directions. Personal contact, such as 'touch', has less and less importance beyond superficial levels. The mobile Smartphones make people virtually social (with the possibility to communicate and to update personal information on the social networks when and wherever we choose) and on the other hand, we remain physically individualistic because technology isolates an individual from the world. People moving in the street are the main example.
Today, digital platforms are multiplying allowing us to invest our energy in our environment in a playful manner. For example, there are urban games which permit us to discover the city simply playful goal. The game allows us to remove the stress of the unknown. The idea is not new, in this "société du spectacle" described by Guy Debord in 1967; the physical space was compared to an immense territory of games (Situation list International movement).
As we've stated briefly, we have asked someone who doesn't know the city of Annecy to participate in an immersive experiment using a Smartphone (with GPS) and the localization of Google Maps. We've created an imaginary narrative which permits putting the individual in a makeshift situation where one would 'normally' use GPS, and then, without GPS. In order to understand at best the use of GPS and the reaction of the body, a camera was attached to his head while he moved about the city. With this technique, we were able to capture what he saw. A second camera followed him closely so as to capture his emotions and reactions in the experience. The 3rd and last camera served as 'eagle eye' spying on his moves. Since we identified his route, this 3rd camera took wide static shots at precise locations. After each route, the individual was to answer a certain number of questions about the experience the he just participated in. he also was to draw his route on a google map in order to know if he could to repeat his route it again.
Julien Vollet >> julienvollet.com
Sylvain Bailly >> sylvainbailly.com
Terrell Quillin
& special thanks to Marcel Bastos