____Portable Home

Pst! Physical Space Tweets, originally uploaded by meganleigh.

Pst! is the surreptitious beckoning of attention and the acronym for Physical Space Tweets. It is a small storyteller installed in public space giving an audience a glimpse into someone else’s life or a window into a topic feed. For the Leeds Pavillion at Mediamatic’s Amsterdam Biennale (10/09-01/10) Pst! chronicled life in Leeds through it’s twitter feed, aligning itself with the Biennale’s aim to showcase a city’s local cultural scene. Pst! physically and geographically locates a public social narrative.

The piece pulls an information feed from Twitter profiles geographically aligned to Leeds using Twitter’s geocode API. Using the open source Arduino electronic platform, the internet, and an LCD screen these small devices visually chirp out 140 character Twitter feeds. This project places verbal content and technology into a new space for an un-targeted audience by extending the space where interaction occurs. The screen and hardware allude to miniature advertising billboards but discuss and distribute life feeds. They are physical messengers for a passing audience and in the instance of the Biennale chronicled a cities social activity.

Watching the stream at different times of the day or week renders a picture of Leeds’ community and activity. There is a clear distinction between the feed on a Tuesday evening when the Yorkshire Post may be announcing a new job call and people are commenting on the latest Dr. Who episode to Friday and Saturday nights when Leeds, a city known for it’s wild nightlife becomes a colourful and engaging drama documenting the happenings across the city from bears in tutu’s spotted outside the Corn Exchange to a mad rush to a secret gig at the Brudenell. By removing the peripheral of the computer and the profile windows associated with looking at a Twitter feed a Pst! device can be placed in a non-space providing a focus on the single message that changes with each update slowly threading a narrative together. It is a window directly into a geolocated public space.

The project stems from current art practice that investigates creative acts of identity placemaking within the digital domain. It brings attention to the messenger’s practice and emotions by showcasing a community life stream in the public domain.

PDF:
Pst! Physical Space Tweets

Pst! Brief:

Physical Space Tweets are small storytellers that are installed in public spaces giving their audiences a glimpse into someone else’s life or a window into a topic feed. Using the open source Arduino electronic prototyping platform, the internet, and an LCD screen these small devices visually chirp out 140 character Twitter feeds. This project places verbal content and technology into a new space for an un-targetted audience by extending the space where interaction occurs. The screen and hardware mimic miniature advertising billboards but discuss and distribute life feeds. They are physical messengers for a passing audience.

The project stems from my current art practice where I am developing creative acts of identity placemaking within the digital domain. It has a few phases, starting with the device design which is currently in progress, then the dissemination of the ‘physical tweeters’ to new spaces, and third the rolling out of a ‘twitterer in residence’ programme, and eventually the development of a site where people can find instructions to make their own devices and see the archive of residencies.

The device creatively and geographically locates a message where it may not belong. The project encourages interaction and the freedom to make new Pst! devices and submit for residencies. It brings attention to the messenger’s practice/work/emotions/research by showcasing a life stream in the public domain. While this is simply done on the internet by watching Twitter feeds from the screen of a computer these tiny displays sit out in the open, fixed in their own non-space focusing on the single message that changes with each update slowly threading a narrative together for those who pass it or providing a one off message to inform or confuse.

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by meganleigh.

LCD_I2C_HookupArduino, originally uploaded by jcm_flickr.

Using I2C mode, pins 3, 4, 5, 6 are required as shown. LCD Pin 3 goes to Arduino analog in pin 5. LCD Pin 4 goes to Arduino analog in pin 4. LCD Pin 5 goes to Arduino ground. LCD Pin 6 goes to Ardunio +5V. I soldered in a 4 pin female header for easy prototyping.