Jason Sheck - Design Study 2

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The place I chose for my locative media project is northeast Philadelphia, mainly the neighborhood of Somerton. I chose this place particularly because the narrative I am telling is the story of my life and I grew up in Somerton. My goal for this project is to tell the story of my life by having the participant walk through trigger points where significant events in my life happened.

My communication method would be would be a handheld computer with a built-in GPS. The GPS would have all of the trigger points on it and whenever a participant reaches one of these trigger points, the story of that place would automatically pop up on the handheld computer. Pictures and videos from the place would also be available to look at after the story.

The narrative would begin at my house but then after that their would be no particular order of trigger spots. I would like the participant to spend a few minutes exploring each trigger point. They explore these trigger points to try to find at least one physical attribute of the place that directly relates to my story. I wrote the stories in a certain way so that the participant can associate the stories with the physical place. The reason for this is so the participant knows that they are at the place of the story so they can get the feel of it. I want them to look at the setting around them and actually picture the story happening at that place. I want them to mentally put themselves in each story and try to picture it happening right in front of them. The pictures and videos will also help them to associate with the place.

This project uses the neighborhood of Somerton to describe my life, mostly my childhood. Certain physical attributes at each trigger point are significant to my story. I try to describe physical attributes that can be seen , such as structural changes and art, that add to the story and relate the participant with my story. My instructions make the participant take in each place to get the full feeling of each part of the story. Somerton becomes part of the narrative because the narrative is mostly about the early part of my life and the early part of my life took place almost exclusively in Somerton. I feel that my narrative makes these places more interesting because it gives meaning to certain places that do not really have much meaning for most people.

The whole narrative is available through the trigger points on my GoogleMap which is located here:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109753424804816660701.000477e3fbc112d5d8756&z=12