John Curall-Design Study II-Rittenhouse Square

View Rittenhouse Square in a larger map

My locative media project is about Rittenhouse Square. This project would start with a website that has information about Rittenhouse Square, its various historical buildings, and places of interest. The site would have a page called the Rittenhouse Experience where one would find an interactive experience that they could participate in. On this page the participant would be able to print out a map and a list of instructions. Also, on this page the participant would be able to download audio files to play on their Ipod or MP3 player at each hot spot on the map. The first audio file would give a general overview of Rittenhouse Square and then go into information about the park that they will be standing in. The subsequent audio files would say a little bit about each hot spot location on the map. There would be a final audio file with concluding information about Rittenhouse.

These are the instructions that they must follow:

General: Start out by traveling to Rittenhouse Square and go into the center of the park, which is your first hot spot. At each hot spot play the audio file corresponding to that hot spot. When you have finished the audio file for your last hot spot play the final audio file. As you travel to each hot spot be sure to look around and take in your surroundings. The story here is as much about your experience of the location as the individual narratives that you will see and hear.

Begin: Start out in the center of Rittenhouse Park. This is your first hot spot.

Path: Follow the map to each hot spot. This will take you all the around the perimeter of the park thus giving you sense of Rittenhouse Square as a whole.

The narrative will be a combination of the audio files and their personal experience of their surroundings. This is more about using audience participation to get them to experience Rittenhouse Square than the individual hot spots and narratives. The journey they go on by following the map is more to give them some kind of structure for their experience and to point out some places along the way that they are given a little more background on. The participant should come away from the experience feeling like the have "lived" this location, but also be interested in exploring more for themselves. It should lead them to want further participation on their own in this area in the future.