Project Updates

Busking Jukebox

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Partial development of Digital Buskers - 19th May 2010

At Falmouth we have been investigating ways in which to produce the Digital Buskers into which the sound systems and token devices will be fitted by interaction design researchers based at Dundee. The aim of our work at Falmouth was to produce life sized busker ‘sculptures’ that represent makers and promoters of local music in Preston. The sequence of development and production was as follows…

First prototype takes shape - 7th January 2010

Local artists and DJs are eager to collaborate and distribute local music to a wider audience. This could be done through a series of ‘busking box’ statues which play local music inside and outside the local area.

CCTV

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Cameras & Infrastructure - 12th April 2010

At our Newcastle site we have been investigating cameras system to use for the Community Capture TV system. As the existing emplaced CCTV on the estate isn’t entirely suitable for the purpose for its new purpose we will set up a modified CCTV system on the first Community Capture TV site, the football pitches in Callon. We also produce a portable version of the system to set up at temporary Community Capture TV sites.

Dundee and Newcastle forge ahead with video capture - 8th January 2010

The Callon estate is densely populated with CCTV cameras, and the local residents have mixed feeling towards them. People are frustrated that they do not have access to the footage of these cameras. Bespoke are re-appropriating CCTV to allow the residents to film themselves and the footage is uploaded onto YouTube for their viewing. The first set of Bespoke CCTV will cover a football pitch.

Extended Family Hedge

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Extended family hedge development: stage-by-stage - 20th May 2010

The creation of the first working system went through a series of stages. This included both the development of the software to control the recording and retrieving of content effectively and easily, and the production of a bespoke set of devices whose decoration was personalised to the intended recipients.

Hardware assembly - 16th April 2010

Since the last post we have finalised the design for the first extended family hedge and the team in Falmouth has designed and completed the initial assembly of the physical object (pictured here in its unfinished state). Here in Newcastle we are currently assembling and fitting the electronics discussed in this post and once this process is complete the family hedge device is going to return to Falmouth for final assembly and finishing before going to the family in Preston.

Simple analogue interface to allow families to record rich digital content - 12th January 2010

This project will provide a simple analogue interface that allow individuals or groups to record and associate digitally recorded information with physical artefacts/images while also associating these with particular people within a tangibly visualised family network . This information can then be retrieved and connected to other sets of information.

Blogging Pad

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Blogging pad takes shape - 27th July 2010

The audio blogging pad is a device to allow residents to talk back to the local newspaper, leaving spoken comments on particular articles. This can be done in text on our website, but the pad gives a voice to those without a computer.

Audio Blogging Pad - Why and how - 1st April 2010

The Journalism aspect of the project has recently distributed the first hyper-local newsletter to residents of Callon & Fishwick (details should appear soon on the Journalism project updates page). The current newsletter will also have an online digital counterpart, like many existing digital news sites this will be able to record textual comments on articles. We hope as this content accrues on-line it will stimulate on-line discussion within the community of issues raised in the articles.

Journalism

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Hyperlocal content expands thanks to community reporters - 1st June 2010

Bespoke's Hyperlocal journalistic activities have received a major stimulus during recent months thanks a partnership between Bespoke, Contour Housing and People's Voice Media – a not-for-profit community development organisation that utilises social media to empower communities.

UCLan progresses with hyper-local research - 12th January 2010

Progress on the journalistic and information platforms is being made on a number of areas. For phase one work [the publication of a hard-copy newsletter], UCLan and Sandbox, the centre for creative and digital industries at the university, have investigated how the local communities rate a variety of newsletter templates.