From purikura (print club) to videkura (video club) to something else … sensekura, perhaps?
I’ve never quite enjoyed the whole video call idea, because to me, it felt more like a hinderance to my mobility and multifocal tendencies. However, Videkura is different in that the interaction initiative is an active one: you don’t go in and do videkura unless you want to; it’s an active form of playing.
and social.
why would you do it unless 1) you’re with friends and you want to play with them in this space and/or 2) share the outcome with other friends? Mizuko Ito and Daisuke Okabe have done a study on the social uses of purikura, which has some interesting points (view their paper here). I believe that social playing is fundamentally crucial to humanity not only because it makes people happier by means of pleasure (which I think is the key importance of playing) but also because that’s where not “coercion” but “negotiation” of the familiar and foreign can occur, leading to mergings and emergings. A lot of us miss the point; sometimes we get it, but sometimes, many times, many of us don’t.
Along the way, I’ve learnt to prefer the idea of the for- movement as compared to the against- movement. Positive verbalisastion is something that’s advocated by religions and spiritual groups, but in my case, I approach it from the “play” perspective. For example, slogans like “against terrorism” and “against poverty” fundamentally assume some form of resistance and therefore establish the definitive positions of the winner and loser. In this case, the activity of playing becomes a rigid game in which the player must try to be the winner so as not to be the loser. So playing leads to the learning of taking and breakingrather than sharing and creating. Personally I think the latter sounds much more fun and constructive.
Now, Karaoke. A few years back Karaoke recording was hugely popular in Korea and no doubt in other Asian countries too - basically you go in and sing (dance, drink, talk, scream, make out, what not) and you get an audio CD or VCD of your performance. you could then share it with others (if you dare) or keep it as a sentimental souvenir. You can still do it at some karaokes but the whole recording hype’s pretty much gone flat. Then the second stage of that, at least in the case of Korea, was a variety show on TV that featured a segment in which general pubic would volunteer and perform in a karaoke box (if selected) as a performance battle against celebrities - like these girls:
This has been one of the most popular videos of all times on YouTube and subsequently been parodied by many keen youtubeans - from various cultures including US, Mexico, Switzerland … and the Sims:
So here, you do exactly what you would in a karaoke room but in a karaoke booth (like purikura booth) but with increased consciouness about the assumed audience, and in this case the performers are “selected” by the show’s producer, and the outcome is “broadcast” via television.
With videkura, U(sers) can choose to perform and communicate their “creative outcome” in a method/s of their choice. There are two types of videkura available in Japan at the moment:
Ututu’s MYSQ
MYSQ stands for “My style so qute” - I love quirky semi-make-sense english names like this. Their website has some info in English. I like their video; especially how they used a narrator with a Japanese accent :) To view the video, click on the “concept” button as shown below, and click on the video:
Basically you go into mysq, choose your songs etc, and go crazy while stepping on different seonsor tiles on the floor (which will generate video effects) and dance to the music (again, your sensor-enabled wrist bands will generate effects accordingly). Once you’re done, your video is compressed and sent to your mobile phone and a QR code will be displayed on the screen. Then you scan that QR code with your phone, which works as a link to your video, so you can send it to your friends - for different purposes: to make them admire you, fall in love with you, laugh at you, or even hate you ;) MYSQ is like an amalgam of purikura, DDR (dance dance revolution), and possibly in the future, karaoke, all coming together via mobile network. I like the playful combination of mobility and space. Smart.
Sega’s Love & Berry Digital Stage
Who could possibly resist the temptation of playing on something with a name like “Love and Berry Digital Stage”? This one’s closer to the idea of Purikura: you get to take photos, manipulate them by adding decorative graphics and effects etc. You also get to dance to the music but without the whole fancy sensor effect generators. Once it’s all done, you get your purikura print, which is basically a set of sticker photos but with a QR code at the bottom. Then you can scan the code with your phone to view your pictures and download your video. It sounds all good and fun but unfortunately, Love & Berry Digital Stage, unlike MYSQ, doesn’t allow you to share the outcome with other friends (come on!). Apparently you can only download it to your own phone :( Sega’s selling point appears to be in incorporating anime characters like Naruto.
view more info about Love & Berry Digital State here
I believe that convergence is an inevitable phenomenon in any facet of life; it is particularly conspicuous in today’s techno-driven society. If we are to find any value in developing new communication technologies, it will only be through convergence - ultimately it will be the convergence between the technology and human senses (some might want to call the latter “spirituality” - I fancy the Taoist idea of “all is one,” so to me, these are talking about the same thing just in different discursive frameworks).
I guess the first technological convergence in the milieu of the mobile phone was between the phone and the user’s computer - transferring contact info and similar activities. Now it’s obviously between the phone and a big network of computers - the Internet. And I find it fascinating how things converge and emerge so quickly in such diverse domains of life in different techno-social contexts.
here’s a project that plays with the idea of “space” and “mobility” on a “big moving scale.”
andrew manynard has been designing clever, (some) eco-friendly buildings such as Essex Street House in Melbourne. Corb v2.0 is another example of his creative thinking.
Every wanted to live in the penthouse every now and then? Want to get away from your annoying neighbour with the big stereo and bad music taste? Want to have a party without disturbing others? You want a different view every now and then? Corb V2.0 gives you the opportunity … Corb V2.0 takes well-designed apartments [rather than badly scaled containers] and uses modern infrastructure to deal with the areas where apartment blocks fail, ie social hierarchy and lack of adaptability or responsiveness. Through the mobility afforded by shipping equipment, the utopian ideal is once more subverted back to a houseing solution, which Corbusier dreamt of back in ‘23.
basially, there’s a machine that shifts the location of each apartment (container) either randomly or on programmed path. maynard envisages the destruction and restruction of social heirarchy, culture, and environment - intangible reality - in which we live through physical movement of what’s tangible, or tangible reality. what a brilliant idea. this particular project has been criticised heavily on its originality (or lack of). Yes, it’s true that there has been a very similar project by lot-ekcalled MDU (mobile dwelling unit), but if you look closely enough, you can see that corbv2.0 shows more considerations to the social and aesthetic aspects of living - two particularly emphasised realms of contemporary society.
additional cool pictures here:
it’s interesting to see increasing academic and commercial attention to “space” - definition, construction, manipulation, and shifting of it. it’s not just about “wow, look what we can do with all these technologies to ‘create’ and ‘access’ different spaces through different times!” but rather, it’s more of a mutual interaction and interplay of these two. it appears to follow the history of the big technological and social determinism debate since the beginning of the internet era. the urban tapestries project is a good example, linking what’s spatial - both physical and virtual - with the mobile.
quite possibly the time of static spatiality is over. locomotion is over - sorry, kylie - because everybody’s doin’ a brand new dance now: we’re moving from the “spaces” to the “space” in which every entity shifts around, and in and out of micro “sections” or “modules” fluidly. there’s no stopping to and in this. it’s getting closer to the core concept of buddhism: no attachment … with a but.
“no attachment - including time and space - but your mobile unit (phone for now, perhaps).”
interesting times now and ahead.
it started to get really cold here yesterday with some areas reaching -20C. pusan, where my family live and where i am now, is generally one of the warmest cities, so it’s about 3C at the moment. it feels like winter. it feels like korean winter. love it.
i’ve been pretty much offline since i got here. i did bring my laptop but after much trying and screaming, i’ve given up on the whole idea of “let’s get a mac connected to the net” here. korea is pc-chauvinistic to its core; it’s not funny.
so i had to come to a pc bang (pc room) close to my parents’ place. i’ve noticed that many pc bangs have closed down not only in this area but in general, and the existing ones don’t seem to be as popular as before. i wonder what’s happening with the infamous korean pc bang culture. perhaps someone (me?) could write something about this for the special issue of journal of interactive media on gaming in the asia pacific.
anyway, before i go, i’m going to talk briefly about the new “finger-mouse phone” from samsung (SCH-V960/SPH-V9600).
as you can see, there’s a little sensor in the middle of the main navigation panel. This sensor detects the user’s finger movement, and therefore functions as the touchpad/mouse for the phone. smart idea. i’m sure most people agree that so far the mobile interface design in general has been not so user-friendly thanks to the greatly limited navigation capability which forced the user to come back to the main menu (top-level navigation options) to move to a different section and/or use a different function. the mobile touchpad will surely make the mobile phone a lot more userfriendly and fun to play with. another neat function that these phone offer is automatic screen and keypad brightness control, which detects the surrounding environment (how bright/dark it is) and adjusts the brightness of the screen and the keypad. smart stuff.
the next big thing in the mobile world, apparently - according to newspapers - will be the video phone. of course, video phones have been around for a long time, and it’s not a very new concept even in countries like australia ;) but here, i believe, we’re talking about the “end of the voice-talk era.” it will be more than just “exciting” to see and study the transformation of how the mobile phone is socially conceptualised. sure, it has definitely been very exciting so far, but the primordial change from “talking” to “talking and seeing” will be a huge one - probably one of the biggest changes ever in the history of the mobile phone.
anyway, i should go now. hope everyone’s having a fantastic beginning of 2007.
i’m having a pretty stimulating time - technologically and culturally - over here in korea :)
according to this appleinsider article, new ipods will have a housing similar to that of apple minis:
In an effort to reduce the player’s susceptibility to scratches, Apple has been experimenting with aluminum anodized enclosures similar to those used in the company’s iPod mini digital music players, sources familiar with the company’s music plans have said.
initially, the nano had major issues with the screen cracks, which only happened with a small number of units. this issue was resolved pretty quickly as Apple was willing to offer free replacements. as far as the scratch issue goes, i personally thought that the lawsuit case was a bit over the top. it’s clear that the nano will get a lot of scratches; it’s got a shiny scratch-prone surface. the purchaser should really take the responsibility of taking enough care to protect the machine’s visual well-being by getting a case or a nano-sock, for example.
ok, the discolouration problem with the new white macbooks is a different matter. it happens/ed even with the shieldzone protector (as you can see here).
i’m an owner of a black ipod nano 2G and a white macbook (on its way; can’t wait). i’ve been pretty happy with my nano except for its limited data storage size. but i was fully aware of this when i bought it, so it’s ok. but after using it for almost a year now, i wouldn’t recommend this to others, especially if they’re interested in podcast subscription or simply a person of a wide range of musical tastes. the new (possibly metallic) one will have 8G, apparently. we’ll have to wait and see but i’ll be very interested - i’m definitely in need of an ipod upgrade. i do feel slightly uncomfortable when i think about the file format issues, but i’m yet to deepen my knowlege in this issue, so i’ll make a proper decision later on. anyway, in the mean time, i’ll see how i go with my new soon-to-come (two weeks to go now, i think) macbook :)
