Experispace
A text-based proposal
A project about milestones
Abstract
Every single person has some kind of personal experience with time and space. Experispace is a project aimed at mapping and networking those experiences with the physical realm and somehow retelling and sharing those stories.
Why
...this is needed now
With technology becoming more and more advanced, consumers as well as artists are finding easier ways to accomplish once mundane tasks. The media is becoming faster, more storage, mobility, and accessibility. All these are great advancements, but even our roots are becoming digitalized. Experispace's goal is to revisit the physical being of experience and space. The investigation that takes place is an important one, so we do not lose sight of the importance of the realm outside of the monitors.
Many problems arising in raising children, education, entertainment, and even organization in making things easier and faster so they are done and over with. Digital saturation of our brains overwhelm the population, and Experispace is an opportunity to go back to the times we went swimming at the lake and had barbeques at grandma's house, then take those experiences and see how we relate back to people, since even our social networks are becoming more digital.
The question arises of how Experispace will be any different from other social networking sites minus the addition of mapping technology and story-based networks. I have complete faith that even in a digital space, when people are "uploading memories", that they will revisit those places in their minds, and the consolation they will feel from knowing other people (even if it is half-way across the world) felt those same ways. I firmly believe we need this as a culture more than ever with the media blitz taking over our minds. We need to relearn how to go back out and experience and share outside of the screen revolution and bring it back to that space to re-connect our synapses with the feeling of the world.
An homage to who we were, and how we will experience in the future.
Where
...this problem arises
The problem of losing one's roots happens everywhere. Many cultures that are not as technologically advanced still have their connection to place and experience, but with some form of a computer and internet in the homes of people today it makes people apprehensive to go out. Experispace is not a way to get people to stop using technology as the core participation of the project comes from mapping and networking through the means of an online community, but provokes people to step outside, and when they come back into the digital space not to forget what happened.
The problem arises in many places. As a culture students are learning the ways of digital culture more so than they are with the concrete culture outside of their houses. In an article published by the new york times, a story about an 8 year old who would private message her mother when she wanted something, and even worse when verbal communication such as “dinner is ready” that was delivered in an instant message. The problem with creating a culture such as this is that even families are blurring the lines on communication by depending more on digital technology, and though this project is about digital technology it is a reminder that digital technology was only ever made possible by experiences that happened in the outside world.
What
...I propose
My proposal is for a re-investigation into place and experience with a project tentatively called Experispace. The main aim is to create a community, which essentially can be any person who has ever had an experience in this ball of green and blue. The puzzle pieces are the poeple, and the completed puzzle is a vision of people coming together to share their memories and stories of places they experience. For ages, people have told stories in oral fashions in many cultures, and this is a re-interpretation of the "carving your initials into the tree 'Lynn Wuz Here' down by the bay" phenomenon. Many themes in this project are stretched from times before digitalization occurred. Even today, children and teenagers without the internet are always out trying to find something to do. The "small town phenomenon" can be learned from because even with a little the human can produce extraordinary experiences. Some experiences may not be conscious such as going on a trip, but rather just a time and place. Cities are a whole different deal; a lot of experience can depend on people rather than place, which is completely fine, as those experiences still happen in a given place. Maybe they are in a night club instead of a farm yard, but even those two stories could share common threads. Therefore, this project is to bring people together, investigate our experiences, and learn to live again!
Features of the solution
Using mapping and tagging technologies, as well as other Web2.0 advancements, my goal is to create a fluid and easy way for people to connect. Many sites out there such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com has the ultimate goal of connecting people with common interests, while Experispace brings you on a road trip of your own memories with layers of personal history, then allows you to see how your life may be affecting other people's. For instance, were you and your now spouse once at the same banquet when you were both and college and never knew? The technical solutions are a small part of the overall conceptual solutions that allow us to find the overlapping events and memories in our lives.
I envision a community based online where milestones are the concept. When first thinking about the term “milestone” we think of getting married or having a child, but in reality milestones occur each day for us, minor decisions, meeting a person, being sick, can change the outcome of a life. The project focus is not on paths of our lives per say, but how those small moments (and big ones) can mean different things for us.
The project will be mainly features around the metaphor of stones for milestones. When we think of stones, they are a place on the earth, which is symbolic of the places I want people to mark in their lives. There is a very nice parallel flow between stones and milestones, and even something for logos, icons, and continuity. The relationship of milestones and physical rocks is a very distinct connection between the physical realm of nature and human experience, which I believe could be a very strong transfer into a digital space. By investigating milestones with the constant reminder of pebbles, rocks, boulders (different sizes for different types of milestones), the project focus (the tie between experience and place) would be reinforced.
F E A T U R E S
Milestones – These milestones are very important, they are the stories that we share and network throughout this community. There would be a sort of breaking of the work milestone in the sense that milestones could be various events:
· a chance meeting with someone walking down the street (who later became a best friend or spouse).
· A vision quest
· A conversation between friends during a hard time
· A risk someone took
· Or something just as simple as seeing someone each day
Milestone Markers – Milestone markers are sorts of tags. When using a stone as the icon, if you feel that a story was very important you can increase the size of your mile ”stone”. Also, these stories are coupled with actual text tags such as “relationships” , “communities”, “buildings”
Mapping – Milestones are going to be a visual process using mapping technologies. Either using flash based or google-based mapping systems, the hope is to mark experiences with small stones onto the map, so that when people are looking for similar experiences within an area, they can toggle based on milestones (also reflective of milestone sizes as described in “milestone markers”)
Describe the outcomes you expect
The ultimate outcome for this plan of action is to start with a base community in the area where I live. People posting their memories, mapping places they have lived, worked, played. Eventually, after launch, branch out hoping to reach a wider audience. Everyone can benefit from a project like this, not only to chat with people that have similar histories, but also to keep track of their own history. In the distant future, people will look back at experiences they mapped in 2006 feeling nostalgic.
Timeline
See Attached Gantt Chart
Collaboration Needs
With a project that could be as big as this depending on who buys into the community, collaboration is a key part of the project. I know personally I can come up with concept and design for the project, but coding (such as PHP user accounts), and some advanced DHTML are some things I will need assistance with. Also, to start a community, you must have a general community to start with. I will obviously be contributing to this project throughout the process, but within beta stages, it needs to be tested by people in the outside world, telling their experiences and navigating for the purposes of building a community and helping notice bugs.
Also see attached Budget Proposal.
