The increased traceability as a side effect of developments in information technology is affecting our ideas and actions in various ways. When tracking and analyzing our usage of cell phones, commuter tickets or Internet services, for example, we can easily highlight individual behaviors and tastes.
Each participant in this workshop was equipped with a video camera. The participants played a game ("Kick-the-can") while their cameras continued to film, and after the end of the game the participants used the recorded footage to analyze and understand the process of the game. While communicating methods of grasping one large-scale event objectively by integrating multiple perspectives, and outlining possibilities of analyzing history and analogizing patterns of personal behavior, the procedure of the game gave participants a concrete understanding of creativity in a computerized society, and the risks it involves.
Workshop Details
Duration: 4 hours
Number of participants: 9
Age group: Fourth grade elementary students up to adults
Workshop program
- Basic explanation of the workshop
- Test Game: Explanation of the video camera
- Kick-the-can (1st round)
- Analysis of video recordings: What is multi-view?
- Kick-the-can (2nd round)
- Analysis of video recordings: The world according to multi-view
- Summary
Topics
Wearable video cameras and monitor analysis
Small video cameras are attached in special holders to the participants' chests, after which the participants play a game ("Kick-the-can") that they simultaneously record with their cameras. The holder is designed to allow the participants to play the game without being disturbed by the cameras, and to keep blurring of recorded footage to a minimum.
After the end of the game, the players' video cameras are collected and connected to a monitor. The monitor screen is divided into nine fields (3 x 3 grid), in which all videos recorded by the individual cameras are played back simultaneously on a synchronized timeline.
Kick-the-can
"Kick-the-can" is a game that is mainly played in outdoor locations. One player is designated as "it", and tries to catch other players that are trying to kick a can placed in the middle. Players that are caught by "it" become "captives" and can no longer join the game (until another player frees him/her by kicking the can).
As the authority/ability that "it" and the other players can exercise is different, and the game can be reset, "Kick-the-can" is characterized by a more strategic style and fluid setting compared to similar games such as hide-and-seek or tag, resulting in game situations that are hard to grasp objectively for both "it" and the other players.In the workshop, one participants is designated as "it", while the remaining eight play "Kick-the-can" with their video cameras continually recording.
Analysis of video recordings
After the end of the "Kick-the-can" game the cameras are collected, and the recorded footage is checked on the above-mentioned monitor. While the individually recorded images are subjective images, putting them all together and integrating them on a single timeline highlights the relationships between "it" and the other players, and those among the players, which the participants themselves were unable to grasp during the game. By analyzing these relationships between the individual participants, the players gradually discover hints for working out strategies for the "Kick-the-can" game.
By searching/analyzing vast amounts of biographical and other personal data in the process of the game, the participants can experience and understand the characteristics of today's media environments that make it possible to pinpoint individual behaviors and tastes.