Category: Programming 2011

TAG TALES is a web-based interactive word game situated on screen in Studio 393 in Portage Place Shopping Centre. Tag Tales was conceived to be played in public areas where people shut down and turn on cell phones, mobile devices and portable computers.

Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music and spent much of the early part of the 20th century driving across America in a car that he modified to house his recording equipment so that he could record the folk music of the American people. He contributed a large amount of recording to what would come to be the Smithsonian Folkways Collection. The mission statement of Smithsonian Folkways states that their mission “is to document people’s music.’”

A panoramic image of the local cityscape suspended in a 3-D environment is displayed on the LCD screens, outfitted in the helmets. As the viewers wear the HMD’s, they become linked to a network where their physiological outputs are tracked and measured, in turn altering the panoramic images. The panoramas on the screen are commonly seen city images used in postcard, travel advertisements, and promotional items showing famous landmarks or buildings. Over time the image becomes entirely different from the original, exposing the panorama – a depiction that can be easily constructed and manipulated.