Technology of Travel: Not Just a Doll in a Window

Aug 8, 2011

On a recent trip to Paris, this doll beckoned from a shop window with a display of skincare products. My cellphone video posted directly to the web, capturing out of context this funny moment.

Queen Elizabeth becoming from a shop window in Paris

 

20110808-095746.jpg

Meanwhile, I watched hundreds of tourists capturing all the sights and sounds of their travels directly to cameras and Smartphones, without context. Where were these all going?

Maremel is working on a project looking at the technologies of travel and narrative over the next few months. So much of travel now is seen through a viewfinder or from a phone camera. How does this impact our narratives of travel with others? How does this differ by culture? How is this impacting museums, trip planning, choices of alternatives, experiences of “others” who are not taking part in this snap-and-run experience?

So far, on this research trip in Washington DC, Paris, and London (which also is for pleasure, of course), we have been seeing very different responses by museums and local tourist venues to this digital engagement. Several museums we have seen have banned all photography, while others are filled with tourists video-ing their entire experiences. A few have build interactive exhibits or used iPod Touches to give that same digital information along with the tour. A few have added WiFi and the ability to plan your visit digitally when you arrive, then printing out (not downloading) your agenda.

What will the 1,300 pictures become once all these people go home? How can museums and others build these storytelling opportunities while dealing with their own intellectual property issues? Are we filling the cloud with semi-personalized photos of our three children in front of a fountain in London?

Tidbits and Updates

Screen x Screen Online Tools – Tidbits and Notes

Screen x Screen Online Tools – Tidbits and Notes

Thanks for joining today's session at the ScreenxScreen Virtual Conference on Online Tools.  Online Tools are important and potentially both beneficial and distracting for artists and those who create engagement and content with them.    Background Links and...

read more
MONDO.NYC

MONDO.NYC

Upcoming Events MONDO.NYC October 13-16, 2020 - ONLINECelebrating its fifth Anniversary, #MondoNYC is a four-day global interactive meeting and livestream conference and showcase festival, a vital pipeline of information, connectivity, and curation of great new music,...

read more
Creating Fearlessly in Virtual Reality

Creating Fearlessly in Virtual Reality

Please enjoy the "Innovating Music" podcast that our Executive Director produced in association with her role at the UCLA Center for Music Innovation at the Herb Alpert School of Music. This Episode: How do you create new and...

read more
Change Stories: Change How We Work and Decide

Change Stories: Change How We Work and Decide

We enjoyed sharing thoughts with the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) OCIO Learning Series.  This session was recorded in January and ran as a webinar on March 17.  You can find it now at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/multimedia/videos and can...

read more
Reflecting on My SXSW Journeys

Reflecting on My SXSW Journeys

I spoke at SXSW Music again this year on my current favorite topic: Music 20/20 and how we can proactively affect the future. SXSW, however, is not just about speaking. It is about diving deeply into diverse ideas with diverse people. It is one of my annual...

read more
Listening Harder to Me from My Past

Listening Harder to Me from My Past

About this time each year, I look at my stuff. Goodwill Industries gets a lot of my physical stuff, and gets a lot more this year as two of my three kids are ensconced in colleges not in this same town. My third got the last of her college applications out yesterday...

read more