Charlie Schick from Nokia has recently started his N96 World Tour, with the phone starting off with @solobasssteve in London.
A few weeks back I wondered what would happen if a
phone went hand to hand, streaming wherever it was, slowly accumulating
a story of its own travel. Part of this was inspired by The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (of which I've watched a trailer) and Flat Stanley
(which my children both participated in). But, also, part of this was
wanting to tie together a bunch of interesting people I have met and
known, over the past few years, with something fun.
Peeking through curtains!
Well having wondered, the phone in it's travelling pack arrived in Perth this morning. It's been so much fun having a sneak peek into someone else's life.
It was so much fun to get a phone complete with snippets, conversations, photos and snatches and fragments from a life on the other side of the planet.
I've been watching the phone's progress on Ovi I must admit to some parochialism as an ex-Londoner, I wanted to see how things were... In fact, I kind of had a mini-phone love in to see if there were any dusty smelly London vibes left!
I've recently spent a lot of time wondering about data, fragmentation and stories. David Snowden and Derek Featherstone amongst others have prompted me to think about narrative as a means of connecting fragments. Stephen Poliakoff's drama also had me pondering the randomness of events tied into meaning by narrative.. Odd combinations I know, but isn't that what's so wonderful about this web world...
Get on with it.....
Alright ok.. What's the connection between phone world tours and random events given meaning by the storyteller.. To me it's all about the shared device. I LOVE the idea of a gadget touring the world gathering fragments. Each recipient adds layers, stories and meaning to create a complex international story. The phone is just the 'memory box' storing fragments. It's a microcosm of our wonderful web, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it grows. Let's play Homer and the Oddysey and interpret the world through the gadget...
To play...follow, and add your bits.. add the N96 to your feeds:
- N96 World Tour on Share on Ovi
- N96 World Tour on Twitter
Oh yes, and #Perth - send your stories :)