Group Project Grade Opinion

I always have a hard time grading myself on projects. There are always more things I could have done to improve a project, and this is no exception. I do, however, feel that I deserve a good grade for my work.

I came up with a project idea that is a good one, I think it will be a fun walk for people to participate in, and does a good job in motivating people to actually visit these locations. I also was able to come up with 5 of the 6 activities for people to do.

Laura and I have done the work of creating the content that will be displayed when the user enters the polygons, including film, still photography and the actual "scripts" or instructions for the user. Michael will be formatting the web pages for the iPhone.

Looking at this information as a whole, I believe that I deserve an A for this project.

Ben Hook - Group Project Status Report

Things are moving along very smoothly for our group. The first day, we laid out 7 possible locations and activities for walkers to perform. Week 2 Laura and I actually walked the locations and took pictures of us doing the activities. We also decided to drop a location due to problems hiding a cache. The addition of Michael to our group allowed us to have him work on the website and coding the interaction for the users. Our plan at this point is to finalize the actual content for the web pages, Laura and I both have a scene to film and we need to write our descriptions for each location and activity.

Locative Game proposal.

My idea for a locative game is to make the game as a scavenger hunt that acts as a way for people new to an area to get to know the local businesses. Players will be given a clue to begin the game, something like a riddle or an anagram or a math riddle that they must solve. The clue will provide the player with their next location, either through the use of coordinates, directions, or a specific location to travel to next.

The businesses will "donate" some product to be given out to the player as part of the clue. an example of this might be to have the players go to a coffee shop, once they reach the hotspot, directions will instruct the player to go inside and ask the employees for a clue. The player will receive, say, a small coffee that has printed on the bottom of the cup their next clue, perhaps leading them to a local Chinese restaurant to collect a fortune cookie with a specially printed clue in it. At each business, the players will also have the proprieter stamp a special game card, indicating that the player has successfully visited the location. The game will end at some location like the visitor's center, or perhaps the chamber of commerce, where upon returning a completed stamp card, the player will recieve a "welcome to the city" gift, perhaps a collection of coupons or a gift certificate could be included, along with trinkets like key chains and the like.

I believe this could be an exciting and successful way to bring new business in to the shops as well as acclimate residents to their new home.

My story map.

I decided to go the path of a virtual tour, and I chose Salzburg, Austria. This is the birthplace of Mozart. I found some great images and information online, and came up with this map.


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I really like Seven Maps. The trips he takes are one the one hand simple, just going to places; they are also very different from the trips you and I might take. His narration provides you with a bit of why he is making the trip, but also is a trip into the psyche of the person traveling. The style of filming works very well with the narration, you see from the point of view of the narration, you almost become this person. I look forward to exploring more of his work.

Drifting Vancouver

The Drift Begins...

I began this drift by laying out some guidelines for myself, namely, a starting location, and rules for navigating. I decided to begin my drift at Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver, facing to the north. I also decided that for my navigation decision making, I would use a 6 sided die, with rolls of 1,2 meaning turn left; rolls of 3,4 to turn right; a roll of 5 to go straight ahead and rolls of 6 to go back the way I came from.

I have to say that I may have one of the more strange drift paths, as the die led me in circles, but I was able to use this opportunity to view things differently each time. Here is the map of the path the die led me on.

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Stop One - The Statue

This statue is on the north end of Esther Short Park. It has a plaque on the back describing the statue, which I always refuse to read, I would rather come up with my own description of it. Today, I decided the woman and her children were survivors of a forest fire.

Stop Two - The Roundabout

I really like how this roundabout has it's own beautiful landscape and topography, it's too bad it's in a location that very few people travel.

Stop Three - Under The Bridge Downtown

I am so glad that the die led me under this bridge. This was the coolest place, full of cathedral like qualities and graffitti tags. The symmetry of the arches is beautiful.

Stop Four - The Squirrel

On the second trip past the roundabout, I decided to focus more on the plants and other things in the area, and this squirrel came bounding across the sidewalk. I tried to capture him, but only managed to get his tail.

Stop Five - The Want-Ads

The second time past the bridge, I noticed this colorful page from the want-ad section of the newspaper. I found it interesting that it survived pretty well intact considering the amount of rain and wind it had endured. Also, it had been blown from a direction where there are no buildings or streets....

Stop Six - The Bricks

I like how these bricks are set in such a beautiful pattern. I also like how the drain is unceremoniously cut into this beautiful design. Form meets function in the modern age.

Stop Seven - The Flower Box

The flowers in this box are pathetically droopy, and due to all of the rain, it feels as though they have received too much water. This made me think of the old adage "too much of anything is not good for you". I am also struck by the attention to the line of the bushes.

Stop Eight - The Kiggins Theater

The sight of the Kiggins Theater sign always makes me feel like I'm walking down Main Street of a small town. The old time feeling of everyone going to the theater makes Vancouver feel smaller than it is.

The Drift Ends...

I enjoyed my trip through Downtown Vancouver, and I feel that by taking the time to look at the little things around me, I learned a great deal more about the town.