One area I've been exploring is how new creative technologies like Silverlight can reveal palimpsests of the past - the hidden layers of history that are everywhere around us, if only we knew how to reveal them.

So I've put online some work I've been developing that enables Silverlight to 'punch holes in time' and reveal the past of a place. So far I've been doing this with time maps and time streets, but I'm working on other areas too. And right now this is just visual, but I'm working on aural elements too.

Have a play and see what you think.

"senseport (palimpsest navigator) - maps" provides a "lens" that is able to reveal layers from the past. The user can freely move the lens around the contemporary map and peer through the lens to see how that part of the world looked at an earlier point in its history.

"senseport (palimpsest navigator) - streets" provides a "lens" that is able to reveal layers from the past. The user can freely move the lens around the street scene and peer back into that same street at an earlier point in its history.

Technorati tags: memory history innovation creativity Web 2.0 palimpsests research time maps time streets time Silverlight creative technologies composition IOCT psychogeography 

One thing I'm exploring is how we can find a new 'language' (or literacy if you prefer) in terms of how we communicate our experiences and memories better with each other. And how we might encapsulate our memories in a way that could lend themselves to expression in various forms - from traditional text to true multimedia.

So I'm currently exploring not only differing representational models but also the underlying data that would enable a common data set to be realised in a wide variety of ways.

Much work remains ...!

Technorati tags: memory history innovation creativity Web 2.0 palimpsests research time Silverlight composition psychogeography

I've been keen for some time to explore notions of time with online maps. So I've used parts of some old West London Maps dating from 1920 and c.1805 to experiment.

You can find the current state of play online at http://fishenden.com/test/morphing-maps/ (requires Silverlight)

Use the slider to move between the two maps and blend / morph them into each other. This helps visualise the rapidly changing landscape that was typical of most of London between these dates.

The red dot you will see on the maps is Hogarth's House, which was present at the time both maps were produced. Clicking on the dot bring up a photo of his house (still there today if you're not aware, although not quite so peaceful as it was in Hogarth's time given it is now right beside the A4). You can leave the photo on while you move the slider backwards and forwards between the two maps. Clicking on the red dot again removes the photo.

Future versions will include a contemporary map (2008) and many other elements (visual and aural) that will come and go as they did over time (such as the Chiswick Empire, which would have been here in 1920, but gone in the late 1950s). If you have memories, photos, sounds, movies, maps etc of any historic interest, please contact me so we can see about including them. I'm interested in both those places that were transient and have been and gone and those that have persisted through the years.

Technorati tags: London history innovation creativity Web 2.0 palimpsests research time Silverlight composition psychogeography

I've produced a new Silverlight composition, intended to recreate a feel for the old Guildhall School of Music in its former home in John Carpenter Street. I used to go there once a week from the age of 11 onwards ... and I've tried to capture some of the sounds that always surrounded the building. Fond memories of a lively, friendly environment.

You can go direct to the composition here - or via Live Search Maps (to get a feel for how this maps onto the London of today) here. Note that both Silverlight 1.0 and a working audio card are required.

Technorati tags: Guildhall School of Music history innovation creativity Web 2.0 palimpsests research London Silverlight composition Live Search Maps

As part of my early, continuing work into how new digital technologies can be used to expose historic palimpsests that surround us (if only we knew where and how to look), I've added a new Silverlight 1.0 "interactive photo palimpsest". This allows the user to manually control how much of two photos bleed together or are viewed separately. Next step is to find scenes where a wealth of photos taken from the same spot exist to build up a much more richly layered interaction + to fuse some interactive sounds (authentic and evocative).

Technorati tags: innovation creativity Web 2.0 palimpsests research London Silverlight composition

I've been working on my concept of TimeRadio using Silverlight. The idea is that TimeRadio will enable the selection of sounds from any moment in time - from before Big Bang (a deadly silence?) to the future .... It's still in an embryonic phase, but today I've posted the work as it currently stands.

There are 3 radio designs to choose from - a contemporary one, an historic one (and yes, if you know anything about old valve radios, this is indeed a Bush one I own, photographed and imported into Expression Blend) and a sketch one (pictured above) based on my original doodlings for the project. Aside from the actual functioning of the radio itself, part of this work is looking at how different interactive designs will influence the way people use the technology. So letting users choose their radio style seems to me an important piece of this.

The radios being posted today have very limited options in terms of the time spectrum they cover. Namely, Big Bang, 19th Century (children playing), WWII (V1s over Britain), 1970s (funkadelic) and contemporary (airport). These will be fleshed out over coming months wth a much wider variety of sounds, both authentic and creative. Within a given era (say the 1970s) it will also be possible to navigate through layers of sounds from within that era. Right now my focus is on developing the core engine and on experimenting with the interaction with the presentation layer - adding in a much richer porfolio of sound compositions will then follow.

I also hope to include works such as some of my earlier short radio dramas - layering in the idea of a time radio able to receive any radio signal previously broadcast. If Marconi's comments that every sound ever made is still out there somewhere, these radios may provide a way of hearing them ...

The underlying architecture is designed to be pluggable. So in the same way as it's possible to plug in a different radio design on top of the underlying code (Javascript at present, for those interested), the underlying sound array will also be pluggable. So at some stage I hope to have a test area where people can prepare and upload their own sound libraries to use with the radio(s). Or if you have some sounds you're happy for me to include in the core radios here, send them my way. And when I talk about "sounds" I literaly mean anything indicative of a period in time - ambient sounds, created sounds, interviews, memories, talks, thoughts, plays, rants. Whatever.

This will be an ongoing project and ultimately form a key structural component of the planned TimeScreen - an immersive environment which will go far beyond purely sound.

 Technorati tags: innovation creativity Web 2.0 XAML Windows Presentation Foundation WPF Silverlight composition TimeRadio