A new addition is the Palimpsest3D, based on a repurposed version of  Shine Draw's Silverlight 3D Image Space.

Another recent latest addition is a palimpsest of the old Chiswick Empire and the current site, with its bland office block.

Visit the lab (here) to experience these and other works.

As ever, these are very much works in progress so all comments/feedback is welcome. In addition, I'll slowly be migrating all compositions to  use the 'F' key as a way of entering full screen mode which will declutter the UI and improve consistency.

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

I've barely started to scratch the surface of its full potential, but I've used it as the starting point for my latest work, a 3D WindowFrame with accompanying sound, which aims to explore how people who have looked through a window in a particular place would have experienced it at different points in time.

The simple first iteration uses a window frame on the South Coast of England and layers in the sounds of V1's arriving over the channel. Again - just the start: the intention is to provide layers of sounds that could have been experienced at differing times to provoke some sense of how time affects our sense of a particular place.

 Technorati tags: innovation creativity Web 2.0 XAML Windows Presentation Foundation WPF Silverlight composition CodePlex Kit3D

So, a good step forwards in the application of Silverlight to the work on this site. Again, thanks Jeff. 

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

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

"London evocations gallery" - takes old photos, sounds, moving images, anecdotes and other evocations of old and contemporary London and brings them together in new, interactive and immersive ways.

"Layered London" - a work that modifies the Silverlight Surface demo application to present a variety of historic and contemporary shots of the same London scene, enabling users to manipulate past and present. Works best on touch screens or for example Tablet PCs.

"London - a re-evaluation of time and place" - this work takes some of the past/current images of places in London (see the photo demo) and uses Silverlight to present them in a new, interactive way. This work in progress will be providing multiple versions of the same visual images, but with very differing audio stimuli. In parallel, new ways of interaction and user immersion will be explored.

So work will continue on several fronts - sourcing images, sounds etc and tackling technology issues so that final, immersive, interactive works can be developed that engage the user with a far greater sense of time and place.

Technorati tags: innovation creativity Web 2.0 Silverlight composition London

You'll see a variety of early-stage projects already in development on this site, all of which are using Microsoft Silverlight (both versions 1.0 and the alpha of 1.1). But this is just the start - there's MUCH work to be done!