PsychoGeo Media Mash-Up
I know - it seems like we’re being innundated with this “PsychoGeographic Walk” that Phog, Spacing, International Metropolis and ScaleDown brought you at the end of December. Tom over at Phog Lounge has been posting the numerous videos that he took (here, here and here), and Google-Map-Mike has done up the foundation for the interactive Google Map that all the photo/video/audio capturing participants (hopefully) will be embedding all this media into so the casual visitor can relive all that the Walkers experienced that night.
So, with no further delay, here is the videos taken by my group during the walk. Enjoy!
PsychoGeographic Primer
An overview of exactly what the participants of Windsor’s first PsychoGeographic Walk were in for, from Spacing Magazine’s senior editor, Shawn Micallef.
PsychoGeographic Walk - The Hooligans Head Out
Heading out from Phog Lounge in beautiful downtown Windsor, our intrepid PsychoWalkers head out to follow their respective individual algorithms which will guide them to new spaces within their city.
PsychoGeographic Walk - Old Sally Anne
A group of PsychoWalkers mentally redevelop an important vacant building in downtown Windsor
PsychoGeograhic Walk - Transportation Priorities
Determined to shed some light on the plight of the lowly pedestrian, our PsychoWalkers point out the obvious inequalities between those people who chose to drive and those who use alternative transportation
PsychoGeographic Walk - Hilton short cut
Courageous PsychoWalkers brave the Hilton hotel only to get accosted by a couple of SUVs
PsychoGeographic Walk - Dougherty Hole (Yes - I know I misspelled “Docherty”!)
Overtaken by a strong sense of silliness, our PsychoWalkers decide to desecrate Windsor’s renowned “engineered slope” with dance!
PsychoGeographic Walk - Dazed and Confused
Befuddled, our PsychoWalkers resist the temptation to follow the algorithm to the tee and swim to Detroit.
PsychoGegraphic Walk - Home Away From Home
Wasn’t it Chris Farley who looked down upon living in a van by the river? These US folks are doing it up in style.
PsychoGeographic Walk - Soynuts and old apartment buildings
Stumbling upon a bunch of nuts that look like a map of Europe, we make a right turn onto Pitt street to acost an apartment occupant who left his xmas lights on while going for a stroll. We are also walking on top of one of the much ballyhooed canals.
PsychoGeograhic Walk - Phog Parking Nazi
You know the Parking Nazi? Yeah - he owns this building
PsychoGeograhic Walk - Asian Tourists and the always visible Caesers sign
Acting like tourists, our PsychoWalkers discuss the lack of amenities for a downtown highrise building, as well as that damned bright red Caesers sign that you can see absolutey EVERYWHERE in this city!
PsychoGeographic Walk - Wrap Up at Phog Lounge
After all the PsychoWalkers have completed their individual algorithms, we set off back for Phog Lounge in beautiful downtown Windsor. We then traced our routes onto a big google map projection of downtown Windsor, complete with all our observations and criticisms of our experiences. Many pints were tipped and stories swapped. As one Walker commented; “this was one of the best, fuzziest gathering of Windsor residents I have ever attended” We hope to do it again very soon.
Yes - as Marissa stated at the end of the wrap-up video, we hope to do this again very soon, and get “lost” in another area of Windsor. Keep in touch with one (or all) of the sponsoring blogs to find out when and where the next PsychoGeographic Walk will take place.
ALSO - If you participated in this walk and have taken pictures, be sure to embed that media into Mike’s Google Map. The more people we get contributing to the map, the better the experience for the online visitor will be. Remember, the whole goal of exercises like these is to expose Windsorites to new experiences in their city and hopefully nurture a new respect and apreciation for the community. We’re all in this together!
Tags: Creative Class, event, pedestrian, place making, walkable
Post Feedback
Hey there, scaledowners…. google-map-Mike here.
If anybody has video/photos to contribute to the map, or if you just want to trace your route, please contact me or chris and we can add you as collaborators on the map, and help you add your stuff.
Thanks!
Mike ([email protected])
Yay…MIKE!
The psychogeographic walk is a great example of the arts and blog community coming together and producing new media content. Very exciting stuff! We need more collaboration and a greater emphasize on producing commercializable content.
Selling Content Online And IPTV: Can Independent Producers Succeed?
http://www.iptvevangelist.com/interviews/2007/11/2007_smw_panel.html
Only 1 percent of Canadian wireless subscribers play video on their devices. But, that number will grow significantly over the next few years.
Toronto’s video vanguard
BNN staff
February 02, 2009
http://www.bnn.ca/news/6701.html
Ready for the flood of streaming movies? It’s technically possible. It’s what the people want. It will make the movie companies rich.
Ready for the flood of streaming movies?
DAVID POGUE
New York Times News Service
January 30, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090130.wgtpogue0130/BNStory/Technology/home
There are many similarities between the dawn of radio broadcasting and the dawn of Internet broadcasting.
From:
http://www.anthonyrudel.com/index.php
Long before the internet, another young technology was transformed–with help from a colorful collection of eccentrics and visionaries–into a mass medium with the power to connect millions of people.
When amateur enthusiasts began sending fuzzy signals from their garages and rooftops, radio broadcasting was born. Sensing the medium’s potential, snake-oil salesmen and preachers took to the air, at once setting early standards for radio programming and making bedlam of the airwaves. Into the chaos stepped a young secretary of commerce, Herbert Hoover, whose passion for organization guided the technology’s growth. When a charismatic bandleader named Rudy Vallee created the first on-air variety show and America elected its first true radio president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, radio had arrived.
Is the election of Barack Obama the first true new media president the signal that internet broadcasting has arrived?
THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME’THE PRESIDENCY AND MEDIA
http://www.anthonyrudel.com/blog.php
Today there is some bad but not unexpected news for the parent company of the Windsor Star (See Banks limit Canwest’s borrowing amid downturn). Like I have suggested before the company is in serious risk of bankruptcy as it faces this recession with an unmanageable debt burden. Besides the recession traditional media is facing a move both by consumers and advertisers to digital media. Which is why while companies like Canwest struggle to survive the new media industry is taking-off fueled by new 3g networks, iptv, more access to broadband connections, a switch from print to digital signage, among other things.
Canada, as usual in media, is decades behind the U.S. because of our over-regulated system. So, at first the US is where the opportunities will be. This presents an opportunity for Canada’s only international metropolis - Windsor. We are the gateway to the US market. With the right incentives and support Canadian new media content producers and technology companies would be crazy not to locate and grow in Windsor.
But, if we are going to take advantage of this opportunity our leaders need to do a 180-degree shift in their view of this infant industry. A change where blogs and the arts are not viewed as naysayers or insignificant or free-riders but the foundations of a new growth industry in Windsor.
Banks limit Canwest’s borrowing amid downturn
Reuters, Mon Feb 2, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKN0248940920090202?symbol=CGS.TO
Just what exactly is the Windsor Essex Development Commission doing? What directions have they received from our city leaders? Do they understand the changes going on in our economy? Do they understand our opportunities? Do they have a plan?
Oh well, at least we have the Michigan Economic Growth Authority and Jennifer Granholm.
Pontiac film studio to bring jobs
BY JOHN GALLAGHER, KATHLEEN GRAY and CHRIS CHRISTOFF
DETROIT FREE PRESS, February 3RD 2009
http://www.freep.com/article/20090203/NEWS06/902030361/Pontiac+film+studio+to+bring+jobs
Michigan’s bid to become a Midwest center of movie production is to get a huge boost today with the announcement of a Hollywood film production studio and talent agency opening shop in Pontiac.
Motown Motion Picture Studios, a new company, will open a $54-million, 600,000-square-foot studio and production facility at General Motors Corp .’s former Centerpoint truck plant and office complex in Pontiac, said Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s spokeswoman Liz Boyd.
The project is expected to generate more than 3,500 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs.
Edwin I and thousands more have been wondering the exact same thing. For all of the milllions dumped into the SWEDC what have they got to show for their existence?
Many directors who come and go quickly, to which I wonder if there isn’t political interference; A few brochures, or have they printed them yet?
Truly, they have been more ineffectual than would have doing cold calls at companies that were looking to expand and it would have only cost a few thousand bucks to boot.
I think we need the WEDC but enough already with this rudderless start-up phase. They need leadership, a cohesive plan, an executable strategy, and measurable benchmarks. They need a vision for The Windsor-Essex Region and to set a course towards it.
This start-a-small-business-half-a-day-workshop type mission and vision statement is not my idea of visionary leadership or a cohesive plan or an executable strategy or measurable benchmarks:
About WEDC
Mission Statement
Maximize economic diversity, growth and prosperity in the Windsor-Essex Region.
Vision Statement
WEDC will be the business-driven, business-led organization focused on creating prosperity and recognized for generating economic value and a high quality of life throughout the Windsor-Essex Region.
We are not alone anymore; every other region in the world is seeing unemployment soar and investment dollars dry-up. Competition is fierce. While I think we need the WEDC if they are not up to the task then let’s fold it up a re-deploy the resources somewhere else.
Yay, yay, yay! And more yays! Must read!
Chin up Windsor, study shows hope
By Lee Greenberg, Canwest News Service
February 5, 2009Comments
http://www.windsorstar.com/Chin+Windsor+study+shows+hope/1258147/story.html
The only thing I would disagree with is the idea that we must look east. Michigan is quietly leading the way in this transformation process. The re-sizing of the auto industry is the final piece. So, we can both look east and west. Wow, what an enviable position to be in.
WEDC needs to do more farming and less hunting.
Joe Mikhail is absolutely right!
Developer calls for changes at development commission
By Gary Rennie, The Windsor Star February 10, 2009
http://www.windsorstar.com/Business/Developer+calls+changes+development+commission/1275168/story.html
I too have always felt that the problem with the WEDC is that it focuses almost exclusively at trying to attract already existing businesses to Windsor instead of helping to start and grow businesses in Windsor.
They have a hunter-gatherer strategy when, I think, a farming strategy would be more appropriate. While a hunter-gatherer strategy holds the promise of a great feast if successful, it also could lead to a painful famine is unsuccessful. That’s a risk we cannot afford to take.
A farming approach while it does not offer any quick fix has a more predictable result. You can count on harvesting your investments in the future.
We need to seed the entrepreneurial spirit. We need to tend and help grow young and small businesses.
The lack of venture capital money is one of the biggest failings of Windsor’s economic development plan. When an entrepreneur has finally figured it out. When the business is ready for the next level. New capital is usually required from venture capital firms. Venture capital firms want to work closely with the businesses they invest in. They we request the business locate where they are (Toronto, Boston, New York, and Chicago).
How will we compete against Toronto, Boston, New York, and Chicago?
Congrats to Tom Lucier and everyone at Phog!!
http://www.windsorstar.com/Entertainment/Phog+voted+live+music+venue+Canada/1328871/story.html
Number One live music venue in Canada!
Hhhm, I wonder what is going on here? Little but authentic Phog is voted best live music venue in Canada. Other forms of authentic information and expression like the W.E. blog community seem to be growing exponentially. At the same time, old and sometimes biased big media are disappearing faster than what even I expected.
Hurry, someone call the CRTC - this internet thing is not fair for the old information monopoly. If just anyone can produce information how can we control the truth?
Canwest wins 2-week reprieve on debt talks (watch the great video attached to this story)
http://www.windsorstar.com/Canwest+wins+week+reprieve+debt+talks/1337578/story.html