Meine Präsentation des Projekts in New York:

http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2008/video-stream/?movieID=666

Userexperience

Userexperience mit Prototype Video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/steffwusch#p/a/u/2/uEHT7mgHIh0

mobilu

Welcome to my blog. From this site you can download the newest Mobilu file and send it to your friend’s phone’s. I hope you enjoy the game.

You download a little application on your phone (a flash file). If you open it, your phone searches for your friend’s phones around you via bluetooth. An animation video starts synchronized. After watching a clip you can each vote on which path the narration should take. The animations are targeted to teenage girls and focus on their personal challenges concerning their body image, sexuality and career.

In the version you find here, a prototype, you have to press the play button at the same time. This weekend I will upload a version in which the animation is synchronized on all phones. Each phone is pinging a server continuously for permission to start the video.

Please be aware that the content of the clips is quite explicit and may be disturbing to some viewers.

SEE AN INTRODUCTION VIDEO

You will need the newest FLASH PLAYER on you phone. You can download it for free here:
FLASH LITE 3 FREE DOWNLOAD

In my project, aimed at teenage girls, I build a series of animated movies for mobile phones. The movies address issues that women in this age face. Body image, self-knowledge and sexuality. The users download a flash file or receive it via MMS. They need to be 4 players, each of them having a quarter of the full image on their screen. When four girls hold their mobile phones up simultaneously they can watch the whole piece together. Their separate screens function as one larger screen synchronized via bluetooth. It involves the challenge to bring a group together and encourages dialog amongst the users. At the end of each animation they are offered to choose between two options of how the story will go on. Right after voting for the next part they continue watching the clip on their phone.

Again, each of them has only one part of the animation, they have to find the right positioning of the phones similar to a puzzle. They have to stand close and find the right angle between the phones in order to see the complete animation. The sound of each mobile phone speaker will contribute differently to the soundscape of the animation. The shape of the phones aligning creates a setting that encourages conversation.
The narration’s content evolves from the adventures of a girl called “Lu”, the heroine of the story, dealing with specific challenges she is confronted with. Everytime she has to take a hard decision the users have to vote on what she should do. Her story will be told in several episodes.

In several workshop I organized with kids, I had the chance to observe how insecure specially girls become when it comes to their body image and sexuality. They negotiate between all the stereotypes and expectations they are exposed to in the media, their friends, their family, while at the same time trying to be true to their own identity, feelings and desires.

I want to instigate conversations among girls on difficult topics to make it easier for them to develop their voice and unique identity. When they know that they are not alone with their fears and decisions, they will manage to take responsibility for themselves.

I will create a mobile phone GUI, which allows users, to find videos, watch them on their mobile phones with other users and vote on the path the narration takes. The main character, “Lu”, will be the heroine of all episodes, gaining experiences girls can relate to.

I believe that a mobile phone offers a private space girls have absolute ownership over. While computers are sometimes still shared with other family members, most girls have their own mobile phones.

A mobile phone screen might be too small to watch delicate videos. But several mobile phone screens, put together, can form a screen just large enough to fit a little animation. My basic idea is, to use the privacy a mobile phone offers, to tell a story girls can identify with.

I was thinking a lot about how to combine the positive sides of online communication with the positive sides of real life communication. I came to the conclusion that online conversations are not helpful if they don’t affect or trigger real life encounter. I hope that my application will bring users together, interacting, breaking taboos sensitively and having fun at the same time.