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Blending Amsterdam Reality

Team

Takuma Oami

Student Researcher

 takuma.oami@hva.nl
Stefano Danna

Student Researcher

 sfn.dnn@gmail.com
Annika Kuyper

Student Researcher

 annikakuyper@gmail.com
Ankit Daftery

Student Researcher

 me@ankitdaf.com
Gijs Gootjes

Project Manager

 g.gootjes@hva.nl

Commissioner:

Description

By ankit October 30th, 2012

Research – Check. Next step please !

Edit : Here is the link to view our research document – Research Documentv12

So after weeks of conducting interviews,poring through literature and the internet, and meeting lots of awesome people, we concluded with our research phase. Needless to say, we had lots of material to go through, lots of things learnt and lots of insights gathered which will really help us shape our concept.

– It was a lot of fun talking to people waiting on the street, asking them about their visit to Amsterdam

– We were amazed to learn about huge digital archives that exist out there, waiting for people to discover and browse

– Mobile phones are all pervasive, and can be a very good tool to reach out to people, but mobile internet is sketchy in most places and depending on its availability will only handicap the solution

– “Walking around just looking at things” is the most popular activity tourists do

These are just some of the simplest insights we gathered from our research.

A little more about the research phase :

After the research presentation to the assigner, we quickly moved on to the next phase, concepting. How much fun is it when there are 5 people in a room and everybody just comes up with ideas, no matter how silly, awesome or far-fetched ? Lots ! After hours of brainstorming (and some time deciding on the methods to use for brainstorming) , we were able to come up with 80+ ideas. After a few more discussions with stakeholders and third parties and more brainstorming, we were able to root out some of the weaker ideas (its always difficult to not select something you have created, even if its an idea, isn’t it ? )

After a quick autumn break of only four days (or rather even less), armed with dreams from slightly longer sleep and a visit to Paris , we came up with more exciting ideas and by the end of the week, had three exciting concepts that would help us attack our problem statement. After a little polishing, our concepts were ready to be presented. The concepts had a little bit of everything, from robots to telescopes, from mobile phones to free wifi, and were very well received. Now, its time for us to sit down again and remould our concepts into something we hope is awesome enough.

Time to get back to the drawing board !

Keep watching this space for the research document !

By AnnikaKuyper October 12th, 2012

Blending Amsterdam Reality Kickoff

Research presentation: check!
Research document: check!
Insights and conclusions: Check!
Finish the first research phase: check!
Weekend and drink a beer: check!

 

Yes! We finished today our fist phase, the research, of 20 weeks project and present our results of the last 6 weeks of research to the assigner and others. Let me introduce the team and project definition first and recap in short the last few weeks…

I still remember our first day 3th of September, everybody introduce himself or herself with a PechaKuchi presentation. Amazing, because I realize we are going to work together with a lot of nationalities and different kind of backgrounds and disciplines. It was a excited the first day to getting to know the team mates but after this the first week was very busy with workshops, brainstorms and a lot of meetings. The meeting with our assigner was excited too, Marco Cops, an Urban public space artist. We discuss the main question from the Gemeente Amsterdam, stadsdeel Centrum. We are happy our assigner is very open, and gave us the opportunity to fire our questions, enabling us to precisely clarify the scope of the project and discuss our planning for next coming weeks.

At that moment we are still with three of us: Takuma from Japan, Gijs and Annika from Amsterdam and the second week we got the message two other members will join us next month. It’s Ankit from India and Stefano from Italia. In the meanwhile we start to explore the project definition and work on our debriefing and project plan. For details you can read the project plan. But the key question and problem statement are pointed out:

How to combine a marker (landmark) in the public space (or better said a series of landmarks) and an interactive information carrier – using the Smartphone or other new medium or/ and a physical object with each other to use digital history information and current reality situation, which can be blended into an interactive medium.

Amsterdam has a lot of exceptional, crazy, beautiful and unexpected sights and history. This history is unknown to locals and visitors to Amsterdam. These many little-known gems are just waiting to be discovered. More than 65% of all tourists visit Amsterdam because of the city’s history, culture and its canals (research ATCB, 2012). For example in the 16th Century, there was a city wall around Amsterdam which now stands demolished. Amsterdam is also home to a lot of famous artists, both national and international, a little-known fact. The Gemeente Amsterdam wants to bring this knowledge to the wider public. Beside books and websites, an alternative literary guide to the city could be handy, perhaps in the form of a Smartphone application offering a new perspective on landscapes, buildings and objects. History can also be made tangible (or “touchable”) by blending artifacts from history and reality with new media.

We couldn’t think about other thing because our excitements and even in the weekend on Sundays we bike around the city looking for historical buildings and interesting places. I already live in Amsterdam, but with this project coming I saw the city in a new and inspirational way: )

This for now, Cheers. Annika