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Can You See Me Now?: Golden Nica / Interactive Art
With the project Can You See Me Now? British artists' group Blast Theory and Mixed Media Lab introduces a modern variation of an old game, which takes place live in the streets. The game incorporates the latest communication technologies and is played simultaneously on line and in the streets.

Can You See Me Now? by the British artists collective Blast Theory plays with the omnipresence of humans on the basis of various portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, GPS, wireless LANs, digital cameras, etc., as well as with overlaying real and virtual spaces. In that respect, Can You See Me Now? is part of a series of works that investigate digital mobility from a cultural point of view.

The playground in Can You See Me Now? is a defined part of a city, both as a city map on the virtual level and in reality. The teams playing against each other are the online computer players on one side, and four "runners" equipped with the above set of devices on the other. All participants are represented by avatars. The runners' task is to find the online players who hide within the virtual space. If the online player is "seen", i.e. the hiding-place is reached by a runner, then it's "Game over!"

How it works

Each runner is equipped with a handheld computer connected to a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracker. The handheld computer sends the runner's location from the tracker over a wireless network to people playing online.

The positions of players online is passed back the other way and displayed on the screen of the runner's computer. Alongside this, online players text message each other and the audio from the runners' walkie talkies are streamed to the players.


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10.6.2003
Ingrid Fischer

Can You See Me Now?
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