Art & Social Networking Module: Kazoo Off!

Karen Shannon

MA Creative Technology
The University of Salford
Tutor: Paul Sermon
January 2010

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Contents

1.) Introduction
2.) The process
3.) Research
4.) Conclusion

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Introduction

'immersive gaming is actually one of the first applications

poised to harness the increasingly widespread penetration
and convergence of network technologies for collective
social and political action.' (Jane McGonigal 1)

Kazoo Off was an experimental piece of work that explored the use of social networking
platforms, live performance, mobile phone technology and live broadcasting to promote
and get people to participant in a live flash mob event in the centre of Manchester.

It invited people to take part in a festive Kazoo Off in the Christmas market. The idea being
to create a spectacle in a public space, meet new people, and to encourage people to
think about the real meaning of Christmas, festive consumerism in a time of recession, and
the issues being tackled in the climate change conference in the Copenhagen 2009.

Kazoo Off was the first phase of developing a much larger piece of work that would create
a pervasive game project where people would learn more about environmental issues by
enabling them to use a number of free social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter,
WordPress and mobile phone platforms such as Qik. The idea would be to build on the
Kazoo Off experience, a situationist event, by exploring which blend of different social
network technologies would work to develop a 'free' software pervasive game experience
that could be acted out on-line, in public and in location based spaces around the city of
Manchester UK.

The game would set out to explore how participation and collective intelligence could
empower people to take collaborative action on issues around climate change and
environmental issues.

Keywords: Flash mob, performance, pervasive gaming, locative media, mobile games,
urban games, site specific art, psycho geography, situationists, climate change.

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The process
In the first instance I wanted to explore how social network sites could be used to
encourage people to attend a flash mob event. I set-up a page on Facebook events,
inviting my friendship group and asked them to invite their friends and spread the word.
Facebook is social networking sites that enables people to add friends and send them
messages, pictures, video and update their personal profiles to notify friends about
themselves. It also enables users to set up interest groups and promote events that are
happening all over the world.

The Facebook site linked to my WordPress profile ( a free web blog site that enables you
to make your own web presence, upload video & audio, and talk to people via blogs &
comments boards ) and vice versa, which also linked to my profile set up on the Qik
platform. Qik is a free live broadcasting platform that allows you to broadcast live using
mobile phone devices, the data is then archived to your profile, the site also maps your

location, links to Facebook or Twitter , enables live chat, and comments can be left by
viewers.

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I also established a Twitter stream that kept people updated on what was happening on a
daily basis. Other Tweeters also forwarded Kazoo Off information to their followers.

WordPress Site

Qik profile.

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While researching the development, ethos & use of Flash mobs, I came across a number
of flash mob information sites that enabled you to send information about your event, they
then advertised your event and sent messages to others using viral marketing techniques.
An example, of this is http://www.flashmob.co.uk/:

The origins of flash mob events started in in May 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of
Harpers Magazine and can be defined as a group of people who meet to perform
predetermined actions, designed to amuse and confuse surrounding people. The group
performs actions for a short amount of time before quickly dispersing. Flash mobs are
often organised through social networking & viral marketing activity. The thought behind
the Kazoo Off event was to see if an element such a organising a flash mob could be
further developed to create a narrative and role play game that would centre around
themes of environmental issues, to enable people to learn and take action.

On the day of Kazoo Off about 50 people turned up with Kazoo's, bells, a puppet and
more to a very packed Christmas market, there was a mix of people, some friends,
colleagues, and others who had found out about the event on the various social
networking sites. I documented this process by producing a short video of the event,
which also explained the idea and thinking behind the work.

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This has been uploaded onto You Tube and WordpPess site. This is available for viewing
at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ble2YSTOZHk&w=480&h=295&fmt=18rel=0]

Kazoo Off was also broadcast to a live audience via Qik, links can be found on my
WordPress site. In the next phase of the work I intend to explore the use of Qik in more
detail and work to see how the platform can be exploited in a creative and interactive way.
In Kazoo Off, Qik was mainly used to document the event, with further thinking and
practice I am confident there would be better and new ways of using this platform as a
means of communication & creativity.

It was an exciting experience as I had no idea if people would attend, I was amazed at the
response and overwhelmed by the interest of people who were passing by, some even
stopped to join in with the singing.

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One participant had come over from Germany and had seen it advertised on couchsurfing,
a worldwide network for making connections between travellers and the local communities
they visit. http://www.couchsurfing.org .

This was an interesting outcome as I did not post the event on this site. It shows how viral
marketing and social networking can be used to circulate and share information in a virtual
context without the original author being aware of how, where or who their information is
reaching. This can be viewed as a positive outcome for this work, as the idea was to
encourage as many as possible to participant in the event, it also supports the notion of
how social networking tools can empower people to share information and carry out social
& political actions in public spaces and on-line.

Kazoo Off acted as test to see if people would actually participant in a live event and from
this experiment it did work. Kazoo Off acted as a catalyst to join people together who
would not necessarily normally meet, the cultural implications and potential of such
gatherings could be seen as a way to empower people to discuss issues that concern
them, making them active citizens and not passive consumers of mass media messages
and information.

In the next phase of the project it would be interesting to discuss this concept in more
depth and work with a group of on-line & off-line participants to create an exciting
pervasive game. The process would be collaborative in it's approach and would involve
artists, designers, performers, revolutionaries, bohemians, alcoholics, petty criminals,
environmentalists and local communities based in Manchester. The game may take on
many formats but would be directed by the participants involved. It may be a treasure hunt,
a game of hide & seek or work similar to the artist Steve Symons.

Symons created Aura an interactive sound installation based on GPS, augmenting a

particular participant’s experience of a real space with three dimensional sound
environments. As participants move to various positions, a particular sound mix is created
based on location and direction of movement, providing “full spatial listening that blurs the
real world and artistic intervention.
http://www.muio.org/projectviewer.php?project=aura2

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Research
To realise the work a period of further research would need to take place based on the
success of Kazoo Off. The current practice, theory, design of pervasive gaming would
need to be explored in more depth and an abstract brief produced to provide a clear
direction for the work and what it would hope to achieve. This could be realised practically
through a number of on-line and off-line discussions with participants who originally took
part in Kazoo Off, with the potential of building the group as the work developed.

In terms of theory and critical thinking there has been an upsurge around exploring the text
of pervasive gaming, ranging from the work of Guy-Ernest Debord (1931-1994) a French
Marxist theorist, writer, film maker and also known as the founder of the Letterist
movement, and famed for his later ideas on spectacle, to Jaakko Stenros, Markus Montola
and Annika Waern's book, “Pervasive Games: Theory and Design” 2009 that explores the
past, present & future context of pervasive games and how they blur traditional boundaries
of game play. Mary Flanagan in her paper 'Locating Play and Politics: Real World Games
& Activism' also suggests that

'the work of Augusto Boal, the Situationists, and others

have shown, subtle changes in art and game play may have
larger ramifications when it comes to social change and
activism (Note 7). Historical evidence proves these techniques
can work. The resurgence in Situationist rhetoric in locative
play projects, is infused with a critique of consumerism, and
touts that locative play leads to a form of empowerment for
participants.' (2)

The work would need to be defined in simple terms and a good definition of pervasive
gaming can be understood by a explanation from 'sandpit,' a collective of designers,
gamers & artists based in London who run regular pervasive gaming activity.

'Pervasive games, also known as augmented reality games, city games or big games, are
old forms of play fused with new technological possibilities. They can vary from scavenger
hunts to imaginary tours of Baghdad to games of benevolent assassination. Most share at
least two of these principles:

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 • Integrating real-world play with digital technology
• Engagement & social contact through game narratives
• Using the city as your playground
• Transforming urban spaces into cinematic & theatrical stage-sets '

http://sandpit.hideandseekfest.co.uk/about/

Sandpit also enables you to submit games to them for testing with other groups, this would
be a good way to test this work once the idea was fully conceived.

Other arts collectives work such as Blast Theory could be examined and contacted to
discuss potential collaboration, have conversations with and share knowledge about their
experiences of developing & delivering pervasive games in the public realm. Blast Theory
makes interactive performances, installations, video and urban-based mixed reality
projects. Based in Brighton the group combines research and development with games,
narrative, and new technologies. The group’s project Can You See Me Now? (2001) is a
locative media game which has been performed in Sheffield, Rotterdam,
Oldenburg, Köln, Brighton, and Tokyo in which players around the world can play the
members of the Blast Theory group on-line in a “virtual” city while the Blast Theory
runners, mapped via satellite, appear on the map of the city. The runners carry with them
hand held computers showing the position of on-line players; runners can communicate
with each other via walkie-talkie type interaction.

The The Pervasive Media Studio, based in Bristol who bring together research, IT
communication and creative industries to pioneer new forms of digital media, would also
be an avenue to explore potential collaboration and dialogue.
http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/

Once the research period had been completed and a fully conceived idea/concept using all
of the above is realised I would then look to seek funding from various funding bodies such
as Arts Council, Nesta, European Monies to fully realise the work.

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Conclusion
I have always been interested in bringing people together to perform, create spectacles,
share common interests and learn news ways of sharing information and cultural
differences. Kazoo Off ignited my imagination and showed the social and political
possibilities of using open source new technologies and taking play to the streets.

It is obvious to me that people enjoy the spectacle, the absurd and the opportunity to come
together, this project highlighted the fact that this can be done by using on-line platforms.
More importantly it can change and expand ways of thinking by joining on-line and off-line
activity. I believe people need both to be able to change, learn and take positive actions on
issues that are important to them and on world issues such as climate change, the planet,
life, and death. The concept of pervasive gaming could be used to develop new ways of
communicating and learning and used as a tool to challenge political and social issues
across the world.

The act of bringing people together can be viewed as an act of kindness, Anne Herbert a
writer and environmental activists endorses this notion, Herbert coined the phrase
“Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” (3) in 1982. By this she means
that acts given by surprise or performed for others are for no apparent reason but
generosity.

Kazoo Off was an act of beauty and generosity from the people who participated, they
shared an experience and ignited a concept that I would like to develop further. This would
be to explore new free technologies, and deliver more acts of random kindness and
senseless acts of beauty happen in a world that surely needs it.

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References
(1.)'This Is Not a Game': Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play
Jane McGonigal
Department of Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies,
University of California at Berkeley 2003
janemcg@uclink4.berkeley.edu

(2.) Locating Play and Politics: Real World Games & Activism
Mary Flanagan
Tiltfactor Lab, Hunter College
New York, U.S.A
mary@maryflanagan.com

Note (7) Activist theatre director Augusto Boal’s public games methods were derived from
his work while creating The Theatre of the Oppressed, developed during the 1950’s and
1960’s in Brazil. Boal incorporated games that could serve to ‘act out’ problematic social
situations that directly affected participants’ rights.

(3.) Anne Herbert “Handy tips on how to behave at the death of the world” Whole Earth
Review. FindArticles.com. 02 Jan, 2010.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n85/ai_16816244/

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