GoElemental!

Bath 2004
17-19TH DECEMBER 6-9PM
ST MICHAEL'S SQUARE, THE LITTLE THEATRE CINEMA

This was the debut showing of Goelemental. It took place over three evenings in the city centre of Bath. The interactive animation was projected onto the wall opposite the Little Cinema in St Michael’s Square. Using their mobile phones, the participants texted an element's name to the number provided at the show. On receiving the request, the projection changed to a humorous or exciting animation of their chosen element. The animation showed where their chosen element is used and what it does.

The images on the left show how people interacted with the piece and what happened on the big screen!

Press Releases

BBC Somerset Press Release (click to view)
Webelements Press Release (click to view)
Bath Chronicle Press Release(click to view)
GoElemental! was also listed in the Events section of Metro Newspaper, Southwest and Venue Magazine, Bristol and Bath.

GoElemental! in Bath - reflections

Over the 3 nights GoElemental! received 158 texts/element requests.

A reply text was sent to all people who participated as follows "Thanks for texting Oxygen!, Oxygen is 3rd in line. www.goelemental.co.uk"

GoElemental! worked best when there was a lot of people around in the area where it was projected. The queuing system (as shown at the bottom of image one) enabled the user to see when their elements was coming up on the big screen like you have on music tv channels. For example "Coming Up! 1. Oxygen, 2. Xenon 3. Carbon." This added to the excitement and introduced a feeling of 'game shows' which I could exploit further.

People would ask strangers by them what was going on and many of the animations got a laugh, or people did the same ones a few times because they recognised the images (many of Bath) or the people who starred in the animations.

One participant stated that she didn't realise that she was going to see an animation and the whole screen change, she thought that she would receive some text back to her phone which is not very appealing! This insight was critical to future developments of the piece In future versions of GoElemental! I will change the wording of the instructions so you get an idea of how exciting the outcome of you interacting with the piece will be. This participant may not have interacted she not seen other people playing and the screen changing.

Technical Issues

About 5% of the requests didn't get a reply text when there were many users at one time. The system had problems with texts coming in and being sent out at exactly the same time. In future version we may try using two phones, one for incoming and one for outgoing to alleviate this problem

GoElemental! endnote

Goelemental! intends to whet people's curiosity about the scientific chemical elements, and introduce them to their everyday uses in an accessible and fun way. The idea behind the project is to spark a sense of wonder about the world around us.

GoElemental! has been developed by Kerry Bradshaw, during her MA course at Bath Spa University college, in collaboration with James Grierson from the Science department at Oxford Community school, and Peter Bradshaw, based in San Francisco, USA.


Choose your element... Text the element to GoElemental... See the screen change... And your chosen elements animation shown on the wall...		Bath 2004 17-19TH DECEMBER 6-9PM ST MICHAEL'S SQUARE, THE LITTLE THEATRE CINEMA This was the debut showing of Goelemental. It took place over three evenings in the city centre of Bath. The interactive animation was projected onto the wall opposite the Little Cinema in St Michael’s Square. Using their mobile phones, the participants texted an element's name to the number provided at the show. On receiving the request, the projection changed to a humorous or exciting animation of their chosen element. The animation showed where their chosen element is used and what it does. The images on the left show how people interacted with the piece and what happened on the big screen! Press Releases BBC Somerset Press Release (click to view) Webelements Press Release (click to view) Bath Chronicle Press Release(click to view) GoElemental! was also listed in the Events section of Metro Newspaper, Southwest and Venue Magazine, Bristol and Bath. GoElemental! in Bath - reflections Over the 3 nights GoElemental! received 158 texts/element requests. A reply text was sent to all people who participated as follows "Thanks for texting Oxygen!, Oxygen is 3rd in line. www.goelemental.co.uk" GoElemental! worked best when there was a lot of people around in the area where it was projected. The queuing system (as shown at the bottom of image one) enabled the user to see when their elements was coming up on the big screen like you have on music tv channels. For example "Coming Up! 1. Oxygen, 2. Xenon 3. Carbon." This added to the excitement and introduced a feeling of 'game shows' which I could exploit further. People would ask strangers by them what was going on and many of the animations got a laugh, or people did the same ones a few times because they recognised the images (many of Bath) or the people who starred in the animations. One participant stated that she didn't realise that she was going to see an animation and the whole screen change, she thought that she would receive some text back to her phone which is not very appealing! This insight was critical to future developments of the piece In future versions of GoElemental! I will change the wording of the instructions so you get an idea of how exciting the outcome of you interacting with the piece will be. This participant may not have interacted she not seen other people playing and the screen changing. Technical Issues About 5% of the requests didn't get a reply text when there were many users at one time. The system had problems with texts coming in and being sent out at exactly the same time. In future version we may try using two phones, one for incoming and one for outgoing to alleviate this problem GoElemental! endnote Goelemental! intends to whet people's curiosity about the scientific chemical elements, and introduce them to their everyday uses in an accessible and fun way. The idea behind the project is to spark a sense of wonder about the world around us. GoElemental! has been developed by Kerry Bradshaw, during her MA course at Bath Spa University college, in collaboration with James Grierson from the Science department at Oxford Community school, and Peter Bradshaw, based in San Francisco, USA.