The results of the exercise where pretty even out of twenty three sequences twelve went around the tunnel and eleven went through.

Overt spying/ taking the shots 19th Nov

Ready as always to answer a call of distress the 'A Team' once again strolled in to action on the first dry thursday since records began. (Although it was freezing in the wind)

Dave had brought in two proffesional corex signs, it took a very close inspection to notice they were artificial, even Ian could not resist their pulling power.

Ian met us at the start of the session to answer questions about the presentation and its format. We were led to belive we will receive official documents on the subject in the future, but will probably given a 30min slot to present our project, maybe discuss some of our methodology and to allow for a questions and answers section, beyond that the format/ content is entirely up to us.

Then we made our move, regrouping in St. Peters Square. Deployed camera's, split in to groups and started taking pictures.
Two cameras were located on the South side of the passage, looking at the signs, Judith and Chirs snapping away at anyone who moved, Natalie dilligently mark making. Sandra, Kate and Dave made a move for the North face of the passage to commenct documentation from the other end. James just sat down and looked after the bags, musing about the plan and possible escape routes, should the mission go bad....

After a while of everyone 'chilling' attempts were made to record the spaces at 5 second intervals, for a three minute period. Following a breakdown in the semaphor system, James meandered up to the North End and kept time, Kate logged peoples movement while Sandra tried to keep warm by pressing the camera button every 5 seconds. Synchronising watches, Dave joined the Southern contingent with Chirs and Judith taking pictures and Natalie logging movements.

When we regrouped a discussion arose about what to do with the pictures. A Sky Drive was subsequently set up for the group to upload, share and download pictures from the group project. We also talked about what to do with them and alongside our earlier discussions decided that if any group member wanted to uses and experiment with the images and create something from them this it would be used as additional material for the presentation, but this is additional work for anyone who wants to give it a go, any media desired.

It was also decided that there would be on more misson out to gather information about the native people and their movements, and how easily they can be distracted and ordered to move differently.

Dave is making additional signs for use at the North end of the passage, others are posting their images and mark taking, and playing with the existiing pictures.
For next week at least two cameras, with tripods are needed to be sourced, for fixed position pictures of the two ends. Kate has booked one set already if someone else can book another set it would be really useful. Otherwise it will be business as usual, without James who has declared himself Missing in Action next week. So two groups of at least 3 people, one north, one south, mark making, photographing and time keeping. 1 person to take minutes. Meeting at Righton 12.10-12.15 for deployment. Pictures to be uploaded after. To be worked on over the following week.

Can someone bring plastic explosives, (BluTac) for the signs.

If i've anything wrong or missed anything please add it on,
James

Images from the mission 3

Images from the Mission 2

Images from the mission

lulu's going to absent Thursday

Hi all,

I apologize I still can't send the photos on the blog. I'll bring them to Sandra tomorrow. And I'm sorry to say this morning I was required to Liverpool Biometric Enrolment Centre this Thursday for provide my biometrics as part of my visa extension. Unfortunately the next available appointment is 22 December, after that is Christmas holiday thus I can't get my visa until 30 January, it means I'll be in trouble. In a word, I'll absent on Thursday. So if somebody can bring a camera that will be grateful. Sorry about that!

Meeting Up Thursday

Hi all,
Following on from a conversation I had on Thursday (i'm sorry I cant recall who with) I have asked Ian to join us for 5min when we meet up to dicuss the requirements for presenting our project and answer any questions anyone may have.
See you Thursday if not before,
best wishes,
James

121109

Hi all, these are the photos today

After a slow start to the day, the A Team had their milk and rolled in to town

After a slow start to the session, we spiked BA Baracas Milk, to get him on the plane, we flew in to the zone and rolled in to action.

After meeting up and much discussion we, (alphabetically ascending, Chris, Dave, Kate, James, Judith, Lulu, Natalie and Sandra) moved from our spot for the day in the Righton Building, (has anyone else noticed we are slowly being moved along the foyer as the weeks go by?) at about 12.30pm and with a cold wind in our faces and the threat of rain looming made our way out to head along Oxford Road to the Town Hall in St. Peters Square for a trial run of our experiment.

Lulu, (armed with the camera) was designated chief photographer and called impromptu photo shoots to record the group, the journey, the tape measure and the 'Golden' Compass.

When we reached the Town Hall the group explained the idea we had agreed on to Dave, James produced an A4 arrow and bluetac from his bottomless bag and it was strategically placed on the south facing wall of the arch. (Could the measurements taken be posted please). From here a suitable distance for photographing the 'arrow' was estimated, and we split in to two groups.
Each group positioned itself at opposing ends of the passageway. And by using a series of semaphore signals to start the process, Kate and Natalie recorded the number of pedestrians passing through the passageway and those moving around it. Simultaneously with the single camera Lulu took a series of images at 10 second intervals from the fixed point over a three minute period.

During this time other group members moved around our project area, diligently noting peoples reactions, potential alternative positions for more camera's and occasionally calling out "did you get them? they did it!".

At the end of the trial the 'A Team' regrouped, checked for casualties and began a discussion as how the mission went, would it make good TV? and to the way forward.

It was agreed that a 10 second interval may be too long to be effective in the information collection and should be at 5second intervals or randomly over the time period.
The time period may need to be longer, maybe 5-6min.
The camera's should be further away from the arrow and the group should disperse to limit the influence on people as they approach the arrow.
Further camera's would be used around the site to capture a range of angles, possibly hidden or out of the way.
That a more dominant and authoritative arrow may be more appropriate.

For next week, a new arrow would be created by Dave, larger and laminated. The colours discussed were brighter reds and yellows and white on blue such as a road sign. The ultimate decision has been left to Dave's discretion.
All possible cameras of all quality would be brought along next week (Everyone) to gather a range of images beyond the main two (one at each end).
The tape measure (Kate) and possibly (although less likely the compass) would be required again next week.
Enquiries in to borrowing cameras and tripods from the University would be made (Sandra).
Lulu would pass a copy of the images taken to Sandra to be roughly 'montaged' with James before meeting next Thursday.
Pens, Chalk marked bodies and Pads as required.

As quickly as they had met up, the 'A Team' scattered, moving back into hiding until called upon, with their various tasks that all soldiers of fortune must complete before the next mission, (12.10-12.15ish Righton Thursday 19th)
In all it was felt that the trial run had proved a success and demonstrated a really workable project piece.

Although radio silence is recommended, all additions to the posting, especially details omitted in the mission log, would be gratefully received, along with any other observations or ideas for development before the next mission....

Minutes 5/11/09

1 Clarify final idea

2 Go out and find location

3 Take photographs of location

4 Decide on how many cameras to use

5 What kind of distraction to use

6 How will final piece be displayed

7 Arrange a time and day to go out and take the photographs

The group met to discuss ideas from the previous week, and we decided to go with Chris's idea of fixed cameras photographing people to see if they would react to a distraction or not.

We then decided to go and look at a couple of locations, the first one being the crossroads by the Cornerhouse. After looking at the location we decided that it would be technically too complicated a site, as we would need four cameras and there was far to much traffic interfering with the camera positions.With the time alloted to do the project we thought that this was an unmanagable task, so it was decided that we would move on and look at St. Peters Square

farther down Oxford Road

After looking around the square, James pointed out an arcade that naturally channelled people through it, exactly what we were looking for, as this meant we would only need two cameras, one at each end of the arcade.

So by adding a distraction, in the form of a sign we could then photograph them either aknowledging the sign or disregaring it.

The photographs would then be processed in the post-production stage, this would involve them being downloaded into a computer and stitched together into a slide-show presentation.It was suggested that maybe three or four continious set of images would be used at the same time. This obviously is still at the stage were the final piece may change slightly, once the photographs have been processed and we are able to look at them and then decide fully on the best way to present them.

Not Able To Make Tomorrow

Hi all,

Unfortunately I will not be able to make it tomorrow as I have a cold and for the sake of the 'A Team' health, will keep it to myself. I will be in next Thursday so keep me posted.

Natalie in her email posting raised an important consideration with respect to 'ethical guidelines that we need to investigate/follow for filming in a public space?' From a legal standpoint we are within our rights to film/photograph people/places in public spaces, in a quote attributed to David Miliband 'There is no legal restriction on photography in public places, and there is no presumption of privacy for individuals in a public place.' would seem to confirm this (http://curly15.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/miliband-on-photography/). However Natalie's concern regards ethics which is a horse of quite a different colour, I propose that at a future group meeting we discuss ethical,legal and commercial considerations in the context of an art project, which interacts both with public spaces and the users of that space. As I will be missing tomorrow I will research this area and post onto the blog what I find, these findings can be evidenced within our reflective logs.

From a practical consideration I have an SLR Digital Camera with a 70/300 lens, for those not camera savvy the lens has the capacity to zoom in from quite a distance. I also have a digital cam-corder and a digital recorder. I would be happy to loan this to members of the group if required.

If you film/photograph tomorrow 'take care out their'.

Dave

hi to all 'A' teamers,

Are we running with the idea of photographing people to see if they react in a specific way or is this still to be confirmed at the next meeting on Thursday?. I thought the meeting last week generated a lot of good ideas, and everyone brought to the table one or more ideas that could easily be considered for the project. This week we should decide upon an idea and start to organize and plan what we need to do to execute it, then it's all systems go.(we hope)

Hello!

Hi all,

i've got a computer for now, so i'm just logging in, don't want everyone thinking i'm scyving off!  has anybody had any more ideas or developed/changed any ideas they had?