Gates @ Central Park: Post Your Own

Andy Carvin is doing interesting stuff with podcasting and participatory blogging. He setup a blog, Mobcasting to experiment in this area, particularly in the context of group podcasting. Mobcasting is play on mobile phones, Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs, and podcasting. Andy came up with a simple method for groups of contributors to convert messages form their mobile phones into a podcast. This allows for local reporting of events, even when other channels are cut off or not available. He used Audioblogger and Feedburner to successfully create podcast briefings from the Berkman conference on journalism, blogs, and credibility through mobile phones.

To further demonstrate the concept, Andy looked for an upcoming cultural event that is generating high interest. He selected Christo’s Gates at Central Park exhibit where the artist is setting up more than seven thousand flags along 20+ miles of paths within the park. Andy created an "open blog," Gates @ Central Park. Anyone can create a text blog entry, submit a photo, and send in an audio through a mobile phone to become a podcast. This is a completely open blog, more like a wiki in concept, aligned with the participatory nature of the wikipedia. Perhaps this can be a new trend in art coverage. In the first two weeks over fifty text posts have been created and numerous photos submitted. The blog was featured in a Wired Magazine article on February, 9, 2005 and the New York Times on the same day. These articles significantly boosted traffic to his site.

The Gates openned yestrday in New York. The New York Times had a nice front page article on the event, In a Saffron Ribbon, a Billowy Gift to the City, by Michael Kimmlemen. It closes with a pleasing thought that I agree with.

"With their endless self-promotion, and followers trailing them like Deadheads from one global gig to another, it's no wonder that Christo and Jeanne-Claude have made a few skeptics of people who often have not seen their art at first hand. New Yorkers are a notoriously tough crowd. But I was struck by what I overheard a stranger say. She was a doubter won over yesterday. "It will be fascinating when they're gone," she mused.

It took me a second to realize what she meant: that the gates, by ravishing the eye, have already impressed an image of the park on the memories of everyone who has seen them. And like all vivid memories, that image can take a place in the imagination, like a smell or some notes of music or a breeze, waiting to be rekindled.

Once upon a time there were "The Gates." The time is now."

It will be interesting to follow what the fans in Andy's blog contribute over this time.

Comments

[Jozef Imrich]

As always great links, Bill.

I wonder whether you have visited DeepBlog.com yet...

Quick Access Quality Blogs - Red Couch: http://deepblog.com/index.html

Cheers

[Bill Ives]

Jozef - once agian a great link on your part. I glanced at it and will look more closely tonight. Bill