maraa

Significance

The universal acceptance of the mobile phone as a personal device is to occur as shortly as the next decade, as per estimates by the International Telecommunications Union. The sheer numerical scale of lower economic groups render them as a growth opportunity strata for market pundits and technology gurus. However, despite its proven stature as a medium that metes no social stratification, the mobile phone has yet to live up to its potential as a tool that figures in diverse social contexts.

Cases of the mobile phone being applied for the lower economic groups, also referred to as the ‘emerging market’ in right wing liberal parlance, abound in the service minded areas of education, health care, governance, and until more recently, finance. Initiated by collaborations among – State / corporate / academic / activist / practitioner – actors, the mobile phone, and in turn the telecom network, are constructed as instruments for economic efficiency.

THEDUSTBIN is a people centered approach to the socialisation of the globally ascribed mobile phone. The project proposes the assignation of the mobile phone as a medium of social representation by exercising its presence in a range of socio-cultural possibilities with diverse social groups.

Initiation

The project began as a social art initiative by two visual artists and a media researcher in Copenhagen, June 2009 with funding from the Danish Arts Council. A series of events were conducted in Copenhagen based art galleries with inhabitants of two residential areas of Copenhagen to explore the poetic and linguistic potential of SMS for a corporeal connect with our immediate urban surroundings. The experience encouraged the collaborating parties to seek ways to develop a tool for generative communities.

In the following months, research and implementation partners were sought via the three collaborators’ personal and professional network. Concurrently, calls were sent out to technical architects working for social enterprises for their viewpoint on existing phone and web based community building tools. Subsequently, calls for interested developers were sent out on online international developer communities like Dhrupal, Python, Django, Postgres, Maemo and jQuery.

As of today, collaborators to the project are located in Bangalore, Copenhagen, Malmö and Penang. The inter-disciplinary composition of the project team includes practitioners of open source software development, visual arts, media research, media action, participatory design, performative arts, interface design, social interest, skilled and unskilled labour.

The tool is in its first phase of development and will have had its preliminary deployment shortly after the submission of this proposal. The deployment event is to take place on October 3rd 2009 in the city of Struer, north west Denmark, on the occassion of the city’s daylong culture festival called Morket. The tool, in its current configuration, is an SMS engine that stores SMS in an online public archive. The SMS are streamed in chronological order for a pre-announced duration and projected on a visible surface in the city. In the case of Struer, the projection will take place during the evening hours of the festival on the silo by the harbour. Inhabitants of Struer and festival goers have been informed by flyers distributed by Struer city authorities in the local newspaper. For the project, the Struer event is a test of the tools stability.

Website of Morket Festival at Struer
http://www.moerket.dk/
Continuation

Setup
Each project site has a community or social group component, and a research partner who also oversees the project activities.

All the project sites share one software development team whose aim is to develop new configrations of the SMS engine as per requirements of the project site. The software development team is located in Bangalore and comprises two open source software developers and one technical architect.

Motivation
The software development team have the motivation to develop open source software that can be used for specific cases. The research partners are variously motivated by social, technological and academic interest.

Commitment
Two of the three initiators of the project are committed to the extent of the next 5 years, as they have dependable, independent sources of income for that duration. The third collaborator has opted out as she has had to depend on project funding. Project funding has not been sporadic, however the funds received have been routed to acquire hardware and for software development. The collaborating partners all depend on project funding as, either it is their main means of livelihood or they would require for their project related expenses to be reimbursed.

Funding
Until now the project has subsisted on funds from the Danish Arts Council and the city of Struer. Further applications are being submitted to international development funds and city based culture funds.

The tool itself will be deployed at further one day events, as a fundrasing activity to replenish the activities at the three existing project sites. Example, proposals are being submitted for the current software as that of a tool for collective action and as an interactive, public sculpture during the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen.

Research partners at the respective project sites are also seeking funds for their respective sets of activities.

Activity at project sites

Project sites are located in Bangalore, Copenhagen and Malmö.

In Bangalore, there are currently two project sites,

1. Maraa media collective: An independent collective facilitating the creation of media spaces in the city. The Maraa team are, during October and November 2009, gathering interest from media practitioners and unskilled labourers in starting a virtual media center in a residential area in Bangalore city. They are currently applying for funds for commencement of the project activity on January 2010.

For Maraa, THEDUSTB.IN supplements their ongoing research activities with UK based universities and art groups to create new mediascapes.

Maraa website:
http://www.maraa.in/

1. Srishti design school: Students and teachers from the design school will hold a two month workshop during October – November 2010 on the theme of Public Space Hybrid Media with two members of THEDUSTB.IN project team. Srishti is funding the material requirements of the workshop as well as providing accommodation and per diem for workshop facillitators.

For Srishti, the workshop feeds into their newly launched Public Space and Pedagogy course.

Srishti website:
http://www.srishti.ac.in/

In Copenhagen, there are currently two project sites,

1. Norrebro Library: A State funded library organising knowledge building and cultural activities for public and private schools. An initial set of activities was conducted with students aged 12 to 15 years from three schools in April 2009. A Facebook group has been setup documenting the activities. A written and photo documentation has been printed and circulated to the city council. Further activities are planned for mid-2010.

For the project organisation staff at Norrebro Library, the activities with the THEDUSTB.IN allows for the discussion of democracy, civic rights for the young generation through digital media tools.

Facebook documentation:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81772931754&ref=search&sid=629958071.3238273886..1

1. Dannerhus: A support group and charity for violence afflected women and children. Discussions are currently ongoing with the group’s management and communications team, who view THEDUSTB.IN as a group support platform, an internal communication tool as well as a fundraising tool.

In Malmö, there is currently one project site,

1. Herrgårds Kvinnoforening: A support group and activity center for immigrant women. Most of the members are textually non-literate. Mobile phones are a means to be kept track of by their spouses. THEDUSTB.IN project is a way for the women participants to gain technical literacy.

The coordinator and the women participants are interested in acquiring SMS capability and are open to trying out new media technologies. Malmö Living Labs, a partipatory design setup based in the city space are research partners in this set of activities.

Production: Herrgårds Kvinnoforening

This proposal seeks funds to begin work on ‘Lessons in SMS’ with the women participants of Herrgårds Kvinnoforening. The women participants’ verbalised interest in acquring technical literacy will be met in workshops where SMS as a tool for communication will be discussed. Interpretations of the women’s requirements from such a tool will be represented as a performance, a crafted object, a manifesto – to be decided as a part of the workshop process. Working prototypes of SMS tools for the women’s self ascribed requirements will be developed and tried out.

The workshop activity with the women participants will be carried out over a 6 month period. The workshop will be open for elderly women, young orphans and school going children. It is intended for the three groups to eventually converge to provide support to each other, thus allowing for continuity.

The two project assistants are Jila Moradi, member at Herrgårds Forening, and Zahra Angii Ryahi, who has worked with most of the women participants outside of the Herrgårds Kvinnoferoning. Both are Malmö residents and of immigrant backgrounds.

The software development team will be available on a needs-only basis over a discontinuous duration of three-months. The rest of the time they will be developing a voice component for the SMS tool. The voice component is in response to the non-literate factions of the womens’ association. The software development team is based in Bangalore and comprises coders who have previously worked in social enterprise and projects aimed at building solutions for emerging markets.

Research partner Malmö Living Labs wil be represented by Per-Anders Hilgren, who has previously worked with immigran communities in Malmö.

Project initiator and research partner, Zeenath Hasan, will be overseeing the different project sites and sharing cross-project experience.