Open Studios & Wiffiti

[cos]

On Open Studios weekend I posted this suggestion here - that people text the Wiffiti screen at Someday with their studio recommendations as they walked around. I sent in a few, and later when I looked, I saw that some other people had done it too. I saved a screenshot:


(click for larger, more legible image)

Fun! So now I wonder what we can do with it during ArtBeat...

Comments

[terrajen.livejournal.com]

it didn't work. no one brought me booze :/

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

PS - I would never use the word "quirky". Please note this for the future.

[cos]

You didn't, the artist did.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Ack! One of the redeeming features of cafes over bars is the lack of video screenage, and it's not like all the alternayuppies plaguing somerville these days need another excuse to pull out their cell phones. Is it a minority opinion to say they're vile and I hope the fad fades out extremely quickly?

[cos]

It's a minority opinion but you're certainly not alone in that initial emotional reaction. I think the problem is framing it as "video screenage" and therefore something like a TV screen at a bar. It's nothing of the sort. It's silent and mostly static, much more like a lit up bulletin board than a TV. It just displays text, and the text often doesn't move for hours at a time, when nobody is texting to it. Like a dartboard, it can hang in the backround, easy to ignore, until some people decide to play with it for a while.

A number of people react as if it's a TV or something like a TV when they first hear about it or see it, at most new venues, but it usually doesn't last, because the actual reasons they don't like screens don't apply. Some still don't like them, of course, but from what I've seen they're a very small minority. (I watch the message traffic, but I also hang out at the venues and hear people talk about the screens - I did that a lot at Someday when that one first went in)