Data Jamming in the Bath

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            Data Jamming in the Bath

Start date: Monday October 8th 2007

#definition DATA JAM => A data Jam is an open event comprising of a group of people who pass content freely between themselves, exploring the potentialities of data made live by its very immediacy. The locus of the Jamming takes place at a particular temporal and physical location.

Laurie Grove Baths opened in April 1898, as part of a municipal drive to civilise the 'great unwashed ' of industrial south London. The impetus to build public baths and washhouses was primarily a bid to improve social conditions amongst the labouring poor.
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/former-students/goldlink/almag18/pool.html

Laurie Grove Baths Media Ecology

The media ecology of a place is the way it lives through media, through channels of communication, patterns of movement, transactions and gatherings. This provides a valuable source of energy that can both reveal hidden information about how a space is used, how to feed into and build a dialogue with it. It is also the first stage of building an image of the hard to record feelings and desires that people have about the different areas, people and events in their communities – a subjective map. Once this ground work has been done we can start to use these insights to feed back to people images of how things could change, using media arts methodologies to shock, stimulate debate and inventive thinking. We deliver and articulate this by continuing to build on those same media systems that we originally found, but now developing them as an active resource for the local community that will continue to form an essential component of the cultural and social life of the regenerated area.

Therefore there are three stages in our process of Data Jamming in a Bath

The first is to analyse the media ecology of an area and use it to construct both a subjective and objective mapping. This research phase will investigate the particular patterns of communication, flows of official and unofficial information, interest groups and convergence points and the activities of the people that give them life and purpose. This allows us to build on practices that are already nascent whilst identifying ways to introduce innovative development in the media infrastructure that will be embraced by its users.

Questions:

These questions are an attempt to see the bath house building as a nexus of the social, historical, topological, political, environmental networks that surround it – any additions welcome.

The questions are a mixture of practical question to do with transport, environment but also about subjectivities and archives.

As a group we need to research as many of the questions as possible - then we can decide what interventions we can make in the time left before the Data Jam.

The building:

Why are we being offered this space, with this particular group of people? What can be gleaned of the power structures surrounding the building from this interrelationship? (interpersonal, organisational, economic and cultural)
What is the official and unofficial description of this building? What are the personal and emotional associations that people in the area have with this building if any?
What are the social, cultural, environmental, economic and political patterns that configure access to this building.
What is the social ecology of the site and how will the Data Jam transform it?
What was here before the building?

Building Site Analysis:

Soils – Has the site had a subsurface investigation (architect)
Soil - toxicology
Soil - Mechanics
Topography – do we have any maps – detailed drawings
Plant Materials - catalogue
Trees – age - catalogue tree species
Solar Radiation – The path of the sun over the building during the course of the year -
Solar Shading – the resulting shadows - Daylighting
If hot - Can windows be open or closed – this will affect the sound coming in and out.
Site Drainage – what are the existing drainage patterns (this would be where we can find the residue from the baths)
Wind – the prevailing wind direction
Sound & Views – what kind of noise do the adjacent buildings make – will it interfere – can we use it? What are the views from each window (good & bad – can they be incorporated)
Map – Water mains, sanitary and storm sewers – gas lines, electrical power, telephone and cables.

The Site: (Cars parking this is a structural operation of the site and potentially a medium of opportunity)

What is the site's relationship to transport, at different times of day and different times of the week? Do you people get to the area by car, bus, walk or cycle?
Site Access & Circulation – do the other people use the same entrance – if so how does that affect the following:
Pedestrian Circulation – best not to get people killed
Vehicular Circulation – what will happen when a lot of cars turn up?
Will it disrupt the other building classes or visa versa.
Vehicular Parking – what provision is there for parking – can we use this to our advantage.
Map the building to other public – University spaces?
What are the official and unofficial descriptions of this area?

The media-ecology surrounding the building.

What official media is being used in association with this building? (council signs, notices etc)
What publications did the building appear in – adverts, letter heads, trade shows,
is there an archive?
Will the council have road signs – can we play with them.
What unofficial media is being used in association with this building (graffiti, stickers)?
What Media-systems are embedded within the structural operations of the buildings (intercom, elevators, letterboxes, timers for communal lighting)?
What media systems infrastructure is associated with the building (TV aerials, telephones, postal service)?
How does the form of the building affect the reception of media-systems (high rise flats - good for broadcasting)
What are the social, cultural, environmental, economic and political patterns that configure the media-systems associated with this building?
What is the social ecology of the building and how will it be transformed by introducing new media-systems (what new social groups may appear and promote their interests)?
What are the patterns of use of media-systems in the area and what is their history? (mobile-phone, photo-copies, pirate radio)
Does previous history of media in the area relate to or help configure the present project?
Who controls access to these media-systems?

Databases:

Can we access the following databases and how would this be done:

database of workers present (any time during its history)
pensions for the workers of the site.
redundancy payments when the site closed.
former students.
any other suggestions?

Once we have researched the media ecology of the Laurie Grove Bath House, the way it lives through media, through channels of communication, patterns of movement, transactions and gatherings, we can start the second phase which involves the production of media projects that fit into, re-imagine the researched media ecology.

The regenerated bath house site can still be survived by databases relating to its previous use, containing the residue of implicit energies that can be reawakened and used to re-imagine it. Adding this to the knowledge derived from the subjective mapping phase results in a rich source of past and present “factual feelings” that can be represented through media in order to complicate the buildings use.

This will form the basis of your media interventions into the bath house. You will re-present this knowledge and stimulate peoples thinking about the bath house site and its current/prior use. The project will aim to bring subjective impressions out into tangible form and create feedback loops between the communities using the site and the local population and guests of the Bath House Data Jam.

Timetable for Data Jamming in the Bath:

Monday October 8th

Group assignment given out: Data Jamming in the Bath
Self directed learning forms for research explained.

Friday 12th October -> DEADLINE:
Email finished self-directed learning forms to Graham

Tuesday October 16th
10:30 - 11:30
The group will review each students self-directed learning forms. Each person is expected to be able to argue why she or he has chosen to research the questions they have decided on and their methodology for that research.

Monday 22nd October: -> DEADLINE:
10:30 13:00
Each person is expected to give a presentation of their research so far to the group and propose small collective projects that they would like other people to work on. We will then whittle down a list until we feel we have enough to make the data jam work.

Tuesday 13 th November:
Focus workshop/tool building for Bath House Data Jam

Tuesday 20 th November:
10:30 11:30 Planning the data Jam
12:00 13:00 Focus workshop/tool building for Bath House Data Jam

Tuesday 27th November:
Focus workshop/tool building for Bath House Data Jam

Friday 2nd December -> DEADLINE:

All work COMPLETE

Monday 3rd December: Install Bath House Data Jam

Tuesday 4th December: Bath House Data Jam

Tuesday 11th Review the Data Jam.