beCAN
Concept
beCan is a series of light augmented sculptural towers that serve as interactive beacons of knowledge, allowing participant-players to transcend into an augmented reality game that illuminates unseen locations in Calgary and their untold stories. Inspired by geo-caching, a digital application and physical installation operate together to allow citizens, communities, and classrooms in Calgary to engage with the APP and travel from one beCan sculpture to the next, receiving in-game incentives (--for prizes or discounts within the city or proximate community).
Function
The sculptures incorporate responsive solar LED illumination and Bluetooth technologies which detect and recognize nearby participant-players. Unseen histories and stories that pertain to the site are unlocked and revealed. The reveal may include short stories, on-line documentary clips, or animations about the specific site or theme. The beCan can also provide short quizzes which, once answered, provide clues to the next beCan. beCan is free, accessible, portable, and relevant to any Calgarian or visitor.
Outcomes
This site-based educational system would allow Calgarian’s and visitors to Calgary to learn about the city, its settlement, its Indigenous origins, natural features and contemporary use. Citizens can also share and upload their personal connections to the site. Finally, beCan encourages much needed physical activity, encouraging the 30 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous activity recommended by Health Canada.
Key Stressor
Inequality & Lack of Social Cohesion
Criteria
Prosperity: Sustainable, Feasible – Can be adopted and budgeted for by local governments and communities, and Links to other economic planning goals and strategies.
Well-Being: Positive impact on natural environments, Natural environments as the source of well-being for people, and Promoting the development of local business or social enterprise.
Citizen & Community Engagement: Knowledge transfer and sharing, Common sense form of citizen participation, Coordination and scalable with/to others, Ease of communication between local governments, communities and citizens, and Engaging citizens and communities with a sense of purpose before, during or after a shock.
Use of the GLOW theme: Light for people - it enhances the quality of place, Light as direction and guidance system, Light as a protagonist that motivates spaces, and Light is a symbol for the attention and care we pay to our natural and human environment.
Student Developers: Julian (ACAD), Rosey (MRU), Johanna (MRU)
“beCAN is a project in which aims to shed light on Calgary’s history. Our goal is to teach citizens, students, and tourists about all aspects of Calgary’s history, even the darker and lesser talked about aspects, through an interactive, city wide scavenger hunt. As beCAN develops the APP and the beacons can be developed into any specific topic, such as awareness about Indigenization or mental health.” - Johanna
Calgary's Heart Beat Light Installation
Concept
The Heartbeats installation combines data about Calgarian’s Heartbeats with light projection to create a delightful visual display of or presence over time and space. People would be invited to ‘leave their beat’ in a public space (e.g., a C-Train Platform, Olympic Plaza, community entrances or community centres, etc.) by placing their hand on a location-specific device. An individual’s heartbeat would then be added to a visual display that represent others who have been present at a different moment in time. The purpose of this installation is to bring the feeling of human presence into public space, even if they are not actually populated in that moment.
Function
The installation is comprised of a heart beat measuring device, a projector, a projection surface and an artist or designer to create the visuals for a projected animation that shows a set of heartbeats registered over a period of time (e.g., From 4pm-6pm weekdays downtown). The installation can be reset as often as is deemed appropriate. It may also act as a safety device.
Outcomes
In the cold, dark, winter months Calgarians tend to stay in their houses and not go out much. This can create feelings of isolation and lifelessness within the city. Heartbeats installations create a feeling of community and togetherness among those who interact with the installation as well as those who observe it. Heart beats are universal and are a strong symbol of life. Beyond the community installation, we are interested in the impact of such devices in hospitals, hospital rooms, seniors housing, hospice care, and in facilities that promote mental well-being. Digital files from Heartbeats could also be sent, shared, and programmed at the Calgary Tower.
Key Stressor
Inequality & Lack of Social Cohesion
Criteria
Prosperity: Sustainable, and it is Feasible – Can be adopted and budgeted for by local governments and communities.
Well-Being: Positive impact on natural environments, and Urban environments as the source of well-being for people.
Citizen & Community Engagement: Knowledge transfer and sharing, Common sense form of citizen participation, Coordination and scalable with/to others, and Engaging citizens and communities with a sense of purpose before, during or after a shock.
Use of the GLOW theme: Light for people - it enhances the quality of place, Light as a guidance system, Light as a protagonist that motivates spaces is affirming, and Light is a symbol for the attention and care we pay to our natural and human environment.
Student Developers: Gabrielle (MRU)
Aanattsii – Memorial Lights Project
Concept
The Aanattsii memorial light project is designed to bring awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) in Canada by creating a light memorial along Memorial Drive and Centre Street North. The display is meant to showcase the number of these beloved women from different viewpoints or angles – from Memorial Drive, from the Centre Street Bridge, from across the river, and from the air (--plane and/or satellite). We like the idea of controlling intensity as well. For example, can the lights get brighter as you approach, or be dim close to the ground and brighter as they approach the skies? Light is information. We wish to convey scale.
Function
The project includes 8 tall light structures, markers laid in a grid for way finding and at an interval that represents every 150 women. Each woman will further be represented by a single tea light – red tea lights for the number of documented women, and white tea lights for undocumented women and their families. The tall light structures can also be used to tie a piece of broad cloth too, a symbol of prayer, grievance, remembrance, or truth. Broadcloth fabric will be available for those who wish to engage this part of the project from an Elder involved on the project. Lanterns or illuminated balloons might also be considered, as could projects on the water or elsewhere.
Outcomes
The question posed to viewers/citizens is, “Did you find us?” This projection will be projected and illuminate the bridge. In doing so, the project becomes an experience for people and gives light to this (--and eventually other issues) which have been pushed into the dark. Light is a powerful material to remind us about grievances and remembrance beyond European/founder/settler tragedies and events. It brings communities together to address what is bringing darkness to society, communities and the country. The concept can be scaled and utilized by other marginalized communities, building empathy by sharing experience and awareness of sorrow, pain, struggle, and resilience.
Key Stressor
Inequality & Lack of Social Cohesion
Criteria
Prosperity: Sustainable, and it is Feasible – Can be adopted and budgeted for by local governments and communities.
Well-Being: Positive impact on natural environments, and Civic environments as the source of well-being for and relationship with people.
Citizen & Community Engagement: Knowledge transfer and sharing, Common sense form of citizen participation, Coordination and scalable with/to others, and Engaging citizens and communities with a sense of purpose before, during or after a shock.
Use of the GLOW theme: Light for people - it enhances the quality of place, Light as a guidance system, Light as a protagonist that motivates spaces is evocative, affirming, defends, and Light is a symbol for the attention and care we pay to one another.
Student Developers: Kinza (MRU) and Sumandeep (BVC)
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” - Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi
Enjoy the View: Take a Break from Work
Concept
A preliminary musing about how restorative it is to have a beautiful view to enjoy, even for a few minutes, in the context of an urban office building. Might we create a way for anyone in downtown Calgary to curate a series of beautiful personal or group office views, with a cycle or cue that would project these views on a surface, from time-to-time, as a stimulus to take a break.
A version of these musings also interrogated the idea of a forced brake, where networks and IT equipment would be ‘turned off’ conserving energy, which could then be donated to another community group in need. It was argued that the mandatory break increases productivity and that social experiences could also be designed during break time to encourage these behaviours.
Student Developers: Kauveri (BVC)
The Hive
Concept
Calgary’s +15 skywalk system is vast and programmers struggle to coordinate and refresh the many +15 kiosks and display areas. Inspired by a beehive sculpture in Boston, Vivacity participants discussed the +15 in Calgary, one of the world’s most extensive pedestrian skywalk systems, with a total length of 18 kilometers (11 miles) and 62 bridges. If the +15 is the hive for Calgary’s corporate and retail citizens can light and light therapeutics be deployed to serve this population in some way?
Student Developers: Julian (ACAD)
Dark Conversations
Concept
While social media can be a platform for creativity and community, anonymity, it is most often criticized for its ability to foment deception, aggression, and exploitation that create real harm to individuals, communities and citizenry. This exploration investigated ways in which light, used as metaphor, could be brought to reveal those persons or groups with malicious intent.
Student Developers: Kinza (MRU)
