Today my Work Pace app has a rather angry red face as it's trying to tell me that I've gone over the amount of hours worked today, in fact it's done that most days that we've been working on this project that has involved computing. Nothing that remarkable there though. I thought about reprogramming Work Pace to be more lenient but that won't help as I really need to keep an eye on my computer usage and try and keep arm and hand pains down to a minimum.

Anyhow, today we've been working on the poster and flyer. We need to have them printed by the 18th so that we can piggyback on the Village Green promotions. At the moment the only difference between the poster and the front of the flyer is the funders and supporters logos, which will appear on the back of the flyer. We've tried to keep it simple and friendly, and to use shapes that people might be familiar with. Also keeping the Signpost white keeps a little bit of intrigue as to the what the actualy Signpost will be like. It also helps as the actual object isn't built yet and don't have any images to use.

At the moment the back needs more work as there is too much text and it's not very readable so needs to be in a larger font. But more work on that tomorrow. Below are images of the Flyer front, flyer back, and poster.

Today I also rang Neil at Carters Joinery, who will be making the post and he said that he has received the plans from William, and will start on our drawing in the morning. I also got a message from Paul Malone to say that the headphone electronics will be ready Monday, so that should be just in time for constructing the post...exciting.

Yesterday evening William dropped round a sample of the wood to be used in the construction of the post. So today I printed off the icons and in doing so with a greyscale version, realised that there wasn't much contrast on the yellow version so we added in some more magenta and did it again. I then cut them out and offered them up to them wood. The yellow looked much better slightly darker and we are happy with how they look against the wood colour. They'll look a bit darker after the Signpost has been varnished, but then so will the wood so we shouldn't have any problems there.

I also received the Village Green logo from Sean at Metal so started on the flyer, but more on this when its finished.

Foteini at Shape has also been checking things over for us, including the website, and she'd noticed that I'd missed some of the Alt-tags off of new images, so I've been back in and added them.

So now we have most of the parts I've been testing them to make sure everything works and that the quality is going to be good enough. Going back to what I was saying the other day in that getting everything to work together is problematic was still ringing true as I was still a cable short of connecting the second screen to the splitter cable coming from the first screen. I rang David Valentine (usually the first port of call in a video/hardware related problem and he said he had a cable that would do the job. So I cycled over there to pick it up. I also went to South Essex Fasteners to try and get some screw to fix the Jack Plates which I had got yesterday, but without any luck.
So, when I plugged in the cable I found it only worked when not fully inserted into the socket...so we nearly have the right cable, but it seems the polarity is incorrect...something Paul said he would be able to fix with some small surgery. Paul also took away the Plates and Jack sockets to drill and assemble them, which he said wouldn't take very long, so hopefully we'll have them back next week.
William also came round again to measure up all the electronics, and discuss the access point, and the Finger of the sign, and he left with all the information he needs to finish off the CAD drawing that will be sent to the fabricators. He said we should also have the sample part of the post as well next week, so we can test the NXT speakers and check the colour of the icons against wood for clarity.

Today was the first day that we've spent entirely on the project. Time is ticking by and we've still got a lot to do, but we're making progress. A lot of time has been taken up by trying to use seperate periperals and connect them together in a particular way that will do what we want. Obviously, its not that easy as we're trying to do something that is a bit different and we're trying to work out how things work, without having to buy them first. Going to see actual objects in shops is proving a pretty fruitless (and tedious)  experience but its the only way that I can get a good idea of how something will work and find out smaller details about each product that you can't see from a 100x100 pixel jpeg online.

Anyhow, I think we've sussed it all out now as we have some bits on order to arrive this week. Then we can fix them all together and see if it works. Will has also ordered our sample panel and so it shouldn't be long before we can test the overall set up. All we need now is some sound and visuals to play back, so as well as all this we've been transcribing the sounds from Colchester and testing out formats of .txt files, which Damien can elaborate on a bit more. But for now, here is a random sound clip to whet your appetite.

File Information:
Colchester_ryegateroad2.wav (Vibe Cube edit)
Colchester: Ryegate Road
00:24:00
(field recording)

(0-26 seconds)
distant water rushing over weir & ice cream van engine
(12-18 seconds)
squeak of break on bmx
(15-17 seconds)
three boys whizzing past on bmx's

We've been keeping up momentum with another meeting with Will last night and a visit to Chalkwell park this morning. The plan was to look around and identify possible sites in advance of our suggested site meeting tomorrow with Metal's Programme Executive, Sean McLoughlin, but on arrival we thought it was worth giving him a call & then we spotted him in person. After refuelling us with coffee, we talked through some practicalities and thoughts developed with Will, and then surveyed three possible sites.

Village Green 2010 is the third annual event set up and managed by Metal; from its beginnings as a one-off, it has rapidly become a fixture in the Southend calendar, developing and growing every year. So whilst we have particular requirements and plans, we also have to take into account the myriad other projects, happenings and experiences that will be available on the day. We feel our mutually agreed site - quite central in the park, just off the main avenue - is the best balance. With the help of Will's drawings, we've mocked up a picture to give you an idea of what the work might look like there.

Next up is testing some technical issues; we had an epiphany this morning about the approach we were taking; sometimes a get-round process just adds to the journey, so we're trying a short cut; more about that once we know it's not a cul-de-sac.

Today we met with William Monte, with whom we worked on the Vibe Cube, to talk about the construction of the Signpost. We spoke at some length about materials, construction techniques, finishes, accessibility, power, security, vandalism and manufacturing, over tea and biscuits. He's now going to make some technical drawings based on our discussions and also get a sample piece of post made so we can test the NXT exciters to get the best results for 'feelsound'. More on this as we get the results.

I also updated this website to include some sounds and the map of Colchester, where the sounds originate...feel free to have listen.

 'Signpost' is a site-specific multi-sensory installation where audiences will experience sounds recorded in the town to which it points. Intended as an alternative conception of journeying, the project is aimed at settings outside traditional arts infrastructures.'

To illustrate this a bit further and get an idea of how it might be constructed I made a maquette of how I envisage it to look.Scale isn't quite correct but its a good overview and has helped me thing about the construction a lot. We'll be meeting with William Monte, who helped design and build the Vibe Cube, at the weekend to discuss practical construction issues and materials.

We'll also be doing research on what components we'll be using as interfaces and how they'll all be linked up and powered. One thing we do know is that we'll be continuing our use of NXT speaker technology which has been present in the Vibe Cube projects and also in the AWSoM Cubes.