So I’ve arrived in Sydney on my way to NZ and finally getting a piece together after my subtlemob experience last Thursday in London (Duncan Speakman’s Subtlemob “As If It Were The Last Time”) I see Rupert has mentioned this in an earlier blog and linked to Hannah Nicklin’s great description of the event.
At 6pm we all turned on the soundtrack, sometimes we were given instructions and sometimes we watching other people carry out instructions. Duncan describes Subtlemob as “a piece of invisible cinema” sometimes you are walking through a film and sometimes you are performing in that film.
When I spoke to Duncan after the event about how the idea came about he said it was about a different way of working, he’d been interested in flashmobs but wanted to make it more about the experience as opposed to a video that would end up on YouTube.
So instead of video of the event itself, here are a couple of clips of Duncan talking about it, that I shot on my new N97:
Interestingly Duncan said that the performed piece didn’t all happen how he expected, there were things that he thought might happen and loads of things that he never expected. There was one point when we were told to move quickly and change direction when people noticed us, Duncan had expected this to be a really intense dark moment but in fact it became a game. For me this was one of the best bits, suddenly we were laughing hysterically with complete strangers in the middle of Covent Garden
Part of the idea behind the piece was to make us aware of our surroundings – as an example, the realisation that if you smile at people in the street they don’t smile back at you. I certainly found this when I utterly failed to get one person to smile back at me.
The soundtrack worked really well on that dark wet night and I especially liked the fact that after it was over other players (strangers!) stopped to have a chat about it in the street… it definitely had the effect of connecting you to your surroundings and others around you. I think the “invisible cinema” is a fantastic concept and highly recommend the experience. I’m looking forward seeing what Duncan does next.
Last night, Charlotte took part in Duncan Speakman’s ‘subtlemob‘ in Covent Garden.
Imagine walking through a film, but it’s happening on the streets you walk down everyday…
when you put on the headphones you’ll find yourself immersed in the cinema of everyday life. As the soundtrack swells people in the crowd around you will begin to re-enact the England of today.
I was in Devon, so couldn’t be there, and Charlotte’s now on her way to New Zealand via Cardiff, so her reporting of the experience might be a little delayed…
Luckily, I just saw that Hannah Nicklin has written a great post about it here.
And Duncan has already posted this video of people talking about their experiences:
After London last night, it happened in Bristol today at 5pm (when I was stuck just outside Bristol in a traffic jam with a screaming baby) and will happen again tomorrow (Saturday), in Liverpool at 4pm.
From the mainstream… A couple of examples of big media companies promoting major properties with transmedia games:
221B is a two-player Facebook-based game to promote Guy Ritchie’s new Sherlock Holmes film – apparently devised for Warner Brothers by AKQA. The game immerses you and your playing partner (one as Holmes and one as Watson) into the world of Sherlock Holmes and takes you through the events leading up to the first scene of the new film. I’ll be starting tomorrow, as soon as my Dr Watson is ready… CC
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To publicise the release of Stephen King’s new doorstop novel, Under The Dome, Hodder & Stoughton have organised a treasure hunt, asking for people to volunteer as Hiders, Seekers and Writers – with prizes for each. Hodder have broken the book’s 336,114 words (!) into 5196 pieces. Hiders are required to hide the pieces, online and offline; Seekers are then given clues to find them. Writers are asked to “take inspiration from the theme of Under The Dome and enter our creative writing competition.”
Nice idea? Exciting? Engaging? Well, the competition closed on November 7th (two days ago) and the first prize was a night in a 4 star hotel (ooh) on November 8th (yesterday) in London (where most of the players already live).
But so far there’s no sign of who’s won on either their Twitter (last update Nov 6th) or their website, which hasn’t changed and still invites participation in the competition. Sloppy.
