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Power to the People (PTTP)

Image from Power to the People by Altern8
» www.mediasandbox.co.uk/power/

Inspired by giant, controllable, flexible streetlights in Rotterdam and games such as Tetris played on the side of buildings; Tarim, founder of software design and consultancy company Altern8, created a software system to enable playful interventions for public spaces.

Feb - May 2008

The possibilities are endless with Altern8’s belief that any outdoor space can become a place to play. For their Media Sandbox commission in 2008, Altern8 worked on an application that allows people to alter their physical environment in amusing and colourful ways. Tarim explains: “It could allow you to control fountains in a city centre, put light shows on the sides of buildings”, but there have been many complications along the way, forcing Altern8 to give themselves realistic targets while keeping their end goal in sight.

Altern8 wrote a queuing system called PTTP (Power To The People) that allows people to play with an installation using their mobile phones, laptop or other multimedia device. “People log onto the PTTP server via their mobiles, the server then shows your progress in the queue and alerts you when it’s your turn to play.” PTTP has been designed in a similar form to http, the dialect of the World Wide Web. It can control the playground by queuing and handling user requests, allowing user interaction within the specified rules of the playground designer. Its similarities with the Web mean that anyone with experience of simple Web development should be able to work with it.

The PTTP system was successfully tested at Glastonbury Festival 2009 using an Instant Graffiti application, which allowed people to draw using a giant Etch-a-Sketch-style projection via a mobile connection.

Related Links:
www.mediaplaygrounds.co.uk