IM: We've been featured!!

Here on Bristol 24/7 and
Here on Labour MP Kerry McCarthy's blog

How exciting!

IM: Recording sound

To get sound for the map we used tascams, I had never really used one before but they were relatively easy to use. After getting permission it is easy enough just to press record and let it run (of course after selecting the correct gain etc.). In this way we collected many awesome events with different generes as well as ambient sound of the river, shopping mall and even the inside of the cathedral. Unfortunately some where too quiet to be heard however so they could be not included on the map.

After a sound is captured I cut it in Audacity (a sweet free program for audio editing) and adjusted the volume, it's then very easy to upload onto http://www.thinglink.com/ on which we used the map as the base image, similar to Toronoto's sound map, and using the same widget.

IM: The Map Itself.

Excuse the formatting! It's impossible to change the size of this image now! :(

imon Elvin's map (FM Radio map in London) I used as a basis to create the map, using a google images map of Bristol I traced over the river and used the magic lassoo to colour the area, then after using a map created by a student from Bristol rather than google maps so that it is based on the real neighbourhoods rather than the data from google which may be innacurate. I liked it blank (See above) but others suggested that we put the names of areas on there as it's easier for people who are not from Bristol or are unfamilar with areas to put the names of them there too. So as you can see bellow, the finished map! A bit higher quality on the actual page!

IM: Coming up with a logo.

So we're thinking about spreading the word for our website, we've got this nifty idea that we put a few post card type
adverts in musical locations saying "Does Bristol deserve its Musical title?" Then have a free music
download cod
e on them which they can access via our site. Should get the right kind of people interested as they are in Musical venues, and free download of music, who can resist? :D

Anyway, for this, and some business cards and a poster hopefully we need a running theme, mainly, a logo!

In a production meeting yesterday we discussed a few ideas but the predominant one was a clean and clear minimalist representation of the tree at the bottom of where I live which has a kind of banded material jumper on it which can be seen on the left.

Clear cut and minimalist is the easiest for a large group to understand, the tree is always lovely aesthetically and often used to represent other things. Trees are innate to humanity I like to think so, no one could argue against a tree being used! Also it branches out and spreads just like a city does AND more importantly like music. Music because it splinters into smaller and smaller divisions and peculiarities, even though really they are all joined to the same term of music.

The choice of colours, black and white is obvious to keep it bold, and the colours then on the black and white to make it stand out and keep it interesting, not to mention Bristol is certainly a colourful city.

Anyway enough of my blabbing here's what I did (using artweaver, a very good free

photoshop type tool):

Took a sillouhette (sp?) type thing of a tree and outlined it, made it black, added a white circle behind it and put some coloured bands on it to represent the one seen on the left (I put different colours though, so that the theme we stick to on the website is a bit wider than pink, red and purple)

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You can see my first attempt VVVV down there.

I uploaded this to our integrated media facebook page and asked for opinions! Isabelle said the colours were a bit too bright maybe turn the saturation down a bit, so, yes sir, I did that.

Attempt number two:
I dont know if you can see really but the colours are a little more

subtle and a little less offensive to the eye. I didn't turn the

saturation down as such but I fiddled around the with "curves"

option.

Reuploaded to facebook, James suggested making the tree look more elegant and making the branches more thin at the end, alright James, I'll do that.

Attempt Number 3:

There you are, finished logo hopefully though Lara still has to give her opinion :O

I trimmed it down too and added a bit of Gaussian blur so that it wouldn't look all pixelated...

Now to think about business cards and posters and all that jazz.

IM: Thinking a bit more about the map.

Going on the "keeping it simple so as not to detract from the audio" I thought a good idea would to simply have a patchwork of the different districts in Bristol.

Here's a literal patchwork map: http://quilting.craftgossip.com/files/2011/05/scrap-map.jpg (The HTML options appear to have dissapeared from Blogger?!) Anyway, the mix of different patterns for each area I like, it defines the boundaries and has the potential to give the viewer a little clue as to what the area is like, it's aesthetically interesting too, but not complicated.

I'm giving it a go using Artweaver. A free program similar to photoshop which I've used for several years now. I have photoshop too, I just prefer Artweaver for familiarity.

Here's my first attempt at a patchwork style map:


Larger Image: http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/2779/testermap.jpg





And here's all the source images
Money: http://elsmomentsintime.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
Graffiti texture: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-15668935/stock-photo-abstract-graffiti-texture-on-a-wall.html
Rusted metal: http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?3484-Berkzol-s-Khador-Army
Ceiling: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidave/2201836291/
Grass: http://www.deceptivemedia.co.uk/photoblog/grass-2.html
Clifton Houses: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowlesteve/5560941894/
Bunker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samuelirving/5105387434/
Waterfront: http://fightingmonsters.wordpress.com/tag/local-government-ombudsman/
Market: http://visitbristol.co.uk/things-to-do/shopping/markets
Cathedral: http://www.oldukphotos.com/gloucestershire_bristol_page_III.htm
Ball planeterium: http://iku-saiko.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html
Knitted trees: http://emilyelixabeth.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-knit-therefore-i-am.html
gold glitter: http://walkthesand.blogspot.com/2010/12/d-is-for.html
Wood: http://www.freestockimages.org/2010/09/13/free-stock-images-part-32-old-wood-textures/

IM: The map itself?

Ye Olde Maps

http://www.antique-maps-online.co.uk/bristol-town-plan.jpg

http://mappery.com/maps/Medieval-Brussels-Map.mediumthumb.jpg

http://www.churchcrawler.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bristolchurches/thommap.jpg

In all of these maps the level of detail is very high, that which I think may distract from the sounds which are the main interest of the map. As well as the style being outdated because of the size and shape of buildings these days, I personally would find it too difficult to replicate over such a small time frame.

Modern Road Map

http://www.microcolour.com/mm_bristol_bath_map_area_image.jpg
As with those above the detail is hard to replicate and will distract from the sounds which are the important bit! As well as being something people see very often, they are not very interesting to look at if you're not trying to find a location, in my opinion anyway.

"Modern Art" Maps

http://i-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/dc/MetroModernArt.jpg
Here's a play on the traditional underground map, I like this because as well as simplicity it plays with bright colour so the eye is always interested in the piece no matter if it is simple. The viewer is also kept interested via the "liveliness" of the picture, this is done by the rough outlines of the lines, probably done by a dry paintbrush. Aesthetically it seems to represent the way light looks in long exposure pictures with fractures and bright colours, which of course connotes the city and nightlife, something definitely valid to the Bristol music scene!

http://rlv.zcache.com/bogus_franz_kline_art_map_card-p137343449943629609z857a_400.jpg

In this map the boarders are the focus, similar to the FM map I mentioned in the last post (but with the river) it allows you to create points inside of the reference, hopefully people know the contour of either the borders or the rivers etc to know where things are in relation to them.

http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/previews/755142-washington-dc-smithsonian-american-art-museum-modern-art-video-installation-neon-lights-us-map.jpeg

I really like the style of this map, although in sculpture form it could be replicated on Photoshop. It works better in American cities than English however because of America's planned and "block" system where it is built at speed to a plan, whereas in England, cities and towns tend to have grown much more naturally and organically into small alleyways, and odd shapes, not as easy to stack a bunch of TVs for anyway. The neon however is really good, I like it because again it refers to the night life, the slightly undercared for part of the city, where all the interesting things happen basically.

Another great source of map inspiration is the Video Game Map

http://myepsilon.org/maps/gtasa_2player_map.jpg

This is a map of the GTA san andreas map, I like it because of the simple colours and easy to understand locations, however I would love to have a map that dosen't focus on roads. (Ignore the little numbers and green and red key at the bottom, that's not actually in the game)

To be continued later.

IM: Soundscape map? Some more research.

After some googling, the obvious first port of call, I found a few soundscape maps:
http://www.soundaroundyou.com/#3

This one is the entire globe, it seems like a lovely idea, and very similar to what we are doing but the subject area appears to be way to big, so the ammount of actual sounds are very limited, far less are scattered across the world map than we hope to put on just our Bristol map!

(A much more successful version of the map abouve) http://www.soundcities.com/

Based around specific cities, but only based on their ambient noises (as far as I have seen so far) so in Bristol it is mainly just traffic noise and the hustle and bustle of people talking. Again just the same old boring google maps map, but on a giant world map it makes more sense that way as it would be difficult to cover the entire world in such detail by hand.

http://www.hasa.org/soundscape/map/
This one is based around one city, Baltimore. With much more sound clips, this appears to be a lot more like what we are aiming to create, but the map is the same old google map and the interface dosen't seem to actually allow me to listen to the sound, although I do like the short description of the sound in each area as well as the decibells. The sound "markers" also are far too large on the zoomed out map, causing a mess of markers meaning the map is barely visible underneith anyway when zoomed out!

http://soundsofmycity.tumblr.com/map

This map Lara found is the closest to the map we're hoping to make, and it's based on Tumblr, something we can easily replicate, and it's made with this application (which is also free and easy to use! YAY). As well as the map being an individual, visually new and interesting map, the points do not disturb from it until you choose to click them, the sounds included may mostly be ambient but there are also sounds of "the game" in a stadium and "buskers" on a street, so it is moving towards what we hope to acheive!

Just to look at map styles, here's a map of London based around purely the Thames. It tells you about where fm radios around the city can be heard. The simplicity of the map yet recognisableness of the Thames still is lovely, it really shows that the radio stations are the importance, not the buildings and landscape but the points specifically drawn up for your interest.