Where Are We Now? is about opening up access to mobile phone technology to artists and social entrepreneurs. The project is developing a service that enables media creators to exploit the possibilities of mobile telephony, specifically the use of location data in the creation art works and services.

The mobile telephone is the most pervasive and successful communications technology of recent times, yet the technology and the networks over which this communication takes place are almost entirely proprietary, and mostly inaccessible to non-corporate media creators.

The objective of Where Are We Now? is to open one of the new generation of mobile communication technologies, location based services (LBS), to non-corporate creators. LBS cover a range of technologies that enable the networks and 3rd party content creators to obtain information on where a given mobile telephone is in the UK.

Location technology has great potential for the creation of innovative art work, social projects and political processes. Where Are We Now? seeks to realise this potential by encouraging wide participation in the creation of location based media.

The project follows three stages:

• Stage One - user research, technical and commercial appraisal.
• Stage Two - technical and service design.
• Stage Three - prototype development.

The research is now complete and is documented on this site (see main menu). The detailed project report is available here as a PDF. A prototype system has been built and an art work The One Pound Shop created that uses the system.

A forum on this site is available for interested parties to contribute to the project’s development. Please feel free to post your ideas or opinions.