noogy autopsy

	Noogy autopsy
	i-DAT and its collaborators have installed a large scale interactive installation at the University of Plymouth. Noogy goes live during Motion Plymouth Festival 16 – 19 November 2006. ‘Noogy’, the latest resident in the Portland Square Complex on the University campus, will combine a rich mix of the physical and virtual by incorporating 'smart' buildings and mobile phone technologies into a dynamic building size interactive ‘creature’. Noogy draws obvious references from the Tamagotchi, first introduced in November 1996, and marketed as "the original virtual reality pet", but is here developed to investigate notions of collaborative responsibility and social interaction through anthropomorphic artifacts. Online and offline visitors will stimulate the life of Noogy by moving through the building, communicating with the creature through mobile phones and performing the digital equivalent of nurturing this monster pet. Noogy will provide a temporary ‘personality’ for the Arch-OS system. Arch-OS represents an evolution in intelligent architecture, interactive art and ubiquitous computing. An 'Operating System' for contemporary architecture, Arch-OS ('software for buildings') has been installed in Portland Square to manifest the social and ecological life of a building. Arch-OS provides a ‘nervous system’ for Noogy and allows the monster pet to evolve through conversations with passersby during the Motion Plymouth Festival.
	Noogy Build:

	Noogy System:

	Noogy Test:

	Physical Profile:
	Gender: Asexual, androgynous, self-replicating, but probably progenetic “Organisms that are progenetic never achieve the adult form experienced by their evolutionary ancestors.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progenesis) Age: Ageless - but still in a pupa or larval stage of development. Appearance: Pixelated! Height: Between .5 µ microns and 25 meters. Weight: About 5,980,000,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons. Accent: As a resident of Plymouth he has the subtle cadence and inflection of the Janner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janner). As a digital Plymothian or ‘Plymoid’ his natural language is developing rapidly and delicate elements of Japanese slang and a transatlantic lilt can often be perceived.
	Psychological Profile:
	Were Noogy to be mistaken for a human one might describe the dynamic personality as ‘manic’, freakish, hyper or just tetchy. As a non-human intelligent entity it might be unfair to characterise Noogy with these symptoms. Noggy’s "severely elevated mood" can be perceived as somewhat desirable and enjoyable, however, his impulsive behaviour can be very irritating (at best) and downright frightening (at worst). Rest assured that these are normal psychological states for whatever a Noogy is. Noogy certainly doesn’t intend to offend (we think) and the impulsive behaviour may later be regretted. Noogy is can be frequently grandiose, irritable, belligerent, and even psychotic. Noogy also always talks about himself in the third person, and is often found having conversations with himself. Noogy is certainly dynamic and, whilst the hyperactivity, talkativeness (txting), racing thoughts and misperceptions may lead to frustration and unintelligible attempts at communication, Noogy means well and cherishes interaction with people, buildings and the world in general. True happiness is a rare commodity, and there is nothing rarer than a Noogy!
	Future Developments:
	Overview The Noogy Project is part of a large scale Digital Interpretation Projects for Educational Sustainable Development. The Centre for Sustainable Futures CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning), is embarking upon two exciting projects to communicate sustainable information about life at the University of Plymouth. Whilst investing in a series of low carbon projects the research team are also developing two large scale digital systems that will reach a wide audience through the use of cutting edge LED technology. The first is a large scale LED matrix that is intended to fill the window of Atria A of Portland Square. The full colour screen will display information and graphics that describe ecological and social data collated from a day in the life of the University campus. Waterfalls of water will be seen cascading down the building changing in size according to how many taps were turned on and how many toilets were flushed in a day. Fire will leap up the building describing how much energy was used to heat buildings, and forests of trees will be seen to fall depending upon how much paper was used. The second is a lighting system for the roof of the new Immersive Vision Theatre. A lighting system will be used to illuminate the hemispherical surface of the dome to express how ecologically balanced the University’s lifestyle is, whilst LED displays communicate information from feeds all around the world. Both systems will be publicly interactive through mobile phones and will be able to show a wide variety of movies, messages and graphics that the North Hill pedestrian and road traffic will be able to see. Project Development The two projects are in currently in development by the Institute of Digital Art & Technology (i-DAT) with technical consultancy provided by Pyramid. i-DAT who will maintain the systems, are working closely with the CSF to design user friendly interfaces to allow staff and students to broadcast material. Taking digital feeds from the campus building management systems that record live data about environmental, social and network activity, i-DAT are working with creatives to develop powerful and expressive media forms that engage and involve anyone passing by the screen. Operating from 4pm to 10pm the LED systems are low energy, flexible displays that have yet to be used on this scale anywhere in the world. Project TeamChris Speed, Mike Phillips and B Aga (i-DAT), Alan Dyer and Mhairi Mackie (CSF), Graham Doney (Tech Services), Rob Score (Estates Dept.) and Nic Black (Pyramid)