So, as I just said, I stumbled across this project from around 2004 while I was rooting around, swimming through cobwebs of data on a peripheral drive down there in the server room of the Near Future Laboratory Global HQ.
I found the brochure that we had printed up to promote the project an dstuff. It was both a promotional brochure but maybe even more it was like..instructions/quick-start guide to explain what the drill was and how to use it.
Brochure Text (Introductions)
MobileSCOUT: A Field Guide of Audio Narratives
Are you in a concrete jungle or swamped by tourists? Who’s around you—what do you see? A deer, a dump, or a daydream? Saintly acts or sinful facts?
MobileSCOUT is an interactive public art project that collects short audio narratives of local surroundings, personal rituals, and public sightings. Using your mobile phone, you leave a voice message with the MobileSCOUT Ranger—an automated, quirky naturalist who guides you through a set of prompts.
MobileSCOUT asks you to be on the lookout for rare or endangered species of landscape, character, and event. Reveal moments that would otherwise remain invisible or disappear: accidental performance art you stumble into, a land developer’s crimes, or the sound of wind as you ride your bicycle up a hillside.
Turn your observation into a brief message about the:
Flora (landscapes)
Fauna (characters)
Behavior (events)
When you call, you’ll:
Pick your mission (Flora, Fauna, or Behavior)
Pick two habitat attributes (a “social habitat” + a type specific to your mission)
Record a message (up to 60 seconds), then review/save or redo
MobileSCOUT defines place as being made of social habitats, not geography. Recordings are organized into an audio/visual field guide according to the kind of space you occupy—play, work, nature, culture, private, public, branded, or free speech.
Brochure Text (Instructions/Quick-Start Guide)
Mission: FLORA
Claim the topography in which you’re wandering. You are a Surveyor—a stranger in this land. Describe where you are and what it looks like, smells like, sounds like.
A) Identify your habitat (choose one):
play 2. work 3. nature 4. culture 5. private 6. public 7. branded 8. free speech
B) Pick your terrain type (choose one):
mountain 2. mesa 3. desert 4. sea 5. swamp 6. hilly 7. jungle 8. forest 9. cave
C) Make your recording: up to 60 seconds. Review and save, or start over. You can hear a sample when you call.
Suggestions: disputed territory; a secret hideout; your favorite route; a real estate crime; a parking lot; a make-out spot.
Mission: FAUNA
Reveal your keen eye for character. You are a vigilant Bird Watcher with a mission: identify and discover new species. Describe the beasts who roam your landscape.
A) Identify your habitat (choose one):
play / work / nature / culture / private / public / branded / free speech
B) Pick a character attribute (choose one):
musical 2. chatty 3. flamboyant 4. henpecked 5. predatory 6. lone 7. flocking 8. strutting 9. flightless
C) Make your recording: up to 60 seconds. Review and save, or start over. Sample available when you call.
Suggestions: your boss the vulture; cooped-up office workers; two wolves at the bar; the dodo; a chivalrous stranger.
Mission: BEHAVIOR
Decode patterns of behavior. Consider yourself a cultural interpreter—otherwise known as a Snoop. Map the unseen relationships between inhabitants.
A) Identify your habitat (choose one):
play / work / nature / culture / private / public / branded / free speech
B) Pick a behavioral type (choose one):
aggressive 2. seductive 3. cooperative 4. voyeuristic 5. altruistic 6. self-interested 7. insane 8. surprising 9. predictable
C) Make your recording: up to 60 seconds. Review and save, or start over. Sample available when you call.
Suggestions: a traffic snarl; an impromptu fox-trot; a roaring sidewalk protest; a blinking lamppost; a weary host; an elk run-in; a late-night breakthrough.
MobileSCOUT (2004) — an interactive public art project by Julian Bleecker, Scott Paterson, and Marina Zurkow.