Wearable Technology and Concerts; do audiences need it?
Imagine the current concerts or music festivals that you
have been to, and think about how your interaction is with the artist on stage.
You go there, dance for a little, or a lot depending on how well your stamina
treats you, leave, get disappointed with the sets and go home.
Some people even have pre-drinking and drugging sessions to
make the concerts or raves more exciting for them. They only have passive light
accessories to wave around and their voices to get themselves noticed in the
crowd. Products like Xyloband and the Tomorrow land bracelet emerged to solve
these problems of feedback and interactivity in crowds but remain passive for
the users. Companies seem to go to wearable technology to solve these problems.
But the question is, do audiences really need these devices to obtain a better
party experience?
Firstly, let's understand the words Wearable Technology. Wearable is an article of
clothing or device where you could put on or wear and could take off at will.
If you couldn't take it of at will, that would be Implant Technology.
Technology on the other hand involves any invention with any devices developed by scientific knowledge which
includes analog and digital devices like umbrellas, plastic bottles, computers,
paper and etcetera.
Why
is it utopian for some but dystopian for some? There are many movies leaning
heavily on either side of how wearable technology would either be accepted or
rejected. There are some who support Cyborgism and there
are those who are against it.
But what makes Wearable
Tech so special? Wearable Tech is a part of 'new' media and is categorized
under Ubiquitous computing. As an illustration, I would be comparing Virtual
Reality and Ubiquitous computing. The characteristics of Virtual Reality draws
the user into the virtual world, very much like flight simulators pilots go
through during training. However, Ubi computing are like ambient media where
the virtual world is brought out into the real world, blending into our
environment. For example, holograms,
multi-touch glass displays at boutiques and Google Glass. They are meant
to serve in our world and therefore is quite the opposite of VR. (Lister, 2000)
They are designed in such a way that the medium disappears, allowing the users
to focus more on their content.
But how does this categorize
and relate to Wearable Technology in concerts?
Companies that are designing these products for mass media consumption
are disguising these technologies as watches, bracelets and bands which we may
wear daily.
Why do they disguise them in such a way? Besides practical
reasons, wearable technology are designed to be invisible technologies.
Audiences crave Immediacy from technology and is gaining popularity over the
years. Immediacy is when the users are unaware of the medium or technology.
Wearable technology isn't exactly a new invention, it has been remediated from
the early pocket watches and such. For example, you might be looking at a
grassy scenery through a window, but rarely you would be able to notice the
window itself. Therefore, the content would be given more focus rather than its
medium, the window.
The limits for wearable technology are endless. To have a
clearer picture, this tech could be divided into two different functions which
are 'Utility' or 'Entertainment'. Some wearable tech do try to merge both
functions as well. For example, if you were to use the Wearable Tech as a
utility in concerts, it could act as a ticket, or a pass for you to enter the
concerts like the Tomorrowland Facebook bracelets are used by raves like Tomorrowland. There
are some debates on the usefulness of these bracelets which act as a Facebook
friend request medium where users had to place there watches sides by side and
press the button on their watches simultaneously and wait awhile for the
Facebook friend request to be sent to their paired accounts. Innovative as the
idea may be, it deemed hassling to the users as they would rather take out
their mobile phones to execute the action. Tokyoflash has launched an
innovative watch, the Kisai Intoxicated watch for US$99 which acts as a
breathalyzer to check the alcoholic levels of attendees. However, there are
some concerns about its accuracy. Which brings me to my next point. Due to its
sudden boom in demand by users, and being not gone through years of maturing
and ample research and development, there are concerns and doubts of wearable
media effecting health and mobility, although ironically these devices are
invented to monitor and aid these factors.
As for Wearable Technology functioning as entertainment
devices, artists like Coldplay had used Xyloband. These bands connect to a
central computer
Repressive and Emancipitory use of these tech.
-UPDATE HERE
Imagine a world of future concert experiences. First off,
you put on your wearable tech device on your wrist which acts like an ID, NFC
entry ticket, and alcohol/drug monitor and enter the interactive party hall.
Underaged users and users with high alcoholic levels are not permitted and left
outside the hall. Everybody is wearing the device as well. This would be a
world without mobile phones, where you wouldn't need to record your party
experience or take pictures. All you needed was your band which connects to the
responsive rotatable cameras all around the concert cite and your computer at
home. The collective data from all your bands could send data to the stage
screens and DJ which would change the mood and music of the concert depending
on the majority. And the best of all, the band works as a GPS tracker so that
you could always, find your friends in the crowd.
Technologies and the advancement of men are measured in
ages.
There are the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the
steam age, the industrial age, atomic age, television age, space age, and
currently, the Information age.
Where does that leave Wearable Technology? The age of Calm
Technology would be the future for Wearable technology where this would be the
age where technology would be all around us, invisible and immediate.
Here comes the age of calm technology!
Tokyo flash
http://www.news.com.au/technology/japanese-smartwatch-includes-its-own-breathalyser-and-drunk-test-game/story-e6frfrnr-1226666649214
THE CALM TECHNOLOGY
http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/acmfuture2endnote.htm
glass age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OSBJwogFc
reference cyborgism
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