Inspired by Graffiti Research Labs, the principal tool of the Minneapolis Art on Wheels project is three Mobile Broadcast Units (MBUs), pictured above. These units were collaboratively constructed in the UMN course COLA 3950/5950 taught by Ali Momeni during the Spring of 2008.

Each MBU consists of:

1. a specially designed three wheeled bicycle
2. a very powerful projector capable of projecting 60′ by 40′ images outdoors
3. a small generator to provide power
4. a battery powered sound system
5. a powerful laser pointer
6. a camera and real-time software for tracking the laser pointer so as to allow us to draw on buildings in real-time

This MBUs are therefore incredibly powerful media diffusion tools that inspire a wide range of applications in supporting public art, social engagement, community outreach and diffusion of creative works within and outside the University community. These mobile media devices allow the Minneapolis Art on Wheels project to leverage mobility, scale and real-time interactive audio-visual software for the purpose of engaging broad audience in creative interaction with mobile media. Their mobility allows us to take this cutting edge system to neighborhoods with lower access to technology. Their ability to project images as large as 60 by 40 feet, outdoors, and to diffuse 1200 Watts of sound, allows us to transform public spaces into immersive environments that are experienced by a large public. Our specialized real-time audio-visual software allows us to create visualizations and sonifications with which users interact intuitively with gestures. For example, with “laser tagging” software, gestures with a laser pointer allow one to “draw” on buildings from very far away; gestures with off-the-shelf wireless game controllers (like the omnipresent Nintendo Wii controller) are sensed by our software to control expressive parameters in the generated sound or image. The integration of gestural controllers into the MBUs is a critical augmentation to the device in that it invites participation by agents with underdeveloped skill sets for the use of such media. Finally, the increasing ubiquity of city-wide wireless networks like that in Minneapolis allows our three MBUs to communicate in real-time. Such networks enable us to exchange media between distant sites, to access additional sources of information and media on the net, or to stream our work to a wide public through the net in real-time.

Minneapolis Art on Wheels is above-all an on-going public arts initiative. The strength of this project is its ability leverage advanced mobile technology to bring socially engaged art and technology into diverse communities. We aim to use the scale and diversity of access to our exhibitions to make the Twin Cities an international leader in socially engaged and technologically enhanced creative projects: Scale, in that we are able to produce moving images up to 60 feet by 40 feet, outdoors, in public spaces; and diversity in that our emphasis of mobile devices (i.e. cellular phones) and gestural interaction with media (e.g. laser tag, real-time video tracking and gesture recognition) allows a wide audience to interact with mobile media. The project engages students in creative use of technology and materializes this engagement in the form of community outreach and temporary public art. A primary goal of the present proposal, therefore, is to support this form of community outreach and public-art making.

The Art on Wheels blog is available at: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ali/cola3950artforthepeople/