Title: Adventures in API
Project Summery: This project will explore internet based Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) through the creation of physical and digital interactive art and products, the project will access online services such as Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Facebook, BBC Backstage and Google Maps to create a interactive project which will be displayed at hand in and at the end of year show.
Format: The project may take any format which suits the design solution however it should include an interactive element, whether it be overt or not. In the past access to information on the internet was only via the standard interface provided by website owners however, more and more frequently large websites are offering free access to their data for others to produce what is commonly known as a mash up or widget.
Mash Up: A mash up is the combination of two or more services to produce a hybrid service which interfaces with both services and offers new functionality to one or both of the services, these mash ups sometimes collect extra information from users, and sometimes offer their own derivative APIs. An example mash up might use the Twitter API to collect information about tweeted messages within a 5 mile radius of a point selected in the Google Maps API which allows you to display map data in your application and add pin points for each tweeted message at the exact place it was written.
Widget: A widget is a small, single purpose application. Many of these widgets access databases of some kind, some times using APIs, widgets are common on modern computer systems and mobile phones, and generally are used to provide access to a website using a customised or improved interface. For example built into every Mac is a Yell.com widget, this widget allows users to search the Yell database and get telephone numbers from the database right on their desktop without having to load the whole site.
Project Description: This project excites me as I find the possibility of mixing art and these data sets very interesting, I can imagine no better outcome from this project than for people to be standing around my work, interacting, engaging and enjoying it. I would love to see people work out that it is using an API for example Twitter, and start trying hack their own messages into the system by posting their own messages to the live system.
The first week of the project will be spent experimenting with the APIs to see how I can access them and what I can get out of them and possibly cross-reference them (mash up). The next week will be spent experiment with the various physical and digital outputs that are available to use such as lights, sound and actuators and digital applications like Processing, Open Frameworks and VVVV. The third week will involve rapid prototyping of different idea and this will be done until the half way point. During the second half of the project I will develop the strongest prototypes into a few final solutions, at which point one will be selected to be produced full scale, based on the strength of the idea and the cost of implementation at full scale. This final idea will be implemented in the last 2-3 weeks of the FMP.