Mission Village Market

Mission Village Market
Concept, Design, and Development by Leslie Rule, Stan Heller, and Thom Mallon.

Overview

Mission Village Market is a section of ‘Scape the Hood, the first major gps-enabled locative media project in San Francisco. See the ‘Scape the Hood intro movie.

Mission Village Market is a location-based project in the Mission district that starts every Saturday with the phrase, “We come to sell our wares.” Started as a community flea market by CELLSpace a community-based artist collective, The Mission Village Flea Market soon became a place of community empowerment. Every day but Saturday this one square block of city asphalt lay almost dormant. Lore has it, once a fueling station for the local utilities company it became a little used space once they pulled out. But on Saturday, it came alive. It didn’t take much to realize what potential this space had for finding and collecting stories. But that was just the beginning. We realized that we had the potential for great gps-enabled, location-based, narrative archeology project to capture what happens on Saturday and overlay it on the space to be experienced any day of the week - a ghost of Saturday any day of the week. As the fabulous locative media artist (and originator of the term “narrative archeology") Jeremy Hight has noted, “all spaces are agitated.” None more so that this space so full of community hustle and bustle.

Update: The Market is closed and the foundation has been laid for a 6-story mixed used apartment building. The Market has moved indoors to CELLSpace.

Process

Content is tagged to each colored region on this satellite map. Background sounds are tagged to the large circles.

While we can’t re-create the actual gps-enabled walk, here are some audio files that are embedded in the neighborhood, and that you would hear as you “walked the walk.”

Market Content
The Market is a perfect way to start your Saturday. (.mp3 file)
“The Market, it’s our favorite place. Every Saturday we all come with Carmila and find our treasures.

Finding something you’ve wanted since childhood. (.mp3 file)
“I could barely contain myself when I got it from the guy.”

A slightly strange story about Bay Bird Bones. (.mp3 file)
Buyer: How much? Seller: Five dollars for the two of them is what I usually tell people. But for you, three dollars. Buyer: Will you take a check? Seller: No. But you can owe me if you want.

Technology
iPaq handheld PDA
Mobile Bristol software
Audacity Recording Software
Mics and digital cameras
Laptops and Desktop computers

Partners
KQED, Public Broadcasting, San Francisco
Hewlett-Packard and the Mobile Bristol Platform Team
Digital Storytelling Festival

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