The Mobile Urban Experience: Art and Social Interaction in The PORTAGE Project (DRAFT)

The ongoing research of academics, artists, designers, students and engineers at the Mobile Experience Lab at the Ontario College of Art & Design has created a broad, flexible and inclusive methodology that seeks to address the impact of emerging media technologies, current theoretical discourses, and the value of user participation in the resulting creations.1 In our current artist/designer driven research project, PORTAGE, a short street in downtown Toronto will be converted into a virtual theatre. Users with a range of mobile devices will be able to interact with participatory content experiences: spraying virtual graffiti on wall