weBLIMP is a participatory media installation that explores crowd collaboration in the context of navigation. Participants are conceptually miniaturized and placed inside the gondola of a remote controlled blimp. Through ludic activities, where interaction is motivated by curiously and exploration instead of from external defined tasks, the project creates a sense of play. Participants, or pilots, steer the blimp by shifting their collective center of gravity, which in turn “tilts” the blimp in the appropriate direction.

Press for weBLIMP

• Fast Company: The Tech of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
• NOTCOT. Now archived, original link: http://www.notcot.org/post/28218/
• DesignBoom: weblimp
• ShawTV - (Television Interview)
• Green Diary: WeBlimp: Remote controlled blimp reacts to crowd response. Now Archived, original link: http://www.greendiary.com/entry/weblimp-remote-controlled-blimp-reacts-to-crowd-response/
• Gizmo Watch: Flying the WeBlimp, a crowd controlled flying airship. Now archived, original link: http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/flying-the-weblimp-a-crowd-controlled-flying-airship/
• Technabob: weblimp crowd-controlled remote airship: oh the humanity!

February 2010

Filed under interaction design, participatory media, installation, design, embodiment, SIAT, prototyping