Saturday, November 13, 2004

G3 mobile, Internet, tv , pop star combo

Quick!! Go to this site to preview 'Empire Square" a cartoon about to hit the UK Channel 4 screen imminently.... (but actually, the humour is not for the faint hearted and is, to say the least, on the dark side. It is to be shown late at night).
First developed on line by Blur's drummer Dave Rowntree, this cartoon has apparently a cult following on the Internet. The very pixelated characters were designed to star in shorts to be viewed on G3 mobile phones but have now been 'discovered' by Channel 4 as a rival to South Park. The English accents mean I can understand it all though and it certainly is novel to have something like this from the UK I think. (Not that I identify with the characters or anything.)
The site is very off the wall (literally - you'll see) - with interactive stuff a bit like the Sims - you can add your own building to Empire Square.
Spending time in the discussion forum is somewhat banal to say the least.

I am fascinated mainly by the conception of the cartoon as digital text, originally destined for phones. The whole thing is very intertextual, interactive and an extremely interesting development in terms of modality.

And also, by the way, .... I bought my first Bratz doll today. She has her own DVD camera, mobile phone and robotic dog. Very cool. I love her.

1 comment:

Joolz said...

I think you need to download realtime in order to make the Bratz site work.
It is free.
And you will have it soon anyway as when you put itunes on your opc (for your i pod) it comes as a package.
You could go to the apple web site today (make sure you go to uk one) and download in preparation for Father Christmas.

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Sheffield, South Yorks, United Kingdom
I am an academic interested in New Literacies, Digital Lifestyles, Informal Online Learning.