Generative Proposal: A virtual walk around the largest natural lake in Cornwall, The Loe Pool

The generative media project will provide a demo audience with a virtual walk of Loe Pool, with time-compressed fluctuating populations of fauna and flora. The flora and fauna will be pulled from a GIS database that the Cornwall Wildlife Trust has created and continues to build upon. The database maps all of the flora and fauna of Cornwall.

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust:

• New ways in which they could engage the general public by presenting to them dynamic interpretations of GIS data never seen before. They will see flora and fauna information sourced from a live database displayed using interactive techniques.

Ideas such as creating an educational parallel database that could be updateable by the public via SMS, using mobile phones, will also be put forward. This will enable visual and text stories to be developed.

• Ways in which specialists who collect data for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust could be helped out in the field, through such ideas as enabling new data to be sent in real time via their via email, designated website and mobile phone. (i.e. specialists walking around Loe Pool will be able to send in live data as they see it).

Presenting and developing

In addition to working, engaging and presenting to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, the project will be presented to the National Trust and Environment Agency officers of Loe Pool. Also, the project will be presented at two Green Map making conferences; one in Copenhagen, the other Dublin. This will ensure engagement from an international audience who importantly consist of cartographers and community mappers.

With the users of the Lake, it is hoped the project will be built upon beyond the deadline for generative media. This is important because the walk could be developed with the community as a live project in the future and delivered across broadband. The Lake is part of a town called Helston and is the first town to reach Broadband trigger levels in Cornwall. This project could begin to suggest and ‘unravel further’ new applications for locally based broadband projects.

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