MELANY NUGENT-NOBLE

When it is Necessary to Stand Still Handbook
Updated September 8, 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Picking up and returning your beacon
You, your beacon and the community
Caring for your beacon

Hello, and thank you for participating in When it is Necessary to Stand Still. This project has been developed over the summer and I am excited to finally be able to share it with the Kelowna community!

This digital handbook provides information to help you care for your beacons over the duration of your activation and other information that may be useful to help guide your experience having it with you in the community. Please read through carefully and if you have any questions that aren’t answered here, please reach out using this form or emailing me via responding to your confirmation email.

The activations are scheduled for the following dates*:

September 10-12, 2020
September 14-16, 2020
September 17-19, 2020
September 21-23, 2020
September 24-26, 2020
September 28-30, 2020
October 2-4, 2020
October 6-8, 2020
October 9-11, 2020
October 14-16, 2020

For each activation, the specific pick up and drop off location and timeframe will communicated to you via the activation confirmation email. (The same email that included the link to this handbook.) Generally, all activations will begin around 6 pm on the first day, and end on the morning of the third day. In most instances, City of Kelowna public parks will be used as pick up drop off locations and in consideration of COVID-19 guidelines. If you require flexibility with pick up/drop off times and locations, please let me know. I recognize that everyone is maintaining different and complex schedules, and I do not want this to be a barrier to participation for anyone.

When you pick up your beacon at the beginning of the activation, you will receive:

• one beacon;

• one wireless qi charging base;

• one USB cable;

• one USB wall charger plug;

• business/information cards; and

• admission pass to the Kelowna Art Gallery. (I currently have an installation in the Kelowna Art Gallery Courtyard called Nothing to be done, which opened in August 2020. You can use this pass to check out my exhibition as well as other programming. For more information, visit: https://kelownaartgallery.com/nothing-to-be-done/ )

• Okanagan Co-lab stickers and information: The Okanagan co-lab is a co-working space here in Kelowna that hosts many creative, innovative, tech and start up professionals working on diverse projects. They have been instrumental in the development of this project to date, including through the Convergent Studio Residency in 2016 to help me to develop the early stages of the project. For more information, visit: https://okcolab.com/bridging-arts-tech-convergent-studio-artist-residency/

At the end of the activation, you must return:

• one beacon;

• one wireless qi charging base;

• one USB cable;

• one USB wall charger plug;

While you have your beacon with you for the duration of your activation, you are welcome to keep it with you as you move through your daily routines as much as possible. As a keeper of a beacons, you will engage directly with your beacon as an object; with other participants and as contributors (or performers) of a collective hue of the beacons.

Your beacon may become a surrogate companion or large accessory that you take with you on your daily routine. Alternatively, you may simply acknowledge their beacon as an object of comfort that stays stationary in your home for the duration of time that you have it your possession. This is up to you.

As you keep the beacon with you, it will change colour and intensity based on the other beacons moving closer and further apart. When the beacons are all within 8 km to each other, the lights will become brighter and will change colour as they move closer and further apart. The colour of your beacon is determine by the cumulative distances of each beacon from yours, as follows:

For instance, if the total sum of the distances of all of the other beacons is less than 4 km, your beacon will glow purple at 30% light intensity.

Because the colour of the light is dependant on the cumulative value of the distances, you are responsible for the experience that the other participants in your activation have, and likewise, they are responsible for your experience.

Please note: Like all lights, the more ambient or daylight there is, the more challenging it can be to see what colour the light is.

How do I engage with other participants and the general public? Are there rules?

There are no specific rules for engagement with the beacons, however participants are expected to engage in this project in the spirit of goodwill, cooperation and respect, both towards the beacons that you will be given to your care and towards those who you engage with within the community-at-large. This includes ensuring the beacons are maintained properly and returned on time at the end of the activation period. It also means following and health and safety guidelines, especially within the context of COVID-19. Don’t do anything illegal.

Following this, I encourage you to have as much agency with how you engage with the beacons as possible. You may be as passive or active with the ways that you choose to engage with other participants, and the community-at-large. Feel free to check out this article, which does a great job of describing the role of engagement in the activations: Melany Nugent-Noble Explores the Poetics of Connection with Participatory Artwork.

Will I know who the other people participating in my activation are?

You will not be told the names or other information about others in your activation. Participants are welcome to seek out other participants, either face-to-face serendipitously, or finding each other via coordinated efforts.

Can I take photos of my beacon and share them? Yes, absolutely. You are welcome to share any images or video that you take on social channels. If you do share photos, please tag #melanynugent-noble @cherub_mogwai @cityofkelowna

What if I get questions about the project from my family, friends or members of the general public?

Curiosity provides another way to engage the community. In experiences activating the beacons to date, participants had regular encounters on streets, in restaurants with the general public who are interested in the project may ask questions about the beacons, why people have them and what they do. The business cards that have been provided are for you to carry with you and give to those who may want more information about the project. Scanning the QR code on the card using the camera on your phone will take you directly to the project website for more information. You are welcome to share about the project and your experiences with anyone who is curious.

Can I take my beacon anywhere? Can I take it outside of Kelowna? Yes. You can leave Kelowna with your beacon, however, the colour and intensity of the light is based on the added values of proximity of all of the beacons in the care of all participants based on your activation. For instance, if you travel a substantial distance such as to other communities, you may be far enough away that you skew the distance higher, making all of the beacons have a lower intensity of light.

Each beacon is made up of hardware, including Internet of Things (IoT) Particle Boron, GPS, LED (neopixel) lights, and wireless charging (qi) components that are encased in a dodecahedron shell that has been made of resin. The beacons communicate to each other through their own cellular network by transmitting their GPS coordinates, and receiving what (R,G,B, intensity) colour states that they should be based on their proximity to the other beacons every minute.

Each beacon also has a switch to be able to turn it on and off, if necessary (however, you should not have to turn the beacon off at any time durning the activation).

How should I handle and care for my beacon? Please handle your beacon with care. Throughout the activation, you are responsible for keeping your beacon charged, and keeping it with you throughout your day to day routines as much as possible and within reason. (Don’t take it in the shower with you!) It is an electronic device, and should be treated as such. This means please do not throw it, handle it roughly, get it wet or any other actions that may damage it. Your beacon is not waterproof. Please handle your beacon with care.

Charging your beacon. The battery for your beacon is highly dependant on the lighting levels that will occur during the activations. For instance, the brighter, or higher the brightness of the lights the faster the battery will be drained. In my experiences and in testing, the battery lasted for 4 hours when the light was at full (100%) intensity. Alternately, at 10% intensity, the battery lasted for 8 hours.

As best practice, I recommend keeping your beacon on the charger whenever possible. For instance, when you are at home, or at your office, keep it on its charger. You should also keep your beacon on the charger overnight. The beacon lights will remain on while it is charging. Unfortunately, there are no indicators on the beacon that tell you how much battery life is left.

To charge, the coiled cables which are visible on the bottom face of your beacon should be placed directly onto the qi charger. You should be able to see a steady red light near the bottom of the beacon while the beacon is charging. There is also an indicator light on the charging base located net to the cable. Wireless charging base LED indicator states are as follows:

Power on: LED lights up for three seconds
Charging: LED on
Charging completed: LED off
Error: LED flashes (In my experience, the error light comes on when the beacon is not positioned directly in the centre of the charging base and/or when it is not plugged into its own outlet, but rather is plugged into a power bar.

When your beacon is charging, you will be able to see a steady red light (depending on the colour and intensity of the beacon’s main lights. When the beacon is fully charged, this light will be green. It should take approximately 5 hours for a drained battery to be fully charged.

I have my own wireless charging base, can I use it? Any Qi wireless charging base will work with the beacons. (Qi wireless charging is a common type of wireless charging technology that many mobile device manufacturers such Apple, Google, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, BlackBerry and Sony use, for instance. If you have a wireless charged that you use with your phone, it is likely a qi charger, and can be used with the beacon.)

Troubleshooting

Firstly, if something happens and your beacon stops working for any reason, do not panic!

There are some common issues that I have outlined below for if the lights go off, with solutions. If neither of these solutions work, please contact me and I can walk through any troubleshooting with you, or alternately, arrange for another beacon for the remainder of the activation.

Troubleshoot lights turn off #1: No cellular service: Just like with our mobile devices, we may get a bad signal. For instance, in elevators, basements, stairwells or or other places that you may encounter poor cellular reception. When the beacon has a poor connection, the light will go off, and it may take a few minutes for it to turn on again. Be patient.

Troubleshoot lights turn off #2: The battery may be dead: If you feel that the battery may have died: 1) turn the beacon off using the black switch. 2) Place the beacon on the wireless charge base until it is charged. When the beacon is charged, the charge light will turn from red to green. 3) Turn on the beacon. (See video below for a detailed demonstration).

What should happen when I turn on the beacon? When you turn the beacon on, you will see a red light flashing and a green light flashing. The red light indicates the GPS has started, and will continuously flash. The green light indicates that the beacon is connecting to the cellular network. Once it’s connected it will start flashing cyan quickly, which means it’s connecting to the cloud network. Once its’ connected to the cloud, it will start breathing cyan. The neopixel LED lights should come on shortly after this, but sometimes it can take a bit longer, as the neopixel lights do not come on until there is a GPS coordinate fix. Usually, the lights come on within 5 minutes, but I have waited up to 20 minutes. Once a beacon has a fix, it is easier to maintain it. If you feel that it is taking too long to get a fix, try taking the beacon outside or standing on a patio/balcony with it. It often does the trick!

If anything happens to the beacons beyond the scope of what is outlined here, or if it wont turn back on, please contact me.

* Schedule may be adjusted as necessary. Additional dates may be added.