sport4minus.de

jens wunderling

While thinking about the content, i came up with various ideas, mostly based on read literature:

• poems
• short stories
• biblical citations

mostly easy to find and apply, but a more exciting and abstract solution would be good.

so i did some more research and found out that there are several musical compositions on the topic, by franz liszt and johann sebastian bach for example, but i also found a project by austrian composer günther zechberger, who, in 2005, invited 13 international composers to create pieces for each station, each no longer than 3 minutes. a very interesting project on its own, it would be a perfect match for my project. i contacted him, he already gave me permission to use his piece on station 14, and he will give me the contact information of the other 13 composers so i can try to get the stage right for each.

i hope this works out, i am very excited.

the maxed out version of the portable way of the cross-cross has the following functions:

• UMTS or other wireless connection to a server providing content and receiving information from the cross itself.
• GPS functionality to

1. trigger the stations
2. track which way the user takes
3. give directions

• Sound output (bone conduction)
• Heart-rate measurement to check if the user truly suffers
• a moveable weight in the vertical bar to change the weight of the cross while walking and adjust it dependant on the heart-rate
• a mobile projector for visual output.
• a camera for capturing the walked route.

The user can choose different channels to listen to, the content is downloaded from the server.

the channels of content are:

• live prayers (mainly on the holy week)
• a compilation of computer-read blog entries matching keywords associated with each station (grief, forgiveness and the like)
• biblical citations matching the stations
• poems and short stories symbolizing the same topics as the stations

the visual output can consist of

• biblical illustrations of the 14 stations
• images of suffering in the world. starving children, war victims, unemployed etc. acquired in realtime.
• a projection of the via dolorosa in jerusalem
• information if other praying people walked this way, their pathways overlay the ground in front of the user.

It is up to the user to combine the different content categories.
since all crosses are connected to the server and recording and uploading their routes, a networked community of crosswalkers is able to

• exchange their personal favourite routes
• compete in length and amount of routes walked
• upload user defined content for the stations
• form pilgrimage teams and groups
• keep track of their own improvement (distance, weight)
• a digital map of the world is created showing where people were already doing the meditative excercise.

to make the cross work with the least necessary features, i re-analysed the idea behind it and its as simple as this: you walk carrying a cross and at the stations, you hear something.

so here’s all that is needed :

• a cross
• a mp3 player
• a microcontroller
• a switch at the bottom of the cross

how it works: between stations, the cross is carried, and so the cross has no contact to the ground: an athmospheric mix or even nothing is played back. when a station is reached, the cross is placed on the ground, and the soundfile associated with the station is played. when the cross is lifted up again, the microcontroller knows one station has been accomplished and next time the cross is put down, it switches to the next stations’ file.

still the cross can handle multiple types of content: switching the read material is as easy as exchanging the flash memory card…