In 2005, artist Valerie LeBlanc prototyped her first MediaPackBoard (MPB). Slung over her shoulders an altered backback suspends a colour monitor, its glow transmits quotidian encounters during peripatetic journeys captured on a handheld camcorder, pre- programmed artists’ videos, or televised broadcasts pirated from the free analog airwaves. By now, the MPB is an object of dated technology, but the technology alone is not LeBlanc’s main concern. Long-term collaborator and contributor to this publication, Daniel H. Dugas, reminds us of the MPB’s very first slogan, “Mediated World on the Street,” which clearly focuses our attention on the mediation afforded to a decade of urban street-level performances using the MPB interface.
Diana Sherlock