iRaspberry

Background: This work came from a discussion about the prevalence of personal devices; the behaviour and usage of mobile phones in society; the comfort in which they are handled and their adaptability to many forms of communication. iRaspberry also explores the interface of the animated and human space. Contribution: The smart phone has transcended its primary function of verbal communication to become a device for many forms of communication. This work enables exaggerated physical face to face exchanges. Interpreted differently depending on the community's culture, it can serve to transcend social mores as it provides a 'filter' for expression that may not otherwise be tolerated, even among less etiquette-stifled young people in rigidly conforming cultures. Well beyond the functional scope of a phone, it also provides humour so the phone has another dimension as mood mediator beyond verbal interchange, for instance it is not uncommon to find iRaspberry sales increase in places where life is grim (eg Ukraine).It has also informed a creative work commissioned for the internationally recognised animato John Kricfalusi (http://lycettebros.com/blog/2014/1/4/watch-your-mouth-video-preview) where animation replaces a human face component at a level of sophistication evolved since 'HelloZoo' which was limited to a set of animal features. Significance: The work has proven popular around the world. It has achieved well over 500,000 downloads globally on both Apple and Android platforms. It has ranked highly in several markets. Even in Saudi Arabia it has been in the Top 5 most downloaded app (2011 and 2012) despite its government limits on mobile devices. The development of the app and subsequent updates informed practice and provided significant knowledge and data contributing to ongoing projects, including a recently approved research grant from the Gippsland Lakes Ministerial Advisory Committee.