Flash developer needed for new NPR media arts project

Written on 12:01 AM by Angela Livingston

Mapping Main Street (http://mappingmainstreet.org) is a collaborative documentary media project that creates a new map of the country through stories, photos and videos recorded on actual Main Streets. We’re also commissioning musicians such as Ian Svenonius, Calvin Johnson, High Places and Jason Cady to create songs out of field recordings gathered on different Main Street. Plus, we’re making a custom street sign that will travel from street to street, serving as a mobile art installation and recording unit, enabling people to share stories via cell phones. In August, four radio stories will air nationally on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

The project is being produced by Peabody-award winning public radio producers, a Harvard economist and a co-creator of Yellow Arrow (http://yellowarrow.net). Now, we're looking for an awesome Flash developer to join our team part-time for the next month to help produce a few of the interactive components.

* Project Details *

Last month, we launched our beta website: http://mappingmainstreet.org. While we're quite happy with this site and have gotten great feedback, from the beginning we've envisioned a more ambitious version that moves away from a Google Maps look and feel. We're aiming to develop an innovative interface that highlights geographical, as well as non-geographical, narrative interrelationships between different Main Streets. We've developed detailed wireframes and Illustrator comps for this new version. And we have also taken care of most of the necessary backend programming (i.e. relational MySQL database + PHP mediating layer).

In particular, we are looking for help in developing the media player and route navigator. (You can excerpts from our wireframes of these two components here: http://mappingmainstreet.org/development/). To make the programming as smooth as possible, we will provide you with a detailed specification that includes documentation of our custom API, all necessary functionality, wireframes with notes, and all graphic design elements.

Our timeline is relatively tight. We would love to start working together ASAP. The final launch date is August 14th. We are offering $1000 in compensation.

If you are interested, please send a resume and work samples to jshapins@gmail.com. If you are based in New York, that will make things easier. But if you are elsewhere, we could also make that work.