Mobile Mapping for Everyday Spaces (MMES) originated as a commissioned artwork for the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, the new home of the UIUC Department of Computer Science.
Within that facility's mandate as a "living laboratory," artists were invited to propose artworks that would help catalyze the work environment. In response to this call, and based on two prolonged visits to campus, M. Simon Levin and Laurie Long proposed a project in the form of a new academic course.
Their accepted proposal evolved into a larger research project after discovering other potential partners on campus, in Kinesiology, Education, and Library Science. Through their involvement in 2005's Walking as Making as Knowing symposium, Simon and Laurie then invited Kevin Hamilton along as a collaborator. Kevin in turn secured funding from the UIUC Research Board, and a fourth partner in Piotr Adamczyk, through their shared involvement in the Examining Utopias project with Ilya and Emilya Kabakov.
