[YASMIN] The Hybrid City as an Interface with Daphne Dragona, Haris Rizopoulos and Iouiliani Theona; moderated by Dimitris Charitos and Martin Rieser.

In the beginning of the 21st century, urban environments, within which social life evolves, are radically being reordered by technological systems and networks. Mobile telephony has restructured the way people socialize within urban space (Plant, 2001). Multi-user virtual environments redefine the meaning of mediated communication by immersing communicating participants into a synthetic spatial context. ICTs and new media may also be used for augmenting physical environments in order to communicate meaning. The contemporary urban environment already incorporates various kinds of representations of reality, communicated to us all via various media and appropriate display systems (most of these representations are visual, i.e. billboards, video projections, wall paintings, closed circuit TV, touch screens, etc). Continue reading

The Sentient City Survival Kit, by Mark Shepard, is seeking beta users. Continue reading

Situated Technologies Pamphlets 6 — MicroPublicPlaces by Hans Frei and Marc Böhlen :: Available from lulu.com or as a free download.

The Situated Technologies Pamphlets series, published by the Architectural League, explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism. How are our experience of the city and the choices we make in it are affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics and other “situated” technologies?

In response to the rise of pervasive information technologies and the privatization of the public sphere, Situated Technologies Pamphlets 6 proposes hybrid architectural programs called MicroPublicPlaces (MPPs). MPPs combine insights from ambient intelligence, human computing, architecture, social engineering, and urbanism to initiate ways to reanimate public life in contemporary societies.

Vague Terrain 16: Architecture/Action :: The latest of edition of Vague Terrain presents a timely and nuanced consideration of ubiquitous computing. Guest curated by the American artist/programmer Joshua Noble, the issue provides a window into the practices of several leading researchers. Given the arrival of gestural interfaces and preliminary deployments of augmented reality technology and “intelligent” architecture, it is an important moment for thinking about the relationship between technology and the body. Noble on this current milieu: “All technologies reshape the body and the space around the body, from the bow and arrow to the steam engine to the telephone. It may be that we are beginning to truly see how computing and ubiquitous devices will once again reshape our bodies and our conceptions of ourselves in space.” Continue reading

Toward the Sentient City —
An exhibition critically exploring the evolving relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture and urban space :: September 17 - November 7, 2009 :: Opening Reception: September 17, 6:00 - 9:00 pm :: The Architectural League of New York, The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.

Organized around five newly commissioned projects distributed throughout the city, Toward the Sentient City aims to catalyze public discussion on the design and inhabitation of near-future urban environments. With projects by: JooYoun Paek and David Jimison :: The Living Architecture Lab and xdesign Environmental Health Clinic :: Haque Design+Research :: SENSEable City Laboratory :: Anthony Townsend and the BREAKOUT! team. Continue reading

DATA browser 04: Creating Insecurity — art and culture in the age of security (2009):: edited by Wolfgang Sützl & Geoff Cox:

‘Today we are facing extreme and most dangerous developments in the thought of security. In the course of a gradual neutralisation of politics and the progressive surrender of traditional tasks of the state, security imposes itself as the basic principle of state activity. What used to be one among several decisive measures of public administration until the first half of the twentieth century, now becomes the sole criterion of political legitimation. The thought of security entails an essential risk. A state which has security as its sole task and source of legitimacy is a fragile organism; it can always be provoked by terrorism to become itself terrorist.’ Continue reading

The following “interview” with me appears in the July/August 2009 issue of Interactions magazine, the ACM’s journal on interaction design. I say “interview” because it’s basically an edit on the sprawling chat Tish Shute had with me for her site, back in February of this year; as we know, even minor editorial alterations can produce disproportionate shifts in tone and emphasis, and that’s certainly the case here.

I should say from the outset that I don’t have much use for the ACM, and in particular greatly dislike their stance on access to publications, which flies in the face of my own conviction that the point (and power) of knowledge is to share it. Accordingly, I’m republishing the piece in its entirety here. For the sake of accuracy, I’ve left the editorial characterization of me and my work intact, but you should never, ever construe this as an endorsement of same. As ever, I hope you enjoy it. Continue reading

2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art Parallel Programme — e‐MobiLArt / European Mobile Lab for Interactive Media Artists :: Exhibition: May 20 – June 10, 2009 :: Symposium: May 21-22, 2009 :: Center for Contemporary Art - Warehouse B1, Thessaloniki Port, Greece.

The 11 exhibited interactive installation artworks are the result of collaboration amongst 33 participating artists, supported by a team of established theorists, artists and scientists, active in the intersecting fields of art, science and technology. These artworks involve the use of interactive media, ubiquitous computing, communication networks, mobile and locative media technologies. Continue reading

Augmented Urban Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City, edited by Alessandro Aurigi, Newcastle University, UK and Fiorella De Cindio, University of Milan, Italy — There have been numerous possible scenarios depicted on the impact of the internet on urban spaces. Considering ubiquitous/ pervasive computing, mobile, wireless connectivity and the acceptance of the Internet as a non-extraordinary part of our everyday lives mean that physical urban space is augmented, and digital in itself. This poses new problems as well as opportunities to those who have to deal with it.

This book explores the intersection and articulation of physical and digital environments and the ways they can extend and reshape a spirit of place. It considers this from three main perspectives: the implications for the public sphere and urban public or semi-public spaces; Continue reading