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The Urban Culture of Sentient Cities: From an Internet of Things to a Public Sphere of Things
Recently I contributed a chapter to the book Sentient City Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space edited by Mark Shepard. On May 14 2011 we will also take part in the book launch event in Rotterdam. At certain points in the history of architecture and urban planning, the disciplinary debate on how…
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Crisis & chances for the enterprising architect – a report
Report of an evening for architects at the Chamber of Commerce, Amsterdam, 3 March 2011 Last week I attended the meeting “Chances for the enterprising architect” (PDF, announcement in Dutch). The evening was organized by the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with innovation network Syntens and the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA). Topic of the…
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Three approaches of digital media and urban design
Yesterday Virtueel Platform launched a new book on best practices in the field of e-culture in The Netherlands (download regular pdf / pdf for ipad). The Mobile City was invited to contribute an essay for this book. In this article I described three (sometimes closely related) levels on which digital media plays a role in urban…
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Review: Aurigi & De Cindio (2008) – Augmented urban spaces
Aurigi, A., & De Cindio, F. (2008). Augmented urban spaces: articulating the physical and electronic city. Aldershot: Ashgate. (The introduction is a free read from the website). This book from 2008 had been on my desk for quite some time but finally I got around to do a review. It is listed in a recent…
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Wireless Stories: optimism and doubts about the future of public space
Last week the Dutch Mediafund and the Design department of the Sandberg Academy organized the conference Wireless Stories: new media in public space. The Mobile City was invited to provide the opening keynote (by Michiel de Lange) as well as a closing statement (yours truly), so here are my observations of the day: What struck…
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The search for immersion in Geomedia
Imagine if photography was only used to create images for product catalogues. No artistic use came to mind, no aesthetics deemed nesessary. It’s not a strange thought experiment. This, following Bolter and Grusin’s book Remediation, is roughly speaking what happens to any new medium when it enters society. Painting for example didn’t really start going…
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Sander Veenhof’s NBeep6 – a free and anonymous 6bit communication channel in Cameroon
Yesterday I visited the Mobile Monday meet-up in Amsterdam, and came across some interesting presentations. I particularly liked the presentation of Dutch artist Sander Veenhof. Over the last few years Veenhof has grown into one of the more interesting practitioners that explore the possibilities of mobile media technologies from a fresh and sometimes somewhat estranging…
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Why The Economist is wrong about ‘the internet of hype’
Some weeks ago The Economist published an article about ‘the internet of things’, with the provocative title ‘The internet of hype‘. The journalist, (nick)named [?] Schumpeter, was invited to attend the corporate event Fundación de la Innovación in Madrid. He raises a number of critical points against the idea that the internet of things is…
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DATACITY – Report of Amber’ 10 – Art and Technology Festival in Istanbul (November 2010)
During the 5th and 14th of November, the city of Istanbul became subject and object, host and platform to the fourth international Amber Art and Technology Festival. The festival explores and questions the impact of technologies on social, cultural, and political domains via artistic practices. This year’s theme was: DATACITY. The Mobile City’s guest blogger…
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Report: Workshop ‘Locative Contours, Residua and Documentary Inclinations’ @ amberconference ’10 “Datacity”
Between November 5-14th, the city of Istanbul hosted the fourth international Amber Art and Technology Festival. The festival explores and questions the impact of technologies on social, cultural, and political domains via artistic practices. This year’s theme was: DATACITY. The Mobile City’s guestblogger Tina Bastajian looks back on a workshop she conducted at the conference…
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Mobile phones, social networks and location data: Recognizing the Nuances of Privacy
This weekend the new issue of OPEN will be launched at the Berlin Biennial. “Privacy” is the main theme, and the focus is “not so much on deploring the loss of privacy but on taking the present situation of ‘post-privacy’ for what it is and trying to gain insight into what is on the horizon…
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Some notes on the design of pervasive games
How do you design gaming experiences in the city? What is the role of locative and mobile media in urban games? What is the relation between computer games and the city? Those three questions were addressed at two meetings in Amsterdam a few weeks ago, in which The Mobile City participated. What follows is a…