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The local beat in Africa – brought to you by mobile phone
In Africa, according to the International Telecommunication Union, the opportunity for new media developments is mainly on the mobile platform. Mobile phones now outnumber landlines 5-to-1, and 9-to-1 in subsahara Africa. With many of these phones outfitted with cameras and videorecording, this will of course impact the representation of African Cities. Will mobile phone-based citizen…
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Local knowledge and subcultural capital
Airroots has a beautiful post on the architecture of luxury in Tokyo. ‘40% of luxury goods sold throughout the world every year are bought by the Japanese’, they state, ‘That’s a lot of yen. So how does that translate onto Tokyo’s urbanscape?’ Of course there are many examples of starcihtect flagshipstores in Ginza and Harajuku.…
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The iPod as an ‘urban centering device’
Just received an e-mail from Michael Bull in which he announced his new book to which I was looking forward: Sound Moves. I met Michael at the Transmediale two years ago and then did this podcast interview about his research. One of his conclusions at the time: while a lot of contemporary theory focuses on…
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Keynote Speakers announced
The Mobile City is proud to announce four very interesting Keynote Speakers: Stephen Graham, Christian Nold, Malcolm McCullough and Tim Cresswell. There Keynotes will be accompanied by a panel discussion by Dutch experts and the presentation of locative media projects. These participants will be announced at a later date.
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Jane Jacobs, bloggy neighbourhoods and cell phone sidewalks
In a recent post on Planetizen Anthony Townsend refers to two very different takes on the concept of The Moblie City. Both – although the second one doesn’t mention her – can be easily associated with the work of Jane Jacobs, in which the experience of the sidewalk is central to the formation of local…
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First Architecture & Situated Technologies Pamphlet available
Great “Sinterklaas” gift: the first pamphlet in the series Architecture and Situated Technologies Pamphlet is available now at Lulu (free download pdf 8.5 MB; $15 for the paper version). About the 48-page pamphlet: The Situated Technologies Pamphlet series explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism: How is our experience of the city and the choices…
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Heineken locative game on Bliin.com
According to Dutch tech lifestyle site Bright (in Dutch only), one of the world’s largest beer brewer Heineken (#4 says Wikipedia.org) has stepped into locative platform Bliin for their newest marketing campaign. Heineken truckers who deliver beer to their customers can be followed live on the map via the Bliin website. People playing this game…
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Is Google Watching Us?
Yesterday, Google launched the My Location function for Google Maps on mobile phones – an auto-customized You-are-here pointer for virtual maps. Or to put it in the discourse of ‘seamless experience’ that is often used for these product innovations: ‘Just press the button and the phone will tell you where you are.’ Interesting is the…
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The magic and terror of the ether
One of my favourite TV shows of all time has got to be “the secret life of machines” by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod. Hunkin starts this episode about radio by stating that “there’s something rather magical about radiowaves. They’re actually a sort of invisible energy”. It’s this idea of invisible energy that has proved…
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The Software Defined City
In 2004, Wilfried Houjebek’s .Walk project won the 2004 software-art prize at Transmediale in Berlin. In this project he gave people two bits of paper with instructions on how to walk through the city. The first bit contained something like this: Walk into the first street on the right. Walk into third street on the…
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Y.A.L.U.G. (yet another locative urban game)
(Via Textually.org) Ghosts are trapped in the machines of Perth, and they need your help! With the aid of your mobile phone as your communication device with the ghosts, you’ll uncover clues and solve puzzles to help unravel the mystery of who the ghosts are and why they were so cruelly imprisoned, all the while…
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Society of micro-control
Yesterday Dutch navigation systems company TomTom announced (in Dutch) a new service: users can subscribe to a live traffic updates (every three minutes) that will tell them exactly how long the trip will take under the present road conditions. The service is marketed as a way to ‘regain control’ over daily practicalities such as navigating…
