Last week I was on a panel at Future Everything discussing open data, data visualisations and Chromaroma.
A lot of the talks were either way too academic, political or “artistically led” for my palette, but the highlight was an inspiring presentation by Ben Cerveny (VURB & Stamen advisor).
I have written up notes for what they are worth below:
What is a city?
We started with tribes, a rough gathering of people
We then put roots down and we called that a village.
You could put a house down wherever you wanted.
You knew where Aunty lived just like you know where your hand is
you could hold a mental map of the village in your head
It was all internalised.
The city was born of abstract based on the code of law – civil society
hardware of the city is the architecture.
software of the city – is the state/the law
procedural rule systems generate urban space
procedural morphogenis (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphogenesis)
shape takes place because of programs.
These rule systems were once monolithic
The more civilised a nation was the more monolith the structures
Mayan architecture was an encapsulation of power.
but now because of forces of capitalism , and globalisation
multi polar space
competing factors
now there are frameworks containing multitudes of possibility
the “industrial revolution” was a shockwave that transformed the city:
The city became an ENGINE
a set of technologies and processes that accelerated urban transformation.
City was full of magic
we could build things right up to the sky
we have talking boxes
we can travel across the city faster than a horse.
the skyline manifested organisational fields.
The skyline was the information graphics.
“where am I ? ” can be determined because of the zones
equaliser of demographics
The skyline has a really slow refresh rate
networks route energy, goods, people and communication systematically
This accelerating system is becoming out of control
population is out of control
in the computational age, it is all happening again
“computational age” is a shockwave again.
this time, the revolution is in organisational software rather than the hardware.
how do we work with the data?
city can be built out of data?
analysts of data?
now we can look at real time views of the city
the systems can adapt to data in real time
how do we relate to this as individuals?
It is set of interactions that we can touch
at the very surface of interaction between these rulesets and the built environment
this time, the iconic skyline is a cloud of information about the city
We can see the essence of a city – flickr/dopplr/twitter – with a google search.
huge deluge of data
public data sets of city/wikipedia/vimeo/
incredible cloud of information
digital representation
and the evolving networks transport information between the cloud and the city.
how does the city become responsive to these data cloud in real time ?
citizens will be able to change this model and wire it back into the physical city.
1. summon a cab with a button
2. open table – find reservations nearby
3. vote in city council – based on online models, and tweaking – conversational objects
the flow of transport, the utilisation of space, the mediation of the environment.
sensors are building a model of the city.
opening up traffic management:
traffic management sensors
central office used to tell people to open lanes with cones. Now the city could respond itself.
the city is a new medium
print to audio to video to cgi to non linear to the space itself.
At home we have been able to make a movie
now we can make a city.
We are in a space, that allows ourselves to redescribe it.
Ingredients for this responsive city:
sensor networks
dynamic infrastructural services
collaborative modelling
we will observe and perfect the city through the use of “instruments”.
Instruments are tools to extend the human capacities for perception and expression.
quantification - digital has metrics, has a quantity of something there.
There may be unmeasurable factors like how do you describe cosiness ?
but in a digital way you have to quantify it.
A city becomes digital because of digital tools.
apply views that project metrics on to the city.
all railways were built to the same gauge, because of infrastructure in the industrial revolution.
to inhabitants of 2010 instruments are a means of communication and identification that enable computational comprehension and manipulation of the environment
“itunes remote on an iphone airtunes speakers”
Items will be become a token that is provisioned with the network that can make changes in the network.
Smart buildings that change when they are too hot. like an animal reactions
Changes to actions based on whether a city should be “well behaved today” or “naughty today”
Influence behaviours, not just “you must open the windows”.
People have gone native in to facebook or WOW, then they are coming back as ex pats into the real world.
They have been in to the dynamic cities already.
Groups of instrumentalists will form as-hoc networks in public space.
Questions:
What will the controls look like in public spaces?
How do we provision things? – code and law become the same thing because of ubiquitous computing.
What if all the road signs are taken down because people have GPS etc and no longer use the signs (makes sense)
And the GPS fails for 30 mins from a solar storm, then what happens?
What if we need to call a cab, and it never arrives, and we stuck in a neighbourhood.
Who has control ?
advertising power vs the law and the city vs democracy and the people, collaboratively performance vs editorialising.
Democracy means the grip of the mob – doesn’t sound great for public spaces.
I now want to build:
social computers.
social objects.
social environments.
Image – Kandisky
by Toby, Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
This weekend David and I found ways to be in London (Richmond to be exact at the