Note: If you see this text you use a browser which does not support usual Web-standards. Therefore the design of Media Art Net will not display correctly. Contents are nevertheless provided. For greatest possible comfort and full functionality you should use one of the recommended browsers.

Themesicon: navigation pathPublic Sphere_sicon: navigation pathPublic Sphere_s
 
 
 
 
 

icon: previous page

and global, physical and virtual in imagining «how far the extension of urban areas into the electronic space may allow for the emergence of unfamiliar qualities of the urban.» [31] Moreover, «I0_dencies» brought together architects, urban planners, anthropologists, and city inhabitants in a discussion that provided access to specialists but did not privilege the specialist points of view and indeed created an algorithmic mediation that no one person could control or see how every flow was affected. The (virtual) city and its flows of information and discourse was the interface, larger than any individual, for change and actions.

«D-Tower» (2004) by Q.S. Serafijn and Nox Architects is interesting because it reverses the direction of «I0_dencies», in a sense, from virtual to physical. Residents of Doetinchem in the Netherlands fill out a questionnaire, which contains 360 questions. Every other day, four new questions are made available. An example: «Are you happy with your partner?» Possible answers: «very much»—«yes»—«a little»—«no»—«absolutely not»—«not applicable.» Each answer has a score, and these score can be mapped to the respondents' emotional states—specifically love

 

(red), hate (green), happiness (blue), and fear (yellow). Their answers along with their postal codes are used to create a dynamic, emotional map of the city, showing which parts have a happier profile, for instance. A tower at the edge of town is lit by a combination of colored lights that represents the emotional state of the town that day. If it's too hateful or fearful, you might want to stay away.

Communications Systems

As mentioned earlier, artists have always looked to new technologies to expand their potential audience—among other goals. The same is true for every communications system and its related infrastructure. It is in regard to these communications systems that artists have perhaps most clearly and decisively expanded notions of the public sphere. According to Arns, «Since the 1970s, artists have used their work to address the way public space is increasingly being transformed by the influence of (mass) media and private commercial interests. Pioneers in this field include Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Sanja Ivekovic, Jochen Gerz, and Jenny Holzer.» [32] As

icon: next page