Think public Space competition 2015
with Ana Filipovic & Philipp Mecke
The transmitted public space and our involvement in the virtual sphere changes our perception of the physical. These days protest still happen on squares but the most of it happens online. From crowdfunding to Twitter, our public space moved online. The awareness of public space is long forgotten, ‘if you didn’t take a photo it didn’t happen’. Often tourist are seen not any more observing the new surrounding but taking millions of photos with or without selfie sticks. We are editing our personal experiences of the city as a Web content, by pinning another location on Foursquare or sharing a photo on Instagram.
This project proposes distribution of signal repellants around the city, blocking all the internet services. By placement of these tall white structures that repel the signal, the public space could once again get observed and appropriated. Our embodiment in the virtual network is broken by creating local awareness of our surroundings. These moments of interruption create new contact between participators and public space itself. The focus once again lays within our surroundings and not in the virtual capacity of the network.
Mobile social networks transform interaction in the public sphere. This projects works on a big scale of the city as well as on site specific locations. The repellant’s area of influence changes in regards of space, only interfering with the signal in the public areas, not plugging into the private sphere. The height of each repellant defines the area of interruption, depending on micro location. The information that in that case becomes communicated differs from the one integrated in the network, becoming more personal and local.
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