"We should never forget this first statement of the issue which still underpins in fact all the critiques of theatre and all the wills to change theatre. Theatre is the transmission of the disease of passivity through the disease of looking. It is easy to find this original pattern underpinning theories as different as Brecht’s epic theatre or Artaud’s “theatre de la cruauté” . What Brecht stigmatizes is the theatrical illusion which keeps the spectator in a state of hypnotism and passivity. And he calls for an active spectator, meaning a knowledgeable spectator who refuses identification takes distance from what he sees and asks why it is so . What Artaud disparages is a theatrical practice which leaves the spectator untouched, passive. And he calls for a spectator who becomes a participant in the magical or hypnotic process of identification. The solutions are opposing but they grapple differently with the same problem : turning the passive spectator- the spectator who only sees - into an active participant...." Jacques Rancière Frankfurt , August 2004
the emancipated spectator
sleepwalkers in amsterdam
relief projection
"I think the most spectacular callibration solution so far is the “automatic projector calibration with embedded light sensors” (pdf), a collaboration between people from Carnegie-Mellon, Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab and Stanford. They use fiberoptics and light sensors built into the objects/surfaces to be projected on, and by projecting a series of grey coded binary patterns, a custom-made software is able to adjust the image in less than a second to perfectly fit the projectionsurface." 2008 — hcgilje
loca lab
"In the inverted logic of the post-Orwellian city, Loca agents, software and human, decrypt the hertzian passages of its own inhabitants. For better or for worse?" - Steve Dietz, Artistic Director, ZeroOne, via localab
projection bombing tutorial
"Outdoor digital projection in urban environments is a great method for getting your content up big before the eyes and in the minds of your fellow city inhabitants. This tutorial comes out of trial and error and it works. But please be careful. Helpful comments on safety and alternative methods are encouraged. The majority of this tutorial is aimed toward using a 2500 lumen projector (or smaller), if you have access to something more powerful you might want to skip straight to step 6." via instructables
free visible network
"Spanish researchers Clara Boj and Diego Diaz are working on the Free Network Visible Network (04),, an augmented reality project which aims to make visible the exchanged information between computers of a wireless network. First marks in the facades of the buildings will indicate the presence of a node, thus the possibility of connecting to the net, and at the same time to see the 3D representation of the information that we are interchanging with this node in real time." via wemake$
augmented reality
"Based on an augmented reality system, AR_Magic System allows users to exchange head with their neighbours. You stand in front of the computer screen, next to one or more persons and after a few seconds, your head appears on the shoulder of someone else and you get a new face yourself." via we make $
public space
"Atomized spheres of influence: This street, bus stop, and library in San Antonio have no relation to each other except for a shared sense of emptiness. But if we look upon these elements as interrelated components of a single place, we create more opportunities for local people to collaborate and jointly create a vision of what's best for the community. How can the street, park, library, and businesses support and strengthen each other?" PPS Placemaking
urban play
"The Stadtlounge's red surfacing flows over benches, tables, and art objects throughout the Bleicheli. (A playground-style surface is used in pedestrian areas, while car routes are paved in bright red asphalt.)" St Gallen Visitors...
metropolis now
“The minds that had conceived the Tower of Babel could not build it. The task was too great. So they hired hands for wages. But the hands that built the Tower of Babel knew nothing of the dream of the brain that had conceived it. One man’s hymns of praise became other men’s curses.” From Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” 1927. (via A.O. Scott, nytimes)
brainwave tracking
"A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles and other spots, and translates it into on-screen commands. This lets players vanquish villains not with a click, but with a thought." Anne Eisenberg, NYtimes
set pixel
"Untitled Mirror is a Processing based program that reads incoming video from a camera and triggers particles from points of the video frame that have changed by a certain level. The result is an image that is fairly representative, yet disappears within moments. An important part of this work is the fact that it keeps completely "silent" while no one is interacting with it: the screen remains white. In a sense, if there is no viewer, the work is invisible, and irrelevant. Thus, the role of the viewer is a fundamental one.
constructing situations
“The construction of situations begins beyond the ruins of the modern spectacle. It is easy to see how much the very principle of the spectacle — nonintervention — is linked to the alienation of the old world. Conversely, the most pertinent revolutionary experiments in culture have sought to break the spectators’ psychological identification with the hero so as to draw them into activity. ...The situation is thus designed to be lived by its constructors. The role played by a passive or merely bit-part playing ‘public’ must constantly diminish, while that played by those who cannot be called actors, but rather, in a new sense of the term, ‘livers,’ must steadily increase.” —Report on the Construction of Situations
pixel pour
"A wonderful instance of hybrid realities. Here, of course, the pixels are materialized through some medium that is not electronic and the hybridity is more about a semantic cross-over from pixel worlds of electronic games to the real world." By Kelly Goeller — http://www. kellotron.com) via futurelab via... fourwall
semapedia tagging
"With Semapedia you can hyperlink your physical world with knowledge that matters. To do this you create small Semapedia Tags consisting of a cell-phone readable 2D Barcode that will link others to the content you provide. Or put simply: Mark things like buildings, books, airplanes, cars or whatever with small Semapedia Tags that let others be a entry-point for more information." semapedia.org
wikiplaza paris
"The public plaza (square) of the future will be like an active node of the Internet, like an Operative System, like a crossroad of flows, physical and mental, electronic and electromagnetic. The public square of the future will be a hybrid space inbetween the physical and the digital, with multiple layers; and it will be a space in permanent transformation, a social production resultant of the desires and activities of its multitudinar, nomadic, cyborg inhabitants. A space such as the situationists once imagined; but new." With Benjamin Cadon, Labomedia & Ewen Chardronnet
ecoboulevard
"Each air tree is easy to assemble and move to other locations and it consumes only the energy it creates thanks to the use of photovoltaic technology. A system of evaporation and condensation provides the air conditioning and ensures that throughout hot Spanish summers the inside of the building is 8 to 10 grades cooler than the outside." via wemake$notart
network society
"....the network society is developing a culture which we could define as “hyper-realistic” due to its attempt to achieve a profound comprehension of a reality that is at the same time recognised as digital (the “hyperlink”). Both processes are understood as transformation tools in which the hybrid public spaces of the network society configure a new commons which is the stage for social and individual creation." Juan Freire
public space
What will the future bring? There are two scenarios, two alternatives of a possible future. Each of these scenarios will be more or less viable depending on many circumstances, one of them being the way we regard our role as citizens:
- we behave passively and accept the future as it comes.
- we decide that we can take an active role and grab the opportunity to participate to the shaping of our future.
delicate boundaries
"As digital technologies become more embedded in everyday life, the line between the virtual and real is increasingly blurred. Delicate Boundaries imagines a space in which the worlds inside our digital devices can move into the physical world. Small bugs made of light, crawl out of the computer screen onto the human bodies that make contact with them. The system explores the subtle boundaries that exist between foreign systems and what it might mean to cross them." csugrue.com
field of movement
"Based on previous work with Meteor Shower , Cosmicomics presents a fantastical sky animated by a fusion of lunar dreams inspired by Italo Calvino's eponymous novel, and by the quantum inflationary cosmology created by Andre Linde." Sha Xin Wei - Director, Art Concept
pablo valbuena
"Pablo Valbuena's project is focused on the temporary quality of space, investigating space-time not only as a three dimensional environment, but as space in transformation." everyoneforever [via] Datenform
interactive
"Psychoanalytically, it is impossible for a person not to interact with an object that engages one or more senses. Sensory interaction with any object presupposes bringing conscious, preconscious, and subconscious to that object. If it takes the invention of so-called cyberspace to find out you are interacting with an (art) object, you are in deep shit." Jeanne Randolph, via EBR
where we come from
"Go to Haifa and play soccer with the first Palestinian boy you see on the street." emily jacir
interactive graphics
"Apart from video-cutting... this typo-animation is triggered by slow-motion movement of a dancer. There we go, a hi-res version using pixel-motion frameblending for nice slow-motion of lisa. The letters are actually generated by a program i wrote in vvvv. You simply feed in some video and according to the amount of bright pixels it will generate the typo animation. The letters are taken from the words ‘Ballett Kiel’ and ‘Mario Schröder’ to have some sort of relation." Wirmachenbunt ( Chris Engler)
drift net
"The motion of audience is analyzed and conveyed to the wave as the vector of the plural forces with location, direction and integer value. The audience is able to interact with data-wave without any device or physical limitation. It doesn't differ from dabbling in the actual beach. It is realized by original program with OpenCV". HIRAKAWA Norimichi
click opera
"So I watched the Hide and Seek Festival documentary, which is an introduction to this thing we're going to call PUG, or pervasive urban gaming. What is PUG? According to the Sandpit site, "pervasive games transform the city into a playground, make your heart race, change the way you see the world, get you playing nicely with others". imomus, click opera (image:cliostraat)
constructed situation
"What is a situationist? It's a big question, but an initial answer would be: someone who constructs situations. And what's a "constructed situation"? Helpfully, the first issue of the Situationist International provided us with a glossary in order to resolve that question: it's a "moment of life, concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organisation of a unitary environment and a game of events". Constructing a situation thus implies collective construction of a moment - collective involvement in and modification of all the aspects of a moment in time, from the decor to how those involved are acting....A situation in this sense is somewhere between - more precisely, somewhere beyond - art and politics. Where art is predicated on a division between art work and spectator, the situation demands total involvement in its construction and cannot allow spectatorship." Phil Edwards
tentative architecture
"In 1960, Constant Nieuwenhuis presented an architectural and social utopia, New Babylon. In New Babylon work has given way to a nomadic lifestyle of creativity and play, and traditional architecture has disintegrated. It is a response to the urbanization of the city, an out lash to our exploitation by bourgeois and avant-garde high culture.... The architecture of these cultures, where all activity takes place, is the main antagonist to disappear in New Babylon. These anti-social spaces influence the behaviours of the inhabitants; therefore static architecture gives way to spontaneous spaces defined by interactions and desires." vague terrain: xárene eskandar
automobile visualization
"Cascade on Wheels is a visualization project that intends to express the quantity of cars we live with in big cities nowadays. The data set we worked on is the daily average of cars passing by streets, over a year. In this case, a section of the Madrid city center, during 2006. The averages are grouped down into four categories of car types. Light vehicles, taxis, trucks, and buses."
ballardian
"I believe in my own obsessions, in the beauty of the car crash, in the peace of the submerged forest, in the excitements of the deserted holiday beach, in the elegance of automobile graveyards, in the mystery of multi-storey car parks, in the poetry of abandoned hotels." J G Ballard (bartlett unit15)
expanded cinema
"When we say expanded cinema we actually mean expanded
consciousness. Expanded cinema does not mean computer films,
video phosphors, atomic light, or spherical projections. Expanded
cinema isn't a movie at all: like life it's a process of becoming, man's
ongoing historical drive to manifest his consciousness outside of his
mind, in front of his eyes. One no longer can specialize in a single
discipline and hope truthfully to express a clear picture of its relationships in the environment. This is especially true in the case of the intermedia network of cinema and television, which now functions as nothing less than the nervous system of mankind." Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema... Image: Werner Herog, Fitzcarraldo
wearable identity
"Man has been for ages carrying different objects with him, holding them, wearing them and taking them to where ever he goes. The advancements in technology has made it possible for him to carry various electronic devices with him. The birth of these portable devices posed a set of new questions on the relationship between an object and the person's body on or around which it is worn. In an era where gadgets are transcending the limits as a device and getting closer to reflect a person himself, the significance of how a device relates to its user is of great importance. Can an object represent an individual's identity and personality? Can it establish itself as a signifier of the person himself through its distinct use and the value associated to it?"
manifesto for cctv filmmakers
"The manifesto establishes rules, procedures, and identifies issues useful for filmmakers who want to the costs of creating a movie - by using images captured by CCTV cameras. Her text follows closely the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 and related privacy legislation that gives the subjects of data records access to copies of the data. The manifesto can be adapted for different jurisdictions. The artist demonstrated the validity of her manifesto with the movie Faceless... Under the DPA, one has the right to retrieve data which is held upon oneself, while the faces of anyone else captured on it have to be blacked out. She therefore claimed the as much CCTV footage of herself as she could and created a story set in the future, in the "faceless world" - with herself as the only woman with a face." we make money not art
light criticism
"Between October 2006 and December 2006, the City of New York has removed or obscured 59 illegal banners on sidewalk sheds. In that same period, Citibank Chase was forced to remove all illegal sidewalk projections at branches around Manhattan. And now, years into NYC’s crackdown on graffiti writers and protesters, after we’ve watched our friends be detained, arrested, beat, fined, tried, and given real jail sentences, not a single corporate toy from any ad firm has had to do any time." graffiti research lab
building on cinematic vision
"Sonny Astani walked into a Westwood movie theater in 1985 and saw the film that changed his life: "Blade Runner," the science-fiction tale that imagined a dystopian Los Angeles where jet-powered cars zoom past skyscrapers covered with enormous, cinematic advertisements. Decades later, the Iranian-born businessman is determined to bring some of those futuristic images to life. His plan? Attach an animated sign 14-stories tall on the 33-story condominium project he is building in downtown L.A." David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times
Akousmaflore
"Akousmaflore is a garden made with real musical and interactive plants or flowers. Each plant reacts to the human touch of a spectator by a specific sound language.Our aura is hot, electric and invisible. It can act here on the vegetable foliages by offering the experiment of a reactive environment. When the spectators caress the plants, they start to sing. Become sensitive musical instruments, they make it possible to compose a floral orchestration." scenocosme.com, thanks manuel
mediascapes design review
"The MediaSCAPES design studio final review took place on December 13, 2007. We were joined by a diverse range of critics attending from Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco- Jason Anderson, Juan Azulay, Benjamin Bratton, Christian Bruun, Jean Michel Crettaz, Rene Daalder, Blair Ellis, Jeffrey Inaba, Carla Leitao, Marcos Novak, and Scott Perry." Ed Keller
Projects were presented by:
Kenneth Cameron. Nina Marie Barbuto & Bjork Christensen. Jordan Kanter, Arthur Switalski & Bao Quoc N. Doan. Christopher Norman. Guillermina Chiu & Sepehram Khamjani. Jihyeun Byeon. Saman Hosseini-Pou & Salman Masmouei. George Labeth. Hao-yun Ambrose Chuang. Valentina Vasi
color like no other
"Y'know that bouncy ball add wasn't actually very original - every year at Reed College in Portland, OR (for as far back as anyone can remember bouncy balls) they've had a midninght "ball drop" down Woodstock Ave. in front of the college - it's an amazing experience and part of an even more amazing experience called Renn Fayre - which, despite the name is more like a techno-geek-mind-altering-drug event than a fantasy-D&D-fair." MOR, davidweiss.blogspot.com/
Graziano Cecchini
"Mad-hatter artist Graziano Cecchini has struck again. The public-art prankster who filled the Trevi Fountain in Rome with blood-red dye last October released 500,000 brightly colored plastic balls Wednesday from the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome."
wooster collective
The Wooster Collective was founded in 2001. This site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.
flow
"Flow 5.0 is an interactive sculpture made out of hundreds of ventilators which are reacting to your sound and motion. By walking and interacting an illusive landscape of transparancies and artificial wind is created. Moving through Flow 5.0 the visitor becomes conscious of himself as a body, in a dynamic relation with space and technology." Daan Roosegaarde
gravity and resistance
"The spatial expression of "gravity+resistance" is rendered consistently by the real time calculation of the dynamics. The dynamic movements are composed of the counter powers around gravity. Gravity is not materialized without the reaction force." sieko mikami