5th Clark Bursary
The Emergent City
by Stanza
Posted 10 Aug 05
One day, all buildings will be giant display screens.
Not building with display screens attached
or stuck on the front like in Tokyo, but buildings
as a display material with data networked
into the architecture itself. The inside of the building the working
process, the data, the movement of people in space will be embedded into
the architecture via technology, sensors and computers. The building
will become a living sculptural entity a display material. In order for
this to have we will also need a new type of display material a new polymer
based technology. It has yet to be invented. But here is a simulation
of data of this experience using live Bristol data.
http://www.stanza.co.uk/ideasrus/display/index.htm
I made this work “Microcity”, to imagine
new metaphors relevant to the experience
of the city. What happens when we place data
sculptures outside in real space. What might these
data sculptures look like and how might they
behave. This example I made is a 3D, real time data sculpture made out
of an as yet invented new polymer display. The images sent over network
from a bank of data from the datascape. A city of data balls with retrievable
narrative for experience. Social sculptures contain information zones,
banking data, etc Narratives from huge libraries of online videos images
stories. System accesses national data archives. The idea is that these
balls will float all over the city.
http://www.stanza.co.uk/micro_city/index.html
A polymer display
ball would allow the creation of a datascape
of gathered assets, which could contain narrative
for creating understanding. Translating what we gather into something
we understand or at least into something we can experience.
The increase
of technology infrastructure in the daily
existence of a city means that technology will, more than ever be everywhere
in our environment. Data mining will be part of the fabric of the landscape.
Everything is or will be tracked. cctv, car sensors, tracking inside
our phones and id card movement tracking in the guise of anti-terror
activity. The patterns we make, the forces we weave, are all being networked
into retrievable data structures that can be re-imagined and sourced
for information. These patterns all disclose new ways of seeing the world.
My recent experiments at the Watershed have been investigating this
concept of data in the public domain. There is loads of data out there
already. The data is like a medium is malleable, its problematic to work
with, and in some cases its protected by the data protection act. The
work “Publicity” (http://www.stanza.co.uk/publicity/index.html) explores
placing the inside data of the buildings onto the outside of the building
it uses public domain data.
Exploring the notion of who owns the data
and the intelligent building. Most buildings
have CCTV and they use it to observe the people inside the space, ie
the public. In this artwork I use the technology in the building to broadcast
all the information outside over the internet into the public domain.
An experimental relay was adapted from the Watersheds CCTV live footage
of the general public entering the Watershed gallery.
Focusing on this,
I also want to embed the building with
intelligence, with sensors, to capture data that can be visualized. I
have called this project “Sensity”. Its in development
(http://www.stanza.co.uk/sensity/index.html)
Sensity artworks are made from the data that is collected across the
urban and environment infrastructure. A network of sensors, some fixed,
and some embedded, collects data which is then published online. The
sensors then interpret the micro-data of the city. The output from the
sensors will be display the emotional state of the city online and the
information will be used to create installations and sculptural artefacts.
These artworks made will represent the movement of people, pollution
in the air, the vibrations and sounds
of buildings, they will be in effect emergent social sculptures visualising
the emotional state of the city. Sensity is an open social sculpture that informs the world and creates
new meaningful experiences.
A first working prototype is in development which will be embedded into
the Watershed. It will
bring the building alive. Or rather it will be a live representation
of the whole space monitoring environmental data to make visualizations.
Indeed as I mentioned above, the city is already scattered with technology
used
for surveillance. I have recently added to my works in cctv and surveillance
pieces by making a series of new works. Have a look at http://www.stanza.co.uk/new_york_stories/index.html
Anyway during my last visit to the Watershed I got side tracked trying
to make the next version of my robot
called “The mating
Game”. I have been buying robots off
eBay and messing about with the electronics. So far I have made a multi
robot piece using ten robots in a mating ritual. They are basically acting
out a courting ritual and generating
sounds depending on their position. You
can see a series of videos online of the early installation set up. (http://www.stanza.co.uk/robotsmating/mate/index.html).
Stanza August 2005 ©
Posted 15 Oct 04
  
(Select images above for larger view)
New piece online
- Datacity Bristol: www.stanza.co.uk/datacitybristol and for those particularly interested
in sounds listen to sounds from Bristol in the soundcities
database: www.soundcities.com/global/enter.php
I have just published this piece called Data Cities Bristol. Its a 'parallel
reality' work. It offers multiple perspectives
of Bristol online in realtime. The images are taken from selected webcams
there is also a live generative sound mix. My experiments and online
works range from interactive interfaces, that the user can control,
to systems that generate allowing a more
passive but evolving relationship
to the works. These ideas have been expressed
through a whole series
of individual online website projects each with
different themes. This
latest work offers a mix of these ideas ie.
sounds that can be controlled
and images that are real time and generated.
Last time I was at Watershed
I made some progress focusing on data
and sound across networks and to this end I have made a project with
robots as players to control the
interfaces. The robot is wandering around
a large black and white map
on the floor. It triggers positional
sounds and coded 3D via ultrasound
in the room and in the robot. The robot
is navigating the space; so essentially it is playing the sounds as it
moves about and controlling the projectors.
So where is this going...
well I am going back to the USA to do
some more research into motes and surveillance technologies. I am meeting
various companies and wondering where this is leading. Imagine walking
out the door, and knowing every single action, movement, sound, micro
movement, pulse, and thread of information is being tracked, monitored,
stored, analysed, interpreted, and logged. The world we will live in
seems to be a much bigger brother. Is this a liberating world or a truly
oppressive system? So I am really understand the nature of the beast.
However it is also possible to flip this around to see the world full
of data, and this can be a useful thing. This can help understand the
fundamentals of our outside environment, and monitor the micro codes
of our DNA, and we could imagine a world where we are liberated and
empowered, where
finally all of the technology becomes more than a gimmick and starts
to actually work for us. One of the ideas I have is to scatter the city
with thousand of sensors. Hundreds of thousands of them, some fixed,
and some embedded to access these data structures and to claim them for
the public domain within the realm of social sculptures.
Thousands of
motes can be deployed across the city
for gathering data in wireless sensor networks. Used in large numbers
they can communicate with one
another via radio signals across the
network. They can reconfigure themselves
or self heal, so that the network stays
stable. The data is funneled
through a system to a point where it
can then be interpreted. The motes
themselves can be deployed every thirty
metres depending on the frequency.
Each mote will sense its own position,
wake up and find its neighbour
in the network. They have low energy
use, but the life expectancy is
determined by the battery. In the future
it is imagined they will run
on solar power. So the concept is to
embed the city with thousands of
motes to gather data for the creation of artistic artifacts.
The motes
can monitor sensors such as temperature, sounds, light, position, acceleration,
vibration, stress, weight, pressure, humidity, and gps. Therefore lots
of artistic interpretations can be imagined via the usage of a deployed
motes network.
Concepts
I want to make smart networks that have data
open to all, and not closed off spy surveillance
oriented systems. The
networks should be open social sculptures that
can inform the world
and create new meaningful experiences. The emergent
city is a sense city
embedded with millions of computers to
re-engage with the urban fabric
and to enable new artistic metaphors
within city space.
Posted 27 July
04
   
(Select images above for larger view)
I am working on
a group of works all connected
by a central theme.
As you know a city
is a web of connected networks.
In essence, the city fabric is a giant
multi-user, multi-data sphere.
The city is made up of traffic patterns,
pedestrian patterns, bird flocking
patterns. Patterns can be seen in
the architecture, patterns in
the buildings, patterns in the architectural
fabric of the urban design network. And closer
inside the micro patterns of the city, we have
the life cycles of the atomised.
All of these
spheres can be represented by media and
therefore by data within the digital realm. And all
of this data can be interpreted and mediated.
It becomes a matter of choice.
Collections
of data can be stored to be retrieved
later. The mobile data infrastructure becomes
a data source so powerful so interwoven that its scale can only be imagined
as metaphor. The size and scope of such an
archive, of such rich mediated
data experience can support many projects.
As such it can be interpreted
via a variety of interfaces.
Cities offer the
opportunity for unique
types of data gathering experiences via a variety of sources. My objective
is to 'mediate' data into conceptual artifacts. With this perspective
there are many unimagined threads of data and connections that describe
our world that can be explored through wireless mobile networks within
which we can create artistic interpretations.
Here is some information
about two of the projects I now have
in development, Robotica and Memory Mapping. You can view the works in
progress by visiting the links below.
Robotica www.stanza.co.uk/robotweb/index.html
Memory Mapping www.stanza.co.uk/memoryweb/index.html
Robotica
Robotica is an installation using controlled autonomous
players,
robots that navigate their own space to make
music and visuals. As they
move around they trigger a database of sounds
which are played dependent on the position in
space. The movement of the robots also controls live dynamic data from
the outside of the city to create the visuals. Live web feeds from
around the city are projected into the installation
space, via a series of projectors. These
images are live real time live
updated 3d models which are controlled by the
movement of the robot.
Image of installation
(click
on the image above for larger view)
Memory
Mapping
It is possible to remember everything, its just
difficult. Taxi drivers use
the knowledge to remember their way around
the London streets. Birds in
winter, can find ninety percent of the
twenty thousand nuts they bury, even
in the snow. This is called memory mapping.
These maps below trace
journeys through Bristol. Gps can also
be used to trace journeys through the
urban tapestry. These journeys becomes
a multi-layered thread an archive a memory of this data.
 
Images from
Memory Mapping
(click
on the image above for larger view)
Posted 21 May 04
The technology must
work.
Interesting problems arise when
starting projects that involve some sense
of procedural design or building. If one is faced with the blank canvas,
tech spec or whatever, the possibilities
parameters and variables are limitless. This is often a good thing as
there isn't anything in place to actually go wrong in theory. Here in
my on going series of experiments at Watershed in Bristol I have decided
to spend a week with the Ultrasound rig as well as gathering some assets
for my other emergent city‚ projects that I have in development.
This
ultrasound system is designed and built
by Cliff Randel and its already been put in place and tested, it is configured
to the room using the Bristol.11 network or Watershed Open wireless network.
The general idea involves using a Hewlett Packard PDA running the Mobile
Bristol client. If you then move around the room your position is tracked
via the ultrasound system which is attached to the ceiling. This
sends data to the Elvin‚ servers and
using a Elvin‚ extra, this information can be used to create a visual
response, using Director. The system, I have been told, is in place
and set up. My intention is to extend the system using all sorts of
sensing equipment.
Maybe its just one of those things with technology
that you can find the software is deleted, the pdas are without power,
the power cables are in Manchester and the servers are down.
Initial set backs like this give technology a bad name. The conclusion
is to be autonomous, not to rely on too many differing technologies,
to run your own servers and most of all back your work up. The other
thing to remember is that the technology must actually work - or should
it? Well yes, otherwise the idea remains just that, an idea, a concept,
a series of drawings.
I have imagined a simulated space re-representing
a data mesh of Bristol. I am making a robot performance, using cybots‚
in avoidance mode and path following mode to make music and visual systems.
So actually its two performances or experiments.
The robots wander about and follow maps of Bristol and trigger sound
and visual data. The first version involving simple tracking in the space
was implemented on 14th May.
The whole robot performance can be monitored
on the public cctv and is broadcast to
the internet using the quicktime server. I have already used and tested
this using all twelve cctv cameras to make an online document. This is
Watershed TV exploring this concept of taking the 'inside outside', because
as well as being CCTV its also 'PubliCITY'. It is in effect a TV station
broadcast in real time.
I have also extended my CCITYV software which
acquires open streamed
images from around Bristol. Most are traffic cams but it is interesting
to see the landscape for what it is. These images are presented into
a 3d morphing model and the images are always changing and always evolving.
It becomes a never ending film online for a very long time extending
in real time.
In addition I have been collecting some sound to feed
into a database. This is sort of an extension to www.soundcities.com (a project all about found sound in city spaces). Next I want to make
this a mobile experience and I want to make a trial using the GPS feature
of the HP PDA. When I visited the HP labs they were building new cameras
into their PDA systems, and when I can get my hands on one of these
I can upload and download live video and sound, so I will try out the
outdoors version.
Posted 12 March 04
Experiments with technology at
Watershed.
Technologies in place at the
Watershed currently include, 1 pda, d-link
wireless cameras, ultrasound rig, CCTV security
set up, server space etc.
It’s a curious approach
to offer artists technology
and then let them come up with
ideas relevant to the technology specification
itself. This makes the brief,
technology – led, and is a more usual approach for 'design' rather
than ‘art’sensibilities. Its
easy to just deploy the kit available and this defines the
project. In a metaphorical
language it’s like being given
the ‘painting by numbers’ set with the
paint numbers missing. The provided
parameters are likely to produce
variously pretty pictures, though
the results are largely predetermined.
This is a common scenario with
new technologies, where the artist’s role becomes end user,
in place to evolve some sort of product
within quite controlled parameters. The thing
that is curious is how artists
can be
usurped by technology in certain situations.
The is a sudden locative gold rush on within media arts. As well as
futuresonic, ISEA 2004, Viper there is all of a sudden calls
for works globally referencing this area.
This is the topic for this year. But my question is directed to other
artists because the problem seems to be a conundrum in that artists
are now evolving products or services that are used on networks that
charge the general public lots of money for their use. I mean its great
to use 3g phones for example to make live video data feeds into a networked
multi user database. Its what the industry wants, ie, we all end up
using video phones at fifty pence per minute. So industry
should be supporting the use of networks (so
well done to Hewlett Packard)
otherwise we will all just set up out own shared
wi -fi network and do it ourselves which
is after all the consume approach.
There must
be room in the brief for personal
artistic process. Of course the
canvas can always be painted black…..later. It doesn't really matter
what technology one uses its the level of inquiry and experimentation
within any system that seems to offer creative possibilities.
In using any technology it seems one can quite quickly imagine performative
roles as well as installations, fixed perspective experiences and locative
approaches to the delivery of user experience. My current interest is
in the wider picture of city experiences which are being played
out in real time. Instead of adopting narrative threads from other media,
I am interested in the currency that exists already in the city space.
This sort of experience of multi nodes and
multi threaded spaces demands a refined
gathering of data, a sensitive accumulation which can then lead to
some kind of modeling and visualisation. [audible
and visual (mis)-representation].
My approach
so far is has been to avoid getting fixed into a ‘technical toolkit’
approach too early. The nature of emergent spaces and evolving cities
experiences implies that the software itself should be emergent and adaptable
to a 'multiplicity' environment. If you pin a system down and adopt a
tool kit then there
is only limited room for experimentation. In fact under this model
the artists is end user of a defined technology and as such, works will
only be curated to fit into the system, hardly any experimentation or
research at all . So I am interested in a system which is modular and
systematically
capable of building on results from
the previous project. One way to do this is to contact artists who are
interested in the technology and the arts. Commission them to make a
small website that addresses the key areas and questions of the brief.
IE what do artists want from a network? Why go wireless? and What sensors
would you use and how would you use them? AND fundamentally the artists
should build the system and the network.
The agenda which incorporates
the concept about a box of technology
for any system and multiple use looks initially like a good idea. I have
been investigating various boxes, tech systems, and visualisation softwares.
A generic system would be useful, a box to plug sensors into, that can
gather data and read it easily. This sort of kit is very usefully to
artists. (or is it)? One should bare in mind, there is nothing new in this. At Birmingham
NEC 11 12 feb 2004, a two day conference featured
dozens of real companies
who work with sensors, building management
systems and visualisation
software. This is not an emerging market,
it is highly developed and developing existing market with products.
Very sophisticated control and visualisation
systems already exist for any industrial, civic and safety measurement
and management situation you can imagine. Hard end engineering companies
generally overlook the creative potential of their products, as do
most artists. Often they can all be experimented
with to allow creative uses. There are plenty
of interesting tools already on the market
for artists
used by real industries, which can be adapted
for creative use, given a little lateral application. In Birmingham,
I came across Redlion,
whose gear I especially liked. They had a
G3's data logger which allows
you to record process values to CompactFlash
for later access in CSV
format via the integrated web server, making
access to historical data a breeze. I found the bluetooth Wisnet system
from Expert Monitoring
(wireless sensor deployment kit) really of
great interest ( although
maybe not cheap) as it was ready to use. In
the wireless sensors I also checked out Willow's 'motes' and Millenial.
So I now have stacks of
information and contacts in the areas of moulding,
displays, sensors, wirless, and visualisation
software. (more to come later)
I went to the open day of Arch OS in
Plymouth 27 feb 2004. Quite illuminating, and possibly a good source
of knowledge in terms of the Watershed project in general. They seem
to have 'hi- jacked' the Invensys
building management
system, that is, they are adapting systems
that are already in place within the context of a building and its
real world function. Arch OS has incorporated various other os systems,
one for vision tracking, for sounds, and is now pushing further to
allow the creative use of the data through artistic and modifiable
outcomes. It was amusing
though that there where no light switches
and that the automatic doors kept closing on people exiting. The intelligent
building clearly defines its own intelligence. A more specific observation
on Arch OS is that it operates as a giant surveillance system, a 'panoptican'.
This suggestion is refuted
by Mike Philips the director. The argument
being that the level of control and responsibility
given allows
freedom within the system. Its a good argument
until something changes
ie, the passwords change, the building goes
private, and every single
piece of data is used for something that
it wasn't intended for. Some things
change for the better but sometimes they don’t;
one thing is for sure; things change. This is something that interests
me. The things that change, the flow, the data that describes our experience
of the city as space.
I am making a series of projects
throughout this residency and bursary which
at the moment I describe as research. I have already made two pieces
of work relating to my research and work developments. The first, ccityv
Bristol captures all the images from local webcams and re- collages
and re - contextualises them into a software system online. It transposes
the 'outside' to 'inside'. This work is still online at www.stanza.co.uk/bristol
The second experimental work (untitled at
the moment), also used cctv, where cameras feeding the Watershed building
were broadcast out over the internet for a 12 hour period. This is
the transposition of 'inside' to 'outside'. In further experiments I
will attempt to manipulate the live footage using software and broadcast
this live encapsulation to roving PDAs. {Tech note.
The ipaqs wont play real media, so we are stuck with windows media
player. So in order to stream one would need a server with windows media
8. Unless a workaround is found.} However although the making of some
works is relevant, the understanding of emerging data networks seems
to be a focus for my interest at the moment. My own research is leading
me to Berkeley in the USA to look at 'motes' and wireless sensor networks.
I have a number of artistic paradigms imagined and the next step is
to describe them and build them to evaluate their merits. Data
from all sides in systems that can be mediated by all, with varying
visualisations possible communicated over the internet and represented
onto display systems. (sketches to follow)
Stanza has recently received
a Dreamtime Award from NESTA - as part of this he is writing
a journal documenting his research and development during this period.
To read these entries, visit www.stanza.co.uk/weblog/index.html
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