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Photo: Dirk Engelhardt

04 October 2006

Proximity Games on Big Urban Screens

Imagine a dormant virtual world with four seasons projected individually every week for the public to play with. The 3D inhabitants of the virtual world will come to life and populate the world as soon as they are prompted by the proximity of a Bluetooth signal from a mobile phone.... (Maria N. Stukoff)



See also Marias thoughts on her blog about an Open Mobile Broadcasting Channel

permalink posted by Mirjam 08:11   

URBAN SCREENS is a concept developed by Mirjam Struppek. It investigates how the currently commercial use of outdoor screens can be broadened with cultural content. We address cultural fields as digital media culture, urbanism, architecture and art. We want to network and sensitise all engaged parties for the possibilities of using the digital infrastructure for contributing to a lively urban society, binding the screens more to the communal context of the space and therefore creating local identity and engagement. The integration of the current information technologies support the development of a new integrated digital layer of the city in a complex merge of material and immaterial space that redefine the function of this growing infrastructure.

Definition of Urban Screens

URBAN SCREENS defined as various kinds of dynamic digital displays and interfaces in urban space such as LED signs, plasma screens, projection boards, information terminals but also intelligent architectural surfaces being used in consideration of a well ballanced, sustainable urban society - Screens that support the idea of public space as space for creation and exchange of culture, strengthening a local economy and the formation of public sphere. Its digital nature makes these screening platforms an experimental visualisation zone on the threshold of virtual and urban public space.
(Mirjam Struppek)

Short history of Urban Screens

In January 2004, during the international Media Art Festival Transmediale Mirjam Struppek did a questionnaire for the Artgroup [STRICTLY PUBLIC], researching about the outcome of their one month video art screening on the largest outdoor LED screen in Berlin, looking at the impact on the passers by. Later in 2004 the Institute of Network Cultures and the Department of Art in Public space, Amsterdam approached Mirjam Struppek, to develop a research agenda for a conference, preparing the launch of the permanent video screen installation for cultural programming at the Zuidplein, heart of a new urban development area in Amsterdam. Mirjam Struppek developed a concept named "Urban Screens" and curated this first conference about "discovering the potential of outdoor screens for urban society" in September 2005. According to the large success of the event she developed an extended concept, including conferences, exhibitions, outdoor screenings and international joint broadcasting and an online information platform for networking. She is initiator of this challenging series of worldwide Urban Screens events, to support a growing community and an emerging Urban Screens movement