The Architectural League seeks to commission architects, artists, designers, technologists, engineers and related practitioners to produce urban “interventions” that demonstrate alternative trajectories for imagining this near future Sentient City. We are interested in expressions of interest that not only re-imagine applications for the various mobile, embedded, networked, and distributed forms of media, information and communication systems introduced by the paradigm of pervasive/ubiquitous computing, but that also critically explore the technê of contemporary social networks, media ecologies, and urban and environmental systems that this paradigm introduces or redefines.
Privacy, Security, and Dataveillance
How might Situated Technologies address the situation where we are increasingly compelled to trade privacy for security? The disclosure of detailed and extensive personal information has become the price we pay for privileges of easy access and enhanced mobility. EZ-Pass RFID tags enable commuters both quick passage through tollbooths on bridges and interstate highways as well as enhanced tracking of suspected terrorists by law enforcement agencies. “Trusted Traveler Programs” such as NEXUS and SENTRI offer expedited border crossing “for low risk, pre-approved travelers,” effectively producing an elite travel class. Yet perhaps more troubling is the introduction of new technologies for data acquisition that are invisible to the average citizen. How might we make visible the various dataveillance techniques made possible by read/write RFID tags and GPS enabled mobile devices when identity, location and time-stamps are shared, aggregated and mined by networked information systems?
Social Space
The dialogue between technology and sociality is longstanding. As Georg Simmel noted at the beginning of the20th century, “before busses, railroads and trains became fully established during the 19th century, people were never in a position to have to stare at one another for minutes or even hours on end without exchanging a word.” Along with new technologies come new social spaces spawning a variety of spatial practices for mitigating awkward or inconvenient situations. The social impacts of the telegraph, telephone, television and Internet are extended to the physical space of the city by the iPod and the mobile phone. Simultaneously a means of sensorial extension and amputation (McLuhan), these technologies have been cited both for atomizing public space and connecting publics in new ways. What new techno-social situations can we project in this near-future Sentient City? How might we imagine new spatial applications of technology that work toward greater social integration and at the same time maintain the possibility of the serendipitous encounter?
Environment
As environmental sensing technologies become less expensive and more readily available in consumer markets, what new forms of public participation in the monitoring of environmental conditions are enabled? In the wake of the EPA fiasco surrounding the accuracy of reports concerning the environmental impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center, new practices of what has come to be called “Citizen Science” are emerging where the reporting of local environmental conditions are placed (literally) in the hands of the ordinary citizen. How can we imagine ways that these reports have an agency that has a direct impact on our experience of the city and the choices we make within it? How can this information be aggregated and displayed in ways that can compete with the perceived authority of those from established scientific bodies and governmental agencies?
Advocacy
Advocacy is the act of arguing on behalf of a particular issue, idea or person, and addresses issues such as self-advocacy, environmental protection, the rights of women, youth and minorities, social justice, the re-structured digital divide and political reform. How might Situated Technologies be mobilized toward changing and/or influencing social or political policies, practices, and beliefs? What new forms of advocacy are enabled by contemporary location-based or context-aware media and information systems? How might they lend tactical support to the process of managing information flows and disseminating strategic knowledge that influences individual behavior or opinion, corporate conduct or public policy and law?
