THE MEIATED CITY CONFERENCE Architecture_MPS; Ravensbourne; Woodbury University London: 01—03 April, 2014
NEW SENSIBILITIES IN THE HYBRID CITY
CRISTINA MIRANDA DE ALMEIDA UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY
INTRODUCTION
When the physical and the digital dimensions of reality blend a hybrid reality is formed. Nowadays society is immersed on a hybrid reality, which does not fall inside the scope of society’s perceptive window. There is little social awareness about what a hybrid reality is and about the benefits that can be explored. In this context it is necessary to analyse how the very concept of nature and matter are forged according to the model of experience that is being formed in the process of embedding the virtual into the physical and matter is turning into a digitally assisted kind of matter.
The first objective of this paper is to help expand this perceptive window, to offer a more inclusive analytical framework to make visible some essential dimensions of this kind of reality that encompasses a hybrid materiality so that society can better situate itself in relation to a reality in which digital seamlessly blends with physical matter and the world gains agency. The second objective is to challenge the current view that matter, objects and environments are inanimate, by analysing how interactions between people, social processes, things and environments are undergoing a transformation triggered by technology1. In order to construct this framework, this research is grounded in the intersection of art, ICT and the urban experience from a Constructivist approach and Actor-Network Theory (Latour 1987, 2005; Law and Hassard, 1999).
The main dimensions to be explored and analysed are (1) the merging of digital and analogue forms of experience, in particular from art (e.g. augmented realities); (2) presence of new actors and forms of interaction in the city2; (3) forms of heterogeneous knowledge construction; (4) lively interfaces and animated environments; and (5) biotechnological convergence.
THE PROBLEM
The accelerated impact of Internet on matter, time, identity, self and environments is still not clearly understood by society regarding its different dimensions. In particular, considering matter only from the point of view of its physicality is not enough to analyse the new layers that are being embedded into everything, from living beings to urban ecosystems.
The embedding of the Internet in the core of our physical and social realities affects not only the process of the subject’s experience, but also the very definition of matter what requires new analytical tools that take into consideration the very dissolution of the screens into the physical world, the blending of digital into matter and the emergence of digital matter as a new layer of nature. A number of examples can be used to illustrate how this blending is occurring. For example when access to digital urban data (Big data as well) is being facilitated almost exclusively through visual data representation and simulation and other forms of sensorial channels or experiences are not offered. THE MEIATED CITY CONFERENCE Architecture_MPS; Ravensbourne; Woodbury University London: 01—03 April, 2014
This is the case of data (in particular from first person perspective) that is transformed into data visualizations to be accessed by means of mobile technologies, apps and wireless sensor networks that can be seen in projects as Amsterdam Real Time 3 , Smart Environments 4 , Libelium 5 , London Dashboard6, Mappiness7, Next City8, Collective Consciousness App9, RunKeeper10. Other examples relate to data that is offered to people to be experienced by other senses beyond vision (examples: Beloff, L. 2013, Appendix11; SENSEable City Lab MIT, DataDrives12; Iacconesi; Persico, 2013, The Human Ecosystems13).
Although these two kinds of ways to deal with data are starting to be pervasive, urban administrations and other local and regional institutions are not fully aware of all actors interacting with data and how urban data is being produced, mined and represented by different kinds of actors. For example, data is considered basically a human product but nowadays also non-human actors or actants (Latour) are taking part in the weaving of the World Wide Web/Big Data pool. Even animals are sending Twits to update a platform about their movements. At the same time, although data is mined in the global scale data treatment is localised and there is little collaborative transversality to compare different cities taking into consideration a broader cross-border group of stakeholders when it comes to projects. Data visualizations are rendered in a partial, fragmented and (not always) scientific way by designers, artists and developers, mostly linked to private sectors, who lack a full perspective on the social complexity that is involved in the representation of urban data and how it affects citizenship. On the same way there is a lack of transversality in relation to fields of activities, what reflects the fragmentary approach mentioned.
RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS
Which are the main factors that shape the change that result from the impact of the inscription of Internet on matter and environment? The hypothesis is that a ‘strange’ kind of urban reality14 is being formed that needs to be addressed by institutions of all levels in order to prevent a new kind of digital illiteracy.
ANALYTICAL MODEL TO UNDERSTAND EXPERIENCE IN A HYBRID REALITY
The role of technology, the action of subject and the relationship technology-subject are historically dependent. Internet of Things is being embedded in all dimensions of urban life and bringing to people new forms of experience that include human and non-human actors and actants, (Latour 1987, 2005; Law and Hassard1999) are given agency in everyday life and opening new opportunities to knowledge building. Michael Callon (1991, 1995, 1997) and Bruno Latour (1987, 2005) developed the actant- network model. According to this model actants can be anything or any being that has the capacity to act, such as objects, inscriptions, artifacts, concepts, institutions, environments and other non-human living beings. In concrete, Latour states that actants can network and associate forming actant- networks that connect, influence and empower each other (Latour, 1988). The actants’ form of interaction is called “heterogeneous engineering” (Law 1987; Law and Hassard1999; Latour, 1987, 2005). In the scope of this research actants are considered special forms of subjects.
THE MEIATED CITY CONFERENCE Architecture_MPS; Ravensbourne; Woodbury University London: 01—03 April, 2014
These series of factors contribute to the formation of a “strange” reality that is forging the environment that frames the subjects’ experience. In order to explore this strange reality I propose an analytical model based on five dimensions:
Digital-analogical merging
Biotechnological "Strange" convergence interactions
Lively interfaces and environments Heterogenous Knowledge (sensors, controls, context- construction aware systems)
Figure 1: Five Dimensions of the analytical model to understand experience in hybrid realities
The first dimension relates to the impact of Internet of Things in the merging of physical and digital layers of data into the physical environment enabling the addition of a new layer to reality in the form of augmented realities in which computing is becoming ubiquitous, pervasive, and invisible, environments, things and beings are being increasingly wirelessly networked, geo-localized and tagged. In parallel, the merging of biological, mechanical and electronic parts of organisms is being achieved by bio and mechanic sensors, controllers and actuators. Research in the field of Bio- mechatronics (MIT) deepens in how neuroscience and robotics can integrate in these hybrid creatures. One paradigmatic example of this process is the Robotic Plant that is being created by Barbara Mazzolai and her team at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa “that mimics the behaviour of real plants”. Robotic Plants (Plantoid Robots) have roots that grow underground and are environmentally self-aware as they are able to detect their own needs for water, temperature and PH15. There are many possibilities that open with projects like this one on the sense of monitoring nature in urban environments16.
The second dimension is the access to continuous (always on and real time) global-glocal forms of interaction offered to society. The possibility to electronically coding physical objects, beings and environments and tagging systems like RFID, Quick Response Codes tags opens the possibility to cities to integrate an emotional subjective layer in the urban tissue by enabling direct access from THE MEIATED CITY CONFERENCE Architecture_MPS; Ravensbourne; Woodbury University London: 01—03 April, 2014 urban contexts, equipment and institutions to social networks. This is an extraordinary possibility to include interactive bottom up creativity and knowledge construction processes in the core of cities supported by mobile social media. As a consequence of these aspects matter is gaining agency in this ‘strange reality’.
The third dimension is that not only humans but also actants are able to tag (apart from being tagged) and to share contents, what presents challenges to digital inclusion, triggering new form of media illiteracy. This process is supported by the increasingly development of Cloud computing that enables the pervasiveness of knowledge. In that process of knowledge construction when science is manipulating atoms (nanoscience and nanotechnology), genetics is manipulating genes and technology is manipulating bits, the opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are being analysed.
As a fourth dimension it is essential to consider what happens to interfaces. Interfaces are ‘disappearing’, dissolving into the environment as a result of a process of miniaturization and the pervasiveness of micro-electromechanical devices (MEMs), smartdust, smart motes, nanobots, artificial intelligence and bio-inspired organisms, smart micro-organisms and drones that turn environments into smart tissues, bio-interfaces (use of smart micro-organisms and devices) embedded in tangible natural, tangible, organic or artificial environments that substitute computer screens. The consequence is that technology makes itself more invisible.
The fifth and last dimension is the process of biotechnological convergence to constitute a hybrid media ecology in which different technologies are continually changing towards performing similar tasks (Jenkins, 2006). This process is reflected in the uploading of date personal biophysical data (biometric) into platforms such as ‘Quantified Self’ 17 . The outcome of the confluence of the mentioned aspects is taking form as multisensorial translations of data into physical phenomena and matter (ex. artwork titled Appendix, Bellof, 2011). In our data driven life a kind of data obsession is being shaped, maybe, as an intensification of the rationalism started with Renaissance. In this process there is an increasing substitution of words by multi-sensorial experiences.
Contributions and Conclusions
The trends in society of knowledge are giving birth to a ‘strange’ and still invisible reality. The factors that shape this strange reality need to be addressed by institutions at all levels in order to prevent new kinds of digital illiteracy. Transformations affect how persons and institutions behave, reflect, interact, socialise, create and distribute knowledge. If we want to understand the needs that are being forged it is necessary to comprehend the nature of the relationship between technology and society in hybrid environments when matter is extended into a new kind of matter: digital matter. Only by taking into consideration the change in the nature of reality itself, and matter in particular, can we create the foundations for regulatory and policy-making dimensions that really touch the essential core of the problem posed at the beginning of this text.
Such issues have impact on all social sectors, from individuals and corporations, to institutions triggering the need to develop tools for trans-disciplinary actions, collaboration, policy-making and creative explorations. In addition to the cases previously quoted the proposed analytical model can be offered to other situations: (1) collective mobilizations in which local actions are expanded into global THE MEIATED CITY CONFERENCE Architecture_MPS; Ravensbourne; Woodbury University London: 01—03 April, 2014 scales (ex. 15M, Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring, among others); (2) participatory democracy in which institutions can be reached anytime by individuals, from anywhere; (3) heterogeneous knowledge construction, in which people can share and interact with others in real time to contribute to the knowledge processes, from their physical places (Wikipedia, social networks, blogs); (4) expanding classrooms into nature and vice-versa, bringing nature into the classroom enabling students to track and interact with other agencies (for example following the twitter messages from sharks); (5) movement ‘quantified selves’, in which wearable devices contribute to a constant feeding of personal data and bodies, from a first person perspective to the knowledge data pool; (5) new materialities, in which smart tissues and sensors send data directly from matter to online platforms and vice-versa and (6) the city as the interface through which visual experience (screen-based) is transformed into multisensorial experience embedded into the environment. These new forms of experience require urgent research to avoid, among others, privacy and abuse problems.
Urban planning can be a central focus to articulate the five dimensions into an inclusive experience in the use of Internet of Things in such a way that people become active promoters of the urban process, not mere passive receivers. New ‘matter-realities’ and sensibilities claim for the support of a series of parallel actions to bridge the digital gap, to make Internet and augmented realities more visible, to facilitate open and free Wi-Fi connection in public spaces, to develop mobile applications for public participation in urban questions and to raise awareness levels regarding the functions and benefits of smart cities.
The analytical model based on the five dimensions will enable society to fully grasp how the physical- digital-biological merging is turning urban environments into lively interfaces that support strange interactions and heterogeneous forms of knowledge construction. Rendering the features of this ‘strange’ reality visible will facilitate to make the most of the benefits of the inscription of Internet in the everyday lives of individuals, groups, business and institutions.
ENDNOTES
1 Scientific research is showing a relationship between how feel and how we perceive places. Scientists at the Research Laboratory for Immersive Virtual Environments (Relive) combine processes like simulation, motion tracking, and neuroscience to analyse how urban environments impact people. http://www.ubmfuturecities.com/author.asp?section_id=234&doc_id=526543& In a project developed in Munbai smartphones were used for first person perspective tracking. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ElHsHy3P4 2 Some 320 sharks have been tagged to their locations and trigger a Twitter alert whenever they are near a beach. The shark's position, as well as size and species, is then shared to Surf Life Saving Western Australia's (SLSWA) by Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/SLSWA). Viewed on 2013 February, 9th; http://gizmodo.com/australian-sharks-will-now-be-tweeting-their-locations-1490425885 3 The project is based in the idea that each person carries an invisible map of the city in his/her mind and that is revealed by the way he or she moves through the city. Amsterdam Real Time makes visible these daily traces in these maps. Accessed February 7, 2014. http://waag.org/en/project/amsterdam-realtime 4 In this project the use of RFID is directed to community neighbourhood projects, interactive performances and to foster debate on future urban infrastructures. http://waag.org/en/project/smart-environments THE MEIATED CITY CONFERENCE Architecture_MPS; Ravensbourne; Woodbury University London: 01—03 April, 2014
5 One example of these forms of visualization is Libelium applications for weather, traffic, road conditions, temperature monitoring and mapping, structural cracks, vehicle detection, among others, based on a Cloud system. http://www.libelium.com/top_50_iot_sensor_applications_ranking/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-C1gmi1du0#t=230 6 London Dashboard is an example of the movement ‘self knowledge through numbers’: http://smartcitiesdatavisualization.blogspot.com.es/ 7 Mappiness is an app project developed by the London School of Economics that measures how happiness is impacted by urban conditions such as air and sound pollution, traffic, and so on in a city. Accessed February 7, 2014. http://www.mappiness.org.uk/ 8 Applications enable citizens and governments to monitor the “health” of their communities. Accessed February 12, 2014. http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/op-ed-quantifying-our-cities-ourselves 9 According to their developers’ crowdfunding website Collective Intelligence (Indiegogo), “the Collective Consciousness App is a real-time picture of global consciousness data, […] an aggregation of individual consciousness data from around the world. […] For example, if app users living in San Francisco or Cairo were to collectively react to some meaningful event - in a way that impacted the RNG on their phone - this mass reaction may show up on this screen”. Accessed February 7, 2014 http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/collective-consciousness-a-fun-app-to-explore-consciousness 10 RunKeeper is an app that enables people to keep track of their running activities by recording speed, time, elevation, and location from an iphone. The app is used by millions of people and can it can be useful to city planners know where people prefer to bike and run and prepare bike lanes and running paths, http://flowingdata.com/2014/02/05/where-people-run/ 11 According to the artist Laura Bellof, the tail reflects real-time data from sea ebb and flow with an upward movement and responds to data flow mined from the city public transport system by showing direction of a tram. Accessed February 7, 2014. http://www.realitydisfunction.org/appendix/txtFrame.html 12 According to the Senseable City Lab’s website: “The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. Accessed February 9, 2014. http://senseable.mit.edu/datadrives/ and also http://senseable.mit.edu/ 13 The Human Ecosystems “project aims to define the concept of ubiquitous commons: the new public spaces in which we live in every day become a new common for the whole city to use, to communicate, collaborate, imagine and desire” (project by Iaconesi and Persico, 2013). Accessed February 9, 2014. http://www.artisopensource.net/projects/human-ecosystems.html 14 For the limits of this research a strange reality the one that does not fall inside the scope of society’s perceptive window; therefore a reality that is invisible, and barely experienced because of illiteracy relating its features. 15 Accessed January 28, 2014. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24018-robotic-plant-learns-to-grow-like-the- real-thing 16 The process of hybridization can be achieved by adding layers of data over reality to conform augmented or diminished realities by means of different technological mobile and software systems (Qr-Codes, RFID)16 and by implementing sensor networks so that the physical reality itself produces the layer of information (a kind of indexical form of representation that is seen in the form of real time data emitted by the very environment). This paradigm is also described as pervasive computing, ambient intelligence, where each term emphasizes slightly different aspects. When primarily concerning the objects involved, it is also physical computing, the Internet of Things, haptic computing, among other concepts. 17 Accessed January 28, 2014. http://quantifiedself.com/
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