editorial JORINDE SEIJDEL ly deal with this flexibly in our daily lives, what is often left HYBRID SPACE aside in debates on environmental planning or on social cohesion, or Public Agency in the Network in cultural analyses, is the fact Society that the use of these wireless me- dia is changing the constitution of The philosopher Hannah Arendt de- public space. They can be deployed fined public space as a place where as new mechanisms of control, but people act to create a ‘communal also as alternative tools for en- world full of differences’. But larging and intensifying public ac- where does this space manifest it- tivities – whether it’s a matter of self today, that generally accessi- parties, events or meetings, or of ble domain where people meet one campaigns, riots and demonstra- another and create public opinion tions. Wireless media make a ‘mobi- and hence a form of political prac- lization’ of public space possible, tice? In physical places like both literally and figuratively, so streets, squares and parks? In mass that it is no longer static and can media such as newspapers and tele- be deployed by individuals or vision? Or on the Internet, in chat groups in new ways. Open 11 deals rooms and newsgroups? Publicness is specifically with the implications increasingly enacted in all these that these mobile media have for places simultaneously and in that public activities, and hence with sense has become supremely ‘hybrid’ the public dimensions of hybrid in nature: a complex of concrete space. The issue has been produced and virtual qualities, of static in collaboration with guest editor and mobile domains, of public and Eric Kluitenberg, theorist, writer private spheres, of global and lo- and organizer in the field of cul- cal interests. ture and technology. In his intro- The configuration of hybrid ductory essay he asks himself how a space is currently experiencing a critical position is possible in a powerful impetus thanks to wireless hybrid space that is characterized and mobile technologies like GSM, by invisible information technolo- GPS, Wi-Fi and RFID, which are mak- gy. Together with Howard Rheingold, ing not only the physical and the author of the renowned book Smart virtual but also the private and Mobs: The Next Social Revolution the public run into each other more (2002), Kluitenberg has also writ- and more. And although we apparent- ten a polemical piece about the 4 Open 2006/No.11/Hybrid Space B-Redactioneel EN02.indd 4 25-10-2006 14:27:39 right and the ability to ‘discon- zowska discuss the social possibil- nect’, that is to say, about not ities of wearable technology in being connected with the ‘network clothing. of waves’ as a form of acting. Noortje Marres’s column reflects New wireless, mobile media and on the public’s (in)ability to act hybrid space are being used experi- and the role the media plays in mentally and reflected upon on a this. The German researcher Marion small scale by a select company of Hamm reports on the Critical Mass artists, designers, architects and bicycle tour in London in 2005, a urban designers. In her essay for political demonstration against ne- Open, the sociologist and economist oliberal globalization, which was Saskia Sassen looks at ways that ar- experienced and prepared as much on tistic practices can ‘create’ a type the Internet, particularly by Indy- of public space within globalized media, as in physical space. network cities that can make visible The interview by Koen Brams and the local and the silenced. Dirk Pültau with the Flemish tele- On the basis of their projects vision maker Jef Cornelis is part for the Ruhr region in Germany, ar- of a larger research project at the chitects Frans Vogelaar and Elisa- Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht beth Sikiaridi provide an account about his work and also provides in Soft Urbanism of how urbanism the theme of Open 11 with a histor- and architecture can be combined ical dimension. The conversation with information and communication deals with the conditions of TV as networks. The researchers of the a public medium and the changes in design project Logo Parc critically urban public space that Cornelis analyse the ‘post-public’, hybrid drew attention to in his early South Axis area of Amsterdam and films such as Mens en Agglomeratie make proposals for experimental de- (1966) and De Straat (1972). sign strategies. This issue of Open includes the Assia Kraan writes about how CD-Rom Amsterdam REALTIME. Dag- ‘locative arts’ – art that makes boek in sporen/Diary in Traces, a GPS use of location- and time-conscious project by the artist Esther Polak media like GPS – can stimulate pub- in collaboration with Jeroen Kee lic acting in urban spaces. The and the Waag Society. Made in 2002, Droombeek locative media project is it deals with mobility and space discussed separately by Arie Alte- and has in the meantime become a na. Max Bruinsma analyses Optional- classic point of reference within Time by Susann Lekås and Joes Kop- ‘locative arts’. pers. Klaas Kuitenbrouwer looks at On the invitation of Open, the the cultural and social possibili- design and art collective De Geuzen ties of RFID. The artists/designers has contributed Mobiel Werk, which Kristina Andersen and Joanna Ber- is partly concealed in the cover. Editorial 5 B-Redactioneel EN02.indd 5 25-10-2006 14:27:40 Eric Kluitenberg able, so making a critical attitude The Network more difficult. Eric of Waves Kluitenberg, re- searcher in the field Living and Acting of the significance in a Hybrid Space of new technologies for society and The emergence of guest editor of the digital media has present issue, draws meant that in recent attention to a years the use and number of activist significance of tra- strategies to en- ditional public courage public and space has altered private action in a radically. The new- hybrid space. est developments in information tech- nology make use of apparatus which is less and less notice- 6 Open 2006/No. 11/Hybrid Space E1 Kluitenberg EN02.indd 6 25-10-2006 14:28:23 The office space above which I live, in a A few years ago ‘flash mobs’ received a corner house in the Indische Buurt, good deal of attention from the mass somewhere in Amsterdam East, used to media. Semi-spontaneous public gather- house a local police station. At that time ings of groups of people, hardly if at all I was not yet living there. The place was known to one another, nondescript, briefly in the national news because of a with no determining characteristics such fair-sized riot which took place there. A as banners, uniform or logo, briefly per- couple of Moroccan youths were formed some collective synchronous brought to the station for some minor action, and then dissolved back into ‘the offence. Their friends thought that this general public’. Directions and informa- was not right, so they followed the tion about the gathering were sent out police back to the station to besiege the by text messages, or e-mails, telling par- policemen there. It was not just a few ticipants where, when and what. These friends who ran after the policemen, but short messages could easily be sent on a much larger group which suddenly to friends and acquaintances with the turned up at the station, coming from aim of starting a chain reaction resulting nowhere at the precise moment that the in the appearance of an unpredictably youths were brought in. At that time large mob at a predetermined time and this phenomenon, later known as a place. ‘flash mob’,1 was still relatively new. The police on site 1. For a description, see Reclaim the Mall!! http://en.wikipedia.org/ were unpleasantly wiki/fl ashmob. surprised, and had The ‘flash-mob’ phenomenon is to issue a hasty call for reinforcements thought by some people to have origi- to negotiate with the besiegers. When it nated in a few relatively unmanageable was all over a police spokesman said actions in large shopping centres in that it was a disgrace that the Moroccan American towns, disorganizing them youths had used their mobile phones to temporarily and playfully. These actions mobilize a mob. How else could these generally had no political significance. youths all have known at the same time This all changed at the end of the 1990s. 2 that something was going on at which The ‘Reclaim the Streets’ movement, their physical presence was ‘urgently highly active at the 2. Reclaim the streets web- desired’? And exactly where they time, which used to site http://rts.gn.apc.org/. needed to be? What the spokesman organize illegally orchestrated ‘street meant was that the youths had compiled raves’ in the public spaces of large mailing lists for text messages and then towns, made intensive use of text and e- used texting to get together as many mail address lists to organize quasi- people as possible as quickly as possible. spontaneous street parties. They did Texting with mailing lists was a popular however give these street parties a application, because at that time text layered political agenda. The parties messages could still be sent and received were generally given concrete political free of charge. and social themes and were linked to The Network of Waves 7 E1 Kluitenberg EN02.indd 7 25-10-2006 14:28:24 particular actions, such as support for a Traditional space is being overlaid by strike by London Underground staff. electronic networks such as those for The movement’s desire to also use these mobile telephones and other wireless actions to free public space from its eco- media.