This blog is a research platform organizing projects, examples, and thoughts surrounding the idea of an urban mapping which reads the city as a network of individual activities and relationships in time rather than as a static form. This research looks at the city both from within and from above as kind of urban cat-scan. 


Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Amsterdam RealTime


A mapping of Amsterdam incorporating public participation

done by Amsterdam's Waag Society in collaboration with Artist Esther Polak (2002)

"Every inhabitant of Amsterdam has an invisble map of the city in his head. The way he moves about the city and the choices made in this process are determined by this mental map. Amsterdam RealTime attampts to visualize these mental maps through examining the mobile behaviour of the city's users.



During two months (3 Oct to 1 Dec 2002) all of Amsterdam's residents are invited to be equipped with a tracer-unit. This is a portable device developed by Waag Society which is equipped with GPS: Global Positioning System. Using satellite data the tracer calculates its geographical position. Therse tracers' data are sent in realtime to a central point. By visualizing this data against a black background traces, lines, appear. From these lines a (partial) map of Amsterdam constructs itself. This map does not register streets or blocks of houses, but consists of the sheer movements of real people."

http://realtime.waag.org/

Web and Beyond Mobility

upcoming conference at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam

deadline March 2

Web and Beyond Mobility website

Traffic Primers

work by Terraswarm: a series of experiments describing the city via rate, sequence, transition and feedback.

http://www.terraswarm.com/traffic_primer/index.html