[Figure 1. Scripted Space] The Scripted Spaces of Urban Ubiquitous Computing: The Experience, Poetics, and Politics of Public Scripted Space by Christian Ulrik Andersen & Søren Pold, Fibreculture Journal #19, 2011: Ubiquity:

The computer is moving out into physical and urban reality. Since Mark Weiser’s call for a ‘computer for the 21st century’ in 1991 a migration from the screen and the desktop towards integrating computers and networks into our surroundings has been a part of contemporary computer science research; for example, in augmented reality, ubiquitous computing (ubicomp), and pervasive computing. A number of technological developments (such as big screens, new smart materials, GPS, RFID tags, and ever faster and cheaper wireless networks) have helped carry the research agendas out into ordinary reality. Continue reading

[Figure 1. Senster on display at the Philips Evoluon, Eindhoven, 1970-1974] Towards a Performative Aesthetics of Interactivity by Simon Penny, Fibreculture Journal #19, 2011: Ubiquity:

“Introduction: As I write this, at the end of 2010, it is sobering to reflect on the fact that over a couple of decades of explosive development in new media art (or ‘digital multimedia’ as it used to be called), in screen based as well as ‘embodied’ and gesture based interaction, the aesthetics of interaction doesn’t seem to have advanced much. Continue reading

The Mobile Audience: Media Art And Mobile Technologies, edited by Martin Rieser, with an Introduction by Howard Rheingold:

The convergence of mobile technologies and ubiquitous computing is creating a world where information-rich environments may be mapped directly onto urban topologies. This book tracks the history and genesis of locative and wearable media and the ground-breaking work of pioneer artists in the field. It examines changing concepts of space and place for a wide range of traditional disciplines ranging from Anthropology, Sociology, Fine Art and Architecture to Cultural and Media Studies, Fashion and Graphic design. Continue reading

The 26th Annual CHArt: The Challenge of Ubiquity in Digital Culture :: November 17-18, 2011 :: London, UK :: Call for Papers – Deadline: July 1, 2011.

Utopian hopes for the ubiquity of digital and networked technologies leading to a more transparent and democratic society are being met by expressions of concern about their implications for art. Nicholas Bourriaud has observed that such technologies can bring about a “collective desire to create new areas of conviviality and introduce new types of transaction with regard to the cultural object”. However, others perceive an imminent threat, characterised by such terms as a digital ‘deluge’ or ‘oblivion’. CHArt is interested to examine critically both positive views and apocalyptic concerns about the implications of the widespread merger of telecommunications and computer technology in society for art, its history and practice. Continue reading

Situated Technologies Pamphlets 8: The Internet of People for a Post-Oil World by Christian Nold and Rob van Kranenburg, Spring 2011 (Available as a print-on-demand book from lulu.com. Available here as a free download):

The authors articulate the foundations of a future manifesto for an Internet of Things in the public interest. Nold and Kranenburg propose tangible design interventions that challenge an internet dominated by commercial tools and systems, emphasizing that people from all walks of life have to be at the table when we talk about alternate possibilities for ubiquitous computing. Through horizontally scaling grass roots efforts along with establishing social standards for governments and companies to allow cooperation, Nold and Kranenberg argue for transforming the Internet of Things into an Internet of People. Continue reading

Ubicidade | Ubicity :: June 27-30, 2011; 9:00 am – 4:00 pm :: Electronic Computational Center – University of São Paulo, Avenida Professor Gualberto, 71, travessa, 3 Cidade Universitária, Butantã, São Paulo, Brazil.

Ubicity is a Telematic Art Project, proposed to stimulate conceptual, mediatic and aesthetic experimentation through streaming, videoconferencing and social media. Its main goal is to establish a structure that will enable artistic and cultural exchanges specially among research centers in Universities around the world. Ubicity, a word created through the conjunction of Ubiquity and City, is proposed to enhance Internet-based communication between artists and researchers of geographically distant places around the world. Continue reading

DATAPOLIS @ Enter, 5th International Art | Science | Technology Biennale :: April 15-17, 2011 (Limited version of the exhibition will run until Sunday, April 24, 2011) :: Opening: April 14; 6:00 pm :: National Technical Library (NTK), Technická 6,160 80 Praha 6 – Dejvice.

DATAPOLIS is one evening and three days of full-size experiment in art and technology. The exhibition addresses interactions of media technologies, novel visualization practices and urban realities. Exhibiting artists from all over the world discover moods and rhythms of our cities, bodies and planet. They innovatively mash both visible and invisible data that re-present individual and collective lives and actions. Continue reading

Sentient City: Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space; Edited by Mark Shepard, MIT Press:

Our cities are “smart” and getting smarter as information processing capability is embedded throughout more and more of our urban infrastructure. Few of us object to traffic light control systems that respond to the ebbs and flows of city traffic; but we might be taken aback when discount coupons for our favorite espresso drink are beamed to our mobile phones as we walk past a Starbucks. Sentient City explores the experience of living in a city that can remember, correlate, and anticipate. Five teams of architects, artists, and technologists imagine a variety of future interactions that take place as computing leaves the desktop and spills out onto the sidewalks, streets, and public spaces of the city. Continue reading

Public Interfaces — Conference and PhD Workshops :: January 12-14, 2011, Aarhus University, Denmark.

The interface as a cultural paradigm: In the case of computers, interfaces mediate between humans and machines, between machines and between humans. Interfaces thus involve an exchange between data and culture. In this sense, the computer interface can be described as a cultural interface combining cultural content (images, text, movies, sound) with machine/media control (buttons, menus, filters, etc.) and networks (World Wide Web). As such, the interface can be seen as a cultural paradigm affecting not only our creative production and presentation of the world but also our perception of the world. Continue reading

Reading the Digital City: New Political Technologies in the Network Society (revised version) by Clemens Apprich, The Next Layer: Art, Technology and Social Change:

This article examines the ‘digital city’ debate of the mid 1990s as a point of departure for a media-historical questioning of how technology and the discourse about technology were used as an experimental playground for new forms of knowledge that are fundamental for the understanding of today’s network society. This text has been presented as a conference paper at the ‘networks and sustainability‘ track of the ‘textiles’ conference in Riga in June 2010. The paper will also appear in a special edition of the Arts and Communications Journal edited by RIXC at the end of 2010.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the proclaimed crisis of the city marked a general crisis of governance: the discussion about the supposed “decline of cities” was characterized by a controversial debate about a possible loss of control.1 Continue reading