HYBRID SPACE
HOW WIRELESS MEDIA ARE MOBILIZING PUBLIC SPACE
The public domain is a place where people act and create a 'communal world full of differences'. This space has become 'hybrid' in nature: a complex of concrete and virtual qualities, of static and mobile domains, of public and private spheres, of global and local interests. Last but not least, hybrid space is formed by wireless and mobile media like GSM, GPS, WI-FI and RFID. These media are deployed as control mechanisms, but also as alternative tools for increasing and intensifying public agency. A select company of artists, designers, architects and urban designers is investigating its implications and possibilities and putting them to the test.
Eric Kluitenberg outlines the contours of hybrid space, looking for ways to take a critical stand within it.
Howard Rheingold & Eric Kluitenberg have written a polemical piece about being 'disconnected' as a form of agency.
Saskia Sassen considers the possibilities of artistic practices within globalized network cities.
Klaas Kuitenbrouwer looks at the cultural and social possibilities of RFID.
Koen Brams & Dirk P ltau interviewed the Flemish television maker Jef Cornelis about the changes in urban public space that Cornelis drew attention to in a number of his early films.
Noortje Marres reflects on the public's (in) ability to act and the role the media plays in this.
Other contributions by Arie Altena, Max Bruinsma, Kristina Andersen & Joanna Berzowska, Marion Hamm, Assia Kraan, Logo Park, Frans Vogelaar & Elisabeth Sikiaridi, De Geuzen and Esther Polak.