The Rhythm of City: Geo-Located Social Data as an Artistic Medium
Symposium:
- ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
- More presentations from ISEA2011:
Session Title:
- Locative Media and Social Data
Presentation Title:
- The Rhythm of City: Geo-Located Social Data as an Artistic Medium
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
The growing amount of user-generated data is a sign for the society’s dependence on digital networks. Not surprisingly the rapid development of technology is mirrored as well in arts. The virtual environment is an inspiration and as well a working medium for many creative people.
The aim of the paper is to introduce a different approach for the interpretation and usage of geo-located social data and real-time web. To be more precise, the art project described here can be categories as a real-time and mixed reality art piece. We are proposing an innovative and artistic way for applying geo-located social data for describing a city’s pace of life. Our concerns are about the malleability of the digital world to the physical one, and the interpretation of social data for artistic purposes.
The goal of the art project is to metaphorically describe the locations by extracting geo-tagged content and translating it into a rhythm of physical metronome in real time. In short, a metronome represents a city. The installation consists from the 10 modified metronomes whose rhythms correspond to the selected cities’ the digital pace of life of. The audience is given a chance to discover and experience an alternative way of perceiving different locations through a continuous performance of 10 metronomes.
To put in a nutshell, “The Rhythm of City” is an art installation that explains in original way digital geo-located social content and characterizes cities. Even more, the work is an ongoing performance that embraces different locations, digital social data, and physical kinetic motion.
The second part of the paper aims to introduce real-time web as an artistic medium by discussing a number of related artworks.