City Slickers

Pixelator Art Performance

Le Flâneur — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:51:35 +0000

Artists in NYC have been reclaiming the streets by taking over video advertising space with a device that transforms the images into pixels. Coolz0r describes, “Pixelator is an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists. Since 2003, the MTA has made available for exhibition purposes 80 LED screens located at subway entrances across New York City. Unfortunately, the high cost of exhibiting (an estimated $274,000 per month per screen) prevents most artists from having access to these facilities.” That seems like a lot of money per screen, but the end result is pretty cool.

Jason Eppink explains how to make your own pixelator.

Urban Playgrounds: Escalator advertising

Le Flâneur — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:30:29 +0000

3 vids on how advertisers enjoy escalators…

All thanks to freshcreation

Tetris nostalgia

Le Flâneur — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:35:44 +0000

How to play Tetris when you’re bored of your little computer screen…

Via

Urban freak

Le Flâneur — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:15:49 +0000

How to cross the street discreetly…

Please take a seat!

Le Flâneur — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:27:09 +0000

Amazing picture on Space & Culture…please, take a seat!

In Banksy’s Footsteps…

Le Flâneur — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:01:39 +0000

My colleague Filip and I were working at a presentation on creativity and innovation by Tom Peters (who was kindly invited, or mainly extremely wel $$, by Flanders DC) in Antwerp, when we ran into Pietel. So checked out his blog today in search for some pictures of that event. Instead I saw this on his blog:…

If you’d like to see London – or maybe colourful Bristol – from a different angle, you might wanna have this Zeeman map in your pockets. It indicates the exact locations where you can admire the work of Banksy, a.k.a. the moments’ top shot in Britain’s/the worlds art land.

…or you might fancy these geotags on Flickr where you can actually see a picture of Banksy’s work and its location.

London presents its new Olympic Stadium

Le Flâneur — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:22:14 +0000

The designs for the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, were revealed today, and according to the press report this new stadium marks a new approach to the design of sports stadia. “Why?”, you ask? Well…because it has a capacity of 25,000 permanent seats that will be surrounded by 55,000 detachable temporary seats that will vanish together with the Olympic spirit at the end of the games.

What’s not innovative is that (and I cite the London 2012 website) “it will be a sustainable and vibrant facility, attracting other
businesses and investment and acting as a hub for the communities
living in and around the Olympic Park”. Now I’ve been to many stadia around Europe, both for watching games and just during the day, and I haven’t seen one that’s vibrant outside the tension of a sports competition or music concert, not even considering a stadium could be a hub for communities living close to it. If you know of any, please let me know, cause I’m desperate to find the first one!

Here‘s a slick sales video of the design…or you might consider a more critical voice by Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian.

Helsinki City Wall

Le Flâneur — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:15:20 +0000

I’ve been studying in Helsinki for a while at the University of Art and Design (UIAH/Taik), as part of the program MA in European Urban Cultures. Everyone who’s ever lived there probably knows it’s a nice place, even though the centre of the city is quite small. But since Finnish people are also quite closed (except when they’re totally hammered), they try to find other ways for people to interact (proven the slogan “Nokia, connecting people!”). Here’s another nice example: the Helsinki City Wall.

Basically it’s an interactive wall, located right in the middle of the centre and at a place where many people pass (the Lasipalatsi media centre), and which shows pictures and movie clips. The touch screen allows you to play with the content. Everyone can contribute by sending content to a certain email address or by posting it on public sources like Flickr or Youtube and tagging it ‘Helsinki’. The content will then be picked up.

“The installation has three objectives; First it aims at creating Awareness and Presence of City Events in an engaging installation where passers by playfully manipulate media and learn about anniversaries, events and festivals. Second it is aimed at supporting active visitors and social media motivating users to actively and collaboratively make sense and play with media. Third CityWall proposes a platform for Media Literacy which can deliver rich media experiences to the widest audience. Anyone with the most basic computer skills can learn and use the CityWall in a few moments.”

Of The Now – Urban Butterfly

Le Flâneur — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:52:32 +0000

This stuff is so amazing I made it the header of my page: stylishly designed, interactive and making well use of the urban environment. It was a final university project by Bednarz. Unfortunately this is not the final version of his work:

“The final version now has a laser trip so when someone stands in the outline of the person in the middle the wings grow, animate, then they fade when the person walks away.” (Fresh Creation)

I hope we’ll get to see that final version some day…if it was for me this guy passes with the highest distinction and congratulations from the jury!

A city…but then without the advertising

Le Flâneur — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:16:25 +0000

Ever wondered what a place would look like if all the (mostly ugly and omnipresent) advertising disappeared? Well, this video shows how things could be… Honestly, I think it looks a bit too sanitised. The least one can say is that the advertising brings some colour to the cityscape…

As seen on Fresh Creation