An interesting piece of interactive art that I found is called 10,000 Moving Cities Same but Different by Marc Lee. This is an augmented piece that shows real time(well about as real time as you can get without going to place cameras/get access to cameras and audio all around these places) cities projected onto basic cube and rectangular prism pieces set in a room. Audio based on the city being shown is also played.
This is interactive as the people who view it get to choose which city they see. Simple in idea/concept but it seems to rely heavily on coding and technological skill. When people choose a city information is looked up and taken to create the atmosphere shift in the room; the text, audio, and visuals come from searching the web about the city chosen.
I find this intriguing but I am curious why the Marc Lee chose to add the boxes in the room. I don’t feel they add anything but dissonance to the work. If that dissonance was the point then it does the job it creates an odd look to an otherwise real showcase of a real-life city.
Curiously I found a site about future architecture and this was on it. Does this mean that the cube-like structures added to it are thought of as future architecture? Is it simply because it shows cities and cities are thought of as the future? Regardless the way this one described the work through me off as it described to process of loading images audio and text as coming from social media which makes this work have a different meaning. It goes from an exploratory way of engaging in virtual reality to a statement about the way we as a society use the internet. If looked at with both those things in mind it’s almost like we are comparing the different ways people approach technology and the availability to communicate with so many different people from far away. Look at the locations that you choose from.
There is obviously more as part of the world gets cut off but look at all the locations we are able to choose from. Its feels nearly infinite. With all the choices there are bound to be interesting differences that can be explored. Simply put the way people post and what they post differs from person to person and from place to place. For example, as a non native to New York I posted photos of me and the people I traveled with in front of any building I could and I posted photos taken while on a ferry. In my hometown/city I post the art I create, the photos I take of family and the responses to things I look into but I rarely post myself. People and location change the way social media is used and because of that we can see some of the differences that we otherwise couldn’t.
Images and references from: http://marclee.io/en/10-000-moving-cities-same-but-different/ http://futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/4a6a2c9d-e0bc-46e2-b0a5-c2fd3a2bee88/
Amanda Potts 