Urban Atmospheres 48% of worlds population is urban (2003) 50% urban by 2007 Bluetooth devices to reach 1.4 billion units in 2005 alone Bluetooth in 20% of all automobiles by million new mobile phones sold worldwide this year WiFi hardware being deployed at 1 every 4 seconds

Urban Atmospheres The very essence of person, place, and community are being redefined by personal wireless digital tools that transcend traditional physical constrains of time and space. New metaphors for visualizing, interacting, and interpreting the real-time ebb and flow of urban places will emerge. Urban Atmospheres is focused on exposing, deconstructing, and understanding the challenges of this newly emerging moment in urban history and its dramatic influence on technology usage and adoption.

Place Community Infrastructure Traversal Themes

Place – What is the meaning of various public places? What cues do we use to interpret place and how will Urban Computing re-inform and alter our perception of various places? Community – Who are the people we share our city with? How do they influence our urban landscape? Where do we belong in this social space and how do new technologies enable and disrupt feelings of community and belonging? Infrastructure – How will buildings, subways, sidewalks, parking meters, and other conventional, physical artifacts on the urban landscape be used and re-appropriated by emerging technology tools? Traversal – What is a path or route through a city using these new urban tools? How will navigation and movement, either throughout an entire city or within a small urban space, be influenced by the introduction of Urban Computing technology? Themes

Situationists Situationists wanted to dislodge public passivity and prompt widespread critical engagement through a kind of guerrilla tactic of “situations” or street events that would shake passersby out of their conventional habits of looking and thinking Looked towards building a new people’s aesthetic built out of the ruins of the spectacle

Society of the Spectacle Collapse of reality into streams of images, products, and activities sanctioned by others and bureaucracy Untrustworthy glamorization of power unrelated to the requirements of ordinary people and their daily urban lives Spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images Authentic, teeming life of the city

Urban Atmospheres Proactive archeology of our urban landscapes and emerging technology

Street Talk Bring together a diverse set of individuals that are focused on exploring various issues, themes, and technologies across our public urban spaces Help us look ahead and avoid pitfalls Are we even thinking about urban spaces and particularly computing within it in the right ways? What are we missing? Help us open our minds to larger visions of urban possibilities

Street Talk Let us find common ground and promote synergies between our various disciplines Let us know what is right and wrong about the way others are thinking, researching, or reforming urban spaces Let us experience your views of urban landscapes away from technology so as to gain insight into the raw urban life of cities – to deconstruct them and benefit from such viewpoints.

Street Talk