Tweeting antennas : exploring physical and digital layers of information in urban space

This research addresses how contemporary cities are seen as hybrid spaces, where the flow of digital information influences the experiences and interactions that occur within them. The purpose of the study is to investigate the various ways in which art and design can be used in this context, in order to explore, visualize, and alter these emerging hybrid spaces, potentially resulting in rendering the city a more unexpected and heterogeneous place. The study begins by contextualizing contemporary technological phenomena, such as smart cities and the Internet of Things, as well as the issues they raise, relating to privacy, anonymity, spontaneity, the transformation of citizens into consumers, and aspects of participation in public space. Following this, we provide an overview of the role of art in the urban context and identify tactics used by contemporary artists in response to the mentioned technological developments. Subsequently, we analyze artistic interventions and design projects that are using these tactics. Finally, we present the practical project Tweeting Antennas: (Un)dead Media in the Urban Landscape, which consists of two modified rooftop antennas that translate the characters of nearby geo-located tweets into visual signs of the Flag semaphore system through kinetic motion. The installation seeks to explore and render visible, fragments of digital communications in a public space through a, somewhat unexpected, urban intervention. The results of this study reveal the potential of art, technology, and design in the urban context as means to explore, visualize and/or transform existing communication processes, enable new forms of communication, or subvert existing systems. The research provides an overview of the relation between digital communication technologies and cities, while identifying some of the issues that smart cities and the Internet of Things might bring up. In addition, our research points out the way in which these issues can be approached practically, namely through art projects and ...