NYC Tourism Advertisement

Billboard Poster to encourage tourists to visit New York. A video of the initiative can also be seen in the following link:

http://nycvisit.com/video/

Exchange of glances

"exchange of glances like lines that connect one figure with another"

Chloe, Invisible Cities

"In Chloe, a great City, the people who move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter, they image a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses, bites. But noone greets anyone; eyes locking for a second, then dart away seeking other eyes, never stopping."
".... An exchange of glances like lines that connect one figure with another and draws arrows, stars, triangles, until all combinations are used up in a moment....."
".When people happen to find themselves together, taking shelter from the rain under an arcade, or crowding beneath an awning of the bazaar, or stopping to listen to the band in the square, meetings, seductions, copulations, orgies are consummated among them without a word exchanged, without a finger touching anything, almost without an eye raised"

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, page 51. 1972

Tutorial 30th October

Is privacy and user information lost when they use the interactive screen? and does the government have a right to use it? Think of the film Minority Report, iris recognition dictates what information is given to Tom Cruise when he walks through a shopping mall. Do we then only get advertisements that a computer generates for us, using previous articles that we've bought or researched? Should we be told what we want? The exploration is then lost and we no longer have a choice to do, go or use what we want. But then another question can be asked: Do we have too much choice? Going in to a supermarket and selecting a soap powder is a lengthy decision, the whole aisle is taken up by persil, daz, aerial, supermarket own brand and the list goes on. Why is there so much choice when only one thing could suit everything?
A lot of things need to be considered when designing the interactive information screen, especially the space in which people use and interact with technology.

City Screens in Leeds

There is only one city screen in Leeds now, in Millenium Square. Up until November 2005 the screen was only temporary for live8, Euro 2004 and Wimbledon, which were great crowd magnets. The screen is now permenant mainly showing bbc news, local films or weather reports. Sound is muted during nightime.

Previously there has been a smaller city screen located outside WH Smiths off commercial street. This has recently been taken away, probably due to its small size and being slightly pixellated. Advertisements were aired across the screen, along with local weather to the seating area infront of it.

Improving the screen would include bringing the screen down to human height and allowing individuals control what they watch.

Microsoft Surface

Take a look at the microsoft website:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/index.html

The microsoft surface could be very useful in the street. A person could take photos of the Street/performers and at different times of the day, whilst upoading them on to the web.

Whilst this is happening another person could use the board to find directions and local events information.

City Wall

City Wall in Helsinki, Finland is a large interactive face displaying images of the local area. Interacting like this is relatively new, where most people only use a mouse, a hands on approach engages the user more productively.

http://citywall.org/