PROJECT DESCRIPTION

3D modeling of Brussels (B) in sPACE - LAb[au]

> What each partner has developed before collaborating:

LAb[au]

iMAGE z[ONE] - Olivier VANDERAA

   The development of the "sPACE, navi-gable music" application by Lab[au] in the past few years lead to the elaboration of new performative 3D environments and many possibilities of collaboration. Among others, like for instance INFO.SCAPES_ INFOR-MATION SOCIETY, an interactive 3D hyper-textu(r)al interface designed for the European Commission to display the poli-tics of the EU commission in the field of IC technologies (see http://www.lab-au.com/files/doc/eu.htm), the CITYSNAP-PER_Game project uses properties of 3D electronic environments to create a spacial navigation through collected data.

   sPACE, navigable music has started in 2001 as an online work in process with the aim to link research and development according to electronic space combining theory with experimental architecture. Since the start of the project different forms of production and development has lead to a diversified structure between technological, artistic and cultural research such as:
- an online database including various 3d realtime experiments and theoretic writings
http://www.lab-au.com/space
- an online platform ESDN [electronic space development network] for programming and research related to artistic concerns [open source + shared human resources] http://www.lab-au.com/esdn
- a collaborative network with experimental electronic musicians exploring the field of music and architecture and to the development of specific perfomative settings _ spa[z]e music and specific mixed reality installations such as: urban installation, interactive multi-user installations
- a collaborative network with architects, video makers, artists, graphic designers in the field of MetaDeSign, exploring new sign_forms in hypermedia
http://www.lab-au.com/esdn
- thematic ‘ workspaze’s ’ based on tem-poral workshop like collaboration organized with educational, artistic… institutions.
In this manner the project now covers a broad range of different spatial settings run-ning from net spaces ( on-line communi-ty_launch end 2003 - collaborative spaces, ESDN - to online performances ) to the one of e.spaces (spa[z]e modules) as to perfor-mative spaces (music and contemporary dance) and cybrid spaces (mixed reality installations ).

   Mainly focusing on contemporary western society, and particularly urban structures and cultures, leaning on a documentary base, Olivier Vanderaa started in early 2002 a reflexion on the nature of the city, considering it as the result of the interaction of two processes: a physical construction (urbanization) as well as a mental (space representation, social context) one. Naturally came the question of how to map these characteristics: in that matter, new media seemed to be appropriate tools, for they allow to easily index the collected data, to interface them with the user (notably through hypertext links), and because the web medium permits to keep a trace of the work and thus draw a comparison between various urban contexts.
   Starting in early 2003 with a first edition for the city of Montréal (Canada), the Citysnapper/Observatoire_X project is a sociological and visual approach of main western cities that leads, during a month, to a daily collection of images and city dweller's statements – thus constituting an inter-subjective view of the city – which can be followed on the internet through a cartographic navigation system. Each new interface is designed especially for each city, and uses one or more of its main characteristics such as urbanistic, histori-cal, economic, topographic, social… ones.
See for instance:
http://www.o-vanderaa.com/citysnapper
on the city of Montréal , and :
http://www.o-vanderaa.com/citysnapper3
on Rotterdam (NL).
Collected data can be commented and printed by visitors. They also give birth, via electronic slideshows or prints, to a physical exhibition on the walls of the hosting space.
   Thus confronting the personal view of the photographer to the relationship inbetween the city dwellers and their city, the project aims to show a mapping of the social context, and give bases for its analysis. The bipolarity of Citysnapper is a result of an interest for the urban phenomenon, considered under two different aspects: the city as a physical construction, translated into photographs, and the city as a mental – and even imaginary – construction that city dwellers build from their daily contact with it, translated into interviews.
   Several new editions of the project are planned in the upcoming years on main cities of North America and Europe, like Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Helsinki, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver...

> the common project: Process
   CITYSNAPPER_Game is a playful visual approach of the contemporary metropolitan space that leads, during a week, to a collection of urban images, which can be followed through a 3D modeling of the city on a web interface. To operate this collection in the real, material city, the photographer follows instructions (word, sentence, coordinates, riddle, allusion, reference…) posted via SMS by members of the audience (players), and, in return, sends pictures via SMS to the interface, thus creating an inter-subjective urban representation based on the interaction of his own knowledge, vision and interpretation of the city with the ones of the players.
   CITYSNAPPER_Game experiences the possibility for the photographer to work in real time, thanks to the use of IC technologies (cell phone of the second generation, SMS web servers and computer programming), and thus gives to the audience an immediate reading of its development, and a possibility to experience a navigation/walk in full immersion mode through this e.infocity.
   Furthermore, members of the audience can become active partners of the project by contributing to build the artwork. They initiate the process and harvest the result at its last step: they are invited to gather in the exhibition space at the end of the performance to fetch a print (signed by photographer) of the image they gave birth to.
   Due to the use of a mass audience photographic device, the project won't lead to the creation of a classical, high definition photographic artwork. The purpose is more here to use photography as a vector, a step in an interaction and exchange process between participants, going from the formulation of an inquiery to its realization as a picture, and leading to an immediate and playful representation of the urban space.
   The purpose of the project is thus the widening of the world wide web and web art to our daily physical space, and, last but not least, to look for social interactions after a long period of autarky in that field.
Interactions will thus be set as follows:




N.B.: the exhibition space is optional in the project and can become an online gallery where players can print their photograph as soon as it is online.