Urban Networks

Urban Networks–June 9-August 6, 2006–features five interactive art projects that examine social encounters and explorations in urban places. The works in this exhibition employ a range of technological devices that create urban community connections and offer insights into how emerging technologies might play an alternative role in our experience of everyday urban life.

Finishing School presents two projects Meet/Greet and Write/Send from the Public Interaction Objects (PIO) series. Engineered to create meaningful interaction with individuals in various public contexts, each object is informed by varying cultural customs, market economies, lifestyle, entertainment and commercial technologies.
Imaging Place by John (Craig) Freeman is a site-specific installation that consists of an interactive, location-based, virtual reality environment. The Imaging Place method uses a combination of panoramic photography, digital video, and three-dimensional technologies to investigate, document, and map locations.

Objects of Wonderment created by Urban Atmospheres is the first in a series of new public artifacts that are designed to expand our expectations of mobile phones as they transcend beyond personal connections and begin to interface directly with locations. Combining Bluetooth sensing technology with a newly fabricated public object, this work dynamically generates new urban sonic experiences.

Primarily operating outside of the gallery La rue c’est mise a nu par ses orielles, partout (the street is stripped bare by her ears, everywhere) by URBANtells, is comprised of numerous, micro am transmitters tuned to the same frequency and placed within the Central Square neighborhood.

Disembodied Voices by Jody Zellen is a multi-sensory interactive installation that explores the differences between public and private life and how the global phenomenon of public cell-phone conversations have become a ubiquitous irritant in contemporary society.

Artist Bios

Finishing School featuring Brian Boyer and Ed Giardina is a collective identity based in Southern California that enlists tactical media to investigate the intersections between educational models, critical theory, and both covert and common everyday activities.

John (Craig) Freeman is an artist and Associate Professor of New Media at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. The Imaging Place project has been under development since 1997 and includes work from Sao Paulo Brazil, British Columbia, Canada, Warsaw Poland, the U.S./Mexico Border, Miami, Kaliningrad Russia, Niagara, New England, and Appalachia.

Urban Atmospheres featuring Eric Paulos and Tom Jenkins is a research group at Intel Berkeley lead by Eric Paulos. The project explores methods to explore the fabric of our emerging digital and wireless urban landscape. Eric received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

URBANtells featuring Steve Bradley, Joe Reinsel, and James Rouvelle is a collective of three media artists whose work focuses on the relationships between architecture, cityscape and the human and cultural geography found within any city. Their practice explores forms and modalities for enhancing connections among community residents using technology and research.

Jody Zellen is an artist living in Los Angeles, California. She works in multiple media including photography and net art, as well as artist books that explore the subject of the urban environment.