Panel Statement

[Report n.a.]

“Never confuse the map with the Territory” _Empire of the Sun, J.G. Ballard

The city has always been a site of transformation: of lives, of populations, even of civilizations. With the rise of the mega city, however; with the advent of 24/7 rush hours; with the inexorable conversion of public space into commercial space; with the rise of surveillance; with the computer-assisted precision of redlining; with the viral advance of the xenophobic, the contemporary city is weighted down. We dream of something more. Not something planned and canned, like another confectionary spectacle. Something that can respond to our dreams. Something that will transform with us, not just perform change on us, like an operation.

The Interactive City seeks urban-scale projects for which the city is not merely a palimpsest of our desires but an active participant in their formation. From dynamic architectural skins to composite sky portraits to walking in someone else’s shoes to geocaches of urban lore to hybrid games with a global audience, projects for the Interactive City should transform the “new” technologies of mobile and pervasive computing, ubiquitous networks, and locative media into experiences that matter.

The Interactive City is one of four major themes to be featured at ISEA2006 Symposium and ZeroOne San Jose Festival. Interactive City proposals should embrace aspects of the city of San José specifically and/or the surrounding metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area. Please visit the Interactive City web page for a list of early round accepted projects and a partial list of urban sub-themes.  urban-atmospheres.net/ISEA2006

• Eric Paulos is a Research Scientist at Intel in Berkeley, California where he leads the Urban Atmospheres project—challenged to use provocative methods to understand the future 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 where he researched scientific, and social issues surrounding internet based telepresence, robotics, and mediated communication tools. Eric has developed several internet based tele-operated robots including, Mechanical Gaze in 1995 and Personal Roving Presence devices (PRoPs) such as Space Browsing helium filled tele-operated blimps and ground based PRoP systems. paulos.net