Artist Statement

Objects 2010

As computing leaves the desktop and spills out onto the public spaces of the city, information processing becomes embedded in everyday urban space. Pervasive/ubiquitous computing evangelists herald a coming age of urban information systems capable of sensing and responding to the events transpiring around them. The Sentient City Survival Kit consists of a collection of artefacts, spaces and media for survival in the near-future sentient city.

• Mark Shepard (US) is an artist, architect and researcher whose work addresses new social spaces and signifying structures of contemporary network cultures. His current research investigates the implications of mobile and pervasive computing for architecture and urbanism. Recent work includes the Tactical Sound Garden, an open source software platform for cultivating virtual sound gardens in urban public space. Shepard is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Media Study at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, where he co-directs the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies.

Full Text with images (PDF) p. 102-105