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open_eTags

Interdisciplinary art project in digital aesthetic education connected to design of urban living spaces.

The project develops ideas for an anthropological means of communication through a broadly conceived co-operation between art, electronics, sociology, architecture, urban and general landscaping. The open_eTags convey how an electronic medium works. Further, they take on the task of utilizing a constructive relation between reality and the medium in the context of art and poetry.

The Concept

Construction set, marking in the public domain, and networking on the internet

Construction sets for a simple blink or cheep circuit are provided in order to mark bothersome places in the public domain. The sets can be bought for a small nominal fee. The instructions prompt for the construction sets to be soldered together and to be placed in the public space as electronic graffitis. The thus marked locations are entered into a map by use of address or GPS data. The map is operating online and it serves as a forum for the development of suggestions for improvement.

Tags can also be entred into this open system by use of other, non-electronical, improvised means.

At the next level the question of what happens with the thus gained information occurs. The open_eTags can remain standing for themselves, so that the project fades away as sheer poetry without further repercussions.

There is however room for a cooperation with other projects. In an ideal case a large part of the funding for the project could be used to appoint an expert comission of human geographers, landscapers, sociologists, anthropologists, who would analyse the information in the open_eTag map and implement realistic improvements.

Real urban living spaces fall behind when compared to virtual Cityscapes

There is a constant increase in three-dimensional cities in the virtual world; on Internet platforms, such as Second Life, BabyWorld, or Google World. These giant artificial worlds grow daily as users design and enlarge them. Bizarre Cityscapes appear on the screen with the aid of user-generated-content, that are partly modelled on reality, that however emerge mostly from fantasy and utopia of their creators. While the most modern opportunities of communication create mirror-worlds, these do not have any positive effect on the world we live in. The open E_Tags bridge this gap. Microelectronics are placed in our reality and feed information back to the Internet, thus people can hunt down the Tag and add further detail about the place on the website. Others can comment. A tight network of people develops, that should be designed in a useful way.

Users of digital media have no concept of the functioning of the electronic devices involved

The principle of the construction sets banks on a substantial increase in media-literacy. The participators get in contact with the basic building blocks of all electronic devices. For example, they learn the difference between a capacitor and a transistor during the building stage. The open_eTags mediate a vision for the relationship between technology and humans, that is not predominantly coined by an openness and approachability, not by a general ignorance of users towards the insides and the workings of their multifunctional devices. Thus, the project sketches out a concept of electronic media, that is attractive both technically and societal.

Development from a technological to an anthropological concept of the media

The open_eTags project relies on relatively simple electronic components. Instead of using highly complex PDAs or mobile phones it resorts to small micro controllers and analogue circuits. This reduction stands for a change of mind-sets in the area of progressive media. The sheer search for the limits of the technically possible is increasingly replaced by an orientation towards electronic media in dialogue with human cultural developments. The needs and wishes for communication and networking of the public as well as the privat sectors of society take centre stage in this trendsetting evolution.

Outline of the project

Persons:

The following departments of the University of Kassel take part in the project:

Electrical Engineering, Contact?

Sociology, Contact?

Anthropology, Contact?

Architecture, Human Geography/ Urban planning, Contact?

A co-operation with the Interface Design Laboratory of the College of Potsdam, with use of the Layout branch “Fritzing” (in development), is planned for the development of the construction kits (Contact: Reto Wettach, reto@driftingfriends.de).

The initiator Olaf Val manages the Projekt open_eTags.

Partner:

Schedule:

Anticipated expenses:

Images:

open_eTags GPS-Tool

(Images from: www.ralfschreiber.com)