An Introduction to Urban Cybernetics

How can a city perform as an open-source real-time system?, Wiki City Illustration by Kristian Kloeckl, MIT SENSEable City Lab.

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Temporality

Technology

Networks

Spatialit

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Digitally Augmenting Physical Spaces of Human Habitation? Who gives a Flying F**k , and Why?

Cross--Manipulation

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Digitally Augmenting Physical Spaces of Human Habitation? Who gives a Flying F**k , and Why?

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Digitally Augmenting Physical Spaces of Human Habitation? Who gives a Flying F**k , and Why?

aware of their context, and are capable of renegotiating their goals based on emergent conditions, and soliciting their inhabitants needs and desires. They also mediate interactions.
Architectural solutions that are

The house with the computer/ the house is the computer

p e r s o n p e r s o n p e r s o n

- - - - - - - - - - - - - b u i l t e n v i r o n m e n t ( l o c a l + r e m o t e ) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p e r s o n ( l o c a l + r e m o t e ) - - - - - - - - e x t e r i o r e n v i r o n m e n t ( l o c a l + r e m o t e )

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Space [Technology]

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Space [Technology]

Degenerative Time; Designing Against Temporality vs. Generative Time; Attributes: Designing for Temporality
Durable, Solid, Fix, Inert, non-Responsive to Change, Substantial

-----------VS-----------

Attributes: Ephemeral, Capable of Transformation, Responsive to Change, Interactive, nonSubstantial

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Space [Technology]

digital information is temporal >> from spatial allocation of substance to temporal allocation of non-substance:

absolute time relative time looped time recursive time real-time multi-threaded time/parallel times reversible time

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Space [Technology]

Digitally Augmented Architecture is a Sentient Machine for Habitation. Who is the operator or this Sentient Machine for Habitation?

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space Networked Space [Subjectivity] [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Space [Technology]

Digitally Augmented Architecture is a Sentient Machine for Habitation. Who is the operator or this Sentient Machine for Habitation?

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space Technologically Enhanced Space [Networks] [Technology]

Technologies of bridging spatial distance + technologies of bridging temporal distance= A Pandoran network of hyper-connections with total memory of the past and capable of anticipating the future

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space Technologically Enhanced Space [Networks] [Technology]

acquiring data from the space-----delivering data back to the space-bridging spatial distance------------bridging temporal distance---------geo-localization and locationing---Michael Fox @ Sci-arc : Izoo: interactive zoo

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Spac [Technology]

Geo-taggable/Geo-Cacheable Space

Real-time Locality

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Spac [Technology]

Geo-taggable/Geo-Cacheable Space

Real-time Locality

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

Space [Spatiality]

Temporalized Space [Temporality]

Subjected and Subjective Space [Subjectivity]

Networked Space [Networks]

Technologically Enhanced Spac [Technology]

Geo-taggable/Geo-Cacheable Space

Real-time Locality

What about Architecture? What about Architects?

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

What about Architecture? What about Architects?

object/field form/formlessness autonomous/linked hardware/software meaning/affect room/atmosphere space/time

The Monolith by Jean Nouvel and the Blur Building by diller & scofidio both showcased in the very same event which is that of Expo.02 ; the 6th Swiss national exposition in 2002.

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

What about Architecture? What about Architects?

Attributes: Attributes: Ephemeral, Capable of Transformation, Responsive to Change, Interactive, Solid, Fix, Inert, non-Responsive to Change, Substantial Durable, non-Substantial

Five Viewpoints on Real-time Cities

What about Architecture? What about Architects?

The DR Concert Hall in Copenhagen by Jean Nouvel (2009)

Virtual Reality

1990

1984

"we are headed for the death of cities" {due to the continued growth of personal computing and distributed organizations advances} "cities are leftover baggage from the industrial era.
George Gilder (1995)

2008

in 2008, the world reaches an invisible but momentous milestone: for the first time in history more than half its human population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas. by 2030, this is expected to swell to almost 5 billion.

United Nations Population Fund http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/introduction.html

Visualization Credits : Carlo Ratti MIT SENSEable City Lab

Info-sphere of digital world

Material-sphere of physical world

Hybrid-sphere of digitally augmented, physical world

Info-sphere replacing material sphere

Info-sphere augmenting material sphere

When Things Start to Think by Neil Gershenfeld

Manipulate: Add/Subtract/Color/Destroy/Create/Combine/Cut/Deform/Move/Rotate

Manipulate: Add/Subtract/Color/Destroy/Create/Combine/Cut/Deform/Move/Rotate

Cross-Manipulation

the cyborgs prime tool

People

Space Space

Architecture Urban Design Landscape Design Interior Design

People

Digital Technology

People

Digital Technology

Interactive Architecture Responsive Environments Digitally Augmented Spaces

Interaction design User interface design Information architecture design Software/hardware design

Norbert Wiener : the originator of cybernetics, offers formalization of the notion of feedback

Descartes : The shift from natural to mechanistic world view

Charles Babbage : Difference Engine, a mechanical control system considered the precursor of today's computers, advances the man's quest to create life towards the automated actuation of the physical world

Gordon Pask: Architecture as a Cybernetic System

Mark Weiser : Father of Ubiquitous Computing

Cedric Price: The pioneer of applying the principles of cybernetics in designing public architectures; Fun Palace

Cedric Price and Gordon Pask Colaboration in Fun Palace project

Yona Friedman: Spatial City Project and Mobile Architecture Manifesto, focusing on the rule of the user

John Frazer: Introducing the connectivity and network principle to architecture as a cybernetic system, universal constructor as a collectivity of networked self-organizing spatial units

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/publications/ea/exhibition.html An evolutionary architecture by Jhon frazer

How can a city perform as an open-source real-time system?, Wiki City Illustration by Kristian Kloeckl, MIT SENSEable City Lab.

City as a cybernetic System=

A city that is Sensed A city that is conditioned A city that is actuated

tienne Bonnot de Condillac : A sensationalist approach towards human condition, The statue and the rose anecdote in his Trait des Sensations

Viral Sensing: Tapping in to data sets generated as a byproduct of various networks providing urban related services

Current Amsterdam-A vision of Amsterdam during the national festivity of Queens Day 2008: The analysis of mobile phone traffic reveals peoples presence and movement. MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

Current Amsterdam-Text Messaging activity at 22:00 hours (10pm) four days before New Years Eve 2007 in Amsterdam. SENSEable City Lab

Real-time Rome-Aggregate picture of data transferred through the Telecom Italia cell phone network. MIT SENSEable City Lab

Real-time Rome-Aggregate picture of cell phone use signatures used to draw land-use maps from mobile useage patterns that resemble the actual land use map of Rome. MIT SENSEable City Lab

Real-time Rome-Illustration that maps the mean velocity and dominant direction of mobile phone users on Telecom Italia network

Has VIDEO

Real-time Rome, Madonna Concert, World Cup-Reaviling the emotional landscape created around the public event MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

Real-time Rome, Augmenting Crowd Spotting algorithms with context information relevant to urban processes including public commute-MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

One People-Visualization of domestic calls made during Obamas Inauguration-MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

One People-Visualization of International calls made during Obamas Inauguration-MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

NYTE-SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

Borderline-The geography of talk in Great Britain. This figure shows the strongest 80% of links, as measured by total talk time, between areas within Britain. The opacity of each link is proportional to the total call time between two areas and the different colors represent regions identified using network modularity optimization analysis. SENSEable City Lab

Borderline- The core regions of Britain. By combining the output from several modularity optimization methods we obtain the results shown in this figure. The thick black boundary lines show the official Government Office Regions partitioning together with Scotland and Wales. The black background spots show Britain's towns and cities, some of which are highlighted with a label. SENSEable City Lab

Diagram of workflow for viral sensing projects that tap on use data from cellular networks such as Current City Project.

Sensor Networks: Designing and Implementing Custom Sensor Networks

Waste and the city does volume matter?

Are we aware how much waste we produce?

Why do we know so much about the supply chain and so little about the removal chain? What if waste collection suddendly stopped?
(Think about what happened recently in Naples, Italy, where the streets were overwhelmed with garbage) Image a city entirely made of garbage

Wall-Es post-human waste city of the future

2008s waste emergency in Naples, Italy

the performance: from my house to the street to where?

Disseminating tagged products into the city of New York and following them in space and time

Has VIDEO

Trash Track: Diagram illustrating how the trash tag periodically measures its location and reports that data to the server via the cellular network. -MIT SENSEable City Lab

Trash Track: The custom designed electronic tag for Trash Track Project-MIT SENSEable City Lab

Trash Track: sample visualization from Trash Track project tracking a tagged aluminum can as it travels trough garbage collection network of the city -MIT SENSEable City Lab

Crowdsensing: Tapping in to data collaboratively generated on User Generated Content Sharing Platforms to make sense of the spatial dynamics

Has VIDEO

Los Ojos del Mondo: an animation of the photos geo-tagged to different neighborhoods of Barcelona with descriptive tags that relate to "partying" in the summer of 2007, shows that Barcelonas old town (Ciutat Vella) is where one goes to have fun. MIT SENSEable City Lab

Los Ojos del Mondo: Another visualization in the same set looks at how Spain is photographed by tourists over the course of one year. While the photos overlap in certain locations and expose places that attract the photographer's gaze, in other locations, the absence of images is eye-catching, revealing the more introverted parts of Spain. MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

My Architect: an example of crowdsensing to make sense of professional architecture landscape and how architecture is received by the crowds. MIT SENSEable City Lab

My Architect: an example of crowdsensing to make sense of professional architecture landscape and how architecture is received by the crowds. MIT SENSEable City Lab

Has VIDEO

Citizens as Sensor-Actuators: The Copenhagen Wheel a Project by SENSEable City Lab

http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/

Has VIDEO

Pictoric Sensing and Computer Vision : Pedestrian Levitation by Thomas Laureyssens (2005)

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?index=7&id=255&domain=Pattern%20Recognition