New Ways of Seeing Light: Media Architecture and Digital Placemaking
Preface: This article is adapted from an original article, co-written with M. Hank Haeusler, and published in mondo*arc April/May 2016 — Issue 90. The article was part of a series of publications in the lead-up to the Media Architecture Biennale 2016, which I chaired together with M. Hank Haeusler.
Interested in contributing to or having your work featured in this year’s Media Architecture Biennale, which takes place in Amsterdam and online June 28th to July 2nd? Several calls are still open, including a call for the Media Architecture Awards (closes on 29 March). For more details visit: mab20.org
Every day we flick a switch. In the morning, the bathroom light allows us to shave or apply make-up with precision. In the evening, the warm light of a bedside lamp soothes us into sleep. Yet, light as we know it, is really so much more than a means to providing clearer vision for our day-to-day activities.
The thoughtful use of light and lighting design, has transformed a multitude of industries in architecture, engineering and construction. The Media Architecture Institute has discussed and encouraged the use of light as an actual architectural building material in many of our previous publications [1][2].
In the foreword of our book New Media Facades — A global survey, Ben van Berkel (Co-founder and Principal Architect of UN Studio) wrote:
Fast paced progress in technology now means we can appropriate the media facade into the architect’s palette and work with gradients of colour, light and shadows to affect an architectural visual language which can surpass traditional advertising imagery and create a homogeneous cultural effect [2].
With a focus on light and its relationship to architecture, the publications of the Media Architecture Institute presented a survey of media facades as early protagonists of media architecture. The first focusing on history, technology and content [1], then on a global survey that identified trends and common patterns of media facades across the globe [2].
From activating building facades to connecting people
As digital light technologies become more pervasive and more versatile, new opportunities are arising for light and media to change more and more industries. The next wave of media architecture will not be be limited to an individual building. Instead, it will encompass the space beyond: the neighbourhood, the precinct, the city. The most important aspect of this development is that it is citizen-centric. The next generation of media architecture is about people and bringing communities together.
The evolution of a citizen-centric vision is where we find parallels to placemaking, and new opportunities for using light and media to shape our experiences in cities.
The idea of placemaking has grown out of the discipline of urban design and dates back to the early 1960s when Jane Jacobs and William W. Whyte emphasised the “social and cultural importance of lively neighbourhoods and inviting public spaces” within the context of their work [3]. The core principles of placemaking are of course all about people, citizens and communities.
The key fundamentals that define placemaking are:
- designing cities for people and
- including citizens in the decision making process when designing public spaces.
The aim of placemaking initiatives is to create a sense of “place”, which is regarded in urban design as a “human need, essential for well being and feelings of safety, security and orientation, and a remedy against feelings of alienation and estrangement” [4].
It is this sense of place that is experienced and sometimes transformed by citizens and passers-by. The “place” in placemaking becomes critical for those people and communities who “dwell in the urban” [5].
The leading light for digital placemaking
Digital and social media are opening up new doors for placemakers to engage with local communities [6][7] and to devise solutions that employ digital technologies in unprecedented ways to address aspects of social wellbeing and a sense of community.
This idea of engaging digital tools to facilitate citizen-focused placemaking is what we call “digital placemaking”.
Digital placemaking has traditionally used digital tools to involve citizens in urban development decisions. More recently, we have seen developments in this area that incorporate light and media to create situated experiences.
How and when light can be used has been a topic of discussion at the Media Architecture Biennale in Aarhus in 2014 and subsequent biennales in Sydney in 2016 and in Beijing in 2018.
Changing the physical and social fabric of cities with light
How does light unfold as part of media architecture? Mostly, it can be seen in the context of seasonal festivals or exhibitions, or through more permanent installations, such as the Crown Fountain, at Millennium Park, Chicago, which activates a park landscape through an urban screen displaying video portraits of members from local communities.
In Sydney, Australia, the annual festival of light and ideas, Vivid Sydney, includes a light walk featuring light sculptures and facade projections around Sydney Harbour and across the city.
Similar light festivals are held across the globe. Beyond boosting winter tourism and the local economy, such light festivals offer temporary experiences by altering the dynamics of public space [7].
Transformative media architecture installations
Members of the Media Architecture Institute were involved in a number of light installations displayed during Vivid Sydney in which we explored different ways of using light and media to activate urban spaces.
Solstice LAMP was an interactive light installation shown on the façade of a skyscraper and the courtyard in front of the AMP building at Sydney’s Circular Quay [8]. People were able to step into the interactive space and to compose musical tunes, which then travelled up the skyscraper turning into origami cranes. This setup provided passers-by with a sense of empowerment, as they were able to draw digital media artefacts onto the façade of an iconic building at Sydney’s harbour front, but the interactive space led to a number of social encounters between friends, families and strangers alike.
In another installation, Chromapollination, the use of light sculptures taking the shape of dandelions to activate a dark passageway [9]. Through this activation, the space was transformed from a thoroughfare to a destination, lighting up people’s daily walk to and from the train station — not just through light but also by creating connections with the space and with each other.
In 2014, in Frankfurt, Germany a similar installation exploring different ways of using light and media to activate urban spaces was created, Orkhēstra. This installation pushed the boundaries of what a screen can be and enabled the display of content on a complex curved 3D object. Here, the audience could participate with the installation through their cameras, as the installation responded to flash lights the content created a light wave moving away from the flash light along the LEDs on the installation.
To inspire and be inspired
This degree of innovation using light and media align with the idea of creative placemaking, which describes an approach that “animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired” [10].
The technology and the knowledge for how to design light that activates and responds to urban spaces is within our reach. As we move from building-scale to city-scale thinking, we need to identify strategies for designing experiences that respond to the needs and desires of citizens.
Digital placemaking can provide the framework and principles to ensure that these experiences meaningfully connect citizens with the spaces in which they live, work and play.
References:
1. Haeusler, M.H. (2009). Media Façades: History, Technology, Content. Avedition GmbH.
2. Haeusler, M. H., Tomitsch, M., & Tscherteu, G. (2012). New Media Facades: A Global Survey. Avedition.
3. “What is Placemaking?”, Projects for Public Spaces, accessed March 31, 2016, http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/
4. Aravot, I. (2002). “Back to Phenomenological Placemaking.” Journal of Urban Design 7, 2, 201–212.
5. Friedmann, J. (2010). “Place and Place-Making in Cities: A Global Per-spective.” Planning Theory & Practice 11, 2, 149–165.
6. Latorre, D., “Digital Placemaking — Authentic Civic Engagement,” Projects for Public Spaces, September 22, 2011, http://www.pps.org/blog/digital-placemaking-authentic-civic-engagement/
7. Fredericks, J., Hespanhol, L., & Tomitsch, M. (2016). “Not Just Pretty Lights: Using Digital Technologies to Inform City Making.” In Proceedings of the Media Architecture Biennale (MAB’16).
8. Hespanhol, L., Tomitsch, M., Bown, O., & Young, M. (2014). “Using embodied audio-visual interaction to promote social encounters around large media façades.” In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems (pp. 945–954). ACM.
9. Hespanhol, L., & Tomitsch, M. (2012). “Designing for collective participation with media installations in public spaces.” In Proceedings of the 4th Media Architecture Biennale Conference: Participation (pp. 33–42). ACM.
10. Nicodemus, A. (2014). “Creative placemaking 101 for community developers — LISC Institute for Comprehensive Community Development.” Institute for Comprehensive Community Development, http://www.instituteccd.org/news/5014
