Chicago's New Loops of Security

Chicago Links Street Cameras to Its 911 Network
By Karen Ann Cullotta

“We can now immediately take a look at the crime scene if the 911 caller is in a location within 150 feet of one of our surveillance cameras, even before the first responders arrive,” Mr. Orozco said...

“...In America, we protest the use of cameras for things like enforcing laws that reduce crime or traffic accidents, but we probably ought to do more,” Mr. Alschuler said.

He added: “My more serious concern would be if they start using new audio technologies, which can be calibrated to alert police to loud noises, like a scream or a car crash. What worries me is if police can use technology to listen to anyone who happens to be talking in a public location, which would raise serious privacy concerns...”

Smart Bus Stops

This bus stop shelter in San Francisco offers the rider detailed information on where they are and how long they will be standing there for the next bus to arrive.

visualized information...efficiency, safety....all aspects promoting the use of public transportation.

what other means of informing users of public infrastructures be communicated?
mobile devices, light displays, audio, spatial?

A City Drip System

urban sewer grates along the streets of San Francisco color coded with drops of altering primary colored paints.

Graffiti artists or City employee? Physical demarcations noting status of rainwater catchment system?

What are the physical or virtual notifications of the efficiencies of a network?

Street Signs

Pedestrian street signs...
know where you are - without needing to be in a car.

Street corners have the street names stamped into the concrete, allowing for the pedestrian (already simi-conscious of what is before them) to be a little bit more aware of their location
San Francisco, California

Seed Project

David Cohen's The Seed Project

This "art" project asks people to plant organic basil seeds anywhere and everywhere. Its invites one to take the element of nature and imposes it upon the more "unnatural" environments within our everyday lives.

In regards to our urban environment, existing visual cues of "natural" have become so urbane that many fail to even recognize it as plant life. This project shakes up your daily commutes, questioning place, location and purpose of plant life in our built environments.










In a time of extreme greenwashing, what are the new visual cues of true environmental action?
What locations, programs, buildings, forms of employment within a concrete jungle of a city can programmed for understanding basic living processes?
What new forms of urban gardening can harvest not only moments of contemplation, but todays lunch?

Similar movements:
Guerrilla Gardners

Sidewalk Media

Sidewalk media. In places like NY where most people walk, the form of media changes from the now typical American format of billboards to newspapers stands and phone booth structures. The traffic is on the sidewalks as well as the streets. Any attempt at locating media for attention is grabbed. The antiquated phone booth has evolved into simply a profitable sidewalk billboard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/nyregion/17phones.html
The above article describes how the phone booths are profitable not in their use as a public phone but as a billboard for advertising. In a world of cellphones, the need for phone booths are small.

The location of such advertising is restricted to free standing units, not those next to a building. But what is the sidewalks use for advertising? What is the history of street scape as a commercial act and how does this evolve in the age of personal digital communications?

What is the future of media and the street? Who will have access and who won't. Is it a matter of public agency?

in memory of fresh breath

Why do people discard their gum near the front door?
While living in NYC it's hard not to notice the constellations of darken gum blots on sidewalks. By looking closely one can begin to understand that the concentration of gum patches occurs near the edges of buildings and the door entrances.

Do people find the edge of buildings more comfortable to throw their gum at? Or are the standing there and drop it? What about at the front doors, do bad breath weary folks discard old gum in coming or going? Is this a new age of urban gum trays since the demise of the ashtray?