Starting this fall, The INC Urban Screens researchers Matthijs ten Berge, Denisse Iglesias and Sabine Niederer will participate in the research project SpaceSee, initiated by Mettina Veenstra at CREATE IT Applied Research at the HvA.

Screens and projections of various shapes and sizes are increasingly present in public and semi-public space worldwide. Shops and malls, hospitals, libraries, and outdoor open spaces such as public squares or public transport stations are examples of places where we can find these visual display systems. They are addressed with different names: urban screens, public screens, narrowcasting, digital-out-of-home, digital signage, digital outdoor, public displays, outdoor media, and electronic billboards.

Viewers often perceive them as instruments of digital advertising rather than information channels, but these screens can do a lot more than mere commercial messaging. While it is true that screens in public space are mainly used for advertising purposes, the scope of possibilities is not limited to them. Social interaction, and enhancing the safety and quality of public space itself are among the explored alternative uses.

Outdoor media companies in the Netherlands often meet resistance against public screens from both local governments and citizens. However, foreign initiatives (eg. the Big Screens in the UK, bought by the city councils and run by the BBC) show that public screens can contribute to the quality and  positive perception of public space. Identifying this as an area of  research and innovation in the dutch context, SpaceSee intends to make outdoor media add value to public space and wants to find out how public screens can support the needs and activities of people and organisations in public space. It will aim at collaboration and organisation structure  on a local and regional level and will investigate exploitation models for screens which do not merely work from a marketing perspective.

SpaceSee has two types of participants, consortium partners that includes applied research centers, outdoor media, traditional media and architecture bureaus, and a group of external partners, consisting of individuals, organizations and companies, who will be invited to exchange knowledge, expertise, and questions. Consortium and external participants cover a wide range of disciplines at work in the field of urban screens: content creation, architecture, urban design, management, safety of public space, hardware, software, education/science, culture/art, marketing, interactivity technology, games, innovation and tourism.

The timeline for the project will be 2 years starting September 2011, after which a publication will be released with guidelines for urban screens.

The Urban Screens Reader is the first book to focus entirely on the topic of urban screens. In assembling contributions from a range of leading theorists, in conjunction with a series of case studies dealing with artists’ projects and screen operators’ and curators’ experiences, the reader offers a rich resource for those interested in the intersections between digital media, cultural practices and urban space.

Urban Screens have emerged as a key site in contemporary struggles over public culture and public space. They form a strategic junction in debates over the relation between technological innovation, the digital economy, and the formation of new cultural practices in contemporary cities. How should we conceptualize public participation in relation to urban screens? Are ‘the public’ citizens, consumers, producers, or something else? Where is the public located? When a screen is erected in public space, who has access to it and control over it? What are the appropriate forms of urban planning, design and governance? How do urban screens affect cultural experiences?

contributors: Simone Arcagni, Alice Arnold, Giselle Beiguelman, Liliana Bounegru, Kate Brennan, Andreas Broeckmann, Uta Caspary, Sean Cubitt, Annet Dekker, Jason Eppink, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Mike Gibbons, M. Hank Haeusler, Bart Hoeve, Erkki Huhtamo, Karen Lancel, Hermen Maat, Meredith Martin, Scott McQuire, Julia Nevárez, Sabine Niederer, Shirley Niemans, Nikos Papastergiadis, Soh Yeong Roh, Saskia Sassen, Leon van Schaik, Jan Schuijren, Audrey Yue.

colophon: Editors: Scott McQuire, Meredith Martin and Sabine Niederer. Editorial Assistance: Geert Lovink and Elena Tiis. Copy Editing: Michael Dieter and Isabelle de Solier. Design: Katja van Stiphout, Printer: Raamwerken Printing & Design, Enkhuizen, Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2009. Supported by: the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in collaboration with Virtueel Platform, the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, the School for Communication and Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, MediaLAB Amsterdam and the International Urban Screens Association. The editors would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Australian Research Council LP0989302 in supporting this research.

Scott McQuire, Meredith Martin and Sabine Niederer (eds.), Urban Screens Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-10-0.

Order a free copy by emailing: books (at) networkcultures.org

The INC reader series are derived from conference contributions and produced by the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. For more information about this publication series, please go to www.networkcultures.org/readers.

PAST URBAN SCREENS EVENTS
Urban Screens 09: The City as Interface (4 December 2009) was organized in Amsterdam by the Institute of Network Cultures and MediaLAB Amsterdam in collaboration with the International Urban Screens Association, and curated by Sabine Niederer (INC). www.networkcultures.org/urbanscreens/09/

Urban Screens 08: Mobile Publics (3-8 October 2008) was organized in Melbourne by Dr. Scott McQuire and Professor Nikos Papastergiadis from the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with Federation Square. The Multimedia program was curated by Mirjam Struppek.
www.urbanscreens08.net

Urban Screens 07: It’s About Content! (October 11-12, 2007) was organized in Manchester by Cornerhouse and BBC Public Space Broadcasting, and curated by Dr. Susanne Jaschko.
www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk

Urban Screens 05 (23-24 September 2005) was organized in Amsterdam by the Institute of Network Cultures in collaboration with the Gerrit Rietveld Academy,Research Group Art and Public Space, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and curated by Mirjam Struppek (Interactionfield, Berlin).
www.networkcultures.org/archive/urbanscreens

The Urban Screens conference is approaching! We shall see you on the 4th of December at Trouw Amsterdam, Wibautstraat 131. Doors open from 9.30.

If you are attending and wish to Twitter, Blog or Flickr the conference, please use the following tags:

#urbanscreens & urbanscreens

Please find the flyer below:

Urban Screens 09: The City as Interface
4 December 09 at Trouw | De Verdieping Amsterdam
Program is online here
Registration: register@networkcultures.org
Tickets: € 12, students: € 10,- (bring your student card/ op vertoon van studentenpas). N.B. Fee includes lunch and a copy of the Urban Screens Reader!

Urban Screens is a series of events and seminars that has been organized around the theme of outdoor display screens (LED signs, plasma screens, projection boards, information terminals as well as intelligent architectural surfaces) in urban areas. It supports the idea of using public space as a platform for creation and cultural exchange, strengthening the local economy and encouraging public discussion.

Since the first Urban Screens event in 2005 in Amsterdam, related international conferences have taken place in Manchester in 2007 and Melbourne in 2008. The INC and the MediaLAB are proud to present a day-long program dedicated to current Urban Screens research and practice, in Trouw Amsterdam on 4 December 2009. The event will include a seminar with lectures by Urban Screens researchers and professionals, followed by the launch of the Urban Screens Reader, which is produced by the INC and the University of Melbourne.

Topics:
Urban Screens as Architecture, with Matthijs ten Berge (Illuminate), Mettina Veenstra (Novay Research), and more. Moderator: Merijn Oudenampsen (Mute, Flexmens).
The Mobile Screen, with Martijn de Waal (The Mobile City), Nanna Verhoeff (Utrecht University), Annet Dekker (Goldsmiths and Virtual Platform), Auke Touwslager & Ursula Lavrencic (Cell Phone Disco). Moderator: Jan Simons (UvA).
The Mediatized City, with Theodore Watson (Graffiti Research Lab), Juha Van ‘t Zelfde (VURB) , Gijs Gootjes (MediaLAB Amsterdam), Visual Foreign Correspondents. Moderator: Shirley Niemans (HvA).
Urban Screens Reader Launch, with Sabine Niederer.

The Urban Screens reader draws together theories, technologies, histories and artistic deployments of urban screens in public spaces. Edited by Meredith Martin, Scott McQuire and Sabine Niederer. Contributions by Giselle Beiguelman, Andreas Broeckmann, Uta Caspary, Sean Cubitt, Annet Dekker, Erkki Huhtamo, Karen Lancel and Hermen Maat, Nikos Papastergiadis, Scott McQuire, Saskia Sassen and more.

Urban Screens 09 is organized by the Institute of Network Cultures, in collaboration with MediaLAB Amsterdam, Trouw| de Verdieping and the Urban Screens Association (Melbourne).
At the venue: installations by MediaLab Amsterdam, visuals by Visual Foreign Correspondents