Amsterdam RealTime (2011)¶
Esther Polak, Waag Society & Jeroen Kee: Amsterdam RealTime (2001) - impression from NIMkartchannel on YouTube.
Description¶
Distributed by the Netherlands Media Art Institute http://catalogue.nimk.nl/site/art.php... http://realtime.waag.org
In our everyday life, we usually follow fixed paths and trajectories throughout the day: from our home to work or school, to family, to familiar stores and to places where we spend our free time. We all have invisible maps in our head: of our immediate surroundings and of the roads we take every day. The way we move around in the city, and the choices we make in this process, are determined by this mental map.
For the exhibition 'Maps of Amsterdam 1866-2000', Waag Society and Esther Polak together with Jeroen Kee were invited by the Amsterdam City Archive to produce a work about mental maps in that city: 'Amsterdam RealTime'. During two months, 75 volunteers were tracked by GPS in their everyday movements and routines around the city. These traces were then drawn as white lines over a black background. The resulting, animated map has a distinct look and feel of psychogeographic experience: it is not precise or rational, but expresses the intuitive and personal aspects of geography. It shows a city that does not consist of buildings, roads and water, but of the movement of its inhabitants. Thicker and brighter lines indicate greater frequency of travel. The map also was influenced by the variety of means of transportation: a cyclist will produce completely different traces than someone who drives a car. Once the participants became aware of their mapping outcomes, some even attempted to create artful GPS drawings. Interestingly, the final, combined map of all individual traces resembles an objective city map again.
'Amsterdam RealTime' is a pioneering and seminal project that demonstrates intuitive, spatial relationships between urban residents and their city. It allowed the tracked participants to become more aware of their whereabouts and reveals a new form of shared experience. Viewers of the map get involved in a mixture of aesthetic experience, identification and participation -- but also a bit of voyeurism. In the installation and on the Amsterdam RealTime website, visitors can choose to browse and explore individual participants' maps or to see the combined map as a whole.
credits: Amsterdam Realtime project credits 2002/2003
Esther Polak - initial concept / artist Jeroen Kee - design exhibition installation / artist Waag Society - research, development and project production Tom Demeyer - software development, technical lead Aske Hopman - concept and project management, tech research, website Marleen Stikker, Floor van Spaendonck - concept advice Kari Anne Bakker (intern) - producer Bente van Bourgondiën - postproduced CD animation/interaction development Lies Ros- flyer and website header design Ina Arends - protective portapack design and production
Amsterdam Realtime website version 2009 credits
Esther Polak / estherpolak.nl Aske Hopman / ASKii.nl Bente van Bourgondiën / b3nt3.nl
References¶
Project
For the exhibition Maps of Amsterdam 1866-2000 at the Amsterdam City Archive Waag Society together with Esther Polak have set up the Amsterdam RealTime project.
Every inhabitant of Amsterdam has an invisble map of the city in his head. The way he moves about the city and the choices made in this process are determined by this mental map. Amsterdam RealTime attampts to visualize these mental maps through examining the mobile behaviour of the city's users.
During two months (3 Oct to 1 Dec 2002) all of Amsterdam's residents are invited to be equipped with a tracer-unit. This is a portable device developed by Waag Society which is equipped with GPS: Global Positioning System. Using satellite data the tracer calculates its geographical position. Therse tracers' data are sent in realtime to a central point. By visualizing this data against a black background traces, lines, appear. From these lines a (partial) map of Amsterdam constructs itself. This map does not register streets or blocks of houses, but consists of the sheer movements of real pepole.
When the different types of users draw their lines, it becomes clear to the viewer just how individual the map of amsterdam can be. A cyclist will produce completley different favourite routes than someone driving a car. The means of transport, the location of home, work or other activities together with the mental map of the particular person determine the traces he leaves. This way an everchanging, very recent, and very subjective map of Amsterdam will come about. If you spend (or should we say move) a good amount of time within the 'ring' of the Amsterdam A10 Highway, you can apply here for becoming a testperson during rhe testing and development-stage or for becoming a participant during the time of the exhibition. Participants receive a print of their personal routes through the city, their diary in traces.
Technology
Project participants are equipped with a portable trace-unit. It consists of a small handheld computer, known as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) in marketing terms. The PDA, with a built-in telephone, is connected to a GPS-receiver and an antenna to match. The PDA can be carried around in your hand or in a bag, the antenna (the size of a matchbox) needs to be worn (or stuck to e.g. the roof of a car using the magnet) in such a way that is has a good line of "sight" with satellites. The software developed for the PDA activates the GPS (Global Positioning System)-receiver. By doing a triangular (timing) measurement the receiver determines its position on earth and comes up with the participant's location. This metod results in coordinates with a maximal accuracy of five to seven meters. On the small screen of the PDA these coordinates are translated into pixels, so that the participant gets a visual impression of the route he's taking.
The PDA-software developed for the project maintains an always-on internet connection to a server at Waag Society and non-stop transmits the resulting coordinates in realtime. Ths is taken care of by having the built-in telephone set up a connection over the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)-network. GPRS is the so-called 2.5G network, where G stands for Generation, and is an inbetween technology between the current GSM-network and the 3G UMTS network. It's not a broadband network yet in the way UMTS promises (?) to be but has a higher bandwith ans enables for internetconnections. It is e.g. the GPRS-network used by Dutch provider KPN to launch their new "I-mode" services.
At the Gemeentearchief (City Archive) a computer (client) is set up with Keystroke-software developed by Waag Labs which fetches this data, again in realtime, from the server and through the use of a beamer projects it in the exhibition space. This software renders the participants' routes realtime as traces, slowly but surely causing a map of the city to be constructed. Spots on the 'map' which are visited or crossed often, gradually change colour from white to yellow to red, showing the 'intensity of use' of routes or locations.
The projection is influenced by visitors going into the exhibition space. Through infrared-detection visitors force the computer to do sped up rebuild from scratch of one of the traces onto an empty map. After that the computer fills up the map again with all registered traces and the projection returns to the realtime situation in which all active participants can be followed live.