'The piazza or town square used to be the center of urban life. People came together to talk, play, buy, sell, make music, paint...' It is this exchange, this dialog, which lends the square its life, color, and resonance. But the spirit of most public spaces today is lifeless. Public life no longer takes place here. 'The public sphere is no longer needed because we have television' according to the architect Robert Venturi. TV as a public space?
The 'virtual piazza' is based on the idea, of TV as a piazza whose communications processes reach the screen by way of electronic networks. Anyone can get involved at home: TV as dialog, 'Piazza virtuale' is a step in the direction of the media art of the future, in which interactive TV will provide an important collective form of expression. As a creative outline for interactive TV, 'Piazza virtuale' invites the viewers to help make the program. For this purpose a computer-generated presentation mode was designed which can combine text, stills, video, computer animation, sound and music on for the TV screen and can be accessed directly from home using a touch-tone phone.