The transformation that the city as human habitat is now undergoing is the subject matter of The Participatory City, a focal-point theme of the Connecting Cities project. It commissioned works of art in the public sphere that are designed to open up new ways for city dwellers to interact with their metropolis and to create a critical consciousness of ongoing urban processes of change.

Exemplary

The 2014 Ars Electronica Festival is featuring Entangled Sparks and the Smart Citizen Sentiment Dashboard, two outstanding projects that make estimable contributions to what Connecting Cities is attempting to accomplish. An ancillary event gives the curators and artists involved an opportunity to elaborate on their agenda and the individual works.

Lineup of Speakers

Veronika Pauser (AT): Begrüßung und Einführung/Welcome and Introduction
Nina Valkanova (BG): Smart Citizen Sentiment Dashboard
Peter Holzkorn (AU): Entangled Sparks
Matthew Gardiner (AU/AT): Light is Time Folds are Space
Plenary Session and Q&A

Special thanks to RTV tec, Marcus Diess Wavesound, Radio FRO – Peter “Schnuffi” Müller.

You can get an impression of the feelings and attitudes of people in Linz towards the environment, mobility, security, the housing situation and the public sphere from the Smart Citizen Sentiment Dashboard (SCSD) on the Ars Electronica Center. Like an ongoing opinion poll, the SCSD features a simple interface that gives people the opportunity to personally rate the quality of life in this city.

Database of Feelings

The information thus gathered goes into a database of feelings that’s translated into a visual vocabulary and depicted on the Ars Electronica Center’s media façade. In this way, the SCSD makes a splendid, high-profile statement that’s designed to foster an ongoing dialog about life in Linz.

Read more about this on our Ars Electronica Blog!