10.000 Moving Cities – Same but Different, Mobile App

Mobile App as Interface for Net-Based Installations

10.000 Moving Cities – Same but Different, Mobile App is an interactive web-based app for smartphones and tablets. With this app you can see and hear what’s happening in real-time around the world. An endless flow of countless stories. You experience how our world is constantly changing and how more and more places are becoming “non-places”, as described in Marc Augé’s book and essay “Non-places”. You become an observer and at the same time you can actively participate.

You might be in Zurich, holding your smartphone or tablet in front of you. By moving the device you choose Shanghai or any other city. Projected onto virtual building fronts, you now see images, sounds or videos which users post on social media in real-time. Futuristic as it may seem, this is how your place might look like in 100 years. The animations on the display follow your moves. You walk along the street and, at the same time, you move virtually between the buildings. They rise up to different heights, forming a skyline. You hear voices and sounds and simultaneously you experience both a real and virtual tour through the city of your choice. The image and sound collages on the building facades change continuously as new posts are sent continuously, even if you choose the same city twice. From one city to another you learn about local, cultural and linguistic differences while experiencing them as non-places. This illustrates and addresses among others how our world and our places are changing continuously, becoming increasingly similar. This results in more and more non-places/places of lost places in the sense of Marc Augé’s book and essay Non-Places, which could exist all over the world without any true local identity (such as motorways, hotel rooms, airports or supermarkets).

Mobile App Interaction
On a world map any city can be selected or searched via Hashtag. Always up-to-date and corresponding social media posts are searched for, processed and transferred into the virtual world. The animations follow the movements of the users: the virtual environment rotates when the device is rotated. The sky appears when the device is moved upwards. By tilting the device downwards, the floor appears. The virtual environment is endless and can be navigated in every direction. At the same time the flight speed can be adjusted. The sounds are also responding to all these movements and their flight speed.

Mobile App Exhibition
The mobile display can be projected on one or more walls in the exhibition space.

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