The Sentinels

“The Sentinels” is a project by invitation of The Architectural League of New York to critically explore the evolving relationship between ubiquitous/pervasive computing and urban architecture:

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Concept

The proliferation of digital screens, cameras, CCTV, detectors and sensors in contemporary cities suggests the use of an existing electronic infrastructure by redeploying display and surveillance devices as “good sentinels”. Rather than introducing a new technology among these already ubiquitous devices, the project would reconfigure ones that are already there, taking advantage of systems which are already designed to communicate to us but which have not been used to create new urban experiences.

Beyond a new visual communication of the forces that condition our experience, the project would insert new aesthetic experiences of other forms of content within our movement through the city: digital art projects, ambient environmental graphics, and socially relevant information that would create a new communicative relationship between users and the city they inhabit, blurring the line between information and affect.

Local

Simple and inexpensive hardware components could transform the existing devices in sensitive and responsive systems, offering an interactive experience to local users in public spaces. Facial recognition software, engaging bystanders in personal and unsettling interactions, would reveal the disturbing implications of accepted security procedures.
Conventional touch and motion sensors would suggest new ways of communication through the users’ body.
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Collective

Sensors attached to the sentinels would collect data about the performance of the city and the activities of its inhabitants. Site-specific environmental information, such as noise level or air pollution, could be displayed live to local communities, providing a powerful demonstration of the invisible forces that so heavily affect the quality of life in contemporary cities. Collectively, the sentinels would offer dynamic and comprehensive information about complex urban systems, such as traffic conditions, pedestrian loads or retail activity. When observed from high points or satellite, clusters of sentinels would present striking visual information about the dynamics of urban transformation.

Global

Networked through available public Wi-Fi internet connections, the sentinels would provide valuable data to city authorities and web communities. The data collected throughout the city would be available to the global community via interactive monitoring systems and visualized on Google Earth mash-ups on dedicated websites. Cell phones would allow users to text-message digital graffiti to the displays, news or discussion threads would be fed by the web in real time. while on-site webcams would encourage interaction between local and internet community.

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Technology

We will consider a range of existing electronic infrastructures that are readily available in the city and that can be reconverted on a temporary basis, within the budget and city regulations. Among these infrastructures, perhaps the most ubiquitous in our daily movement through the city are LED systems, which already communicate to us in a wide variety of formats: on highways, by the roadside, on the rooftops of taxis, at the entrance to the subway and increasingly on the subway itself. In particular, the VMS (Variable message sign), located on every roadwork or critical traffic point within the city, presents several advantages:

- Self-sufficiency: it can operate on solar power;

- Transportability: it can be deployed at short notice allowing high-quality information to be displayed to critical points of congestion;

- Variability: VMS systems are available in a variety of different sizes, formats and configurations (for example the “Freeway3000” system shown), allowing both standardized and site-specific installations;

- Digital equipment: it has various options for remote control, GPS location reporting, radar speed detection, PC/ PDA operation, etc.;

- Communication capabilities: Alternative modes of operation are possible, including static mode, radar mode, scheduled mode, cyclic mode, and bespoke;

- Scale: It offers a large display area that can be used for text, pictograms or more complex image patterns;

Networking

We will seek to utilize free, public Wi-Fi internet connections whenever possible. When a Wi-Fi connection is not available, we will use a cellular modem to connect to the internet. Onboard computers will communicate with a central server which collects sensor data, as well as data feeds from municipal or other public sources (weather conditions, etc). This data is analyzed, parsed, and distributed out to the nodes which take appropriate action.

Team

Simone Giostra, architect, Simone Giostra and Partners

Steve Walker, lighting engineer, Arup

Jeremy Rotsztain, digital artist and software developer, Mantissa

Corey Szopinski, web developer and programmer, Core Industries

Michael Kubo, editor and writer, Actar and Harvard Graduate School of Design

Varvara Shavrova, artist and curator

Michael Dory, digital artist and hardware developer