I am interested in the two social dimensions of a place:
- The physical one, where people meet face to face
- The virtual one, where people interact using social networks and other digital tools.
My idea for Stortorget is to try to reduce the distance between these dimensions and even mix them wherever possible, so that they feed to each other.
I conceive the plaza to (literally) be the support to show the digital interactions taking place, increasing the impact of those in the population that uses the space. The information published on the web, regarding the square and its community, could be displayed on the plaza projecting it on different surfaces such as the pavement, building walls, liter cans, bus stops, basement of statues and so on. I would also add an easy-to-use Participation Point in the cultural center where people could stop by, write something, and immediately see it published on the plaza.
Case study: The Gertrude St Projection Festival – Aim: Outdoor gallery to showcase the communities’ perspectives on issues through art
The info could be color coded depending on the source: neighborhood association blogs, twitter, city council news, cultural centre activities, dreamhamar website… creating a web of information on the plaza.
The most important benefit of this idea is that it makes the virtual sphere of the plaza accessible to all and created by all, no matter what their socio-economic background is or their level of digital literacy.
The proposal is dynamic and flexible, not only because of the changing content of the projections, but also because of the changing aspect of the plaza: day-night, winter-summer. Additionally, the projectors would be wireless and therefore easily adapted to new arrangements in the square.
Finally, the display will foster participation in the design process through a temporary setting, but it could also stay as a permanent installation to strengthen the community ties after the dreamhamar project comes to an end.
