Oct 13, 2008

The Walls Should Talk

A reblog from Warren Ellis' blog, about making a building blog - as in, put its own story into the internet:

"It once occurred to me that buildings could cast a digital shadow. Imagine an old building still in use, or an old shop location recently renovated or reactivated. Imagine walking past this place, and, say, the place finds a bluetooth connection on your phone and pings you a message inviting you to activate a proffered weblink. Which leads to, for example, a history of the building you’re just passing, structured in blog format. Or maybe it’s a residential building, or a building being used as offices for several start-ups, and they all contribute to a groupblog for the building."

From: www.warrenellis.com

Can you imagine? The city would be your history book. Better yet if the site were web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 these days?) and you could contribute your experiences in the place to the blogsite. I've heard about a real world google map (I can't recall from where, though) where people tag a location with a particular story about it or even some small quip like "the bagels here RULE" and when you pass that point in real life, your bluetooth device would blip and lets you know there's a story to that street corner, café or concert venue. Of course, I anticipate that the sinister side of the internet will surge up with the creation of such a program and you'd learn A LOT more about people's sexual activity in public places that you'd like, but it's an interesting concept to consider. The city as your history book: Marxian historical materialism at work? Possibly.

Just got back from Gettysburg's apple harvest festival. DEE-LISH! Pictures in the next post.

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