Energy passages knowledge as interactive space – investigative media art in public space

Abstract

This article describes and theorizes the media art project “Energie-Passagen” [Passages of Energy] which is an interactive visualization of daily news in public space. Information, produced by a big daily newspaper is semantically analysed and generated as a floating knowledge structure in urban space. Passersby get involved into the participatory staging of a visual and auditory space. Through their participation a playful interaction with words evolves in which their interests are expressed.  The flow of words, i.e. the evocative interface of the installation works as a data platform regarding the interplay of the intervening actor with the data performer. The experience of reading the daily news like associative splints determines the interactive act and gets the city dwellers talk to each other. The interventions of the audience are statistically documented and visualized as an image of the city’s energy. The media art project studies the transition from a real to a virtual environment within the urban space. It creates a space for thinking and knowledge through the interplay of physical space, data artefacts and user activity. The project aims to measure the mental energy of the city in an artistic way through interactive processes and to reveal a yet unknown image of the city through visualization.