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»Legible City«
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Keywords

  • aesthetics
    • acoustic
    • affective
    • anamorphic
    • animated
    • anthropomorph
    • assembled
    • automated
    • autopoietic
    • collaborative
    • contextual
    • cybernetic
    • disgusting
    • distorted
    • documenting
    • duplicated
    • dynamic system
    • ephemeral
    • experimental
    • found object
    • generative
    • gustatory
    • hypermediacy
    • illusionary
    • immaterial
    • immersive
    • installation-based
    • interactive
    • intermedial
    • intervention
    • mobile
    • modular
    • multi-user
    • multiple
    • narrative
    • navigable
    • networked
    • olfactory
    • panoramatic
    • performative
    • polysensory
    • processual
    • projected
    • psychedelic
    • real-time
    • realistic
    • remediated
    • remixed
    • sculptural
    • site-specific
    • sonification
    • sublime
    • tactile
    • telematic
    • three-dimensional
    • time-based
    • uncanny
    • virtual
    • visual
  • genre
    • Bio Art
      • Genetic Art
      • Transgenic Art
    • Concept Art
    • Database Art
    • Digital Activism
    • Digital Animation
    • Digital Community (Social Network)
    • Digital Graphics
    • Game Art
    • Glitch Art
    • Hybrid Art
    • Installation
      • augmented reality
      • interactive installation
      • mixed reality
      • performative installation
      • sound installation
      • virtual reality
        • 360° virtual walktrough
    • light art
    • Nano Art
    • Net Art
    • Performance
      • Computer performance
      • Happening
      • multimedia performance
      • sound performance
      • video performance
    • robotics
    • Telematic Art
  • subject
    • ART AND SCIENCE
      • algorithm
      • anthropology
      • archaeology
      • artificial intelligence
      • astronomy
      • biology
      • botany
      • cartography
      • code
      • combinatorics
      • cyberspace
      • database
      • documentation
      • emergence
      • evidence
      • experiment
      • geography
      • geometry
      • history of science
      • humanities
      • library
      • light
      • machine
      • mathematic
      • medicine
      • microscopy
      • nanotechnology
      • neuroscience
      • philosophy
        • metaphysics
      • physics
      • psychology
      • Representation of knowledge
      • research
      • science
      • scientific image
      • space
      • statistics
      • stereoscope
    • ARTS AND VISUAL CULTURE
      • allegory
      • anamorphosis
      • animation
      • architecture
      • art history
      • art market
      • artistic invention
      • beauty
      • cinema
      • collage
      • comics
      • conservation
      • dance
      • drawing
      • expanded cinema
      • fashion
      • gaze
      • grid
      • illusion
      • image
      • literature
      • mask
      • materiality
      • mirror
      • model
      • museum
      • music
      • nude
      • ornament
      • painting
      • panopticon
      • panorama
      • personification
      • perspective
      • photography
      • poetry
      • portrait
      • projection
      • representation
      • sculpture
      • shadow
      • sketch
      • spectator
      • still life
      • symbolism
      • theatre
      • theory
        • complexity
        • media theory
        • modernism
        • postmodernism
        • poststructuralism
        • semiotics
        • simulacrum
      • virtuality
      • visual culture
    • BODY AND PSYCHOLOGY
      • affect
      • agency
      • alienation
      • amnesia
      • anatomy
      • anger
      • anxiety
      • body
      • breathing
      • cognition
      • curiosity
      • cybersex
      • cyborg
      • death
      • depression
      • disease
      • disgust
      • dream
      • ecstasy
      • embodiment
      • emotion
      • empathy
      • erotic
      • experience
      • expression
      • eye
      • facial expression
      • fantasy
      • fear
      • feeling
      • gender
      • genetics
      • gesture
      • hand
      • happiness
      • human
      • identity
      • imagination
      • intimacy
      • isolation
      • joy
      • loneliness
      • love
      • mental disorder
      • movement
      • narcissism
      • optimism
      • pain
      • paranoia
      • perception
      • performativity
      • pessimism
      • physiognomy
      • pleasure
      • posthuman
      • psyche
      • psychoanalysis
      • psychosis
      • sadness
      • self awareness
      • senses
        • hearing
        • sight
        • smell
        • taste
        • touch
      • sexuality
      • shame
      • shock
      • skin
      • speech
      • stress
      • surgery
      • trust
      • unconsciousness
    • HISTORY AND MEMORY
      • ancestor
      • antiquity
      • archive
      • artifacts
      • collective memory
      • colonialism
      • cultural heritage
      • historical site
      • historism
      • history
      • meme
      • memorial
      • modern era
      • nostalgia
      • postcolonialism
      • preservation
      • romanticism
      • teleology
      • tradition
    • MAGIC AND PHANTASTIC
      • alchemy
      • animism
      • enchantment
      • ghost
      • horoscope
      • illusion
      • magic
      • occultism
      • sorcery
      • supernaturalism
      • superstition
      • telepathy
    • MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
      • access
      • advertising
      • Big Data
      • broadcast
      • commerce
      • communication
      • electronic media
      • error message
      • fiction
      • film
      • global village
      • hypertext
      • information
      • intermediality
      • internet
      • language
      • media archaeology
      • open source
      • print media
      • radio
      • search engine
      • social media
      • storytelling
      • telecommunication
      • telephone
      • television
      • video surveillance
      • visualisation
      • writing
    • NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT
      • agriculture
      • animal
      • anthropocentrism
      • atmosphere
      • catastrophe
      • DNA
      • earth
      • ecosystem/ecology
      • energy
      • environment
      • evolution
      • four elements
      • geology
      • global warming
      • globe
      • landscape
      • magnetism
      • nature
      • ocean
      • outer space
      • physical law
      • plant
      • pollution
      • sustainability
      • topography
      • vegetation
      • water
      • weather
    • POWER AND POLITICS
      • authority
      • banking
      • censorship
      • conspiracy
      • democracy
      • discrimination
      • economy
      • equality
      • geopolitics
      • governance
      • heroism
      • human rights
      • imperialism
      • institution
      • law
      • manipulation
      • market
      • military
      • nationalism
      • patriarchy
      • politics
      • sovereignty
      • surveillance
      • terrorism
      • violence
      • warfare
    • RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY
      • afterlife
      • bible
      • church
      • creation
      • crucifixion
      • esoterism
      • exodus
      • heretic
      • legend
      • mysticism
      • myth
      • mythological creature
      • mythology
      • paradise
      • religion
        • buddhism
        • christianity
        • islam
        • judaism
      • ritual
      • sacrifice
      • Saint
      • sin
      • spirituality
      • vision
      • worship
    • SOCIETY AND CULTURE
      • activism
      • border
      • capitalism
        • surveillance-capitalism
      • city
      • civilisation
      • community
      • consumption
      • counterculture
      • country
      • digital identity
      • diversity
      • entertainment
        • comedy
        • festival
        • game
        • mass culture
        • parody
        • phantasmagoria
        • popular culture
        • spectacle
        • toys
      • ethnicity
      • feminism
      • folklore
      • food
      • globalization
      • individuality
      • information society
      • interculturalism
      • mass
      • migration
      • minority
      • morality
      • native
      • otherness
      • participation
      • poverty
      • privacy
      • public space
      • racism
      • territory
      • unemployment
      • urban space
      • utopia
      • voyeurism
      • wealth
      • working class
    • TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
      • ambient intelligence
      • artificial intelligence
      • artificial life
      • biocomputer
      • blockchain
      • cybernetics
      • development
      • digitization
      • electricity
      • emulation
      • engineering
      • history of technology
      • innovation
      • intelligent environment
      • invention
      • mechanics
      • military technology
      • mobility
      • nonhuman communication
      • optics
      • product design
      • production
      • robot
      • simulation
      • software manipulations
      • supercomputing
      • technophobia
      • telematics
      • telepresence
  • Technology
    • Display
      • Electronic displays
        • BOOM (Binocular Omni-Orientation Monitor)
        • CAVE (Computered Augmented Virtual Environment)
        • computer monitor
        • dome
        • Electromechanical Display Device
        • Electronic Paper
        • flashlight
        • Head-up Display
        • Headphones
        • HMD (Head-mounted Display)
        • holography
        • laser
        • light-emitting diode
        • lightbox
        • plasma
        • printer
        • projection screen
        • projector
        • robotic
        • speakers
        • VFD (Vacuum Florescent Display)
        • VRD (Virtual Retinal Display)
      • Non-electronic displays
        • body
        • Book
        • easel painting
        • globe
        • house wall
        • inflatable structure
        • mirror
        • paper
        • sculpture
        • shutter glasses
        • sofa
        • Somatosensory System / Tactile Feedback Technology
        • table
    • Hardware
      • camera
      • computer mouse
      • data glove
      • Joystick
      • MAC
      • Mobile Device
      • multi touchscreen
      • plotter
      • scanner
      • touchscreen
      • Video
      • webcam
    • Interface
      • Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC)
      • Biological Sensor
      • biometrics
      • Body sensor
        • Body Tracking
        • brainwave sensor/brain-computer-interface
        • breathing sensor
        • Breathing-Balance-Interface-Vest
        • Endoscope
        • eye scanner
        • facial recognition system
        • Motion Capture
        • positiontracker
        • retina scanner
        • Speech Recognition
        • step sensor
      • camera recording
      • electromagnetism
      • interactive media
        • Auditory User Interface (AUI)
        • Augmented Reality Interfaces
        • breath based communication
        • Internet of Things (IoT)
        • Ludic Interface
        • MR-based (Mixed Reality) Interaction
        • Multi-Modal Interaction
        • tactile user interfaces
        • Tangible Acoustic Interface
        • Tangible User Interface (TUI)
        • Voice User interface
      • Non-electronic interface
        • bike
        • doll
        • furniture
        • plant
      • robotic interfaces
      • Soundgenerating device
        • Audiotape
        • keyboard
        • microphone
        • musical instrument
        • RFID (Radio-frequency Identification)
        • syntheziser
        • telephone
        • Theremin
        • turntable
        • voice analysis
      • virtual balance
    • Software
      • C++
      • CGI/Perl
      • CSS
      • Global Positioning System (GPS)
      • ISDN
      • Java
      • Linux
      • Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
      • periscope
      • PHP
      • RFID (Radio-frequency Identification)
      • SGI Onyx2
      • softimage
      • software interface
      • Video
      • VRML
      • Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)
      • XML
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Information
Cite
X
Archive of Digital Art (ADA). “Jeffrey Shaw - »Legible City«”. https://digitalartarchive.at/database/general/work/the-legible-city.html (retrieved 2016-13-06). @online{ADAartistprofile, author = {Archive of Digital Art (ADA)}, title = {Jeffrey Shaw - »Legible City«}, url = {https://digitalartarchive.at/database/general/work/the-legible-city.html}, urldate = {retrieved 2016-13-06}
Technology
Display
Varaiable: Computer Monitor, Projection
Interface
Bicycle (Version 1989), Joystick (Version 1988)
Software
wire-frame graphics
Descriptions & Essays
The Legible City was first presented in 1988 as wire-frame graphics that were interactively operated by a joystick. This constituted a prototype for later implementations of this work using a bicycle as the viewer interface and more advanced computer visualisation methods.
Jeffrey Shaw 02-11-2015
In The Legible City the visitor is able to ride a stationary bicycle through a simulated representation of a city that is constituted by computer-generated three-dimensional letters that form words and sentences along the sides of the streets. Using the ground plans of actual cities - Manhattan, Amsterdam and Karlsruhe - the existing architecture of these cities is completely replaced by textual formations written and compiled by Dirk Groeneveld. Travelling through these cities of words is consequently a journey of reading; choosing the path one takes is a choice of texts as well as their spontaneous juxtapositions and conjunctions of meaning.

The handlebar and pedals of the interface bicycle give the viewer interactive control over direction and speed of travel. The physical effort of cycling in the real world is gratuitously transposed into the virtual environment, affirming a conjunction of the active body in the virtual domain. A video projector is used to project the computer-generated image onto a large screen. Another small monitor screen in front of the bicycle shows a simple ground plan of each city, with an indicator showing the momentary position of the cyclist.

The Manhattan version (1989) of this work comprises eight separate fictional story lines in the form of monologues by ex-Mayor Koch, Frank Lloyd Wright, Donald Trump, a tour guide, a confidence trickster, an ambassador and a taxi-driver. Each story line has a specific letter colour so that the bicyclist can choose one or another to follow the path of a particular narration. In the Amsterdam (1990) and Karlsruhe (1991) versions all the letters are scaled so that they have the same proportion and location as the actual buildings which they replace, resulting in a transformed but exact representation of the actual architectural appearance of these cities. The texts for these two cities are largely derived from archive documents that describe mundane historical events there.
Jeffrey Shaw: Legible City, 02-11-2015, in: Archive of Digital Art
Literature
Grau, Oliver. »The Recombinant Reality - Immersion and Interactive Image Spaces.« In Synthetic Times, edited by Fan Di'an and Zhang Ga, 72 -93. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Arns, Inke. »Interaktion, Partizipation, Vernetzung: Kunst und Telekommunikation.« http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themen/medienkunst_im_ueberblick/kommunikation/5/ [18.08.2015].
Schwarz, Hans-Peter, ed. Medien - Kunst - Geschichte. Anläßlich der Eröffnung des Museums für Neue Kunst, ZKM, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe am 18. Oktober 1997, Medienmuseum th ed.München, London, New York: Prestel Verlag, 1997.