where is here?

That question has become more and more relevant with the unstoppable growth of technology and therefore, globalization. As an immigrant to a country full of people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, I feel that the boundaries of my identity are blurred and mixed with influences from all over the world. So, where am I? Geographically Im in Montreal, Quebec. Metaphorically, you, me and many others are at Tahrir Square1 watching a popular upraise, or at the Serengeti seeing a pack of Elephants2 protecting their calf, or at the White House3 hearing a speech about debts and expense limits. We can even be at a tomb4 at the Valley of the Kings and see how it was built or at a fashion show5 dans les Champs Elyses.. Mass Media and its content have grown in such a wide spectrum that we can we can have information about what has happened, whats happening and -in some cases- what will happen almost anywhere in the world. We have even a collective conscience that its expressed in 130 characters at a time6. Geographical boundaries and the concept of space are moving constantly into collective and social experiences that are affecting the way we interact with our natural spaces. Artist and fashion designer Hussein Chalayan explains in his exhibition "Compassion Fatigue" how we have assimilated nature into our social environment (he sees the Rococo and the Art Nouveau as "a way of taming nature" through the stylization of natural elements) and that this assimilation, with time, has become part of our natural environment. He states: "inhabiting this environment, however, has had its effect on the human body. By way of assimilation, the body has been contorted into its dimensions in order to better synchronize itself with that space. As a result, it has transformed into a motif of its environment"7.
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We as rational animals have

Http://globalmbreport.org/?p=4036 Http://www.virtual-safari.tv/tag/72/serengeti 3 Http://www.whitehouse.gov/live 4 Http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/ 5 Sonia Rykiel H&M Fashion Parade - http://vimeo.com/7960911 6 Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/the-philosophical-signifi_b_216056.html 7 Http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/art_projects.compassion_fatigue/

transformed our environment into a rich interpretation of nature that we inhabit and interact in many different ways as part of an ever-evolving process that characterizes the human species since it became Homo sapiens. In Umberto Ecos Lumbar Thought8 he expresses that through human history; garments and clothing have modified our exterior morality. I believe that we "wear" our environments too and that they modify our conducts and exterior morality the same way as garment, dresses or armors do (Chalayan himself has designed wearable spaces, being the most famous an egg shaped vessel created for Lady Gaga9). The space, regarded as a big scale wearable piece instead of just a mere "container" is a concept that takes me to explore the topic of human scale and how micro and macro are relative concerning our perception of reality. The size of the human body has been a historical obsession. Vitruvius, Euclid, Da Vinci and Le Corbusier, just to mention a few, have discussed this topic. A fairly new science called Anthropometry studies the differences of the human size in regards to every group of race, gender, etc. When combined with ergonomics, anthropometric data is used by designers to create tools, parks, furniture, vehicles, packages, etc. 10 But this takes us to a very restrictive use of the human scale as its limited to man made artifacts. In an attempt to interact with our natural environment, science and technology has evolved around this scale (the golden section is an example of this). However, until what point are the spaces we live in being designed thinking in the human scale? Individually, an airport is designed to accommodate certain kind of human activity, the same happens with a house or a school, but when the sum of all these designs come together as a City, the urban space as a whole becomes an intertwined grid of individual functionalities that no longer accommodates the human size as its priority as it transforms itself into a mass of ergonomics that not always satisfies human necessities. It is then when the human body adapts and creates new ways to interact with the space. The Latin American barrios and favelas (slums) are a great example of this adaptation to
Http://fields.eca.ac.uk/digitalspaces1/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/lumbarthought.pdf Http://gagafashionland.com/2011/02/mugler-for-lady-gaga 10 Panero, J. Zelnik, M. (1979). Human Dimension and Interior Design. Whitney Library of Design.
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the urban/natural environment. This also happens linverse when humans design spaces to accommodate the technology itself (an airport is designed to host human traffic but also aircraft activity). The functionality of the design becomes an individual amongst the plurality of the urban landscape. Reality and here has become a multi layered space and time that we can access, modify, interact with, interpret and reinterpret at our will. Since ancient times the human mind has imagined and created hundreds of parallel universes filled with interpretations of nature and explanations of the tangible space. Cosmogonies and metaphysical explanations are proof of that. Created by philosophers and clerics from Mayans and Egyptians to Catholics and Idealists- all of them have imagined or believed in another layer of reality. It is no coincidence that through history, humans have used external and alternative means - as opposed to plain imagination- in order to connect to this other layers of alleged reality. Yanomami natives in Venezuela use a drug called Yopo in order to achieve astral projections and connect with the spirits of nature in a shamanic ritual11. The Sufis use whirling as a way to abandon the ego or self in order to connect with god12. Christians, for instance, use prayer as a portal to heaven and connection with the divinity. Nowadays, a mega mix of those cosmogonies and philosophies coexist in urban spaces in their traditional way but also in elaborated and syncretic ones that, in many cases, are accessed by the means of technologies and the constant evolution of new gadgets that serve as open portals to information, instantaneity and social mixture, taking us users- to understand, co-participate and be aware of other social, environmental and political realities. These experiences however, are performed often in an individualistic way. Ironically, the relationship between our gadgets and us is taking away our gregarious quality in the sense that the user becomes less and less fond of physical company (human company). We no longer need to be physically present in order to participate in a social activity and even if we are there, we really are not, as our
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Http://venezuelanindian.blogspot.com/2008/01/sanema-video-of-shaman-rituals.html Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_whirling

little device captures most of our attention. By accessing this omnipresent portal that leads us to alternate content, the user distances himself from his physical surroundings and/or divides his attention into the here and now and the alternate here and now that runs parallel and invisible to the naked eye, only seen through technology. This division of our attention also splits our emotional response to the environments we are interacting with as one can modify and affect the other and both together are modify our behavior. Manners and ways to socialize are evolving or moving into that other layer of reality where we can be whatever we want, wherever we want, whenever we want. In online communities like Twitter, Foursquare, Blogger, etc. users can use aliases and avatars to interact with the platform, a bit as writers have used pseudonyms along history. This opens the possibility to embody different selves and express thoughts and ideas through that alter ego. The protection of anonymity versus the face-to-face conversation presents an interest duality that is constantly exerted both in the urban and the virtual space. Here has become a multilayered reality that includes physical and virtual objects and that coexists with itself by being fed with technological advancement. So, Where is Here? Here is a compilation of experiences, places, and spaces tangible and not-. Here is Montreal, Caracas or Istanbul. Here is now, yesterday and tomorrow. Here is cold, warm, humid and dry. Here is here and there. Here can be anything, anywhere at anytime. Here I am and I am not. Here I can be a woman or a man. Here I can touch or not. Here is back home. Here is everywhere. Coming from the advertising world, Im aware of the invasive nature of the messages that are constantly bombarded in a twisted but real goebbelistic fashion. As the former minister of Nazi propaganda would say: "If you repeat the message frequently enough it becomes the truth"13 Which appears to be the motto for the modern mass media industry. In that sense, the media has multiplied itself in order to repeat the message any message- in the most massive way and getting the biggest exposure possible. So, why not use all that power and that entire media

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Http://www.goebbels.info/goebbels-about.htm

explosion for something meaningful and truthful that doesnt need to be repeated thousands of times in order to be credible? My interest resides in public spaces, where we all converge at some point or another and that have become immersive by their own mediatic nature. Media and architecture are at an interception point and I believe that they will have to be considered together as the image has become an architectural element itself that modifies or adds an ontological element to the environment. In that sense, I want to intervene the public space by adding a layer of interactive image that can be shared and used by the community as a generator of social mixing and biophilia. Wolfgang Christ defines the public space as the city's medium for communication with itself, with the new and unknown, with the history and with the contradictions and conflicts that arise from all those. Public space is urban planning's moderator in a city of free players14 which takes me to the many times revisited Marshal McLuhan when he said that the content of every medium is yet another medium15. In this case, the medium is the public space: not only sidewalks, squares, metro stations, plazas, boardwalks and parks that carry their own function and content, but also facebook, twitter, layar, foursquare, yelp and other virtual spaces that are there apparently unseen. Where is here? Is about uncovering those layers of consciousness that are subjacent to the tangible space. It is about showing what cant be shown without the use of technology, only in a wider and more ample use of it, leaving behind the relationship user-gadget to replace it with a collective usersspace relationship. That brings me back to the concept of wearable spaces, where a collective can inhabit a place and share empathetic experiences that react to their input and be modified by those same interactions. The media can shape the perception of reality and effectively make an impact on everyday life but I also

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Http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol6_No2_interactive_city_struppek.htm McLuhan, H. Marshall, Understanding Media

believe that we, as users of the city, can transform its character and command the course of our own lives and environment16. Themes and topics are infinite and just as in traditional media, the urban space can be and has been- used to communicate thousands of messages. In my case, Id like to explore the concept of presence and embodiment as a mean to visit other places different than the actual space where the simple act of going to a specific point in the city, traveling and visiting transcends the tangible and real. By intervening faades with projections and animations of faraway places and anachronistic or time/space displaced images, I want to add that extra layer of reality to places that are naturally bombarded by advertising whose main purpose is to control consuming behaviors. I feel attracted to manifestations of the human collective and our relationship with nature, figures of power and how an omnipresent media expresses those reactions. The example of the popular upraising at Tahrir Square, which was widely broadcasted, twittered17 and generated incredible amount of empathy around the world. But we all saw that from the comfortable distance of our TV screens, smart phones or technological devices. But while watching all this, I wanted to be there and feel the power of that crowd, participate somehow in this public manifestation. What if I could be actually there? What if I could be surrounded by protesters and be one of them for a short while? The issue of physical proximity arise here as a barrier for achieving such utopia. However, given the immediacy of information and the massive explosion of messages, images and concept emanating from Tahrir Square at that specific moment in time, wouldnt it be possible to transform a square in Montreal into an Egyptian manifestation? Dimension and proximity are obstacles distancing us from experiencing these manifestations first hand. In The Power of Ten18 the Eames exposed the relativity of dimension and natures scales. Through Where is here? I would like to bring objects
Attali, J. (1985). Noise: The Political Economy of Music. (Brian Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=206715&R=R3 18 http://www.powersof10.com/#
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that cannot be grasped because of their dimension or distance to the urban landscape. How often do we have the opportunity to see a Blue Whale, an African Elephant or a nuclear submarine in a 1:1 scale or a 10-10 image of the influenza virus? How to make visible and approachable what is not? How can we interact with these objects in what has become our natural environment: The city and the urban space? I see the handheld device as the enemy. It opens our perception to that layer of reality that can only be explored because of its intervention, but also reduces our experience of whats visible, tangible and palpable. I believe that the public space can function as a large-scale device that as Eco mentions in his text- can be worn and experienced by the users as a collective experience. In that sense, the production of images on the urban landscape has been evolving in many interesting ways: Petro glyphs19, Hieroglyphs, Graffiti20, Advertising, Architectural ornaments, etc are jus a sample list of ways in which humans have expressed themselves through history by using the landscape as the media. Im interested in using a new way of urban intervention that uses video and mapping software to project on buildings and activate the space by adding an ephemeral layer of images, movement and interaction. Projects like UrbanScreens21 and Urban Projection22 are examples of this technique. I believe the new challenge is to make these projections interactive through collective participation, which Im planning to do as part of my research.

http://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Caicara-Venezuela-petroglyphs-1.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti 21 http://www.urbanscreens.org/ 22 http://www.urban-projection.com/