Street computers
Posted: August 28th, 2009 | 3 Comments »Seoul is one of the world’s most wired city, and the recent “ubiquitous city” project aims to increase the level of connectivity citizens experience on the street. One of the most visible part of the u-city is the media poles forest, tenth of computers embedded into high poles offering services like news, submay and bus maps, email postcard, 3D avatar game, casual games, shopping/restaurant locator and Flickr photo gallery (more). This sort of rich country’s version of the hole in the wall is extremely popular, and many couples and groups gather around the screens to share a moment playing games or sending a postcard.
Four young girls pose at a “media pole” on Gangnam Avenue. Photo by Time
I made a short video to show those computers who bring people together instead of isolating them.
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really nice video! :)
This installation is very interesting, it shows how diverse electronic can become, depending on countries. I already encountered a similar device to take picture of street walker in Ljubljana but the device was much smaller to keep the user privacy.
Korea is quite protectionnist for importing goods, they are making most of their electronic for and by korean (this is also a reason why they can afford so much electronic regarding the average salary). Hence, serie of specific product is designed to work only there.
Electronic convergence is great to get price down. Maybe now is it time for divergence, to become more specific. Electronic is one symbol of globalisation, can it become region centered, specific to each culture?
It’s already regionalized in some aspects. See Google’s Korean market share: http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13185891&source=hptextfeature