Media Facades and the Library of the Future

The HMNYC Project- An Interactive Window Display from Emily Ryan on Vimeo.

This project is one of many similar projects that incorporate a person texting or calling into a window display and then you appear there. A more recent example of this has been the Variate Labs Office façade which allows them to do similar things. An interesting critique of the media façade was presented by Usman Haque and he commented that these were merely reacting to the public, not interacting. He then goes on to say that for something to be truly interactive it needs to be more like a conversation where the user has an effect on how the output is calculated as well as having an effect on the input. Therefore, the crucial thing is that it is impossible to tell how the thing reacts.

Interactive Facade from Variate Labs on Vimeo.

What this made me think about was a discussion that our group had in a meeting with Jamie Allen, Assistant Director of Culture Lab, Newcastle, UK and how I can relate his project ‘On Site’ to some of my project thinking and this got me asking a few questions:

1. How can this concept of spreading knowledge throughout the city that Jamie presented be integrated into the libraries of the future?

2. Is the library of the future as much about one building as it is about something that is weaved into the fabric of the city through shop fronts? Something that can be readily accessible by all?

To answer the latter question, a system that could integrate this type of thing is the media façade and taking on what Haque said, how can I make this a more interactive system than something that is just reacting?

What happens to shop windows when not in use?

How will the notion of the space around the shop windows change? Can they serve as some kind of public function?

As a final thought, this gave me an idea. Is the library instead the creation of a series of public spaces/plazas scattered across the city, that form the points of social gathering?