Counter-Tourist Information Center

<-- Previous Special Issue

Next Special Issue (by the next group of xpub students) -->

Counter-Tourist Information Center is the title of the release event of Special Issue 24: ON LOITERING and other forms of in-situ computation. This page serves as an index for different resources surrounding the event.

Production Teams

• Link to production pad (with production pad index)
• Communication wiki page

Projects

A collection of the projects contained in this Special Issue. Have a relevant link? Please feel free to add it! :)

Colective Nearby Diary

A collection of publications includes autoethnography works exploring "why I like loitering" and components that inspire individuals and groups to envision and depict their ideal "nearby".

"Nearby" not only refers to geographical proximity but also to the closeness of emotional and social relationships, transcending the dimension of time. By sharing and exploring ideal "nearby," integrate personal visions into a collective map diary, creating the potential for a new city or parts of it.

Checking Point

In games, Checkpoints are saving the player’s state, so they could resume the point if they fail.

Checkpoint is a Labyrinth about the camera zones in the city, related to the checking points in the games, using the camera zone as a checking point to connect the path, also explore the relationship between the player and the people behind the monitor.

In the Labyrinth, the path that the player takes will leave no traces, but the camera zones will leave traces as checkpoints that save the player's status. By accepting cookies, you will pass through or drop into various camera zones, though you will never see the saved images captured by the government.

EmoHooHoo

Specially designed for adults prone to embarrassment. EmoHooHoo supports the outward expression of unspoken emotions in public places; once you wear this device, it clumsily reflects your emotional changes, whether you like it or not 💨💨💨 In urban life, emotional expression is confined to specific occasions, often requiring an entry fee. To achieve emotional freedom in a consumer society, we must first dissolve this embarrassment. EmoHooHoo helps you break free from societal constraints. If burdened, attribute responsibility to our device💨💨💨

INTIMACY

INTIMACITY is an installation art piece that explores the relationship between people and the intimacy of the city. It blurs the boundaries and distinction of public and private spaces.

The installation is composed of a semi-transparent mesh mosquito net, stitched together with various materials and fabrics. One section of the net has a hollow opening designed for people to experience observing in a city/public area while maintaining a hint of privacy/intimacy. This setup might provide new perspectives or sources of inspiration and encourage contemplation on the importance of art in everyday life. Lauren Berlant once wrote, “Rethink intimacy is to appraise how we have been and how we live and how we might imagine lives that make more sense than the ones so many are living." Here, I want to invite you to explore the possibilities of intimacy within this city with me : )

Fly on the Wall

This is a device built to counter mosquito devices and prolong possible periods of loitering.

Mosquito devices emit high frequencies and are installed by private companies and individuals to specifically target and drive away youth from hanging out. They can cause nausea, ear pain and overstimulation, and some activists have called it a 'sonic weapon'. They're frequently installed in liminal spaces, which are fruitful places for loitering and socializing.

The 'Fly on the Wall' device mimics how a mosquito works to cancel out its effects, and make room for youth to loiter without disruptions.

Ministry of the Infraordinary

The Ministry of the Infraordinary invites you to experience the city of Rotterdam in ways you haven't imagined. Let the subjective infrastructure map inspire and guide you and search for views you haven't seen before, look up and under, listen carefully for the subtler sounds of life, consider your place and your role in this network of cables, waves and invisible connections and contribute to the photo map that aspires to make the city our own.

At the Ministry of the Infraordinary, we are concerned with noticing the subtle fabric that makes up our urban surroundings. Using qualitative and generous methods to interrogate the ever-changing ecosphere that constitute our cities. Working in close relation with partners such as trees, trash-cans, lamp-posts and the canals we want to promote considerate and intimate relations between inhabitants and inhabited.

POINXS

A critical counter map looking at city marketing & planning versus the city living and experience. It's a parody on postcard surreality and apps/websites portraying cool and flashy 2D/3D imagery without the complicated dimensions of the city without showing what's behind the scenes.

Rotterdam is 'back on the map'. POINXS questions that map and looks at a city that has become less livable and affordable and reports the bugs from a hill that leads to a dead end pavement, via private transport to wheelchair inaccessible hotspots with ambitions to become a multi-user platform for reporting other people's POINXS.

Portable Mosquito

What if anti-loitering devices such as Mosquitos foregrounded dialogical, rather than monological interaction? Mosquitos buzz away at the margins of perception: for some people the devices may be inaudible, for others the noise may be incessant. Make a journey to the portable mosquito. It functions with a combination of analogue and digital circuitry. Connect to the open WiFi network called `moz`. To adjust the sound emitted by the analogue circuit visit `http://mosquito.local` in a browser on your phone.

Re-secure

In today's cities, surveillance systems are often touted as indispensable elements of urban security. Yet, despite the widespread use of these technologies over the past decades, many people, especially women, still feel unsafe in public spaces, particularly at night.

The re-secure installation let's you delve into these pressing issues by challenging the conventional perspectives on surveillance. This thought-provoking exhibit empowers individuals by hijacking security cameras, encouraging a shift in the locus of control. It raises questions: For whom are security cameras really designed? Whose safety do they prioritize?

Come visit re-secure - an experience for young and old!

Scripts to Read the City

The project imagines an urban environment that can be read, analyzed and criticized as a text. By reading the city in this way we find other possible ways of seeing, moving and listening. In a scripted city, marked by escalating levels of perfection, efficiency and control, the emancipatory aspects of urban life are undermined, allowing little room for anything that doesn't fit the image of the "norm".

Scripts to Read the City is an attempt to foster diverse experiences and uses of space, similar to a theater script interpreted differently by each actor. The tools of navigation are a device indicating which character to play and a guide, including a set of directions and instructions.

The project explores a relation between scripts and spontaneity, chance and control, and how scripts and unpredictability can enhance each other, stimulating imagination, encouraging us to engage with space from another perspective.