{"59129":{"#nid":"59129","#data":{"type":"news","title":"When a City Gets Too Smart","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison, Ph.D. candidate in the Digital Media program at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, is exhibiting \u0022Too Smart City\u0022 at The Urban Center in Manhattan. The exhibit asks the question, \u0022what happens when technology runs amok?\u0022    [Watch what happens in the videos - see link below]\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EJimison\u0027s piece features three pieces of street furniture that come to life when used. The Smart Bench throws off people who\u0027ve been lounging too long. The Smart Trashcan only accepts the right kind of trash. All other trash gets tossed back at you. The Smart Sign addresses passers-by with the latest legal codes. All are examples of technological solutions run amok.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe exhibit is curated by Mark Shepard and organized by the Architectural League of New York. The show runs until November 7. Jimison created the piece with independent artist JooYoun Paek and engineer Daniel Bauen, a Georgia Tech alumnus.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI recently sat down with Jimison to talk about the piece and the reactions it\u0027s been getting. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Terraso: So, how many pieces do you have?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: I have three pieces, three sort of furniture that are all one piece. So I have a sign, a trashcan and a bench. And together, we have them on this fake grass. It sort of evokes the city park of the future. And each of those is intended to be very much an everyday object. People can see everyday objects, and first associate them as something you\u0027d see all the time, but then they do these unusual things that hopefully raise awareness about how technology could potentially be used or malfunction in a city of the future.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDT: What do you hope people take home from seeing your piece?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: I hope they take home an awareness of this move toward the Sentient City and what that might mean for themselves and their everyday lives. But also, the pieces we chose were meant to evoke a greater awareness about furniture in our contemporary lives. And how benches are already designed to restrict people from lying down. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThere\u0027s this issue that we wanted to bring up, which is that there\u0027s this kind of politics involved in the design of furniture, that people aren\u0027t engaged with themselves. I think that\u0027s something that we wanted to raise as a question. Not necessarily providing answers, but to sort of raise as a topic.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThere\u0027s been interesting backlash already. For instance on one of the blogs, people are saying this bench is terrible, it\u0027s going to hurt their grandmother, and how could people invent something like this?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDT: They know it\u0027s a work of art, right?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: Well, some people aren\u0027t quite sure. Some people get the sarcastic element. We tried to balance it in a way that it left a little bit of anxiety, and in a sense I think that was a high-five moment for us as developers. We wanted to try to create this playful work of art that does leave this bit of anxiety about the future. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI think that there\u0027s been another question of, \u0022Well, would you sell this to city planners?\u0022  Because they might want to have benches close at night. It\u0027s just at that line, where it\u0027s not so far off that you couldn\u0027t imagine it at an airport or someplace, but that it\u0027s new and novel enough that you don\u0027t take it for granted and you do kind of question it, and say \u0022I don\u0027t want that. I don\u0027t like that.\u0022  So that\u0027s what we\u0027re trying to create. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDT: I can imagine you put a quarter in and it gives you five minutes on the bench and then it pops up.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: Yes, of course, of course. And as an aside, I think that as a technologist who works on commercial work and artwork, what\u0027s nice about being supported in the art field is that you get to do things that are supposed to be broken, aren\u0027t supposed to succeed. And that of course helps me in my commercial work, but it\u0027s a different space to play in.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDT: What kind of reaction were you going for?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: I guess the kind of reaction we were hoping for was an awkward laugh. It\u0027s comedic and it\u0027s fun, but it also makes people take a step back and it causes a little bit of reflection. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDT: What brought your interest to this particular topic?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: My research at Georgia Tech is directly in line with thinking about pervasive technologies and mobile technologies and how they\u0027re going to relate to urbanism of the everyday. So for me it was a direct correlation of all the things I\u0027ve been studying and building while at Tech.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDT: Would you say you\u0027re the kind of person who likes to have a bit of an edge to your work?\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDavid Jimison: Yes, I would say that, even just working in the cultural sphere. I\u0027ve had grants here at Georgia Tech from Nokia and MTV, and I think that edge is important because it keeps people talking about it. Edge means relevant or important in a lot of ways, so I think that\u0027s an important aspect.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"What happens when technology runs amok?  The \u0022Too Smart City\u0022 exhibit at The Urban Center in Manhattan offers a humorous answer. The exhibit is by David Jimison, Ph.D. candidate in the Digital Media program at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.  The \u0022smart bench\u0022 (at right) dumps \u0027loafers\u0027.  Videos of the \u0027smart bench\u0027 and \u0022Too  Smart City\u0022 in action accompany the story.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Jimison shows what happens when technology runs amok?"}],"uid":"27167","created_gmt":"2009-11-02 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:06:47","author":"Rebecca Keane","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2009-11-02T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2009-11-02T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"59130":{"id":"59130","type":"image","title":"tlv78684.jpg","body":null,"created":"1449176217","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:56:57","changed":"1475894512","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:52","alt":"","file":{"fid":"190867","name":"tlv78684.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tlv78684_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tlv78684_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":35848,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tlv78684_0.jpg?itok=Wt6mQ1aP"}},"59131":{"id":"59131","type":"image","title":"tos78684.jpg","body":null,"created":"1449176217","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:56:57","changed":"1475894512","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:52","alt":"","file":{"fid":"190866","name":"tos78684.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tos78684_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tos78684_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":41690,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tos78684_0.jpg?itok=27eS-Z-I"}}},"media_ids":["59130","59131"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/lcc.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Literature, Communication, and Culture"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.digitallounge.gatech.edu\/digitallife\/index.html?id=3505","title":"Watch the Smart Trashcan \u0026 Smart Bench in action"}],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"124","name":"Digital Media"},{"id":"10057","name":"Jimison"},{"id":"10058","name":"The Urban Center"},{"id":"876","name":"Too Smart City"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ERebecca Keane\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=rkeane3\u0022\u003EContact Rebecca Keane\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-1720\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}