Institute For The Future

Mobility North America Montreal Jason Lewis (Expert Interview) 12/19/08

Jason Lewis is Associate Professor of Computation Arts in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. As the director of the Obx Research Studio, he has spearheaded a project called CitySpeak, which is described as "an exploration into the use of private modes of communication to drive transient public displays of commentary about a particular location."

 

 

Lewis sees a societal trend toward public spaces becoming less public. In some instances, public spaces are really private, corporate-owned spaces that may be open to the public at the will of the owner.  Government-owned spaces are becoming places of paranoia, where leafletting, graffiti, and public speech are prohibitted (or at least inhibitted).

 

People within physical spaces could speak to each other but don't.