Mediacology

In the Information Age, the flow of IP (Internet Protocol) data between locations is nearly ubiquitous. Globe Encounters visualizes in real time the volumes of Internet data flowing between New York and cities around the world. The size of the glow on a particular city location corresponds to the amount of IP traffic flowing between that place and New York City. A greater glow implies a greater IP flow.

A beautiful hyperreal depiction of telephone and IP (Internet Protocol) data flowing between New York and cities around the world, visualized by the art project, New York Talk Exchange (produced by MIT’s Sensible City Lab). The project wants to know: “How does the city of New York connect to other cities? With which cities does New York have the strongest ties and how do these relationships shift with time? How does the rest of the world reach into the neighborhoods of New York?”

Truth is, like a robin attracted to shiny objects, I was magnetized by the stunning imagery. But as I look at the project’s goals, it’s not clear to me what the benefit of this visualization is other than to reinforce the notion that NYC is the communications hub of the world and that people, ho-hum, make long distance calls. But there is this little tidbit:

As Columbia University Professor Saskia Sassen, author of the book “Global Cities,” details in the NYTE project catalog, “The striking piece of evidence coming out of this project is that global talk happens both at the top of the economy and at its lower end. The vast middle layers of our society are far less global; the middle talks mostly nationally and locally.”

PS Note the sponsor (AT&T). Hmmm, makes all that spying seem like an innocent mistake.

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