WorldChanging recently posted a bit on how our urban environments are literally exploding with data -- everything is data these days, everything. The mass collection of data, which is being added to on a daily basis by public and private entities, is creating a vast urban taxonomy -- a database of information pieces that constantly act upon each other in increasingly unpredictable ways.
I started thinking about how new ways of presenting information could transform Richmond:
- What would our urban streetscape would look like if the 1708 Gallery's InLight sculpture exhibit had extended well beyond Broad Street and well beyond the month of September?
- What if the Times-Dispatch or Style Weekly or some other information entity erected a series of electronic billboards along I-64 and I-95 and 288 with splashes of local news and informational color?
- What if the folks behind Curated Culture installed a series of street corner exhibits at Grove and Libby, and at the Short Pump mall, and in Brandermill -- as simple as concrete pillars plastered with new art imagery every week or month?
- What if the City of Richmond began to use the sides of buses to promote community meetings, and opportunities for citizens to get engaged in the governance of their schools, their businesses, their neighborhoods, their lives?
It's quite amazing how little advantage we take of the opportunities to change the way we go about communicating and connection in our region.
