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The data produced by our online and offline interactions constitutes an extension of our self-identity but also a commercial asset for the companies that enable and monitor these exchanges. The project investigates the surveillance ecology of the post-internet city with a strong focus on data ownership, blockchains and the relation with the processes of democratisation of space.
Taking Canary Wharf as a case study, we mapped the position and PPM range of CCTV cameras, before simulating the effects on the different routes taken by commuters with different degrees of awareness of the existence of these systems. Additionally, we identified the position of all data checkpoints – places where physical transactions are digitalised and tracked – and simulated their impact on the site, before collating the map of the overall surveillance ecology of Canary Wharf.
The proposal is envisioned as a self-regulating urban intervention consisting of a data-generating farm and a data-free zone, where citizens can digitally hold the ownership of their own data to be used as currency for the negotiation of space. As a result, the dual system allows for each network of spaces to have peculiar attributes and differentiated life cycles, whilst establishing spatial logics of coexistence and metabolic interdependencies.
Canary Wharf as the secondary central business district in London and one of the areas which has the most CCTV camera counts.
Mapping of the CCTV cameras in Canary Wharf. Each camera was analyzed to specify the intensity of CCTV viewing. The greater the value, the higher the resolution of monitoring.
Investigation into natural surveillance, which visualises people's perception of being watched. Each point represents the degree of natural monitoring ecology.
Mapping of all of the digital control systems, checkpoints and traceable chains in Canary Wharf.
The visible surveillance volume corresponds to the mountains on the iceberg (top), while the reefs below represents the invisible control ecology.
Publicly Owned Public Spaces (POPS) are chosen as the start and end points of the genesis curve of the design generation.
The rules are gradually implemented via algorithms, resulting in the structural form being expandable/flexible, organic, and self-adaptive.
Investigations into various data field unit forms. Customisation based application platform informing the robotic arm to begin to 3D print, move, and adjust units.
Generation of the structure, the data farm and the data playground (as a connection space between them).
In a farm of merchants and manufacturers, the Data Farm provides scenes through joint modules, where citizens voluntarily choose and enter the type of data they want to share.
By sharing the experience data in the farm, the user obtains virtual currency.
In the playground, display the data collected on our farm, share and attract users participating in the data farm system.
The playground belongs to our free zone. Users will no longer be monitored and can exchange currency for more experience.
Some of the platforms and volumes are embedded in the existing structures of Canary Wharf, while others have evolved into dialogues between the ground and the structure.