(Originally posted on Ymag)

Photo by Erik Krikortz

Emotional Cities, by Swedish artist Erik Krikortz, is a pretty interesting project. In the past I’ve written here how the new augmented reality mobile apps can be seen as the future of psychogeography, but in this case the sheer scale of the aesthetic outcome required much bigger fundings and much higher connections to take place. Nevertheless, I think the idea is so simple and beautiful that it’s worth it.

First of all, the project is rooted on the web. By visiting and signing up on the Emotional Cities website, you can place your daily mood on a rainbow-scale, from a desperate purple to a joyful red. You also fill in the city and the country you live in, and you can see a visual statistically-calculated color average of your location over time. Is that it? No.

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This is the conclusion of my thesis From Metaphysics to Metadata. Aesthetics and Politics of Interface. Click to read the first, second, and third part.

ABSTRACT [Or download the full PDF: NicolaBozzi_MP2MD_Conclusion]

In the conclusion of my work I give a few examples of how new stereotypes can be created and spread through the media, thus modifying the interface by the creation of new strategic and socially-conscious metadata: the Muslim punk-rockers depicted in The Taqwacores, the Hip Hop Clowns documented in David LaChapelle’s Rize, or the black-nerd comedy showcased in The Awkward Comedy Show are some of the cases where new figures are promoted to change limiting stereotypes (for example the ghetto = gangster equation) and open new spaces for identity. Sometimes whole countries can reclaim their own version of globalized genres – like sci-fi, in the case of District 9 or Ataque de Pànico.

In the closing lines I propose a mapping of such virtuous uses of metadata and the definition of somewhat of a metadata ethics, in order to take conscience of stereotype and proceed to outline new strategies to escape it.

This is the third part of my thesis From Metaphysics to Metadata. Aesthetics and Politics of Interface. Check back to read the first part and the second part.

ABSTRACT [Or download the full PDF: NicolaBozzi_MP2MD_Figures]

In this chapter I define four main types of metadata and four stereotypical figures to exemplify each of them respectively: structural metadata (the Nerd), textural metadata (the Hipster), body metadata (the Comedian), and metadata of scale (the Gangster). The former two are characterized by higher levels of choice and agency, the latter two are instead metadata beyond choice, labels one is subjected to rather than active tools for participation in infrastructure and interface. (more…)

This is the second part of my thesis From Metaphysics to Metadata. Aesthetics and Politics of Interface. Here’s the first part.

ABSTRACT [Or download full PDF: NicolaBozzi_MP2MD_Channels]

Starting from the example of urban simulacra (in form of virtual environments, mapping applications, or augmented reality renderings), in this chapter I introduce how a virtual infrastructure actualizes into an interface by means of metadata. Relying on Gilles Deleuze’s concept of virtual as used by Pierre Levy, and especially on Michel Foucault’s heterotopia, I also explain the connections between urban simulacra and some emerging practices in urban design and architecture. In particular, I highlight the relationship between the XML node and the shipping container. Referring to Alexander Galloway’s Protocol, I point out how the use of informational units as both a communication device and a content shape is a common protocological practice in both urban simulacra and actual globalized urban landscapes. (more…)

Starting from today, I will publish my thesis From Metaphysics to Metadata. Aesthetics and Politics of Interface on this blog. Since nobody wants to read some 70 pages in blog format, I’m attaching it in four separate PDFs introduced by as many short abstracts. So here it goes, I hope to receive some feedback.

INTRODUCTION – ABSTRACT [Download full PDF: NicolaBozzi_MP2MD_Introduction]

This work is a conceptualization of the use of stereotype, as it is deployed as both an active and a passive tool to read people and space as information. Stereotypical tags are attached to professionals as well as immigrants, to particular places or whole neighborhoods. If people and space are data, stereotypes are then metadata, images extracted from a globalized imagery. Metadata affects the imagination of identities, leading them to adhere to certain pre-formatted formulas, and the perception of space, as it is constructed both physically and culturally. (more…)