Blending Amsterdam Reality

Yes! We finished today our fist phase, the research, of 20 weeks project and present our results of the last 6 weeks of research to the assigner and others. Let me introduce the team and project definition first and recap in short the last few weeks…

I still remember our first day 3th of September, everybody introduce himself or herself with a PechaKuchi presentation. Amazing, because I realize we are going to work together with a lot of nationalities and different kind of backgrounds and disciplines. It was a excited the first day to getting to know the team mates but after this the first week was very busy with workshops, brainstorms and a lot of meetings. The meeting with our assigner was excited too, Marco Cops, an Urban public space artist. We discuss the main question from the Gemeente Amsterdam, stadsdeel Centrum. We are happy our assigner is very open, and gave us the opportunity to fire our questions, enabling us to precisely clarify the scope of the project and discuss our planning for next coming weeks.

At that moment we are still with three of us: Takuma from Japan, Gijs and Annika from Amsterdam and the second week we got the message two other members will join us next month. It’s Ankit from India and Stefano from Italia. In the meanwhile we start to explore the project definition and work on our debriefing and project plan. For details you can read the project plan. But the key question and problem statement are pointed out:

How to combine a marker (landmark) in the public space (or better said a series of landmarks) and an interactive information carrier – using the Smartphone or other new medium or/ and a physical object with each other to use digital history information and current reality situation, which can be blended into an interactive medium.

Amsterdam has a lot of exceptional, crazy, beautiful and unexpected sights and history. This history is unknown to locals and visitors to Amsterdam. These many little-known gems are just waiting to be discovered. More than 65% of all tourists visit Amsterdam because of the city’s history, culture and its canals (research ATCB, 2012). For example in the 16th Century, there was a city wall around Amsterdam which now stands demolished. Amsterdam is also home to a lot of famous artists, both national and international, a little-known fact. The Gemeente Amsterdam wants to bring this knowledge to the wider public. Beside books and websites, an alternative literary guide to the city could be handy, perhaps in the form of a Smartphone application offering a new perspective on landscapes, buildings and objects. History can also be made tangible (or “touchable”) by blending artifacts from history and reality with new media.

We couldn’t think about other thing because our excitements and even in the weekend on Sundays we bike around the city looking for historical buildings and interesting places. I already live in Amsterdam, but with this project coming I saw the city in a new and inspirational way: )

This for now, Cheers. Annika