The expansion of digital twins from their home in manufacturing and engineering into the social realm of city building represents an ideological and material shift in the way that we design space. Human activity is quantified, and digital spaces solidify themselves as some of the most iconic products of a global modern culture.
Prioritising automation and data collection, digital twins promise efficiency and unbiased machine observation. As Wellington city implements its digital twin we are given an opportunity to reflect on the culture of digital twins and the relationship between physical spaces and their digital replicas. Digital space isn’t infinite, it takes physical material to construct and maintain, and efficiency and machine-vision objectivity are ideals which tend to homogenise a variety of needs into a harmful majoritarian common good. Technification and technological solutions position themselves as points of progression, but obscure their own processes of creation and ultimate outcomes.
Presenting technological aspects of the digital twin through an installation of tactile physical experiences brings their abstract inner mechanisms closer to the realm of everyday lived experience.
My approach here is to first reveal and make tangible the physical construction of the twin through interacting with sensors, networks and materials. And following that to reveal the philosophical or societal construction of the twin in threading video works onto these various interactions.
The interactions are programmed to modify a connected digital landscape of images and videos, using humour and juxtaposition to highlight the link between human action, a rapidly digitising world, and the ideological backgrounds of determinism, militarism, extractivism, and colonialism at the roots of our technological development.
Many overlapping strands of narratives, whether beautiful, destructive, distracting or useful can coexist in the breath at each experience of the work. Emerging narratives contradict good and bad, serious and silly, celebratory and condemning. These more accurately capture the complexity of the digital twin narrative, maintaining criticality while allowing room for play.
Machine vision, journeys and processes of manufacturing and assembly, human interpretation, and a quantification of biological and ecological conditions are four aspects of Wellington's digital twin that inspired New Smart City’s interactive works. These points of interaction are arranged in the centre of a 270° projection lab as a cluster of machine parts, screens, light and organic material.
Three ground projectors map videos onto the surfaces of the central objects, cryptically suggesting how you can interact with the work. Sensors and electrical components used to feed the function of the digital twin drive the interactivity of the installation. Cameras serve machine vision software - motion, light, temperature and humidity detectors respond to change, and analog cables complete their circuit with some human help. Information is passed around New Smart City’s network, controlling its virtual worlds and video displays, responding to you as you respond to it.
Description:
The expansion of digital twins from their home in manufacturing and engineering into the social realm of city building represents an ideological and material shift in the way that we design space. Human activity is quantified, and digital spaces solidify themselves as some of the most iconic products of a global modern culture.
Prioritising automation and data collection, digital twins promise efficiency and unbiased machine observation. As Wellington city implements its digital twin we are given an opportunity to reflect on the culture of digital twins and the relationship between physical spaces and their digital replicas. Digital space isn’t infinite, it takes physical material to construct and maintain, and efficiency and machine-vision objectivity are ideals which tend to homogenise a variety of needs into a harmful majoritarian common good. Technification and technological solutions position themselves as points of progression, but obscure their own processes of creation and ultimate outcomes.
Presenting technological aspects of the digital twin through an installation of tactile physical experiences brings their abstract inner mechanisms closer to the realm of everyday lived experience.
My approach here is to first reveal and make tangible the physical construction of the twin through interacting with sensors, networks and materials. And following that to reveal the philosophical or societal construction of the twin in threading video works onto these various interactions.
The interactions are programmed to modify a connected digital landscape of images and videos, using humour and juxtaposition to highlight the link between human action, a rapidly digitising world, and the ideological backgrounds of determinism, militarism, extractivism, and colonialism at the roots of our technological development.
Many overlapping strands of narratives, whether beautiful, destructive, distracting or useful can coexist in the breath at each experience of the work. Emerging narratives contradict good and bad, serious and silly, celebratory and condemning. These more accurately capture the complexity of the digital twin narrative, maintaining criticality while allowing room for play.
Machine vision, journeys and processes of manufacturing and assembly, human interpretation, and a quantification of biological and ecological conditions are four aspects of Wellington's digital twin that inspired New Smart City’s interactive works. These points of interaction are arranged in the centre of a 270° projection lab as a cluster of machine parts, screens, light and organic material.
Three ground projectors map videos onto the surfaces of the central objects, cryptically suggesting how you can interact with the work. Sensors and electrical components used to feed the function of the digital twin drive the interactivity of the installation. Cameras serve machine vision software - motion, light, temperature and humidity detectors respond to change, and analog cables complete their circuit with some human help. Information is passed around New Smart City’s network, controlling its virtual worlds and video displays, responding to you as you respond to it.