URBAN SCREENS; “Creating a new Hybrid Connected Commercial Space”

Abstract

Around the turn of the 19th century an enormous rise of outdoor advertising and billboards started commercializing urban space, transforming cities in to marketplaces, influencing and affecting the aesthetic value of urban space, and impacting urban culture; A similar change can now be seen within our contemporary society. With the fast rise of urban screens and the start of embedding pervasive and ubiquitous computing (Internet of Things) technologies in to the fabric of urban artefacts, cities are becoming smarter and more pervasive, enabling cities to remember, interact, correlate and anticipate on their inhabitants. This trend can also be situated within the commercial space of cities, creating a more pervasive, engaging and social commercial landscape via the use of urban screens.