There’s something perverse about saying something, sticking it on the wall, and expecting a predefined response from it. I don’t really know the statistics that prove the effectiveness of billboards and print ads, I don’t really care. But it does feel that when you do that you’re engaging in the kind of behavior that a parent would with a child. Saying something is true, demanding they believe it, and expecting no critical response. There’s also something perverse about a society that has to invent its way out of the situation it created for itself. No one likes being shouted at. It’s also uplifting that a small group of people can innovate on a platform that has been under the control of moneyed organisations for a hundred years.
Artvertiser is a system for replacing these proprietary images with a community platform for anyone to display their imagery, messages, stories on top.
The concept becomes more exciting when you think about the growing smartphone user base. Anyone with one of these devices will be able to use it as a lens to scrub these owned messages from their world and create an alternative cityscape. To empower the people that live there to communicate to their neighbours. The idea of subverting brand messages has been around for a while, but this technology enables more people to take control of their built environment.
I’d like to see these types of systems open up into a robust platform that people can invent upon. Creating communal gaming environments, message boards, local information systems, as well as artistic expression.
It’s important that these systems are open, so that organisations don’t appropriate it as just another branding layer and are made to compete with community innovation on a level playing field for people’s attention, engagement and interest.
Watch the video below the fold on their site. Kudos to Intermediae for providing funding.
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