Presentation to NYC Public Health Department

giorgia lupichristopher goranson

Depicting Perceived Cityscapesmultiple images of the city through User Generated Content

-Oct 2, 2012

Phd candidate at:Milan Politecnico,Design FacultyDensity Design Lab

founder and designer at:Accuratinformation design company in Milan

visiting researcher at:PiimParsons Institute for Information Mapping,Sept 2012 > Feb 2013

research general aim:

How emerging large-scale temporal and geographic social media data can inform the structure and social temperature of a city?

Twitter over 500 million active users as of 2012, generating over 340 million tweets daily

TwitterDistribution of Geographically Referenced Data(clusters and concentration) of the people that wants to share their position.

Twitterhow aggregationsis changing thorugh time,

and to compare precise placeswith area overall contributions

++to be comparedwith popoulation (residents + city users)per area

Twittergroups /differences between spoken languages use the city in terms of temporality and spatial distribution.

Foursquare As of April 2012, the company reported it had 20 million registered users.

Instagramcurrently, 100 million registered users

how to make thosedata worth?

how to extract some urban knowledge out of social media data?

spontaneity?

”you’re not dealing with a 100% of life-logging; the terrific thing with those contents it’s an interesting mapping of somethinghalf-way between reality and people’s aspirations“

understandingdata-nature:why do people share?

crossingand enlighteningpotentialities

urban questions

social mediametadata

social mediacharacterizationand behaviors

how to make thosedata worth?selection some interesting fields of application according to the nature of data

the temporary citydynamicity

patterns evolving through time

discovering city users

popoulaton during special events

areas tematizationsidentity of places

patterns of activities in different places

environmental perception

environmental perception

places perceptionand placesidentity:

is it possible to build indicators of urban perception and health through social media contributions?

(1) topology

1. Can we use social media to understand contribution patterns based on location, time and topic?  Can we build a picture of overall emotional content and / or meaning from this information?

2.  Where to people contribute data from the most?  Where are they most likely to comment on topics of policy or broad social impact to the city?

3.  Can we “map” emotions?  Does the built environment impact these emotions and how?

4.  Are there communication “dead zones”?

5.  How does seasonality and commuter patterns or tourism impact the social information being reported?

open questions, so far:

(2) areas / neighborhoodidentity:

open questions, so far:

1.  Can we use social media to understand how neighborhoods are perceived?

2.  How flexible / overlapping are neighborhood boundaries? 

3.  What typifies social media involvement at a neighborhood scale?  Why area certain neighborhoods similar or different in their useage patterns?

4.  How does seasonality influence these patterns?

places perceptionand placesidentity:Lynch 1961,Suttles 1973,Milgram 1977,Putnam 2000,Oldenburg 1989,Jacobs 1992,Putnam 2000,

Milan:

from “neighborhood”to Local identity nucleus

Instagramfirst Experiments on NYC:is there any pattern on what people take picture of within the differentneighborhoods?

[...]

Instagram #bronx related tags

Instagram #harlem related tags

Instagram #parkslope relate tags

Instagram #brooklynheights related tags

Instagramhow to read it?

1) place typology- outside of buildingsseveral buildings (entire block or more) residential skyscraperresidential low density houses archistar / famous buildingsoffices / workold / historicalchurchsshopsgarages

- inside of buildings residential / apartments shoplocal / bars / restaurants

- street crossing

sidewalkstreet signals street art / graffici street with cars

- natural landscapes parks

rivers - zoo

- empty areas / otherspublic squares / plaza skateparksbasketball fieldsothers to be listed for each one

parkings stadiummarket abandoned yard

- infrastructures bridges

highwaysunderground tracks / station

2) places view- aerial wide zoom- aerial 2 or 3 blocks- street perspective (45°)- frontal at street level- from the window out to the block- from the bottom to the sky- through fences and nets- terrace views

3) timestamp info- sunset- nightime

4) presence of people- yes groups self portaiting ...- no

5) use of filters(5) use of filters *info available from API / not to be done manuallynormal / no filtersXproII / warm saturated tones with an emphasis on aquas and greensEarlybird / blurred colors, with an emphasis on yellow and beigeLomo-fi / Dreamy, ever-so-slightly blurry, with saturated yellows and greensSutro / Sepia-like, with an emphasis on purples and brownsToaster / high exposure, with corner vignettingBrannan / Low-key, with an emphasis on grays and greensValencia / True-to-life contrast, with slightly gray and brown overtones

lots of (crowd) / event 5 to 10less than 5singular portrait

Inkwell / Black-and-white, high-contrastWalden / Washed-out color with bluish overtonesHefe / Fuzziness, with an emphasis on yellow and golden tonesEffect / harp images with a magenta-meets-purple tint, framed by a distinctive film-strip-esque border1977 / Gloria Gaynor-level '70s flairLord Kelvin / Super-saturated, supremely retro photos with a distinctive scratchy border

Pleens

Pleens is a tool to discover stories, journeys and products told starting from the place you, or your friends, are in when you launch an app: what really matters is not geography or proximity but narration.

Geolocalized stories may include suggestions for tryouts and purchases, provided they are related to the narration and to the emotional context.

(...)

giorgia lupichristopher goranson

Depicting Perceived Cityscapesmultiple images of the city through User Generated Content

glupi161@newschool.edu

gornasoc@newschool.edu

http://piim.newschool.edu/www.giorgialupi.net

-Oct 2, 2012