Viral City

VIRAL CITY

VIRAL CITYis a study of viral Internet media through the lens of urban analysis. VIRAL CITY documents and celebrates the moments when a viral

system motivates real events or constructions.

Liam Turkle in collaboration with the Office for Collaborative Sustainability

PART I: RESEARCH (A) MEME MAPPING (B) SIMULATION MAPPING (C) NARRATE AND CATALOG

PART II: PRACTICE (A) COLLABORATE (B) COOLSURF WORKSHOPS (C) COOLSURF FARM

EYEBEAM 2011 Fall/Winter Residency Project Proposal

Above: Ontology map created using open-source software developed at TUFTS University.

Below: Precedent modern and post-modern urban analysis techniques - Louis Kahn’s traffic diagram (left) and Kevin

Lynch’s analysis of Boston.

OBJECTIVES:(1) Take screenshots during Internet research.(2) Catalog the network of images borrowing

from conventional urban analysis techniques.

(3) Develop a formal language for understanding viral urbanity.

(4) Be recursive. Take the diagrams created in (2) and add them to the set of images from (1). Repeat step (2).

PART I (A) MEME MAPPING:Create a book of drawings cataloging viral media (memes) on the Internet.

Elementary Cellular Automata are 1D algorithms with simple rules. It is a binary pixel map that is turned on or off each generation

based on the value of neighboring pixels. The result is a 2D pattern as the rules play out.

OBJECTIVES:(1) Investigate though open-source programs a

typology of generative patterns.(2) Identify the points when the system stops

evolving and gets caught in a pattern loop.(3) Develop a catalog of second order

operations that will disturb the existing system and promote pattern diversity.

PART I (B) SIMULATION MAPPING:Create a book of drawings cataloging simple generative patterns. This is a controlled experiment to find methods that allow the User to creatively modify a computerized algorithm.

Above: The Jacquard loom uses binary punch cards to describes whether warp is woven above or below the weft. This is the basis

of early binary computing. Below: The 2000 Election Crises is an example of a content / structure event; as content it was

culturally significant viral narrative as structure it revealed a new interpretative methodology in the reading of binary code.

OBJECTIVES:(1) Synthesize a set of operations and rules

that can be seen as a toolbox or an ontology for future work.

(2) Synthesize a set of narrative imagery that are structurally important to the logic of the ontology.

(3) Present the findings in a dynamic way that retains the entertainment value of a meme.

PART I (C) NARRATE AND CATALOG:I am interested in understanding a network that is simultaneously content and structure. I will synthesize my analytic findings using a narrative I construct and the narrative contents of viral media.

COLLASUS, The Office for Collaborative Sustainability, is a collective network of artists and designers that I create my work

within. The proposed thesis came out of my work with COLLASUS, and I think benefits strongly from a collective authorship.

OBJECTIVES:(1) Understand how a viral urbanism can

promote growth within a contemporary collective.

(2) Explore the collective network that Eyebeam fosters.

(3) Give up my authorship.

PART II (A) COLLABORATE:Engage COLLASUS, the collaborative network that I have been producing work within.

Screenshot from a successful pilot class we taught in Mumbai in March on screenshooting.

OBJECTIVES:(1) Plan and teach a 3 week course on

screenshooting as a narrative photography. (Scheduled to remotely teach a course at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai with COLLASUS.)

(2) Synthesize class content with the context of PART I.

(3) Explore other potentials of teaching through Eyebeam.

PART II (B) COOLSURF WORKSHOPS:Lead class in Mumbai and New York.

I am fascinated by the myth of John Henry, though the steam drill was stronger and never tired, Henry had a geological sensibility that

allowed him to think outside of mechanical normativity. Perhaps this is an image of a technological singularity, not the collapse of

civilization as we know it, but something far more personal.

OBJECTIVES:(1) Catalog a list of DIY projects that are

innovative, inexpensive, self-sustaining and realizable.

(2) Create a graphic system to make the information understandable as a resource.

(3) Secure a venue to deploy COOLSURF FARM. (currently working with an independent P.O.D. printer in Portland, Oregon and plan on securing space at the New England Organic Farming Assoc. conference.)

PART II (C) COOLSURF FARM:Develop a series of screenshot instruction booklets to promote open-source making, a long term memory for exceptional found content.