Davide Porta
Davide Porta on behalf of Group 3 OUT!!!!!

Zakar - Rethinking public space in times of AI

Zakar is a Speculative exploration on a self-organized public space that transforms according to the real-time data input on viral and microscopic populations that inhabit it. "How could it be if the space itself would have the ability to transform its architecture according to that incoming stream of data instead of by complicated, bureaucratic, top-down political decisions? Zakar is a speculative, free-flowing beatnik futuristic poetry video exploration on a self-organized AI public space that transforms according to the real-time data input on viral and microscopic populations that inhabit it. From the “post-pandemic” reality, the most attractive aspect is to analyze the new devices, infrastructure and design that sprung out in public areas. The urban touch-less design, the multiple screens measuring temperature and displaying updates of daily cases, were the most prominent transformation of the public realm during the thickest part of the lockdown. The pandemic revealed our condition as vectors for transmission, of how microscopic life and information is attached to every trace of movement we make, and how any action has consequences. The next public space is defined by the constant sampling of its microscopic components, how by means of advances in AI supervised recognition and DNA barcoding it now becomes possible to model the bacterial and viral loads that inhabit public spaces alongside us. It is perhaps this the only way in which our living environments can respond to the huge levels of complexity disclosed from this microscopic reality."