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The Presence of Absence: Where are the people in public space?

• What is the role of new technology?

• Are we being isolated by the iPod culture?

• Is it possible to plan in spontaneity?

• If an art object is chosen for a place, who does it represent?

Diarmaid Lawlor, associate director of Urban Initiatives, says that places should be ‘centres of collective meaning'.

Some of the key issues raised included:





• The profession has overdone planning for all – we have lost the ability to say no, do little, allow people to make places work. Should urban designers say no to briefs they don’t think will work?


• Artists get selected too often for the way their work looks rather than the way they think – this can lead to clashes of ideology and aspirations. Too often the creative input of artists is not taken seriously by others – there is a ‘throw away mentality’ - how do we rectify this?


• The debate surrounding objects being placed in our cities and towns is obscuring the need for thoughtful places, which encourage real interaction. How can the two professions unite to encourage more creative clients?

Astani's proposal is only the latest controversial effort to
bring massive advertising and colorful light shows to the neighborhood
anchored by Staples Center and L.A. Live, the hotel and entertainment
complex that includes the recently opened Nokia Theatre.

Civic boosters promised two years ago that L.A. Live would transform
Figueroa's entertainment district into Times Square West -- a
California counterpart to the bright lights and in-your-face
advertising seen at Broadway and 42nd Street in Manhattan.

In November, the City
Council approved Fig Central, a hotel and condominium complex
across from Staples Center that will have at least one 330-foot-long
band of animated advertising. And at least seven more electronic
signs are planned for the rest of L.A. Live, according to city
officials.

The courtyard outside Nokia Theatre has 12 LED signs -- enormous
screens that intersperse concert footage with advertisements
for mobile phones and Coca-Cola. The theater is adorned with
more screens and billboards, a fact that disappoints some neighbors.

he argues that his LED displays should
not be considered billboards.

To make the images less blinding, the signs would have a brightness
of only 1,200 candelas at night -- roughly one-sixth the intensity
of the signs found at L.A. Live, Astani said. And because the
movements of his LED sign would be slower than the images on
a television screen, Astani contends, his 14-story sign would
be graceful, not gaudy.

"We don't want to create a monster," Astani said. "If
this is bright or intrusive, we cannot sell the condominiums.
It will have to be so unique and unobtrusive that people will
be proud to live behind it."

VANCOUVER I The city's gloomy skyline is about to receive a shot of colour as hundreds of dazzling artworks are strung up for the 50th annual street banners display.

"I decided I had to do something very colourful, because the city is so rainy, so cloudy," said Vancouver artist Bratsa Bonifacho, at the unveiling of his works at city hall Tuesday.

And he has: the six works -- which will be hung in various combinations this summer along the Burrard and Cambie street bridges, Georgia and Burrard streets and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts -- are bursting with neon pinks, electric blues and brilliant oranges.

The intricate banners, composed of grids of stylized letters and symbols, come from a series entitled Habitat Pixel, which is inspired by a virus that invaded Bonifacho's computer.

Rather than frustration, Bonifacho was seized with fascination when "the whole screen jammed with numbers and pixels."

The final works look cryptic, and they are: Bonifacho said the banners are encoded with secret messages.

"But I'm never going to reveal it," he said with a laugh.

"It could be Latin, it could be French. It could be Chinese."

At Tuesday's unveiling, Mayor Sam Sullivan presented Bonifacho with a $1,500 honorarium and thanked him for creating "a visual feast for the pure enjoyment of the public."

The tradition of Vancouver street banners dates back to the B.C. Centenary in 1958, when a team spruced up the city by flying banners as well as stringing strands of dogwood blossoms over Granville and Hastings streets and floated a dragon on Lost Lagoon.

Jack Shadbolt, Tony Onley, Gordon Smith and Bill Reid are among the artists whose works have been displayed on the banners over the years.

Downtown corporate office towers will be rebranded on Friday and Saturday night when a group of graffiti artists paint their 10-metre tall designs on the sides of buildings with light.

The non-destructive art form uses new open-source software called laser tagging. It allows artists to create real-time designs with light instead of Jiffy markers and spray cans.

Called NeoGraf, the digital graffiti performances will be taking place as part of Midforms and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

On both nights, the digital graffiti starts and ends at Open Studios, 252 East First Ave. On Friday, artists Rhek and Virus will be doing laser tagging and over the course of several hours and they'll be moving to several locations in the downtown core including the east wall of the Holiday Inn on Howe and Helmcken. For location details check http://2007.newformsfestival.com/neograf.

On Saturday, artists Neal Nolan and Adam Dodd will be creating more detailed and complex murals. The software allows artists to create different looks, ranging from standard, hard-edge graffiti to more painterly images.

NeoGraf is being brought to Vancouver by NomIg, a Montreal-based duo that investigates the relationships between audio and video.

Ed Jordan from NomIg said people are invited to drop by, watch, and participate on Friday.

"You'll see on Friday a crowd of people and some spontaneous drawing on walls. It'll look large and bright. You'll probably see someone drawing a stick man to people who will be doing some skilled patterns and drawing," Jordan said from Montreal.

"We'll probably have some music playing. These aren't already created images just being projected on a wall. This is about watching the creative process unfold."

Jordan said he came up with the Neografik Project as a way of reclaiming public space by filling it with art instead of corporate logos. The software for laser tagging was developed by new media artist Agent Watson in Amsterdam and the Graffiti Research Lab in Brooklyn, N.Y.

NeoGraf is the most visible portion of Midforms, an annual multidisciplinary festival celebrating new technology and music. Midforms also includes Dubforms, which explores dub and electronic music, on Friday, and TechForms, an electronic and ambient music event, on Saturday. Both are ticketed events that take place at 10 p.m. each night at Open Studios.