Thackara's "Post-Spectacular City": Close Encounters vs. Mass Marketing

Alex Steffen cites John Thackara‘s vision for the upcoming era of the post-spectacular city, in which the focus of urban design will shift from “point-to-mass advertising, onanistic art, and big-ticket spectacles” (one-way messages) to creating capabilities for “collaboration, encounter, intimacy, and work” (interactions). Thackara describes the mobile phone as a device for creating new opportunities for interacting with space and community, a tool for dynamic, real-time, resource allocation. While he emphasizes the importance of connecting to people (“the killer app is access to other people”), and rails against consumption (vs. action), most of the examples he uses focus on connecting with [commercial] services, such as taxis, tour-guides and sandwich shops.

As is his style, Thackara rails against a great many other concepts, people and institutions, but also makes positive references to several interesting people and ideas, including the following:

Ivan Illich, who argues for the creation of “convivial and productive situations” making “a city of encounter and interaction.”

Peter Brook, who proposes that “the science of theatre building must come from studying what it is that brings about the more vivid relationships between people.”

Torsten Hagerstrand, who says “it is the ability to make contact with people that determines the success of a transport system or location.”

Marko Ahtisaari, of Nokia, who says that “enabling proximity — getting people together, in real space — has become a strategic focus, the killer application of wireless communications.”

The article also describes a scenario in which “you stand at a bus stop, and summon up your personal web page on one of the [electronic display] panels,” which I believe is based on the the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea project about Personal Technologies & Mobile Embodiment, but also sounds very much like the Intel Personal Server project. Lots of food for thought (& future reading).

Thackara’s “Post-Spectacular City”: Close Encounters vs. Mass Marketing