urban observatory

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… we need to develop formats equal to the speed and power of digital media. One impressive effort in that direction had its launch on July 8th at the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) User Conference in San Diego. Developed by the architect and graphic designer (and TED conference founder) Richard Saul Wurman in collaboration with Jon Kamen of Radical Media and Jack Dangermond, Esri’s president, this new format, called “Urban Observatory” makes comparative information visually accessible and available at the same scale. Urban Observatory has initially focused on 10 cities, organizing information in five categories: work, movement, people, public, and systems. And it exists as both a traveling exhibition of semi-circular array of monitors and as a website that allows for easy interaction.

This format recalls work that Richard Saul Wurman did over 50 years ago, when he published a book in 1962 that had maps of 50 cities all at the same scale, and it reflects Wurman’s career largely devoted to making information more easily understood and visually compelling. But moving this work from the Gutenberg world of print to the Esri world of digitally mapped data makes all the difference.

and this…

this is huge…

Students from Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles showed what happens when young people have access to this media, mapping the relationships between the ill health of their neighbors and the lack of recreation space and the environmental hazards in their neighborhood. Sponsored by the rap artist Will.i.am, through his I Am Angel Foundation and with the help of Esri, these students demonstrated the power of connecting and visualizing information long kept isolated and largely unavailable to ordinary citizens. I wondered, as I listened to the students’ presentation, how long before the public and those in power grasp the implications of this work: that however financially strapped our governments may be, the cost of providing recreation space and cleaning up of hazardous sites pales in comparison to the healthcare costs we will face in not doing so.

huge:

however financially strapped our governments may be, the cost of providing recreation space and cleaning up of hazardous sites pales in comparison to the healthcare costs we will face in not doing so.

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so… imagine if in redefining school.. we allow 100% of humanity to spend their days working on designing their cities/communities…