application
Domenico Passarelli1, Vincenzo Alfonso Cosimo2 and Giuseppe Caridi3 1 Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, [email protected]
2 Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, [email protected] 3 Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, [email protected]
Abstract. This contribution aims to illustrate some of the results related to the
Membrana smart research project, in collaboration with a partnership of compa-nies operating in the Calabrian territory, funded under the POR CALABRIA FESR-ESF 2014 -2020, Axis I "Research and innovation", Specific objective 1.2 "Strengthening of the regional and national innovative system", Action 1.2.2 " Support for the realisation of complex research and development projects on a few thematic areas of relief and the application of functional technological solu-tions to the realisation of the S3 strategies". This is accomplished by starting from the realisation of a technological device. The authors, after having examined the different implications of membrana smart in everyday life, draw the attention to-wards the different structural criteria with which this medium/instrument allows the organisation of communication and the enjoyment of the city and the territory, highlighting how its value lies precisely in the type and quality of the relation-ships it establishes with the surrounding environment; therefore, membrana smart does not present itself as an object in space but, rather, as a tool for the construc-tion of space, as an element for the staging of a city and a territory of which it is a part.
Keywords: First Keyword, Second Keyword, Third Keyword.
1. Analytical characteristics of the Membrana smart device
As already mentioned in the previous paragraph, the research project takes shape from the creation of a technological device that is i) advanced, with the ability to auto-identify, localise, diagnose status, acquire data, process and update; ii) interactive, as it responds to people's stimuli/actions and to the changes of the surrounding environment; iii) modular, to be assembled to form multisensory and artistic surfaces; iv) intelligent, as it makes use of the most recent wireless technology, scaling up of networks (broad-band), downsizing of mobile transmission/reception devices, augmented reality, Inter-net of things (IOT); v) open source, open to the proposition of various options for which users are left with the decision on which to evolve and which not.
From a constructive point of view, the membrana smart consists of: i) structural el-ements made with a 3D printer to be assembled for the creation of spaces and/or objects;
ii) solar cells in an autonomous system produce all the energy necessary for the inter-active elements that react to the user's presence. The energy generated is stored in a battery and then distributed through micro controls to the respective elements; iii) in-teractive elements that can be constituted by "intelligent" polymers (which contract when subjected to current and return to their initial position when the current ceases to go through them), shape memory metals (which react to the temperature taking on the pre-established shape during its configuration phase) and/or other material (kinetics); iv) electric sensors and micro circuits; v) dedicated hardware and software; vi) artistic membranes (to be assembled to the supporting structure) to which more artistic panels made with interactive elements and multimedia components can be attached.
Through the realisation of immersive and interactive works and environments - by composing the smart membrane in articulated forms and using the specific software provided by the project - it is possible to obtain new models of dissemination of the contents (also on smartphones) related to the use of resources of historical interest -architectural, artistic, urban, environmental etc. also able to qualify in terms of the local economy endorser, to support both the territory’s tourist offer capacity, and the know-ability based on the widespread and "shared" experience. Compared to the systems al-ready in use (in museums for example), the here proposed membrana smart presents elements of great innovation as it is not limited to an interaction with the user that is almost exclusively based on smartphone received multimedia content, which can vary based on the person’s position but, in our case, the spaces and the interactive objects made with said membrane can react and "adapt" to the different emotions that, from time to time, follow one another in the multimedia content sent to the smartphone. In essence, by placing the smartphone in proximity of the membrana smart (or simply by walking near "sensitive" objects and spaces) an unpredictable reaction will occur that will make the interactive elements inserted in said membrane become "alive", which can: i) reflect the different emotions, proposed in the multimedia content running on smartphones, in the environment; ii) send notifications and multimedia content to the smartphone; iii) activate a series of visual, sound, luminous, "olfactory" inputs; iv) al-low the movement of some of the interactive elements present in the scenario and in the path.
To make the operation of the product/system clearer in a possible scenario, let us imagine that a user is in an interactive space, delimited by the membrana smart, and in the artistic component, composed of shapes and reliefs that reproduce a forest. When the user is near a tree, the interactive product/system will send a first welcome notifi-cation to his/her smartphone and, at the same time, activate the commands that will illuminate the trunk and rotate a leaf that, from a "resting state", will achieve an "active state": the number of active leaves (that are moving that is) and the luminous intensity of the trunk will provide information on the number of users who, at that moment, are interacting with the "artistic" membrane. This will allow, for example, to regulate the intensity of the virtual forest sounds emitted by the video displayed on the smartphones - which may be more or less "engaging" - depending on the number of "active" leaves on each tree. Once the greeting "effects" are on the smartphone are over, a creative video associated with a specific piece of work will activate on the membrana smart. The user can choose to view the video without performing any action, or whether - by
using his/her own smartphone and scanning the real scenario - interact with the artistic smart membrane. In this case, the artistic smart membrane will tune into the part of the multimedia content in execution and will activate its own "living" elements, which will "animate" in sync with content/meanings, emotions, sounds and colours that, from time to time, will flow through the video. So, for example, in case of a dramatic situation of visual storytelling, the membrane could react - to emphasise the state of fear and/or anxiety - by making the "leaf elements" vibrate; in the same way, as we move towards a more serene situation, the "leaf elements" of the artistic membrane could take on a position that is more suitable to the new emotional state. Obviously, the visitors present will be able to watch the scenographic animation offered by the artistic membrane, choosing to become an active part of an emotional show. Multiple users, by bringing their smartphone closer to different points of the membrane, can simultaneously acti-vate multiple scenographic animations. The immersive environment thus conceived makes the multimedia content sent to the various mobile devices of the users more engaging, opening them, with harmony and a good dose of unpredictability, to the ar-tistic space/path that surrounds them. The multisensory scenario reduces the isolation that is often generated between the user who is consulting content on their mobile de-vice and the external environment, to propose a new art of sharing in which anyone is called upon to interact with others, in a kind of canvas on which to create creative cul-ture, so as to live a new experience, without technological barriers, all together. The innovation, compared to other systems that transmit additional content relating to an object or a work of art on the user's smartphone, consists in the possibility (in the prod-uct/system that one intends to design and experiment which also makes use of a cloud platform) to send a triple action on a mobile device: i) the first regards the sending of multimedia content to the smartphone; ii) the second, in conjunction with the first, acts on the electronic and multimedia devices hidden in the smart membranes that form spaces and/or interactive paths, creating luminous effects, videos, sounds, scents and movements of the interactive elements that characterise the same architectural and ar-tistic structure; iii) the third, is triggered by the multimedia contents in execution that send signals to the cloud platform that, after having analysed them, activates various sensory effects in the space that are consistent with the multimedia contents in progress. In essence, with the membrane smart it will be possible to activate, simultaneously, three technological connections to create a single emotion never before reached. In con-clusion, the goal is to create - by virtue of the membrane smart - places of "experience consumption" and a search for engaging, immersive and transforming "systems of sense", so as to offer unique experiences of increased cultural heritage fruition, and of the urban environment as well, so as to trigger the development process for smart cities, based on the diffusion of knowledge and innovative models for the use and develop-ment of the area in all its components.
An intelligent product/system, therefore, capable of enabling new ways of conceiv-ing the use of territorial resources and the enhancement of places and the city, and to generate a significant impact in the ways of conceiving, producing, sharing and enjoy-ing culture, historical-artistic and environmental heritage and urban public spaces.
In particular, the product/system, and each individual component, will be designed to meet the following fundamental characteristics: i) modularity and expandability - the
membrana smart consists of a "smart" and independent modular element - to be realised with 3D printer and with the use of advanced technological components (supports, membrane, sensors, microelectronic circuits etc.) - which is assembled, added, replaced or eliminated, so as to compose different and expandable shapes and spaces by virtue of the simple combination of the module and the connection of the ducted circuits with-out the need of an intervention by part of specialised personnel; ii) flexibility - the prod-uct/system shows a high degree of flexibility, in order to be perfectly suited to current needs (integration and personalisation) and to be adapted, over time, to the different functional requirements (cultural heritage, rural routes, urban environment, etc.). Therefore, the hardware components have characteristics of varying configurability and excellent connectivity, and those softwares are equipped with high-tech development tools that allow the creation of new interactive modes and new sensory functions; iii) "sensorial" accessibility - the product/system to be created proposes new sensorial tools, functional to the perception and reading skills of works and places (architecture, urban design, cultural heritage, environment, etc.) by part of each user, thus breaking down any linguistic, age, and handicap barrier related to the use of the senses (sight, hearing, touch); iv) updating of contents - using the especially created cloud platform, it will be possible to provide services with dynamic contents that are updated over time; v) digital identity - the product/system requires the use of highly complex and perform-ing identification processes; vi) cultural creativity - the project envisages a new inter-vention methodology aimed at promoting contemporary art, creativity and new com-munication languages; vii) greater connectivity - the project involves the application of new forms of intelligent connection between immersive spaces, experiential paths, in-teractive objects/works and storytelling of multimedia contents sent to the user's smartphone. The mode of operation of the project involves two fundamental phases: the first is that of research, design and implementation of the prototype of the smart membrane, of the systems and the designated softwares.
2. Four concrete initiatives of use
The prospective for the application of the Membrana smart device are aimed at the construction/activation of contexts of project interaction through which to awaken a broad social participation. They find concrete expression in the proposal of four initia-tives of use: i) the regeneration of urban spaces and architectural artefacts that have lost their original function over time; ii) the recognition, expansion and protection of latent resources; iii) the enhancement of heritage, seen as a collective wealth, accessible to all; iv) monitoring the risk of urban emergencies.
We will try to explain the aforementioned initiatives of use in a brief manner. Obvi-ously, they should not be understood in their entirety as a rigid model but, rather, as a flexible formula of experimentation that takes into consideration disciplinary matrices, theoretical frameworks of reference and specific situations that are also very different from each other. Clearly, their applicability must be carefully calibrated, also with re-gard to the various aspects that characterise our territorial governance system.
The name of the technological device, Membrana smart, refers to the possibility of the urban organism to be traversed, an absolutely typical quality of the Mediterranean city, which Benjamin (1925), when describing the city of Naples, which he defined with the term porosity, in letters co-signed with his friend Lacis during a stay in said city. A positive character, as we can see from the short passage that follows.
“As porous as this stone is the architecture. Building and action interpenetrate in the courtyards, arcades, and stairways. In everything they preserve the scope to become a theater of new, unforseen constellations. The stamp of the definitive is avoided. No situation appears intended forever, no figure asserts its “thus and not otherwise”. [...]
No one orients himself by house numbers. Shops, wells, and churches are the reference points—and not always simple ones. [...] A Neapolitan’s private existence is the
ba-roque opening of a heightened public sphere. For here his private self is not taken up by the four walls, among wife and children. […] One can scarcely discern where build-ing is still in progress and where dilapidation has already set in. For nothbuild-ing is con-cluded. Porosity results not only from the indolence of the southern artisan, but also, above all, from the passion for improvisation, which demands that space and oppor-tunity be preserved at any price. [...] The stairs, never entirely exposed, but still less enclosed in the gloomy box of the Nordic house, erupt fragmentarily from the buildings, make an angular turn, and disappear, only to burst out again. [...] Irresistibly, the festival penetrates each and every working day. Porosity is the inexhaustible law of life in this city, reappearing everywhere. [...] Each private attitude or act is permeated by streams of communal life. To exist—for the northern European the most private of affairs—is here, as in the kraal, a collective matter. [...]” (Bejamin and Lacis, 1925).
It is obvious that the porosity of Naples that Bejamin speaks about does not have to do exclusively with the forma urbis and the character of the buildings, but also with other factors such as social and community relations. By virtue of this character, "[...] the porous city is a city in which nothing advances according to straight lines, breaks [...] The shape of these cities never develops by projects, programmes, a priori" (Cac-ciari 1992). It, rather, proceeds in an unplanned manner and, consequently, escapes any criteria of recognisability.
More generally, “the concept of porosity comes from natural sciences, mainly from natural sciences and physics; it concerns the movement and resistance that opposes it; it has to do with the phenomena of infiltration, percolations that do not cross through a perfect void, but through other bodies "(Viganò 2010). It is precisely with this in mind that, in the disciplinary field of urban planning, Bernardo Secchi and Paola Viganò, on several occasions, mentioned the Benjamian metaphor, giving substance to the capti-vating design perspective of the porous city (Secchi and Viganò 2011). The open/po-rous city, as opposed to the closed/segregated city (which characterises our urban ex-perience of today), also becomes the reference of the sociologist Sennett, in his recent volume Building and Dwelling, which closes the so-called homo faber trilogy (Sennett 2018).
At the basis of the two approaches, there is a vision of porosity that represents a fundamental character of the city, as the productive use of alterity is what allows its transformation (Viganò 2018; Sennett 2018).
With these considerations in mind, porosity now becomes emblematic of the first three initiatives of use of the Membrana smart technological device, which, in a certain sense, we chose to extrapolate from the etymological root of the word itself, from the Latin por, which refers to the denotations of void, resource and, finally, passage/port (Veraldi, 1992).
The first denotation, the void, refers to those spaces that have lost their original func-tion over time. As is known, the structure of the contemporary city is increasingly con-stituted and characterised by elements that, in the lexicon of urban planning, take the name of urban voids. They originate in reference to dwelling (disused buildings, com-plexes of historical-architectural heritage, etc.), to manufacturing-handicraft production (abandoned warehouses, underutilised areas, or areas in decommission, etc.) and, fi-nally, to agricultural/green (agricultural ‘bubbles’ enclosed to the building; urban gar-dens; abandoned green spaces; urban margins that have lost their identity, etc.).
The second denotation, the resources, is interpreted, above all, with reference to the recognisability, expansion and protection of latent resources, that is, those which, re-gardless of their qualities, tend not to manifest themselves, to remain undetected and risk getting lost.
This question is closely connected with the third denotation, the passage, associated with the ability of the urban context to let itself be traversed and, therefore, with the use of heritage, seen as a collective wealth that is accessible to all. Consequently, it depends strictly on the way the city is built and on the structure itself (public spaces, squares, etc.).
Membrana smart plays a central role within these three initiatives of use, since it is based on the construction of an open information system (open data and free and open software tools) to identify, represent and connect the different resources, including ur-ban voids, and elements of cultural heritage, with the aim of strengthening their recog-nisability/perception through the construction of thematic-type network relationships. Therefore, for these networks, the Membrana smart device takes on the function of a hub, a highly connected nodule. Furthermore, on the scale-free network model (Bara-bási, Albert, 1999), it plays an important role in their growth, since each new nodule will tend to connect with hubs that already have a large number of connections (prefer-ential attack) and, for their integrity, as only the hubs contribute to the strength of the network (strength against failures/vulnerability towards attacks).
Lastly, the fourth initiative of use relates to the opportunities that the Membrana smart technology device can offer to the more specific and detailed field of risk moni-toring and urban emergencies. In detail, these opportunities find concrete developments with regard to three main issues: i) the collection of information (building geometry, construction techniques; vulnerability, etc.); ii) instruments of control (wireless accel-erometric instrument network; usable resources, etc.); iii) post-emergency management (emergency rescue and relief, temporary measures, other community support activities, etc.).
The thesis supported is that the use of the Membrana smart device in emergency plans could, generally, promote the urban approach factoring in risk and emergency.
As is well known, the urban approach factoring in risk and emergency, unlike the construction approach that factors only the individual buildings, translates into initia-tives that are useful in keeping alive overall performances that, normally, the urban context provides to its inhabitants (minimal urban structure etc.).
Therefore, this initiative is part of the research field that aims to introduce innovative methods and tools, to face urban risks and emergencies, to be integrated with current local government practices.
3. References
1. Augé M. (1998), La guerra dei sogni: esercizi di etno-fiction, Eleuthera, Milan (ed. or. 1997). 2. Barabási A.L., Albert R. (1999), “Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks”, in Science,
vol. 286, no. 5439, pp. 509- 512.
3. Baudrillard J. (1977), Dimenticare Foucault, Cappelli, Bologna (ed. or. 1977).
4. Baudrillard J. (1979), Lo scambio simbolico e la morte, Feltrinelli, Milan (ed. or. 1976). 5. Benjamin W., Lacis A. (1925), “Neapel”, in Frankfurter Zeitung, 19 agosto, n. 613, pp. 1
sgg. (Benjamin W., Opere. Scritti II 1923-1927, Einaudi, Turin, pp. 37-46).
6. Cacciari M. (1992), “Non potete massacrarmi Napoli!”, in Velardi, C. (a cura di), La città pososa. Conversazioni su Napoli, Cronopio, Naples, pp. 157-190.
7. Castells M. (2002), La nascita della società in rete, Egea, Milan (ed. or. 1996).
8. Lévy P. (1996), L’intelligenza collettiva. Per un’antropologia del cyberspazio, Feltrinelli, Milan (ed. or. 1994).
9. Lévy P. (1997), Il virtuale, Raffaello Cortina, Milan (ed. or. 1995). 10. Lévy P. (1999), Cybercultura, Feltrinelli, Milan (ed. or. 1997).
11. Mitchell W.J. (1997), La città dei bits. Spazi, luoghi e autostrade informatiche, Electa, Milan (ed. or. 1995).
12. Mitchell W.J. (1999), E-topia, Mit Press, Cambridge. 13. Mitchell W.J. (2004), Me++, Mit Press, Cambridge.
14. Ratti C., Claudel M. (2017), La città di domani. Come le reti stanno cambiando il futuro urbano, Einaudi, Turin (ed. or. 2016).
15. Sassen S. (2012), “Urbanising technology”, in Burdett, R. & Rode, P. (eds.). Urban age electric city conference, LSE, London.
16. Secchi B., Viganò P. (2011), La ville poreuse. Un projet pour le Grand Paris et la métropole de l'après-Kyoto, Metis Presses, Geneve.
17. Sennett R. (2018), Abitare e costruire. Per un’etica della città, Feltrinelli, Milano (ed. or. 2018)
18. Turkle S. (1997), La vita sullo schermo, Apogeo, Milan (ed. or. 1996).
19. Viganò P. (2010), I territori dell'urbanistica. Il progetto come produttore di conoscenza, Of-ficina, Rome.
20. Viganò P. (2018), “Porosity: Why this figure is still useful”, in Wolfrum S. et al. (eds.), Porous City. From metaphor to urban agenda, Birkhäuser, Basel, pp. 50-56.
