Digital Materiality as Imprints and Landmarks: The case of Northern Lights

Abstract

In this paper a case is made concerning how important levels of media technology and new interactive textures affect urban landscapes. The case is based on experiences and empirical examples from a Scandinavian city (Northern Lights) in which levels of interactive infrastructures, mediated spaces, and places, are high, and in which accessibility and social inclusion traditionally have been strong components in societal and systems design. Our designerly approach discloses some of ways that the city is enacted by a new digital materiality. This materiality can only bee disclosed if the relationship between the city and ICT is understood as a meaningful whole – a totality – in this text illustrated by the notions of landmarks and imprints. Based on our case we suggest that it is possible to employ an ethical dwelling reflecting the endless, active and ongoing responsibility for the city and its interactive textures in everyday life.