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The second phase of sauna realizes a series of contemplative hybrid spaces that are embedded into the public environment and explore the question of immersion in public space.

These environments can be seen as a foray into the construction of non-invasive ambient, and textural rather than informatic immersion. In phase 2 of the research, Sponge will build such micro-architectures in the context of trafficked social spaces of contemplation deployed in the hectic urban landscape.

As such, we can begin to build elements of an experimental architecture, and an experiment in the phenomenology of a media-rich built zone inside the density of urban public space. Scheduled for the Spring of 2002, Sponge will deploy several socially embedded, contemplative hybrid media environments deployed in public urban spaces in San Francisco.

In conjunction with a meta installation of the creative and development process at THE LAB.




quicktime: 728k



 
sponge and the lab

2948 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA

Opening May 31 7-9 PM
Installations May 31-June 29
Public Discussions June 5 +12 +19


We are bombarded continually by banner ads, radio jingles and brand logos, all of whose meanings are tightly coded by their designers. We even catch ourselves speaking in macros: using runs of speech automatically, almost without thinking. All these media icons are stamped into our psyche and our imaginary with the full force of mass media technology and the persuasive rhetoric of design.

Sauna02 is a response to this logo saturated environment and an electronic intervention into the mediated urban space. During the month of June 2002, Sponge and The LAB will present simultaneous indoor/outdoor installations as well as a public discussion series focusing on new forms of interactive mediated public space.

Participating Artists: Erik Adigard, Laura Farabough, Philip Foeckler, Amy Hoffman, Brad Niven, David Robert, Chris Salter, Sha Xin Wei

Sauna02 is made possible with support from the Creative Work Fund and the LEF Foundation.



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