Communicational Scape; Media facade in city square

Document Type : Review

Author

Ph.D Candidate in Architecture, university of Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The term Media Facade is often associated with over-dimensional screens and animated, illuminated and advertising places. The façade itself is dematerialized and it is turned into one huge advertising medium of publicizing. At the onset of dusk the building moves into the background and serves only as a backdrop for the light show which then becomes the main attraction. Today in shaping urban landscape, modern tools and approaches are involved which rely on technologies and ideas. Media facades are a group of urban facades which create a virtual shell on building facades by using technology and digital systems. In recent decades, the media has been applied in shaping of many urban landscapes in different parts of the world. This can happen in the scale of a façade or a total building, a street or a square. This article mentions two cases of large-scale multimedia features, including shots of Times Square in New York and the longest media façade in Jakarta in order to investigate this issue. Comparing the two examples can result in new technologies which are needed to deal with problems and it can lead to a conservative management for better operation.     As a result, these kinds of screens become more ubiquitous and they could have a significant impact on how people perceive both urban landscapes and architecture. While projection mapping already allows us to see buildings as a canvas, they are impermanent illusions when compared to screen facades. Screens are becoming the essential parts of city life, both as canvases for adding artistic visuals to a city landscape, and also as a means of communicating information (and, to our chagrin, a place for advertising).Generative art at this scale lets us imagine the city as a public space constantly in flux. It highlights the daily movements of its inhabitants and emphasizes the city as a center of fluid technological innovation and cultural advancement.

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