Urban Tapestries: Exploring Public Authoring in the City

Social Tapestries (ST) is an exploration into the potential costs and benefits of public authoring, that is, mapping and sharing of local knowledge within the urban environment. The aim of this investigation is to reveal the potential of pervasive computing to create and support relationships that transcend established social and cultural boundaries and enable the development of new practices based around place, identity and community. The ST programme was conceived and initiated by Proboscis, an artist-led studio, in 2002 and since then further developed and implemented in collaboration with a variety of technical, academic and civil society partner organisations [Lane et al 2005]. The core enabler of the playful experiments conducted within ST is the Urban Tapestries (UT) platform, a mobile computing system developed specifically to support public authoring and its many expressions.