Reactivating AmsterdamREALTIME

AmsterdamREALTIME
Onderschrift

Intro

Reactivating AmsterdamREALTIME will become a reality.  Before the end of 2025 we have the opportunity to restore the 2003 Flash-based animation! This will be realized in collaboration with partners Waag Futurelab, LI-MA living Media Art, creative coder Bente van Bourgondiën and curator Sanneke Huisman. The project is possible thanks to the generous support of the AFK.

In 2002, the pioneering locative media art project AmsterdamREALTIME playfully showcased how GPS technology would revolutionize human orientation and spatial memory years before the smartphone era.

In the two decades since, AmsterdamREALTIME has grounded our work on mobility and landscape, and has been a beacon for many artists and art historians who are also fascinated by the experience of space. 

plein air drawing
During LI-MA’s yearly Simposium Transformation Digital Art, creative coder Bente van Bourgondiën and Esther received invaluable feedback, which will help to make informed restoration decisions during the coming months.
AmsterdamREALTIME. screencapture of the interactive flash animation
 

In the early 2000s, before smartphones and Google Maps, Amsterdam residents relied on their own mental maps to navigate the city. Location-based services could be accessed with dedicated GPS devices, which had only recently become precise enough for mapping and were not commonly used. At the time, media art was at the forefront of exploring both the creative possibilities and critical implications of these locative technologies, long before their widespread commercial adoption.

References
For more details on the resoration, visit the Living Media Art blog. https://li-ma.nl/article/reactivating-amsterdam-realtime-23-years-later/
For more detailes on AmsterdamREALTIME see the projectpage