Production company proposes digital wall for Dublin Airport.
Electronic sketchpad - would display messages from emigrants, immigrants and passers-by.
In an airport, everyone has a different story to tell. With the
increase in Irish people moving about the globe in recent years and
engaging in life-changing experiences, I’ve thought about a Dublin
Airport project for quite a while. The success of various online
diaspora-focused communities means that there’s a healthy demographic
who want to engage, who want to tell their stories. Many young people
continue to leave Ireland in search of a better life and greater
opportunities. What’s going through their minds before stepping on that
plane? Others, like me, have returned home content with a brief
dalliance abroad, perhaps relieved with being back to what they know.
Are they experiencing a myriad of emotions like I did? And there’s
another important element – the tourists who continue to flock here
regardless of the economic turbluence. As outsiders, how do they
perceive our country?
As part of The Arthur Guinness Projects, an initiative looking to support and reward innovative and creative entrepreneurship, the Sixsem Production Company,
of which I’m a director, has proposed the installation of two “digital
walls” at Dublin Airport – one stationed at the departure gate, the
other at the arrivals hall. They will serve as electronic sketchpads and
will encourage emigrants, immigrants and passers-by to contribute
and/or absorb what others have to say. Messages can be uploaded from
inside the airport via smartphone devices or by using specially-designed
kiosks to type, design and post. The walls will float the best
messages, poems and sketches across the screen while an online archive
will allow you to search for previous entries. Prompting users to leave
certain personal information will see the digital wall also act as a
digital guestbook.
Writing on walls has been around for thousands of years, from
Pharaohs to Facebook. But the idea is an unusual spin on what a regular
installation is. Here, the contributors are also the consumers. The
content is the thoughts and opinions of everyday people. And in an
environment where our past is celebrated so proudly with various quotes
from Irish history, the prospect of facilitating what the present
generation has to say, particularly at such a fractured time for our
country, seems eternally rewarding.
The digital wall is a legacy project – a reflection of where the
country was on any given date, of any given month of any given year.
It’s a declaration of proud Irishness with an international slant.
Members of the public have until this Friday August 23rd to vote for the idea and can do so here.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
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