Since it is possible to simultaneously "ping" the mobile phones of thousands of users - determining their exact location at any given time - these devices can be used as a highly dynamic tracking tool that describes how the city is used and transformed by its citizens. In this way, the polis is interpreted as a constantly changing entity that emerges from networks of human interaction in the space-time structure and not just as a rigid physical environment.
Mobile Landscape:Graz in real time presents the city through a a series of city maps shown simultaneously on video at Kunshtaus Graz and on a publicly accessible website. The various data collected in real time in the urban space of Graz will be organized to draw a series of maps that will interact in a dynamic representation of the city. By showing these constant flows of information, the maps reflect, on the one hand, the way in which A1 customers use the communication system within the city of Graz, and on the other hand, the way in which they transform the city around them.
In Mobile Landscape:Graz in real time A1 Mobilkom Austria customers in Graz are anonymously tracked by "pinging" their mobile phones as they move through the city. The recordings of these movements are collected, processed and finally shown in the form of a compilation of dynamic traces that illustrate their paths through the city. The Mobile Landscape:Graz in real time project will also record and visually process the volume and geographical origin of mobile phone use in Graz, thus revealing different levels on which the city is used and experienced by people.
