Projects

SCREAM: Media screens as a medium for communication

UrbanBuzz funded knowledge transfer project

Starts: 1st April 2008
Ends: 30th November 2008
Value: £32,672 (CIK £23,400)
Project Coordinator: Ava Fatah gen. Schieck
Project Partners: body>data>space, Art2Architecture
Department: Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
Organisation: University College London

The project aims and outcome are presented in:

Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Ghislaine Boddington, Peter Fink, Framework for the implementation of urban big screens in the public space, 2009, London, UK.

Summary

This project aims at influencing developments related to the sustainable implementation of urban media screens in the UK by looking at issues related to the urban screens from a multitude of perspectives.

In the last decade, big urban screens have appeared in town squares and on building facades across the UK. Dynamic moving images form new architectural material, affecting our perception and the experience of the space around us.

The use of these screens brings new potential and challenges for city regulators, artists, architects, urban designers, producers, broadcasters and advertisers.

The SCREAM project addresses these new challenges by looking at the physical urban spaces and the potential spaces created by the new technologies.

The objectives of the SCREAM project were as follows:

• bring together people across all the sectors involved in the potential implementation of innovative content and the creative use of media facades and urban screens in the UK

• create a knowledge exchange and debate environment through workshops conducive to shared positive outputs

• develop a framework on how to deal with the issues of media screens as part of the planning process

• work out how the screens could be effectively integrated into existing urban structures

• enable a better understanding of the environmental impact of the displays

• highlight the risk of visual and noise pollution in the urban space

• build a common ground of understanding about the potentials of artistic and creative participation in the content development

SCREAM framework reflects many of the issues raised in the New guidance on impact of giant outdoor screens by English Heritage and CABE.