The document describes a prototype for a dynamic city map that allows users to explore its historical and cultural evolution using interactive, diachronic and spatial modes. It features tools to visualize changes over time, including municipal cultural heritage and relevant events, with options for in-depth information. The project was presented in 2012 and highlights the integration of technology in understanding and navigating urban cultural landscapes.

1. “Fourth Dimension”
Planning A Prototype (*)
“Like city lights, receding.”
[ W. Gibson, Neuromancer (1984) ]
Turn on the black, wide screen and the city’s contour appears, grey on black. Insert a date – return.
A new image takes form, showing a draft of the city map in the requested year. Zoom in on the
map, reducing the portion shown on the screen. Right, left, forward, backward – move with the
joystick on different portions of the map, the blocks in grey, squares, roads and derelict areas in
black. Click on the button – we switch to diachronic mode. Forward, backward: the area on the
screen changes its form. It shows how boundaries changed, how buildings appear and disappear
through time. New roads appear, the city’s texture follows their development. Click again on the
joystick – we are back to spatial mode. I can again zoom in and out, focusing on different details of
the new map.
At the keyboard I can choose an option. Municipal cultural heritage, for instance, or: museums,
monuments, events. Add another option, then a third one. Suddenly, differently coloured lights
appear on the grey city map. Blue, red, orange, white, green… Different keywords, and their
presence in time and space. Another click on the joystick – back to diachronic mode: going back
and forth through time, lights suddenly appear and disappear at once. Here’s a cloud of lights: the
sites of an Estate Romana, maybe, or the Nuit Blanche events, or other different, relevant locations.
Focus on a smaller area, choose a single light. A windows opens up on one side of the screen:
pictures, graphics, sounds, videos, and texts describe the event, at the site and time thus identified. I
can click on further leading links, I can choose to get in-depth information. I can close the windows
with a click of the joystick, browsing again through time and space, through the cyber map
encompassing the cultural life of the city, the memory of its locations. No black Ice lurking around
a bend, in this cyber city, nor are there any metaphoric Caves of Steel. Some data, though are
restricted – this may now and again be needed – and fully readable only to some of the user profiles
connecting to the system.
by Alessandro Califano, 10.12.2007
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(*) This pilot project has been presented and discussed by the author on 4 October 2012 at CDCH
2012 – Creative Design for Interdisciplinary Projects in Cultural Heritage – , a Satellite Workshop
of VL/HCC, IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, Innsbruck –
Austria (30 September – 4 October 2012)