The ‘shape’ of the wifi itself, overlaid onto the library’s floorplate

Wi-fi structures and people shapes

Drawing and understanding public wifi in public places

Ed. This piece was first published at cityofsound.com on November 8, 2008. For some background to the State Library of Queensland, read this set of observations. Thanks to Tory Jones of the State Library of Queensland for permission to share this work-in-progress.

Following on from our ‘post-occupancy evaluation’ of the State Library of Queensland’s wi-fi (see previous post) in my role at Arup, I thought I’d share a couple of outputs.

One of the ideas I’ve been exploring relates to how urban industry in the knowledge economy— ‘industry’, then, in the widest sense of the word — is often invisible, at least immediately and in situ. Whereas industry would once have produced thick plumes of smoke or deafening sheets of sound, today’s information-rich environments — like the State Library of Queensland, or a contemporary office — are places of still, quiet production, with few sensory side-effects. We see people everywhere, faces lit by their open laptops, yet no evidence of their production. They could be using Facebook or Photoshop, Excel or Processing.