4G Urbanism

Island Network Mapping

Project Notes

Project Type:
Design Research

Date:
June 2016

Project Tags:
2016, Research, Datavis, Mapping,

This work was intended to explore local connectivity as a topographic gradient across the Islands urban form; a non-physical data-scape that connects between the digital, physical and social realms while operating at both the local and hyper global scales. Helping to make observations about mobile phones a sensible devices that condense self, the world and data abouts ones place in that world.

Based on field recording using opensource mobile applications to record 4G latency and network strength, design outputs were intended to celebrate both the technical process of collecting data but also the envisioned spatial results of this unseen network, its potential affect on island urbanisation and social connectivity. As well as provided a basis to speculate how part of this network could be reappropriated to co-develop climate adaptation networks through citizen science and inter island action.

Model: Maafushi Island, Kaafu Atoll, Maldives
Laser cut bathy-topo model with 3D printed spatialised network mesh demonstrating network strength. Additional layers of affiliated urban features, communication nodes and local Wi-Fi networks.