Andrei R. Thomaz | Brasil

http://www.rgbdesigndigital.com.br/atravesdoespelho/usosdoespaco/

The project Uses of Space started with the reading of The Poetics of Security: Skateboarding, Urban Design, and the New Public Space, by Ocean Howell (http://www.urbanstructure.com/urbanaction/ps.html). In this text, the author analyses the design of public space, and the ways this design is done aiming to keep away some groups seen as non-desirable, using the case of skateboarders as main topic. In the introduction of his text, he writes:
As both a skateboarder and an office worker, my experience of the public space downtown is always split. I uncounsciously scan my surroundings for both a plate to practive my disruptive sport, and a nice quiet place to have lunch.
From this paragraph, the project Uses of Space was born. We are interested in these scanning eyes, that look for giving an use for a specific space, and in the diversity of possible usages (and intentions of usage) for a same space.
In this project, we will do several kinds of monitoring of space usages, each one resulting in a different work. We start with N Ways of Using the Space, in which people are invited to monitor a space, of their choice, and then send the results (pictures, texts, any kind of observation) to the site, and with Parque da Harmonia, in which we will monitor the usage of one of the main parks of Porto Alegre city.

Andrei R. Thomaz graduated from Fine Arts by UFRGS and works as a freelancer webdesigner in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He also works in research projects in the area of informatics and education, and has developped several net art works since 2000. Most of these works deal with mazes and games that are maze-based.