In early 2021 The Bentway launched the Digital and/as Public Space initiative, with the goal of exploring the interaction between digital and physical space in order to re-examine public space, overcome access barriers, promote civic engagement, and support community resilience in online, offline, and hybrid contexts. This project included eight micro-residencies that explored hybrid public realms and investigated how hybrid spaces are defined, created, and maintained. To help steer the development of this initiative, The Bentway partnered with Toronto-based studio, From Later, a transdisciplinary team whose work focuses on understanding change and building possible futures.
The Field Guide to Digital and/as Public Space is a living document, designed to be rearranged, remixed, and expanded. The Field Guide explores the interaction between digital and physical space, providing cues for situating oneself among the possibilities and affordances of digital techniques.
While we set out with clear objectives for this work, the results are less singular or straightforward. Perhaps naively we began by searching for technological answers to these complex questions, but were quickly reminded that our world is not determined by technology; our techniques are conditioned by them. This was never solely a spatial project, but a study in relations between people, places, and protocols – an effort to better understand publicness – the fundamental element for any public space.
Digital and/as Public Space is an initiative by The Bentway and From Later, with design by Nomadic Labs and support from the Balsam Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.
