The ‘Atlas of Rome’, La Pelanda exhibition space Rome. Image vi Flickr

The Atlas of Rome is a 35mt long interactive video wall that visualizes life-size city data to the public. The project, developed by FakePress and curated by Paolo Valente, was launched by Art is Open Source at the exhibition space of La Pelanda at MACRO Testaccio in occasion of the Festa dell’Architettura 2010 held in the Italian capital in June. The project’s aim is to providing citizens and visitors multiple views of the city, and insights into the visions of architects, planners and professionals whose projects and strategies shape the urban environment. A sort of ‘atlas of visions’ the Atlas of Rome is a shared infoaesthetic environment – both physical and digital – which lets people in on the views, projects and voices that define city life: its emotions, its desires and aspirations.

The project is based on an open system and orchestrated by a collaborative network of institutions, professionals, academics and other city actors who manage the content online by uploading, adding and updating multimedia material on their projects, ideas and plans. The information is rendered on the mega-screen in four different data visualizations: “Linearity”, “Neo Map”, “Bridges” and “Timescape” all of which reflect the complex dynamics, interconnections and relationships of the contemporary city, elements which rarely emerge from the more traditional and schematic representations of city making.

Viewers can interact with the screen’s surface by using multi-touch screens, which enable them to browse through information, categories, territories and times at will according to their preferences and interests.

The ‘Atlas of Rome’ was designed as a replicable large-scale public installation which started-off in Rome but will visit other cities in Italy and the technologies developed by FakePress and will soon be released as Open Source software.