Response 10

Response to Amsterdam Real Time Project

Questions:

1. What is the significance of the project? What are the benefits?
2. What are the incentives for people to be tracked?
3. Is it ethical to track people’s every steps in order to complete an arbitrary project?

Response to Question 1:

The Amsterdam Project is intriguing. I believe that there are some benefits for the people of Amsterdam if this project is successfully completed. I think that the map created will be an eye-opener for Amsterdam residents and that people will be able to recognize alternate routes and paths they overlooked before. However, the results will be insignificant if not used. If people choose to ignore the information presented in the map, no good will come of the project.

I feel as though the main, underlying purpose of the project is to increase citizens’ awareness of Amsterdam in general. Everyone knows the part of the city that they, themselves live or work in. They are familiar with the sights and places they see and visit regularly. However, other important aspects of the city may be virtually lost by members of society. The project aims to expand people’s horizons and views of the city.

As Perec and Marx both implied, people tend to ignore that which does not directly pertain to or involve them. We see only what fits our image. We travel what we have found to be the quickest or simplest route between our daily obligations and we observe only what we choose to. This project has the potential to turn people on to new and exciting visions and views of the places they have ignored or thought they knew.

Seeing something you once thought to be familiar through another’s eyes often makes that thing mysterious and new again. Others view things differently than we do and their interpretations of things we thought we knew well can help us to open our minds. Through visualizing the city through other people’s eyes, the people of Amsterdam may begin to view the city in a whole new light and take in things that have always been at their fingertips, yet that they have never before enjoyed.