Art, Media, and Sense-making in Responsive Urban Environments

The aim of the article is to elucidate experience and sense-making in interactive, responsive urban environments through analysis of aesthetic and media aspects of art in such environments. As an analytic example the sculpture D-Tower from the Dutch town of Doetinchem has been chosen. The sculpture has been created by the artist Q. S. Serafijn and the architect Lars Spuybroek. The analysis will be carried out with reference to Neuro Aesthetic theory and with methodological point of departure in Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Blending Theory, and Cognitive Semiotics. The main hypothesis is that when artistic and interactive, responsive media qualities are blended, new forms of experience and sense-making are promoted. It may happen due to emergence and adaptation that may transform both the ‘experiencee’ and also the experiential environment. In this case information technology has been applied in order to make hitherto invisible and private emotions and feelings visible and public.