An intervention within a public space, inspired by the logic of our drawing machine research. This modification of a potential pedestrian area is intended to temporarily partition the space, catering to the needs of the members of the community. The overlying concept of our mapping strategy was to identify the number of people exiting, or being ‘emitted’ from the doorways in the intersection of Carrer de la Diputacio and Carrer de Rockafort.

This exercise revealed two strong consistencies. The first came to light while gathering data on this topic.  We noticed that certain establishments accumulate a large amount of people who are waiting outside. In addition, while working on the cartography, we chose to create arrays of lines from each door, representing numbers and direct sight lines rather than trajectory. As the space is still mostly occupied by cars, we created these vectors in order to reveal what many call ‘desire lines.’ These are most commonly manifested in a muddy track through the grass of a park where there is not an intended path.

Interestingly enough, we also realised that this decision provided a large number of points of potential interaction in the domains currently inhabited by cars. We proposed to use our device to place digital matter in order to highlight these “line of sight” interactions and create hubs at some of these points. In summary, rather than adapting our physical drawing machine to the scale of the public realm, we have used the logic of the machine to create an interactive digital device that we have used as a tool in order to realise our intervention. Our non-static curtain walls will allow the busker to perform while the grandfather plays chess undisturbed. It will shelter the client of the embassy as they wait for the opening in the early morning. It will allow the lovers to steal a kiss while pedestrians unknowingly pass by.

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