The Urban Screen, proposed for the Library’s façade in our forthcoming renovation, has gathered a certain amount of press attention (Tux Turkel, “Portland library to undergo 21st-century makeover,” Portland Press Herald, February 17, 2009). Understandably so! It’s an exciting feature of the new Library.

But a correction to this reporting is necessary. While we are enthusiastic about the Urban Screen, it is not part of this first phase of construction.

We hope the Urban Screen will be installed in Phase II, although it is not included in the budget and funding will depend on additional private donations.

We also will spend additional time considering the various questions that have come our way after the article’s printing (audio, content of material, types of use, billboard regulations, etc.).

If you would like to learn more about the Urban Screen, see the description below:


URBAN SCREEN
Ver: 03/05/09

A Definition
Urban Screens are defined as large outdoor digital displays, such as daylight compatible LED signs and high-tech plasma screens, used in urban spaces. Although their use in advertisement and news is widely known and readably observable in major U.S. cities—the most obvious example being the Times Square Astrovision Screen in New York City, urban screens are at the beginning of a worldwide movement placing digital displays in public squares for cultural purposes.

In Europe, particularly, urban screens are given broad cultural content for Architecture, Art, Urban Studies, and Digital Culture. As Mirjam Struppek of Urban Media Research in Berlin has said, “Urban Screens can be understood in the context of a reinvention of the public sphere and the urban character of cities, based on a well-balanced mix of functions and the idea of the inhabitant as active citizen instead of properly behaving consumer.” (“Urban Screens—The Urbane Potential of Public Screens for Interaction,” www.intelligentagent.com/archive.)

As a consequence, urban screens in public spaces have come to be defined as intelligent architectural surfaces or pixilated architecture, influential in creating a lively urban society and supporting the idea of public space as space for the creation and exchange of culture, strengthening local economy and cultural fabric, and providing local identity.

Permanent big screen cultural initiatives are located in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bremen, Brisbane, Dallas, Manchester, Melbourne, Milan, Munich, and Seoul.

Successful urban screen events include outdoor screenings, international joint broadcasting, and online information platform for networking.

On Monument Square
The role of the public square has often been discussed in urban sociology, and Portland’s Monument Square provides an example of the successful interconnectedness of commerce, culture, politics, and social interactivity. As a public space, Monument Square is perfectly scaled for human interaction. Its architecture—wide ranging in age and style, with a major sculptural presence, offers a sense of local identity. Efforts to enhance commerce and attract community through public events and farmers markets have been aggressively addressed by the City of Portland and Portland Downtown

District. Moreover, plans to designate the Monument Square/ Congress Street area as an Historic District, complementing the existing Arts District, will positively congeal an already strong momentum in creating a square that is a significant place in the city.

Proposal: An Urban Screen on Portland Public Library
Portland Public Library supports the ongoing enhancement of Monument Square as an open public square for civic and cultural engagement and seeks to develop new interactivity between the public and downtown Portland’s Arts District through the renovation of its building which includes plans for the installation of a 17’x 21’ urban screen with live video capabilities on the façade.

The Library’s urban screen will offer important dimensions. Aesthetically, the addition of new digital interactive technologies on international style architecture will crystallize the facade’s dynamism, giving the Library much needed street presence. In practice, the urban screen will greatly enhance the Library’s ability to extend its programmatic outreach to the community.

We believe that the urban screen will also contribute to Portland’s maturity as a lively urban society and will broaden Monument Square as open civic and cultural space by interactively involving the community, including members from our large, racially and ethnically diverse neighborhood. Utilizing city marketing and urban management strategies, the urban screen has the potential of transforming Monument Square into one of America’s great small city public squares and defining Portland as a “Creative City” of global significance, attractive to creative entrepreneurs and tourists from around the world.

Portland Public Library will seek alliances with Portland’s Congress Street institutions to shape the future development of the urban screen within the context of Monument Square as an urban space and as a new art form for creative expression: Children’s Museum of Maine, Maine College of Art, Maine Historical Society, PCA Great Performances, Portland Museum of Art, Portland Ballet, Portland Stage Company, Portland Symphony Orchestra, PORTopera, and SALT Institute for Documentary Studies.

This group will consider Content Management, Curation, Participation of the Local Community, and Technical Requirements.

Portland’s Creative Economy
Portland Public Library’s urban screen will have important ramifications for the recommendations recently proposed by the Creative Economy Steering Committee to Portland City Council, particularly in developing and sustaining Portland’s Arts District (Creative Economy Steering Committee, “Report of Recommendations to the Portland City Council,” October 2008, 14, www.portlandmaine.gov/creativeeconomyreport.pdf).

In fact, the urban screen could be the “tipping point project,” a project identified by the Committee for the Arts District to give the area visibility, connect the cultural institutions, and engage the community (Creative Economy, p. 16).