Electricity Fountain

Proposal for FUSEDSPACE, an international competition for innovative applications for new technology in the public domain. Solar panels, fountain structure, outlets, internet connection (wireless, dsl etc)

The Electricity Fountain creates a new mainframe for use in the public sphere. It opens up the possibility for people to find democratic uses for all forms of electronic technologies.

The fountain is erected in a public place. It provides free solar-generated electricity and Internet access to whoever plugs into it. The fountain consists of a tower/post and a half-moon shaped wall. Atop the tower are two solar panels, controlled by a tracking device (GPS), to ensure that the solar panels are always in the optimal position below the sun. The energy generated by the sun tracker is stored in batteries and made available through outlets in the wall; at the fountain's bottom and along its sides are several power outlets to plug in electronic devices. The fountain is located on a wireless Ethernet access point (hot spot); additionally there are several Ethernet ports. The fountain is sheathed in kitchen tiling, recalling the private rooms where individuals usually hook up to the electrical grid. Its curved wall can be used as a projector screen.

The public domain will be enriched by bringing to the outside events which, because of the way resources are presently distributed, only occur in private. It is an anthropological cliché that early towns formed around water. Throughout much of history, the public square centered around the well where people gathered their daily needs and interacted with neighbors. With the invention of indoor plumbing, the public square lost one use value and became more defined by cultural values. The Electricity Fountain reintroduces public space to today's essential resources and thus allows for the birth of a new type of city. It shifts around the definitions of public and private space by allowing what modernity has defined as private (most electrical application besides exterior lighting) to occur in public.

If we are to reinvent public space for the virtual age, we have to provide public spaces with virtual culture's basic tools. Instead of predetermining specific new technology applications for the public sphere, the Electricity Fountain creates a base for all users of the public domain to collectively brainstorm, create or use applications at this unique location.

While we can imagine specific uses for the Fountain's electricity, we understand that society's necessities and creativity will generate many as yet unimagined uses. The Electricity Fountain's accessibility will foment technological micro-cultures that dream up appropriate applications for the fountain's public square. The creation of culture is a collective process.

Our past experiences setting up Reclaim the Streets' sound-systems and constructing remote streaming stations for pirate radio broadcast has made us aware that traditional public places don't provide either free electrical outlets or internet hookups. The solar panels of the Electricity Fountain provide an essential resource generated outside the control of state/industrial complex. As such, the fountain is fertilizer and monument for localized and grassroots culture extending into the virtual realm. It might provide a place where concurrently a neighborhood council's open forum is streamed over the net while a man hooks up an electric razor and shaves. Perhaps a cyber-feminist group organizes a site-specific Internet conference while a micro-business runs a database service and a food vendor blends a smoothie.

When conceptualizing for this project, we tried to figure out what application the public space needed to hasten the arrival of the new-media age. We realized that at present, public spaces already exist within the sphere of virtual culture (as witnessed by the Indymedia and Blog phenomenons). We then realized quite simply that virtual culture's liberatory elements (democratic access to powerful networks) have no outposts in physical public space. Thus, the Electricity Fountain provides public life with an architectural ecosystem - access to liberated energy and interconnectivity. - Ulke, Herbst

<back.