UrbanTapestries / Social Tapestries.

Here is a project using technology to help communities learn about their environment they live in. Urban Tapestries/Social Tapestries is a group:

Experimental software platform for knowledge mapping and sharing “public authoring.” It combines mobile and internet technologies with geographic information systems to allow people to build relationships between places and to associate stories, information, pictures, sounds and videos with them.

What they hoped to do is:

· create and support relationships that transcend existing social and cultural boundaries;

· enable the development of new social and creative practices based around place, identity and community;

· reveal the potential costs as well as benefits to communities and individuals.

There are two interesting things about this group. First off, the more we know about our environments, the quicker and easier we will be able to build socially and environmentally sustainable communities.

It also brought up for me a really interesting problem for community conscious artists. What would an art piece look like that allowed community members actively and meaningfully commentate and express themselves publicly (and I am not talk motion sensitive imaging software) to and about their environments (both social and physical)? If you all know any projects that address this question I would love to hear about them.