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Every thing every time, an artwork by Naho Matsuda, takes real-time information from citizens’ interactions within the city to tell a new story about the people and the places of Manchester. As Manchester’ s citizens interact with the city, a poem is generated, made anonymous and resonated across several locations, from a garden centre to a public library; a university square to a city laboratory.
A meditation on the data that passes through the fabric of the city each day, every thing every time questions not only the role data has in our lives, but the use and value it has as it is collected. Can we see the urban landscape differently through the technologies that make sense of it?
According to the artist Naho Matsuda
Every thing every time is a piece of real-time digital writing, which is drawing from the many ‘˜things’ and ‘˜events’ and changes of ‘˜status’ that are constantly happening in Manchester. In every thing every time I have turned these data streams into narratives formatted as poems, that are stripped from their location information and any data transmitting purpose. Smart information becomes impractical poetry.
In a new collaboration with CityVerve, the UK’ s demonstrator for Smart Cities, every thing every time uses their developing data platform to gather various data streams from sensors measuring weather, traffic and travel to more. These data streams are turned into an ephemeral, poetic narrative that give a glimpse into into the ubiquity of technology in the urban space. What does data become without its informational value? And what happens to all the data that is collected from our ‘˜smart cities’ ?