A story shared at REMIX Festival by Dr. Sarah Barns, Co-Director of STORYBOX by Studio ESEM, and researcher-public historian at the RMIT Centre for Urban Research.
Hi, I’m Sarah Barns, a creative director at Studio ESEM & Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University.
I’m here to tell a story today.
Before I do though, I’d like to pay my respects to Australia’s First storytellers - here close to Warrane, the Gadigal storytellers, but also to First Nations storytellers from other lands joining us today.
It’s a story about the past, present and future of public space media and civic AI.
We’re standing in Martin Place, Sydney.
Australian citizens can be heard everywhere celebrating the end of a horrible war.
Australia’s public broadcaster, the ABC, is here to record the action with its outside broadcast van.
Using the latest in broadcasting technology, the sounds of this space is being shared with those who can’t be physically present.
It’s the first time they’ve done this on Australian soil.
Let’s listen in.
Audiences everywhere are entranced by the sounds of actually being there, in public spaces, live, even from the comforts of their living rooms.
The bushfires have swept through NSW, and then COVID’s arrived. We all got scared, suddenly very used to wearing masks in public spaces.