De Digitale Stad 20 year
15 01 14 - 17:52
In the beginning there was nothing, but then there was a sharp pitched sound followed by a rattling noise that ended with aand then silence. Letters scrolled on a black screen"Welkom bij de Digitale Stad".
There are hardly any screen captures of these computer moments. Yet the fact that any one with a modem could call a number in Amsterdam Netherlands to get free access to the internet was a huge step.
It was still the pre web days, internet was text oriented. Instead of hoovering with a mouse one wandered through text menus, typed the corresponding numbers opened a link.
All changed in 1994 when world wide web became the buzzword; For the first time ever one could actually immediately see images instead of first downloading a file. The black screen with letters became obsolete while more and more complex novelties refined the web experience.
In 1997 DDS invited me to create two games to visualize two city referendums. One referendum was about the building of IJburg, now a new city quarter build in the eastern IJ entrance. The other was about the North South metro. In this game a yes vote removed sand and builded the metro a no vote reversed the process.
The scripts stayed on-line at the DDS years after the referendum, until the DDS transformed into a new organisation with a major overhaul of server software.
<-- Click the icon to see the frames as movie.
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