#ambient accountability

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Ambient disinformation

The potential of communicating via the built environment has for centuries been abused for sinister purposes, think paramount propaganda billboards of all sorts. So no surprise that contemporary disinformation agents avail themselves of these tools as well. But what is kind of astounding is the subtlety that they apply. Austria just exposed a Russian-engineered disinformation campaign that:

used pro-Ukrainian slogans on stickers and graffiti

designed in distinctive fascist aesthetics and style

and places these in low-key manner outside media outlets.

The neatly documented campaign pursued the ambition to associate Ukraine supporters with Nazi-attributes, playing into the Kremlin narrative that it is about a fight against a fascist government.

So no more big billboards à la cultural revolution or Politbuero, but the incredibly subtle visual cues and prompts, registering perhaps subconsciously and repetitively in the brains of the media people on their way to and from work every day. Wow, dark ambient arts, or sinister nudging - but unfortunately at a very sophisticated and low-cost level.

Source: Der Standard, AUT

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sky painting for sustainability

Remember, if in my age bracket, these annoying, yet quaint little planes flying along a beach with a little banner that usually read "eat more ice-cream" or some other commercial message? I was also fortunate to watch in person at Ars Electronica 2012 the first larger scale use of drones to paint patterns into the sky. Yet, here for the current state of the art and culmination of these efforts the amazing aerial spectacle accompanying the 2023 UNGA meetings and demanding more action to protect the Amazon. Check it out! Ambient messaging just does not get much bigger and more dynamic - the sky really is the limit.

image: AFP

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Dashboard climate drama

Neither on the surface novel, nor visually very engaging, but probably a very necessary first step: close to real-time carbon footprint of Sweden, displayed on billboards in Stockholm that have gone up in June 2022. The kicker: the data is not government-reported and stale, but rather fresh and independent, as it is  collected by some climate intelligence start-ups through AI infused remote sensing techniques. Lots of room for more imagination in dashboard design and overall presentation/placement, but quite impressive what seems to be going on under the hood, if all what is claimed is really powering this. 

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Outsize confront-versation

From using entire building fronts as public canvass for live election results to enveloping to giant-casting advocacy messages onto the very edifices that house the culprits light projections are a wonderful light-touch, wide-scope tool for ambient accountability and have been referenced several times on this blog. 

Now comes a particularly interesting example from the COP26 climate summit: Activists projecting their messages onto the conference hall and the “official” light projecteur messaging back through his or her own projection.  Move over tiny twitter feud here comes the epic battle of the giant projectors.  

https://twitter.com/GEddolls/status/1458366926938386438?s=20

image c  Graeme Eddolls

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A Cape Town Campaign

So the city of Cape Town gave itself a Organisational Development and Transformation Plan in 2016. The title is quite a mouthful already and it carries on in the text, which sets out a big vision for creating a culture of accountability and integrity and a “well governed, corruption free administration.”  Four years later it still looks like there is some way to go on this and the city seems to be following up with a campaign that is interesting from an ambient accountability perspective. 

It takes some of the commitments and pledges from the plan quite verbatim and sprays them right on the steps of the main administrative building and even sticks them into the mirror in the bathrooms inside. Now I have my doubts whether these well-intentioned, yet very unspecific and in-ward oriented (general values for employees, but no clear commitments to what citizens are entitled to) make much of a difference but it would be great to know who is behind this and whether there are any plans to assess if and how this initiative achieves impact. Here some snapshots thanks to my dear friend Laura 

bathroom mirror, Cape Town City administrative building:

stairs to main entrance

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Ambient accountability - a journey from Copenhagen to Abu Dhabi

just for the fun of it, some snippets of ambient accountability along the way. First up, security check at Copenhagen Airport and a very big and visible invite to give feedback, right after passing through the scanner. In truly Scandinavian style you need a mobile phone though to do this.

Next, how was your flight? This popped up on the Etihad in-seat screen, so really right in the passenger face. Only problem, this happened before take-off (and not any more after landing) alas some kind of speculative, predictive feedback expected?

Taking a taxi from the Abu Dhabi airport to the city  - a sticker on the inside of the car with detailed information on prices and rules - literally a very transparent appearance and quite the norm in many cities - check out the Florence and Medellin or the particularly enchanting hand-written example from Goa

And finally on the way back home, a short lay-over in Amsterdam - and a really playful way of giving passengers a bit of a glimpse of the intestines of the big organism airport  a glass inlay in the floor that grants a view of the luggage conveyor belts below - and you can watch suitcases zip by

In a nutshell, an everyday experience with ambient accountability, some mechanisms quite useful, yet others rather carelessly done and not so great and then the creative ones that could inspire some serious experimentations...

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Next up for holiday trip feedback: rate your playground

Now flying to and from Berlin really is not much fun these days. The new airport is still not done after years of delay, good old Tegel is close to collapse and on top of all Air Berlin, one of the main carriers here is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and in total disarray. But someone amidst this chaos seems to be fiercely committed to holding up a lonely torch of customer service and humane treatment with a great ambient feedback system:

cc Dieter Zinnbauer

Yes, you read this correctly. It is an invitation to give feedback on the little children’s playground in one of the terminals. Now I really find this a cute idea and had my kids key in their feedback (their verdict: okish), yet at the same time I cannot help but suspecting some sinister ploy to distract from the many bigger issues and problems that would deserve some really robust ambient feedback interface. Then again if you are stranded at Tegel with little kids, an entirely probable situation these days, the availability of a good playground actually becomes a somewhat  existential concern....    Safe travels and serene summer holidays to everyone!

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Eat your vitamins - and vote with them too!

Corruption in the Lithuanian health sector is a really big problem, yet people are reluctant to discuss or report it. What to do? 

Inspired by the ambient accountability idea and embracing the old adage that often you cannot fight corruption by fighting corruption, the Transparency International group in Lithuania took a very innovative approach. Together with social designers and a healthcare center they designed and piloted a very engaging ambient feedback mechanism, the Vitamin Lab. Here is how it worked and what happened.

Placed right in the main lobby, patients were given little balls and asked to place these “vitamins”  in a set of transparent test tubes (the Lab) according to how they rated different aspects of the health service they had just received. 

The idea behind this ambient feedback system was to help patients develop a stronger sense of their rights and entitlements and nurture their willingness to speak out about their experience. The transparent tubes and single, rising line of feedback balls in them ensure that an instant and intuitive tally of the aggregate feedback is clearly visible to everyone passing by. And the placement of the visually highly engaging Lab right at the center of the clinic ensured that all stakeholders, doctors, patients, non-medical staff, were all directly exposed to and invited to reflect upon a public conversation on service values and service experience. 

The feedback system was further enhanced by a workshop with doctors in which they were asked to describe the values of their practice, Placards across the clinic then advertised these values in the hallways. 

The results of this three month experiment? Some very preliminary research suggests that patients really liked the feedback idea and doctors felt that the quality of communication with patients had increased. The conclusion: a really great first that begs for more experimentation, more research and tons of creative fun with designing high-impact ambient feedback interfaces!!

Check out the 3min video. 

Copyright pictures and video: TI Lithuania. The experiment was part of the EU-funded ANTICORRP research initiative.