Hafenkante, 2015
computer vision, digital photography, printed paper, illustration

On the northwestern edge of Überseestadt, construction sites are born again along the river. Between the soaring buildings of a next commercial utopia, traces of past human activity can still be found in the vast spaces. In contrast to the rectilinear and square occupation of the site, smooth and organic lines of movement from past strips show an alternative pattern to the terrain. What if this movement were repeated so many times that the ground itself eroded? In a future where the action of construction tractors is so intense and repetitive, new landscapes might emerge between the smoothness of water and the remaining commercial debris. How would we occupy a ground that won’t stop disappearing?

Hafenkante speculates about a future in which society finds its habitat not on stable top-down economic foundations, but in unstable bottom-up socioeconomic structures that move flexibly across the surface of the water. The project wonders about the smooth tractor lines of construction sites seen in satellite imagery. Using a custom computer vision algorithm and various design techniques to accelerate the process of the above narrative, the present photos and sketches were created to visualize the future scenario of such a place.

Acknowledgments:
Support: developed as part of the MA program in Digital Media at the HfK Bremen,  supervised by Willy Sengewald and Nele Brönner.