TROPOLISM

I present for your inspection NY Songlines. The title is rarified, and there are no graphics. It feels like the site should be on an Apple G4 Cube, which is running system 9, for an exhibition called "Websites Before Flash Messed It All Up". But this is no museum piece. This is hard data on the City, and it is growing.

Think of it as SuperFuture for New York. Except without any graphics. Or color sense. I adore everything about it.

I have long propounded that New York City is the best place in the world to use the internet. (I have since amended this to include any City). The information, ideas, content, and schlock that one finds online forms a powerful parallel to urban life. It's often mapped by the turn of a corner, a sequence of smells, or a particular sign, rather than an orthogonal geometry. And when the two connect, the possibilities for Knowing more than you know create new connections, both IRL and with URLs. This is city living, and the essence of public space.

My favorite part: I found it by googling the street I live on.