Digital screens came years ago to stay, first in our homes, then in our pockets in the form of smartphones, and now in our cities. But it is important that they do it with their own language.
Since the arrival of the 2000s, spaces so emblematic due to the presence of large outdoor advertising billboards, such as Times Square (New York) or Piccadilly Circus (London), began to gradually incorporate digital advertising screens. Since then, these screens have been creeping more and more into cities. In fact, there is no modern or glamorous space that does not resort to them to exhale innovation and technology.
However, these urban digital screens have to configure their own language, especially if they intend to connect with their audiences in urban public spaces. To do this, they have to ensure that the unexpected encounters that the walkers have with them become perfect moments or memorable experiences that, due to the exceptional nature of the situation, they will be remembered. This is what is commercially called the “WOW effect”.
The new language in the cities, fundamentally visual, can resort to surreal images full of fantasy, using the decontextualization of objects, dreamy images…
It is necessary to implement a language that goes beyond reproducing the messages that are already given in other media. It is important that when content is integrated into these urban digital screens, precisely that is considered, that they are urban and that they are consumed in public spaces by citizens. In this sense, the contents inserted in these screens will have to incorporate elements from other languages, such as art, in order to establish a relationship with their audience.
This new language, fundamentally visual, can, for example, resort to surreal images full of fantasy, using the decontextualization of objects, dreamlike images, altered images and contents that appeal to interaction with citizens.
One of the most common ways to generate memorable encounters is through interactive experiences that turn digital screens into much more interesting objects, for example through the use of touch screens, or by enabling gestural interaction or through the use of mobile phones. And the fact is that it is through interaction that the physical world is linked to the virtual world and it is made easier for the citizen to become aware of the environment and to feel like its main protagonist.
Another of the formal resources that is often used in this new language is the use of surreal, fantastic or modified images in some way. People tend to feel attracted to those images that in some way modify the environment, either from an aesthetic or rhythmic point of view. For example, the fact of showing slow-motion images helps to break the frenetic pace of the city and, this contrast, will draw the attention of the inhabitants.
The same happens when breaking the aesthetics of the city through artistic, abstract or fantasy-filled images that transport us to another reality; to a dream world; images that will not only attract the attention of the public, but will also have a positive effect on how the public will experience the screens and the environment in which they are found: video art gives the area ideas of diversity and openness just by its presence. For this reason, in the digital foreign language, these types of images are often used to advertise a product or a brand.
Beyond that the technical problems are solved, the urban digital screens have to solve the problems linked to their social, urban and human part
In addition, with this idea of moving to another world and abstracting our mind and imagination, another type of resource appears consisting of showing images of dream spaces or places, making us, for a moment, forget the routine in which we are immersed. This is achieved through the projection of images from other physically and temporarily distant spaces.
Just a year ago, in the spring-summer of 2021, Samsung launched the long-awaited The Wall, an infinite screen (because it is modular) designed to be implemented in public spaces with a resolution of up to 8K and a great capacity to solve part of the problems traditionally associated with outdoor digital screens: dust, dirt, vandalism… It seems that large screens, which arrived years ago, can finally stay in our cities.
Beyond that the technical problems are solved, the urban digital screens have to solve the problems linked to their social, urban and human part. As has been pointed out, the language they use is (or should be) different from that used in digital media that are consumed privately, such as television, computers or mobile phones.
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