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Museum of the Phantom City [iPhone]

phantomcity

Created by two architects, Ms. Cheng and her husband, Brett Snyder, Museum of the Phantom City is an iPhone application that is a virtual map to guide users around Manhattan to sites where “visionary” architectural projects were planned but never built.

Whilst some works may be less known, big-name, big-idea architect like Buckminster Fuller are included giving an insight into the city New York could have been. A. G. Sulzberger of New York Times writes: “A mile-high dome shades Midtown Manhattan, an airport floats off Battery Park, Harlem is enveloped in a hulking megastructure literally lifting residents out of poverty, and the tallest building in the world, continuously under construction, sprouts from ground zero, growing without end”

The app uses iPhone’s location technology to detect when a user is near any of the roughly 50 notable sites, triggering a pink cloud that allows the user to learn about the proposal through the architect’s foiled designs and words. The app works only if you are located in NY and even though available throughout the world AppStores, unfortunately you won’t be able to browse the sites. This is slightly disappointing but maybe worthy considering NY is such an incredible city that you have to be there to fully understand the magnitude and ambitions behind these proposals.

If you do live in NYC, we would love to hear what you thought of it. For now, I will have to wait for a London version although most probably would include ideas hardly as visionary as for NYC. If you are planning to visit NY soon, this should be one of your must downloads.

(via James Tindall + nytimes)

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free
Developer: Mathbeat Industries, Inc.
itunes

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Posted on: 03/10/2009

Posted in: iPhone

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  • http://www.adornomedia.com David Hilowitz

    Oh good God, what a great idea! There ought to be lots of things like this. I'm imagining an App that uses the GPS in your iPhone to deliver totally fictional content to supplement your real world location. You could build an entire narrative based around where people are in the real world.

    Or you could have it be like a scavenger hunt where people are using directional clues to go from place to place.

    Or you could make a game that was like a role playing game where you would wander around the city and interact with other people. You could pick up objects based on where you were. It would be just like a role playing / fantasy game, only you would really be wandering around in real life.

    Awesome.

  • http://www.adornomedia.com David Hilowitz

    Oh good God, what a great idea! There ought to be lots of things like this. I'm imagining an App that uses the GPS in your iPhone to deliver totally fictional content to supplement your real world location. You could build an entire narrative based around where people are in the real world.

    Or you could have it be like a scavenger hunt where people are using directional clues to go from place to place.

    Or you could make a game that was like a role playing game where you would wander around the city and interact with other people. You could pick up objects based on where you were. It would be just like a role playing / fantasy game, only you would really be wandering around in real life.

    Awesome.

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  • http://twitter.com/ReadyWater ReadyWater

    @TheOccasional Disinclined to 2nd life aswell, but that’s a really interesting angle on digital archives. Give this a look http://j.mp/aTXM2

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/TheOccasional TheOccasional

    Museum of the Phantom City – the extremely cool unbuilt things of New York http://j.mp/aTXM2 (via @ReadyWater)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/typofont typofont

    For explorers in NYC. Unfortunately, it only works when you’re physically there. http://bit.ly/RDxrH #iphone #app #architecture

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter