From Participatory Public Art to Urban System Media: The Development Trajectory, Spatial Logic, and Architectural Significance of Interactive Urban Installations

Abstract

Interactive urban installations have emerged as a significant design strategy for intervening in public space, with their spatial influence expanding through practices of urban regeneration, public art, and digital urbanism. Existing studies remain dispersed across art history, media technology, and human-computer interaction, leaving a gap in systematic discussion of their logical evolution within architectural discourse and urban spatial production. This paper adopts a narrative review approach to examine the development of interactive urban installations since the 1960s, tracing key phases from participatory public art and media architecture to the playable city and the sentient city, and clarifying shifts in modes of interaction and spatial roles. The study argues that interactive urban installations have evolved from autonomous artistic objects toward spatial interfaces embedded within urban structures. Their central significance lies in reshaping public perceptions of the city and contributing to the formation of social relations in public space. This transformation encourages architecture to move beyond a focus on static form toward an integrated engagement with dynamic processes, interactive relationships, and urban systems.