“More than ever before, public artworks are stimulating and inviting active dialogue rather than just passive observation, thereby fostering social interaction that can even lead to a sense of social cohesion among the viewers themselves. Maybe this is happening because some planners, artists, and architects are no longer afraid to see themselves as resources, facilitators, and collaborators, rather than as experts. In such cases, the design of art in public spaces moves away from reverence for textbook ideals and toward flexibility, changeability, evolution, and an appreciation for humanity.” - Cynthia Nikitin
Note: bolds are mine.
Pierre Koenig - Bailey house (case study house 21), Los Angeles 1958. Shot by Julius Shulman. Via.
Thanks to Subtilitas
Excerpts from Social Cities of Tomorrow conference text by Michiel de Lange & Martijn de Waal.
Note: The bolds are mine.
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Can digital technologies enable citizens to act on collectively shared issues?
(…)
We see three promising interrelated developments where urban technologies may be used to create livable and lively cities.
1. Data-commons
Sensing technologies and networked urban media create vast amounts of data about a wide range of urban processes and practices. These data can become a valuable resource, a platform on top of which new services and infrastructures can be built. We will explore how these new resources can be harvested and opened up, and turned into useful information and applications that are available to everyone. Furthermore, we will investigate how these datasets can be used to bring out, visualise and manage collective issues.
2. Sense of place and a feeling of ‘ownership’
To engage people with communally shared issues, it is essential that people envision themselves as part of the urban fabric, and understand that their individual actions make a difference to the common good. They also need to trust other urbanites to act accordingly. How can digital media be employed to foster a shared sense of belonging and responsibility, and a feeling that indeed the city is ‘ours’ to take and shape? We will explore how digital tools for story-telling, urban games, data visualisations and interactive media facades can help foster a sense of place and a sense of ‘ownership’.
3. DIY urban design & networked publics
‘Networked publics’ are groups of people that use social media and other digital technologies to organise themselves around collective goals or issues. In online culture, networks of ‘professional amateurs’ create ‘user generated content’ or take part in ‘citizen science’ projects. Think of open source software or Wikipedia as successful examples. Can we port these principles from online culture, like self-organisation and collective action, to urban life in order to make it more ‘social’ as well? We will look at the ways in which new media technologies can be employed to involve citizens in designing their own city, and to include them in governing urban issues. We will explore how these technologies can be used to create and manage publics around common pool resources, varying from car sharing to urban gardening.
(…)
The event Social Cities of Tomorrow is also intended as an alternative to the increasingly popular idea of ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’ cities.
How Citizen Mapmakers are Changing the Stories of our Cities
“Individuals inside cities and elsewhere are creating maps for themselves and in fact giving us their own narrative of what a cityscape is about. They are telling us what is important to them, and they’re mapping the kinds of things that previously would not be mapped. It’s becoming part of the creation of a culture of a city.”
/via smartercities
Big Brother is watching you in the Plaza de George Orwell, Barcelona
+ some excerpt, images and links from culture actions against this contradiction:
At 7:30 pm on Monday 7 October 2002, the Surveillance Camera Players (SCP) performed in front of a police surveillance camera installed in the Plaza de George Orwell in Barcelona, Spain. For this unusual performance, the SCP consisted of Bill Brown of the SCP-New York, who was in Barcelona to participate in a conference on culture jamming and hacktivism at the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (CCCB), two members of the Italian art group 0100101110101101.org, Juan from Retro You, Nuria, and several “locals” who happened by the performance and liked what they saw. Also in attendance as spectators/photographers were Hans from Uebermorgen and Stefano from El Pais. - notbored.org
If you want to see images you can visit d-i-n-a.net (d*** flash)
Big Brother is watching you in the Plaza de George Orwell, Barcelona
Source via journalofajournalist: humanscalecities: zuloark: rubodewig: inothernews: ursulasteinberg: negevrockcity



