[urban interfaces] is a research platform for a critical investigation of urban interfaces for creative and participatory engagement at the crossing of academic research and creative practices. Focusing on mobile and situated media, arts, and performances, [urban interfaces] fosters critical reflections on, and interventions in, these socio-spatial and somatechnical activities and their shaping and staging of urban culture. 

[urban interfaces] is an initiative of the Department for Media and Culture Studies (MCW) and seeks collaboration with an expanding local and international network of academic and cultural partners. 

For more information, see urbaninterfaces.net.

• prof. dr. Nanna Verhoeff
• dr. Imar de Vries
• dr. Sigrid Merx
• Tamalone van den Eijnden
• dr. Anastasia Hacopian PhD
• dr. Dan Hassler-Forest
• dr. Rick Dolphijn

UU-based research group [urban interfaces] is one of the co-organizers of the 2020 edition of the Media Architectuur Biennale. The Media Architecture Biennale is a series of international events for designers, artists, researchers and policy makers exploring urban interaction design and the role of media in urban spaces: from urban screens and interactive installations in public space, to smart cities & citizens applications and the theme of playful cities.

Originally, media architecture was most concerned with the integration of displays and interactive installations into architectural structures, such as media facades and urban screens. Over the years, the discipline has grown much broader, as new technologies such as digital platforms and smart city technologies have increasingly made their way into the experience, management and design of cities.

None of these technologies brought into the city are neutral enablers, mere decorative structures or just simple market places connecting demand and supply in fields as diverse as energy and transport to commerce and leisure. They are built upon numerous spoken and unspoken assumptions about urban life, each with their own implications for both social relations as well as their effect on the natural ecosystem.It is time therefore for the discipline of media architecture to address the implied futures of new technologies.

MAB20 calls for media architectures that move beyond the mere spectacular; as well as beyond the design of individualized services comforting human customers. MAB20 calls for media architectures and urban interaction that dare to take on a more-than-human approach: aiming at the well-being of the natural ecosystem as a whole; For urban media art and design that bring implicit and explicit bias within technology and culture to light, and provide the means for ongoing discussion, debate, and societal change; For digital platforms that strengthen citizen’s digital rights in democratic societies.

More information on mab20.org. 

• prof. dr. Nanna Verhoeff

• Martijn de Waal (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
• Frank Suurenbroek (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)

The mid-sized and centrally located municipality of Amersfoort is building a new Internet of Things infrastructure. A consortium of public and private partners will develop a government+citizen+academic+industry collaboration (a so-called ’quadruple helix’) that allows a wide range of stakeholders to become involved in shaping their urban future. In a series of co-design sessions a number of ethical, juridical, and social controversies are made visible and debatable, as a way to garner broader engagement, agency and support.

Consortium partners include The Municipality of Amersfoort, Marxman Advocaten, Aerovision, Kennislab voor Urbanisme, and the Design Innovation Groep.

Het UU deelproject gaat met name over controverses rondom de gedataficeerde slimme stad.

• dr. Corelia Baibarac-Duignan

• Mascha van der Voort (UTwente PL)
• Peter-Paul Verbeek (UTwente)

Against the background of the CLICKNL Smart & Social Media and Big Data (Media & ICT) research agendas, this project investigates the role of new media technologies in urban planning, governance, and management - a collection of practices we call city making.

Two developments are of interest:

1) The rise of "big" and "open" data; allowing for new ways to analyze and visualize salient urban issues and development opportunities.

2) The rise of social media platforms; allowing citizens, companies and institutions to (self) organize publics around these issues and opportunities in new ways.

These two trends hold the promise of providing citizens with agency to become active change agents in the development of their cities. But they also raise new societal questions about the democratic governance of our cities.

Two mutual complementary research lines will explore these issues. Building upon the technological trends mentioned above, an embedded researcher will design a (new media) prototype to be tested in the redevelopment of Buiksloterham in Amsterdam-Noord, addressing issues of agency. A university researcher will simultaneously study the societal aspects of the new opportunities from the perspective of governance.

Point of departure is our notion of a hackable city. In a hackable city, new media technologies are used to open up urban institutions and infrastructures to systemic change in the public interest. It combines top-down smart-city technologies with bottom-up "smart citizen" initiatives.
This study results in a prototype for a ?hackable city making? process, that can serve as a (commercial) development model for designers, as well as in a scholarly reflection on the societal opportunities and challenges that come with it."

See http://themobilecity.nl/hackable.

• Martijn de Waal (UvA/HvA)

Our aim is to develop a research agenda and consortium that explores the role of digital media technologies in new directions for urban planning and city making. How can citizens, design professionals, local government institutions and others use digital technologies in collaborative processes of urban planning and management?

This project seeks to connect two parallel yet largely separate developments. On the one hand city municipalities worldwide embark on smart city policies, together with tech businesses and knowledge institutions. They deploy digital technologies and big data to optimize services like traffic, energy, environment, governance and health. On the other hand bottom-up smart citizen initiatives in many cities blossom, consisting of networked people who engage in issues like neighborhood livability, community building, energy provisioning, sharing resources and measuring and generating environmental data. Often they employ sensor technologies, use open data or utilize digital media to organize themselves around a common issue.

Since these two movements rarely interact, opportunities are wasted to combine capacities of various stakeholders in city making with digital technologies. In this research by design project we forward the notion of the "hackable city" to investigate how new media technologies can open up urban institutions and infrastructures to systemic change by citizens.

Buiksloterham in Amsterdam-Noord is our case and testing ground. Developers here have committed to combining the two above-mentioned perspectives. The area functions as an urban laboratory to study and experiment with opportunities, challenges and conditions for the "hackable city".

See http://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/04/2300188604.html.

• Martijn de Waal (UvA/HvA)

To use mobile applications and games for learning purposes an appropriate use of design principles for story-telling, spatial indication and social networks is indispensable. To improve learning results, stories have to be aptly integrated in game-play, maps have to be properly incorporated in the game and must be open for development by players, and social networks have to facilitate a sharing of learning results and processes. In this GATE knowledge transfer project we want to use and apply the knowledge that has been gained in work package 4.2 (see GATE project) about these three areas in order to improve and evaluate the learning results of mobile applications and games that are developed by 7scenes. This KTP will also function as a practical benchmark to further substantiate the design principles that Utrecht University has developed in workpackage 4.2.

• dr. René Glas
• prof. dr. Joost Raessens

The aim of this interdisciplinary (conceptual-philosophical, media-theoretical, and qualitative-empirical) project is to investigate if, and if so, to what extent and in what way, digital information and communication technologies are transforming the (construction of) personal and cultural identity. To that end we will develop a theory of ludic identity that critically elaborates on Ricoeur’s theory of narrative identity. In this theory play and games are not only appropriate metaphors for human identity, but they are also conceived of as means by which people reflexively construct their identity. The theory of ludic identity, the outlines of which have been sketched in some of the principal applicant’s previous publications, will be further developed and critically evaluated in three case studies (three PhD projects) focusing on (the domestication of) three different media, respectively: 1. mobile phones, 2. websites, and 3. computer games. Each case study will examine the way the medium-specific characteristics shape and are being shaped by the participation of the user, and on the implications of this for the reflexive construction of personal and cultural identities. By way of dialectical counterpoint, in each of the case studies the practice of reflexive identity construction will be confronted with a specific development that threatens to subject this reflexive self-construction to the logic of an external system (respectively processes of commercialization, globalization and homogenization). The applicants will not only act as the supervisors of the PhD projects, but will also write a synthetic monograph in which the results of the case studies will be integrated and situated in a wider context of historical and philosophical approaches to culture.

• prof. dr. Joost Raessens

• Prof. dr. Jos de Mul (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
• Prof. dr. Valerie Frissen (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
• Jeroen Timmermans (Erasmus University Rotterdam)