Projects
The Open Cities Platform brings together a diverse and interdisciplinary collective of researchers, groups, initiatives, and events. To illustrate what we can facilitate, please find an overview of our flagship projects and collaborations below.
Flagship Projects
Data Walk Workshop: Sensing Digital Materiality in Urban Public Spaces
Data walks and similar happenings have been proliferating in the years since the publication of Ingrid Burrington’s pioneering volume (“Networks of New York: An illustrated field guide to urban internet infrastructure”) in 2016. Now, dr. Maxigas and dr. Michiel de Lange bring you a Data Walking Workshop! The purpose is to bring together scholars and artists who have each engaged in developing data walks or similar projects to think through the phenomena of data walks as a methodological approach to data power and critical infrastructure studies.
Towards housing justice: From research to action
This workshop by dr. Abigail Friendly and dr. Femke van Noorloos is framed by the problematic of the global housing crisis, and the multiple challenges this context brings to the majority of the world’s urban population living in precarious conditions. It seeks to stimulate interaction and learning between research, policy and practice across geographical contexts on the topic of housing justice, moving from research to action, and to strengthen networks on housing justice. During this workshop, we highlight practices of movements on the ground, ongoing policy experiments and alternative housing models, and academic debates to better understand and grapple with this problematic.
On Connection: Queer Festival Curation, Practice and Experimentation
The cultural sector was among the hardest hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, cultural habits have shifted, audiences have not yet fully returned, and many cultural practitioners still face uncertain conditions. At the same time, the pandemic has highlighted the vital role of culture as a key source of resilience. In this context, Marijke de Valck, Cyd Sturgess and Dianora Hollmann, in partnership with the Queer Film Festival Utrecht (QFFU) and the Open Cities Platform, are organizing the event On Connection. This event focuses on how film festivals can help rebuild and strengthen ties with the queer community.
Symposium: Encounters in realms of urban change. Grounded views, Global perspectives
Dr. Romain Ditten and dr. Dora Martins Sampaio are hosting an international symposium on 'living together' in changing urban environments. Urban diversity is frequently celebrated as one of the gateways towards a more inclusive and integrated urbanity. In practice, though, ‘living with difference’ is often complex and messy. Rapidly changing urban areas and rising social inequalities in the city raise questions about how the interface between material shifts in the urban fabric (the ‘built’), altered interpersonal relationships (the ‘social’), and psychological experiences (the ‘cognitive’) manifests socially and spatially.
