Dutch Cultural Centre, Shanghai August 16-17 2010

Organized by The Mobile City and Virtueel Platform, in cooperation with Shanghai eArts, V2_, Cybercity Ruhr and Dynamic City Foundation.

Extended background information on ‘Designing the Hybrid City’: http://www.themobilecity.nl/adaptation/

Download the Call for Participation ‘Designing the Hybrid City’ (PDF)

As part of Adaptation, The Mobile City and Virtueel Platform organize ‘Designing the Hybrid City’. This event takes place in Shanghai on August 16-17 and focuses on the role of digital media and technologies in urban design

Mobile and wireless media, as well as technologies that can sense and react to what is happening around them, increasingly shape our urban environment and turn our cities into ‘hybrid cities’. What does this mean for urban design? How should we deal with this emerging relation between new media technologies and the city? Which approaches have already proven successful? Which experiments have the most promise? What can different disciplines involved in urban, media and interface design learn from each other? And how is the process of urban design itself changing?

Read more at The Mobile City website >>

Saturday 20th March 2010 from 16:00 − 18:00 I will moderate the session “Food and Global Mobility” at the ElectroSmog Festival for sustainable immobility. The venue is De Balie, Amsterdam (Google Maps). Entry is free.

This is the program:

What does food mean for us today? There is a growing understanding that food is not only a fuel to keep our bodies working, a source of pleasure, and for some also a source of income. It is also an important link between us and our environments, natural and social, local and global. More and more people are trying to rethink our relationships with the world through food and different forms of engagement with it. The issue of sustainability in the age of hyper-mobility is one of the most urgent ones. Questions on the table can be different as well as answers to them. Should we reduce global food mobility and start buying more local products? But what then about farmers and communities in the developing countries for whom supplying us with fruits and vegetables is of great economic significance? What exactly would we like to know about the pre-shelf life of our food in order to make an informed responsible choice? How can we access this information? What alternative ideas for sustainable food strategies are out there? Is urban farming a promising way to reconnect to your food? And what does it actually mean – “sustainable food strategies”?

This panel will bring together people involved in practical and theoretical research related to sustainable food strategies. The idea is to present and discuss highly diverse perspectives on the issue where environmental, social, ethical, technological, scientific and aesthetic aspects can be interrelated in an interesting, insightful, creative, and even challenging way.

Speakers are in the session are:

1) Toine Timmermans (program manager sustainable food chains of Wageningen UR) – www.fbr.wur.nl/UK (see his proposed presentation here)

2) Hugo Hooijer (Fairfood) – www.fairfood.org

3) Esther Polak (locative media artist) – http://nomadicmilk.net/?page_id=2

4) Hernani Dias (“Refarm the City” project) – www.refarmthecity.org

5) Frank van der Hoeven (Associate Professor, Chair of Urban Design at Delft University of Technology) – http://urbandesign.bk.tudelft.nl

Maandag 14 december om 20:00 in De Balie is er een kenniscafé over “Hogere kaartenkunde”. Ik zit in het panel en zal het hebben over de invloed van locatieve media op cartografische representaties.

We maken al eeuwenlang kaarten, om landsgrenzen vast te leggen of veilige routes aan te geven. Een kaart is een model van de werkelijkheid, en het terrein van een fascinerende tak van wetenschap: Cartografie.

Kaarten vormen de weerslag van sociale en politieke keuzes, die vervolgens hun eigen waarheid gaan vormen. Zo is de Perzische Golf niet overal in de wereld de Perzische Golf, ziet de wereld er op z’n kop of met China als middelpunt opeens heel anders uit en lijken kaarten tegenwoordig minder compleet te worden door een toenemend aantal ‘witte vlekken’…

Martijn van Calmthout gaat in gesprek met cartograaf Ferjan Ormeling, met Henk van Houtum, hoofd van het Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Radboud Universiteit en met Michiel de Lange, promovendus aan de faculteit van Wijsbegeerte in Rotterdam.

Zoals elk KennisCafé zijn ook columnisten Maarten Keulemans en Jelle Reumer van de partij.

Het KennisCafé is een coproductie van De Balie, De Volkskrant, KNAW en Science Center NEMO.

Meer info: http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?podiumid=politiek&articleid=327853

In this article I discern five possible ‘levels’ to understand urban games: (1) the city is often used as a model to construct an architecture of computer and video games; (2) the city itself has historically been understood in multiple ways as a game or playground; (3) pervasive games take digital games out to the streets and bridge the digital-physical distinction; (4) (serious) games are used in the process of (re)building actual cities; (5) urban games are a metaphorical lens through which to look at utopian and dystopian futures of cities. For each of these ‘levels’ I raise some relevant questions.

You can read the article here >> or download a PDF of the article (1,6 MB).

There are a number of other interesting contributions. See the journal’s table of contents.

This is what we’re doing:

• November 5th 20:00-22:00 Keynote with Mark Shepard
  
  location: NAi Auditorium Rotterdam
• November 6th 12:00-17:00 Sentient Rotterdam Workshop with Mark Shepard & The Mobile City. Participation is restricted to registered participants. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to register.
  location: IABR Forum, NAi Rotterdam
• November 6th 17:00-19:00 Opening of the Exhibition The Sentient City Survival Kit. The opening events includes a public presentation of the workshop results.
  
  location: IABR Open Podium, NAi Rotterdam. The Exhibition will last until November 12th. This event is followed by a Pecha Kucha Program at 20:20.
• November 7th 10:00-20:00 Day of the Young Architect with keynote lecture by The Mobile City. Accessible to members of the Bond Nederlandse Architecten (Royal Institute of Dutch Architects).
  location: NAi Auditorium Rotterdam
  

For more information, see The Mobile City website >>.

I’ve written a review of Stephen Graham’s “The Cybercities Reader” (2004) at The Mobile City. Go there >>

[I guess I should try a new front image next time, it's getting routine...]

download presentation (PDF 1.4 MB)

Read review at www.themobilecity.nl >>

Dutch broadcaster VARA’s digital television channel ConsumentenTV has an item (in Dutch) about future visions of the telephone. I am one of the people interviewed for this program. From their announcement:

De mobiele telefoon is niet meer weg te denken uit ons dagelijks leven. We bellen en sms-en ons een ongeluk, veel mensen gebruiken daarnaast internet op hun mobiel, luisteren muziek en kijken films via het apparaatje. Dat wij allemaal een eigen, of zelf meerdere telefoons in ons bezit zouden hebben, had men honderd jaar geleden niet durven dromen: Toekomstvisies over telefonie.

Watch the program on demand >>

Below the files (mostly in Dutch):

090210_hva_mdelange01.pdf – Some slides about campaigning + technical aspects of the mobile phone

090210_hva_mdelange02.pdf – Some slides about locative media

Just saw this very rudimentary urban screen (no interactivity it seems) at the Haarlemmerplein. Apparently with old photos from the neighborhood. The chill and wet snow prevented me from being more inquisitive…

Op zaterdag 13 december om 14.00 uur zal in in het theater in de kelder van Selexyz Donner, Lijnbaan 150 Rotterdam de boekpresentatie zijn van ‘De draagbare lichtheid van het bestaan’. Na een korte introductie op het boek door de redacteuren Valerie Frissen en Jos de Mul wordt het boek aangeboden aan Marie-José Klaver.

==update==

Publiciteit komt los . Vanavond (4 december) om 21:00 op Radio Hoezo! een gesprek met Jos de Mul over het boek.

==update2==

Valerie en Jos zitten op 28 december 2008 in het TV programma Boeken van Wim Brands. Uitzending terugzien.

“De draagbare lichtheid van het bestaan: het alledaagse gezicht van de informatiesamenleving” is a new book (in Dutch) about how new technologies have become part of our everyday use and experience. A group of mostly young researchers and PhD students, including myself, from various universities and institutions have contributed to this volume edited by Valerie Frissen & Jos de Mul. The book is aimed at a non-academic audience who are interested in understanding the role of new technologies in society. The topics of the various chapters range from ambient intelligence, mobile phones, web 2.0, open source, etc. The book explicitly aims to show in what ways these technologies have already become an everyday reality and consequently reaches beyond the common tendency to use utopian and/or dystopian visions to understand their ‘impact’.

List of contributors: Robin van den Akker (University of Birmingham), Bibi van den Berg (EUR), Jop Esmeijer (TNO), Madelon Kuiper (EUR), Michiel de Lange (EUR), Marc van Lieshout (TNO), Sander Limonard (TNO), Awee Prins (EUR), Mijke Slot (EUR/TNO), Marc Steen (TNO) en Stefan Verhaegh (Universiteit Twente).

Publisher: Klement/Pelckmans; ISBN 9789086870301; price: about € 20.

==update==

Book presentation: Saturday December 13 2008 14:00 – 17:00 in Bookstore Donner, Lijnbaan 150 Rotterdam (click for map).

Special guest: Marie-Jose Klaver.

(click to enlarge)

Starting this academic year Jeroen Timmermans, Jos de Mul and I are teaching a new course called “Homo Mobilis: mobility, media & identity” at the Erasmus University Rotterdam as an international masters. The aim of the course is to acquire a deeper understanding of some of the main theories of mobility, and its place in modern history, and to critically rethink the influence of transportation- and (digital) communication mobilities on human identity. The 15-week course schedule looks like this:

Introductory classes

1. First meeting, introduction, practical matters, course outline, syllabus, etc. Thematic overview of the course.

2. From movement to mobility: the concept of mobility.

3. Mobility systems and the mobilities paradigm.

4. A short history of media.

5. Philosophical overview of time/space by Jos de Mul.

Mobility systems

6. Public transport and the time schedule.

7. Airplanes, airports and non-places.

8. Car mobility.

9. Mobile media and smart mobs.

10. ICTs: spaces of flow.

Thematic & critical classes

11. Guest lecture by Lucas Harms (SCP)

12. ‘Liquid identity’ and ‘The corrosion of character’

13. ‘Identity under siege’ and ‘the saturated self’

14. Overshoot: critical perspectives on mobility.

15. Closing session. Presentation of assignments and discussion.

Read more about it, watch photos, and see some video registrations at the conference website’s coverage area.

[update: website structure changed: all content of The Mobile City '08 now here]

The Mobile City conference 27 & 28 February 2008

NAi (Netherlands Architecture Institute) Rotterdam, The Netherlands

“The Mobile City” is a two-day conference about locative & mobile technologies, urban culture and identity. The Mobile City brings academics, architects, urban professionals and media designers together to address the question: what happens to urban culture when physical and digital spaces merge? Keynote speakers are Stephen Graham, Tim Cresswell, Malcolm McCullough and Christian Nold.

Background

The physical, geographical city with its piazza’s, its neighbourhoods and crossings intersects with the ‘virtual space’ of electronic communication-, information- and observation-networks of GSM, GPS, CCTV, UMTS, WIFI, RFID, etc. At the same time, the domain of digital space is increasingly becoming physical, an “internet of things” is emerging. Another example is the rise of ‘pervasive games’, digital games with a physical component in urban space. Is it still useful or even possible to talk about the city as being only physical? Or about the digital world as purely ‘virtual’ (in the sense of ‘not real’ or immaterial)? The physical city and the spaces of digital technologies merge into a new “hybrid space”. Hybrid spaces are shaped by the social processes that concurrently take place in digital and physical spaces. What is the influence of these developments on the ideas we have of time, space and place, citizenship and identity?

Conference questions

Locative and mobile media can be understood as interfaces between the digital domain and the city, as bridges between the social processes that formerly took place in more separated domains (digital or physical) but now are spilling over into each other. The Mobile City will ask the following questions:

• From a theoretical point of view, what are useful concepts to talk about the blurring/merging of physical and digital spaces?

• From a critical perspective, what does the emergence of locative and mobile media mean for urban culture, citizenship, and identities?

• From a professional point of view, what does all this mean for the work of urban professionals (architects, designers, planners), media designers, and academics?

The full program text is available at our website, www.themobilecity.nl/background

Weblog

The conference organizers have set up a special weblog devoted to the themes of the conference at www.themobilecity.nl. Relevant contributions are welcome.

Call for Participation – Workshops

On February 27th two small scale intensive workshops will be held. The first session is about Urban Culture and locative media (with Stephen Graham and Christian Nold), the second session about mobility and new technologies (with Tim Cresswell and Malcolm McCullough). Please send a very brief bio with relevant current and past activities, and short motivation to info@themobilecity.nl. Indicate what you would like to contribute to, and get from the session(s). Only a limited number of places is available. When interest supersedes availability, the organizing committee will select participants. Registration closes at January 31st.

Call for Participation – Project Presentations

During the main conference on February 28th, Keynote speeches will be alternated with short project presentations about locative and/or mobile technologies for artistic purposes, business, research, etc. We are thinking of: locative media art, commercial locative services, pervasive gaming, mobile marketing campaigns, geo-tagging or geo-storytelling, research projects etc. etc. Your presentation will have to fit in 10 minutes, and be as concrete as possible. Your project will also be featured on our website. If you wish to present, please send us an email about your project at info@themobilecity.nl. Please do so before january 31st.

February 27th: Small scale in-depth workshops

February 28th: Main conference with:

* Stephen Graham – Professor of Human Geography, Durham University

* Tim Cresswell – Professor of Geography, University of London

* Malcolm McCullough – Associate Professor University of Michigan

* Christian Nold – Independent artist and lecturer based in London

From the Netherlands, experts such as Rob van Kranenburg (Waag Society), Nanna Verhoeff (University of Utrecht) and Marc Schuilenburg (Free University Amsterdam, Studio Popcorn) will also participate.

Practical

The Mobile City takes place 27 and 28 February 2008 in the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

More info, call for participants, and registration: www.themobilecity.nl.

The conference fee is € 25,-
Organization

The Mobile City is organized by:

* ‘New Media, Public Sphere, Urban Culture’ project at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG).

* ‘Playful Identities’ project at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) and University Utrecht (UU).

* Netherlands Architecture Institute Rotterdam (NAi).

Contact

Conference organizers: Martijn de Waal (RUG), Michiel de Lange (EUR), Oene Dijk (NAi). Email: info@themobilecity.nl

Sponsors

The conference is sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research through the NWO-research program Transformations in Art and Culture.

The Mobile City is kindly sponsored by Dienst Kunst en Cultuur, gemeente Rotterdam.

The conference organization wishes to thank the Vereniging Trustfonds Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam for their kind financial guarantee.