meetings/events Posted on

Tabita Rezaire Lecture and Screening, 5 Oct. 2017

Together with colleagues Koen Leurs and Domitilla Olivieri I organized a Lecture and Screening with media artist Tabita Rezaire, on Oct. 5 2017 in Parnassos Utrecht. Tabita Rezaire PCI: Lecture and Screening In this PCI screening, we have the great honour and privilege to have with us the artist Tabita Rezaire, who will introduce, show and discuss her video work for an hour, followed by a 30 minute Q&A session. We end with drinks. The session is titled Decolonial trinity: technologies of the spiritual, […] Read More

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Video of talk about data in the smart city, Betweterfestival 29 September 2017

For the Betweterfestival on 29 September 2017, I gave a talk about the increasingly dominant role of data in the ‘smart city’. The talk was called “A Walk in the smart city” (Een wandeling in de slimme stad). The talk was in Dutch. See video registration below: Een wandeling in de slimme stad Stel je voor: Je bent vandaag precies op tijd opgestaan dankzij de slimme wekker op je smartphone die in je agenda heeft gezien waar en hoe laat je […] Read More

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Masterclass with Janet Murray, 29 Sept. 2017

On Sept. 29 2017 I co-organized a Masterclass with Janet Murray:In a masterclass with the renowned scholar and interaction designer Janet Murray we shall explore how interactive narratives can help to create engaging experiences, and support people’s critical and problem-solving capacities. During the masterclass, students will work on creating a concept and very rough prototype for such an intertactive narrative, under the guidance of Janet Murray and UU staff. The masterclass is part of a collaboration between Utrecht University’s Media […] Read More

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Moderation session at Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), 27/28 Sept. 2017

As the leader of expertise center Co.Laborations at our department of Media & Culture Studies, I’m setting up and coordinating collaborations with a variety of professional partners, like the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). Co.Laborations is the Media and Culture Studies department Expertise Centre, based at Utrecht University. Co.Laborations aims to foster partnerships between academia and practitioners in the fields of media and culture. With these partnerships we aim to share our knowledge and expertise to a wider circle of professionals and audiences, and in turn learn from professionals in […] Read More

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Workshop “The Right to the Smart City”, 5-6 Sept 2017, Maynooth University

On 5 and 6 Sept 2017 I was invited to give a talk at the workshop The Right to the Smart City: Citizenship, Civic Participation, Urban Commons and Co-Creation, at Maynooth, as part of Rob Kitchin’s The Programmable City project.   Below the video report of the session I was in (session 2: Urban Commons): Here’s the full program of the 2 days: Introduction: Rob Kitchin, The Right to the Smart City. Session 1: Citizenship and the Smart City Katharine Willis (Plymouth, […] Read More

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Report on the Games for Cities conference 20 – 21 April 2017

The Mobile City, HvA, UU, and Play the City together organized the two-day International City-Gaming Conference Games for Cities on 20 – 21 April 2017 at Het Nieuwe Instituut. I moderated the event. The Games for Cities programme hosted the first international conference on city-games, with leading ‘city-game’ design experts from around the world together with urbanists and decision makers, exploring the role for play and games in citymaking strategies. City-games are increasingly prevalent in the daily work of policy-makers, regulators, urban designers, smart city […] Read More

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Workshop with Eric Gordon “Researching Civic Media: Empowering Citizens or Progressive Fallacy?”, 19 April 2017

The Mobile City, HvA, UU, and Play the City co-organized this workshop session with Eric Gordon, Founding director of Engagement Lab at Emerson College & faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Eric Gordon co-edited the book Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (2016). Goal of the workshop Through the discussion of a number of texts and accounts of their own experiences, researchers will discuss the concept of civic media as well as appropriate […] Read More

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New publication “The Hackable City: Citymaking in a Platform Society”

For the journal Architectural Design, we wrote a contribution for the Special Issue: 4D Hyperlocal: A Cultural Toolkit for the Open-Source City. Abstract Can computer hacking have positive parallels in the shaping of the built environment? The Hackable City research project was set up with this question in mind, to investigate the potential of digital platforms to open up the citymaking process. Its cofounders Martijn de Waal, Michiel de Lange and Matthijs Bouw here outline the tendencies that their studies of collaborative […] Read More

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Moderation and co-organizing expert meeting “Imaging [Urban] Data Visualization” 27 Feb. 2017

Date: 27 February 2017 Time: 15:00 – 19:00 Location: Parnassos Bar, Kruisstraat 201, Utrecht Url: http://urbaninterfaces.sites.uu.nl/7481-2/ Imaging [Urban] Data Visualization An expert meeting organized by Datafied Society and [urban interfaces], in collaboration with SETUP MediaLab and MCW Expertise Centre. The goal of this meeting is to facilitate a dialogue between academics and practitioners about the possibilities for innovative, critical and experimental forms of “bringing  back” data to (urban) publics. Or, in other words, we will discuss how creative and critical […] Read More

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Conference talk “Hacking Buiksloterham: How Self-Builders Are Making Their City” at Mediations, RCA London

I presented our work at the TRADERS Closing Conference ‘MEDIATIONS – Art & Design Agency and Participation in Public Space’. The paper is included in the proceedings of the event (ca. 19 MB pdf). Here’s the short version with only our chapter (865 KB pdf): de Lange, Michiel, and Martijn de Waal. 2016. Hacking Buiksloterham How self-builders are making their city. MEDIATIONS_S.

writings Posted on

Essay (in Dutch) “Stories about smart cities: how citizen can identify with their city”

Recently I wrote an essay at the invitation of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). In the essay (Dutch), I argue that the lack of appealing narratives about smart cities is one of the reasons why citizen engagement is still such a big unresolved question. I discuss two emerging alternative narratives that indeed do put people in a central role as agents: the hackable city and the playful city. The essay is included in the booklet “Essay Estafette, reflecties […] Read More

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Talk “Mapping the smart city: dashboards, data, design” at TRADERS Training Week #3 on Performative Mapping

Just before the Summer Break, on July 3 2015, I gave a talk at TRADERS Training Week #3 about Performative Mapping, organized by Design Academy Eindhoven. The talk was called called “Mapping the smart city: dashboards, data, design”. It was based in part on the research I did for the chapter “From real-time city to asynchronicity: exploring temporalities of smart city dashboards.” in the forthcoming volume “Time Travelers: Temporality And Digital Mapping” (eds. Alex Gekker, Sam Hind, Sybille Lammes, Chris Perkins and Clancy Wilmott). See pdf of presentation […] Read More

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In the media(2): article in Dutch newspaper Parool “A truly smart city is a playful city”

For the Saturday May 30 2015 edition of national newspaper Parool (with a strong basis in Amsterdam), I wrote an opinion article called “Een echte slimme stad is een speelse stad” (“A truly smart city is a playful city” – available online in Dutch). See below. Hi-res pdf file of “Een echte slimme stad is een speelse stad“.  

playable_city, now trademarked! :)
writings Posted on

Bristol report – “The Playful City: play and games for citizen participation in the smart city”

[see also announcement on the COST TU1306 website] Here you find the report of the STSM (short-term scientific mission) that I recently carried out at the Digital Cultures Research Centre/Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol: The Playful City: play and games for citizen participation in the smart city This STSM (short-term scientific mission) investigates how digital play and games may contribute to fostering citizen engagement and participation in the smart city. By addressing this question the STSM contributes to ongoing research and debates about […] Read More

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New chapter “The Playful City: Using Play and Games to Foster Citizen Participation”

Just out in a recent publication, a chapter in which I explore the notion of the playful city or playable city as an alternative to the tech-driven smart city. Although written just before my recent trip to Bristol, the ideas in this chapter are closely connected to the “playable city” program at the Digital Cultures Research Centre/Pervasive Media Studio/Watershed. The chapter can be downloaded from here: de Lange, Michiel. 2015. “The Playful City: Using Play and Games to Foster Citizen Participation.” In Social Technologies […] Read More

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Digital Cities 9 workshop “Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change”, 27 June 2015, University of Limerick

[see original workshop page and most up to date announcements on http://www.themobilecity.nl/dc9]   Workshop “Digital Cities 9 – Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change” 27 June 2015, University of Limerick, Ireland, prior to the Communities & Technologies Conference 2015.   DEADLINE EXTENDED until May 8 2015 (24:00 CET) List of organisers and their backgrounds Michiel de Lange (Utrecht University, The Mobile City) Nanna Verhoeff (Utrecht University) Martijn de Waal (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The […] Read More