meetings/events Posted on

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 experts and architects. The Games for Citiesprogramme contributes to this maturing field of city-making in two ways: by generating a critical and holistic […] 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 research frameworks for civic media, including ‘research by design’ approaches. How can we build a research agenda that is both critical and […] Read More

writings Posted on

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 urban development initiatives around the world have revealed, and ask whether knowledge sharing and incremental change might be a better […] 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 data visualizations allow urban publics to become aware of, and engage with, issues of public, shared concern, and to subsequently […] Read More

meetings/events, writings Posted on

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 op de toekomst van de digitale overheid”. It contains other essays about ICTs, government and citizens, by Bas Haring, Jos […] Read More

announcements Posted on

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 below. 150703_Michiel_de_Lange-Urban_Dashboards-TRADERS-s (pdf 2.5 MB)

announcements, featured Posted on

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 people-centric perspectives of the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and urban public spaces, which is the main aim […] Read More

play, writings Posted on

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 and Collective Intelligence, edited by Aelita Skaržauskien?, 426-434. Vilnius: Mykolas Romeris University. [pdf 780 KB]. See also the presentation (“The Playful […] 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 Mobile City) Marcus Foth (Queensland University of Technology) Martin Brynskov (Aarhus University)   Contact: Martijn de Waal & Michiel de […] Read More

meetings/events, play Posted on

The Playful City: Can play and games help to make truly smart cities?

This is the presentation for the talk that I gave at the Playin Siegen International Urban Games Festival & Seminar on Sunday 19 April 2015, for which I was kindly invited by Judith Ackermann, Anke Lenk and Daniel Stein. The title of the talk is “The Playful City: Can play and games help to make truly smart cities?”. The Playful City: Can play and games help to make truly smart cities? (pdf, 1.5 MB)

announcements, meetings/events Posted on

The Playful City: a short term scientific mission in Bristol

End of March/beginning of April 2015 I will visit the Digital Cultures Research Centre UWE based at the Pervasive Media Studio in the Watershed in Bristol. My aim is to do a short inquiry into the notions of the “playable city” and “playful city” as people-centered alternatives for the “smart city”. Funded by EU COST Action 1306, my aim is to do the following: The Playful City: play and games for citizen participation in the smart city Michiel de Lange   This proposal and working plan for a STSM (short-term scientific mission) asks how digital play and games contribute to fostering citizen participation in […] Read More

Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures
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Book “Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures” now available as free pdf

It is a pleasure to announce that the edited volume “Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures” has been published by Amsterdam University Press. The book will also be made available as a freely downloadable Open Access publication via http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=524070. Below the kind endorsements by Mathias Fuchs and Douglas Rushkoff, the Table of Contents, and the cover.  “Playful Identities is an illuminating study on the increasing complexity of digital playgrounds, ludic media, ludic interfaces and technologies of the self. The book presents a variety of roles and identities such as: players, learners, gamblers, users, fans, role-players, theory crafters, cheaters, and digital savages.” […] Read More

announcements Posted on

NWO KIEM funds new research program “Hackable Metropolis Amsterdam”

[announced earlier at The Mobile City website >>] We are happy to announce that NWO (the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) has granted funding to our research project “Hackable Metropolis Amsterdam: investigating the future of city-making in urban lab Buiksloterham”. The project is a collaboration between Michiel de Lange (project leader; Utrecht University, The Mobile City) & Martijn de Waal (University of Amsterdam, The Mobile City), Christina Ampatzidou (embedded researcher UvA/CIRCA), Matthijs Bouw (One Architecture), in partnership with Frank Alsema (Vereniging Buiksloterham). It builds on our existing collaboration with One Architecture around the notion of ‘the hackable city’ (see our […] Read More

Meet Your Stranger - Sander Veenhof
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Teaching a new course in minor “Creative Cities” (English) 2014-2015

Next academic year 2014-2015 I will teach a new course in the Utrecht University minor “Creative Cities” (in English), together with my colleagues Sigrid Merx, Eugene van Erven and Peter Selten. My course is called “Creative urban technologies: exploring and navigating the smart and social city“. Download the Minor Creative Cities brochure concept (pdf) for an overview of this minor. The minor Creative Cities caters to students interested in emerging artistic practices, subcultures and new media and how these phenomena relate to creative dynamics in society. Investigating cities, urban citizenship and the multidimensional dynamics between them obviously suggests an interdisciplinary academic approach while […] Read More