Recently I was invited to give a talk at the wonderful Data Publics event at Lancaster University, March 31 / April 1 & 2, 2017. Thans to the organizers for a great program! Below my keynote talk “Data publics in the smart city” (pdf) 170401-Data-Publics-S
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
To the most recent edition of New Amsterdam Magazine #10 we contributed an article about The Hackable City. Read the article Hacking Buiksloterham: How digital media can democratize city-making (pdf) Read the full version of the Magazine here >>
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.
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
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)
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“.
The weekend edition of Dutch national newspaper NRC Handelsblad on 18 & 19 April 2015 was themed “Living in the Cloud: how the smartphone has changed our life”. I was interviewed for an article called “De mobiele mens: flexibel, creatief en onbetrouwbaar” (paywall). See scan below.
[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
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
[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
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)
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
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
[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
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
Last week I was in Oxford for the workshop “Time Travelers: Temporality and Mapping”. The workshop was organized by the research team of the ERC-funded project “Charting the Digital: digital mapping practices as new media cultures” (Sybille Lammes, Nanna Verhoeff, Clancy Wilmott, Sam Hind, Alex Gekker, and Chris Perkins) based at the University of Warwick (in collaboration with Utrecht University and the University of Manchester) and Jesus College at the University of Oxford. Thanks to the organizers for a great event with many inspiring people and talks! ==== abstract: From realtime city to asynchronicity Michiel de Lange Mapping events in […] Read More
Last year, The Mobile City partnered in the project “Rezone Playful Interventions” about the use of playful design strategies to repurpose vacant spaces. In this project three teams composed of an architect and a game studio collaborated and created a temporary playful urban intervention for a near-vacant factory at the edge of the city center of Den Bosch. The three teams were: Maurer United x Marieke Verbiesen, DUS Architects x Monobanda, ZUS Architects x Fourcelabs. The DUS Architects x Monobanda intervention has also been part of our recent project “Made By Us“. These interventions could be played during a public festival and aimed to engage visitors and stakeholders with the […] Read More
[this post also appears on The Mobile City] As part of the overarching project Made By Us, The New Institute and The Mobile City in collaboration with CMoDA organize a two-day workshop during the Beijing Design Week. In this workshop participants from various professional and national backgrounds address the reuse of former industrial plants through digital media technologies. The site we work with is Shougang Capital Steel Factory in west Beijing, which was abandoned to improve the city’s air quality (read more about the factory’s history). This factory, abandoned is currently being repurposed into a creative industry park and housing […] Read More
Tomorrow is the opening of Rezone Playful Interventions in the almost abandoned factory De Heus in Den Bosch. I have been involved in this project, and will be there of course! See announcement (in Dutch) below. Everyone is welcome! Link to the program booklet >> (pdf 1,6 MB). Toonaangevende Nederlandse architecten en game-studio’s werken samen aan tijdelijke invulling fabriek in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Rezone Playful Interventions, is een project van Bosch Architectuur Initiatief , Digitale Werkplaats en The Mobile City. Opening: 13 september 16:16 De Heus, ‘s-Hertogenbosch Op 13 september om 16:16 uur gaat de eerste culturele activiteit in fabriek De Heus […] Read More