{"id":1770,"date":"2022-04-01T11:30:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T10:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2022-04-01T11:30:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T10:30:30","slug":"urban-interfaces-seminar-2021-2022-the-magic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/2022\/04\/01\/urban-interfaces-seminar-2021-2022-the-magic-city\/","title":{"rendered":"[urban interfaces] seminar 2021-2022: \u201cThe Magic City\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

With my colleagues from the Utrecht University-based research group [urban interfaces]<\/a>, we’re organizing the 5th edition of our yearly graduate seminar series. This time the theme is The Magic City >><\/a>:<\/p>\n

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THE MAGIC CITY: Of technorationality and spiritual futures \u2013 [urban interfaces] Graduate seminar 2021-2022<\/h3>\n

Dates:<\/strong> 5 April (15:00 \u2013 17:00), 26 April (15:00 \u2013 17:00) and 10 May (14:00 \u2013 17:00 with drinks)
\nVenue<\/strong>: MCW Lab, Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (theater space downstairs), Utrecht.
\nCredits:<\/strong> 3 ECTS (for RMa Students and PhD Candidates only, MA students are welcome to participate, but are not eligible for credits). The seminar series is open to (R)Ma students and PhD candidates
\nOrganized by:<\/strong> https:\/\/urbaninterfaces.sites.uu.nl<\/a>.
\nMore information:<\/strong> urbaninterfaces@uu.nl
\n<\/a>Registration<\/a>\u00a0>> (open from February 21, 2022 onwards)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Modern and technical solutions to complex social problems have long configured urban imaginaries. Planners, designers, and policymakers have embraced the notion of the \u201csmart city\u201d to reshape urban life into a gentrified wonderland for the rich. More often than not, supposedly \u2018smart\u2019 technologies are presented as simple solutions to wicked problems, making them disappear as if by magic. But as smart cities developed, a growing number of theorists, activists, and curators have embraced more speculative and imaginative notions of magic, in order to open up a deliberately unreal what-if space for collective fantasizing about urban futures. Magical thinking in this sense, then, can provide a healthy antidote to Modernist hopes and projections of being able to govern cities by means of (quantified) rational managerialism.<\/p>\n

This seminar brings together scholars, artists, and designers who have productively explored these \u201cmagical\u201d modes of thinking in their work. In embracing the dreamlike, the mystical, and the irrational as central concepts, the Magic City seminar series inspires us to think about urban life and culture along trajectories that move away from \u2013 or reimagine \u2013 quantifiable and commodified technological solutions. Practices of healing and cosmic consciousness are rather approached as alternative ways of knowing that could offer new ways of relating to the planet in distress, and of strengthening urban life as an inclusive, diverse, and imaginative community.<\/p>\n

URL<\/strong>
\nThe seminar is organized by the [urban interfaces] research group at Utrecht University.
\nSeminar website: https:\/\/urbaninterfaces.sites.uu.nl\/seminars\/the-magic-city-urban-interfaces-graduate-seminar-2021-2022\/<\/a>.
\nOn this website we will post the updated program and seminar syllabus.<\/p>\n

Where\/when<\/strong>
\n1) 5 april 2022 15:00 \u2013 17:00
\n2) 26 april 2022 15:00 \u2013 17:00
\n3) 10 mei 2022 14:00 \u2013 17:00 + drinks<\/p>\n

Venue<\/strong>: MCW Lab, Kromme Nieuwegracht 20 (theater space downstairs), Utrecht.<\/p>\n

ECTS<\/strong>
\nResearch Master students can acquire 3 ECTS for the seminar, if they write an illustrated blogpost of about 1000 words for each seminar session (3 in total). The best blogposts are selected for publication on the [urban interfaces] website urbaninterfaces.net.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Session #1 From Technics to Magic – Tuesday 5 April 2022 15:00 – 17:00<\/strong><\/p>\n

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How do we imagine and shape sustainable urban futures? Or as the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale humbly asked:\u00a0“How can we live together?”. Oftentimes, new ‘smart\u2019\u00a0technologies for cities are forwarded as the apex of our enlightened rational approaches to\u00a0any societal challenge. But could it be that we need to change our attitude towards\u00a0our living\u00a0environments, each other, and other creatures at large, instead of applying ever-more technological band-aids onto a system that seems broken beyond repair? Perhaps what is needed is not less but more<\/em> magic. Not the\u00a0type of ‘magical thinking’ that claims to solve complex societal issues with a\u00a0single tech-fix devised by Brilliant Visionaries. But the kind of magic\u00a0that ascribes our living\u00a0environments with agency and moral value, and\u00a0that helps to instil a sense of veneration,\u00a0reenchantment, care and respect for all that envelopes us, and that we may never fully understand or control. In this first session the 2022 [urban interfaces]\u00a0seminar series, we ask the question how in\u00a0this day and age we\u00a0can take magic<\/em> seriously in the face of great urban challenges?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Preparation<\/strong> To get the discussion going and collect input for brainstorm exercises, students are asked to send in advance one image of an urban artwork or situated performance, an everyday experience or encounter, etc. that represents \u201cthe magic city\u201d, plus a very short statement. This will play a role in our discussion, so please send in no later than April 1 12:00 (noon) to urbaninterfaces@uu.nl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Readings<\/strong> We will read sections of these two books:<\/p>\n