HYBRID CITY II: Subtle rEvolutions

The HYBRID CITY II: Subtle rEvolutions
Conference, workshops, exhibition and parallel events
23-25 May 2013
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
www.media.uoa.gr/hybridcity


Call for projects

Hybrid City II, in collaboration with the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST) addresses a call for projects relevant to this year's conference theme, "Subtle rEvolutions". Works will be presented as part of an online exhibition to be launched during the Hybrid City events and will also be on view at the Media Lounge of the Museum.


Theme

ICTs, whether mobile, wireless or embedded in persistent architectural forms, facilitate the collection and dissemination of data, infusing the physical expression of the city with digital layers of content, contributing thus to the emergence of new hybridized spatial logics and novel forms of social interaction. These systems and the hybrid spatial experience they afford, encourage encounters among users; both embodied and mediated, and influence community dynamics, giving rise to networks around common interests and collectives of affect. Sometimes, such groups, irrespective of how ephemeral, unstable and dispersed they may be, negotiate a new kind of engagement with the urban environment and civic life, suggesting thus an organizational paradigm that manages to surpass traditional vertical hierarchies of space and consequently of power and control. Such configurations among communities, locations, contexts and intentions were manifested intensely in the interlinking of protest events around the world since 2011, the Arab Spring uprisings, the Occupy movement and anti-austerity demonstrations in Southern Europe, but they also gradually permeate everyday life in the contemporary metropolis.
As sharing and collaborative tactics migrate from online culture to the urban realm and ICTs become increasingly open and personalized, rich opportunities for new forms of participation in civic life arise. Citizens may be enabled to access information about the city and also to become involved in the production, collection and distribution of data related to urban matters. Hybrid City considers a further investigation of such processes of crucial importance, so as to gain a deeper understanding of the effect they have on the urban experience and to explore their contribution in shaping the future cities.


Topics of interest:


• Open cities, open urban data.
• Environmental sensing and the Internet of things.
• Urban data visualization.
• Environmental perception, cognition, immersion and presence in the context of hybrid urban spaces.
• Citizen science and peer production of knowledge.
• Psychosocial perspectives into the impact of locative and pervasive media use.
• Placemaking, place attachment and place identity in the hybrid city.
• Cartography of hybrid spaces.
• Mobile commons and wireless practices.
• Public spaces and mediated presence.
• Gamifying the urban space: playful engagement and game-like citizenship.
• Hybrid spaces of conflict: forms of power and counterpower in the networked city.
• Tactical media practices in the urban context.
• From open data to data commons.
• Open source models of policy and governance.
• Emerging currencies and values.
• Issues of data ownership and copyrights in hybrid urban contexts.


Questions addressed:

• Openness vs. privacy. How much openness do we really need? Is there a danger in too much openness actually leading to transparency?
• Whose data is open data? Who has access to them and who could potentially make a profit out of them?
• How can citizens become motivated to contribute? How do they remain actively involved? Who benefits from such collective contributions?
• Are there any dangers in the city becoming too smart? What are potential tactics of disruption of such an emergence?


In this context, we welcome submissions of works that reflect the changes and dynamics of today’s cityscape and offer citizens new modes of information processing and understanding. We wish to present critical perspectives and initiatives which are rEvolutionary, in the sense that through originality and innovation they contribute to shaping the future of the hybrid city, bringing forth change, perhaps subtle or gradual, but radical nonetheless.


This can include, but is not limited to:


• online or downloadable digital tools,

• urban data visualizations,

• data flow mappings, digital cartographies,

• models for emerging alternatives,

• online documentation of innovative practices and tactics.

Projects do not need to be strictly net-based but they do need to provide sufficient information online.
Projects which will not involve digital technology in their production and do not refer to the theme addressed in this call will not be considered.

Submissions should include:


• A 300 word description of the project.

• A 200 word biographical description of the creator/s.

• URL of the project and other related links.

• Technical specifications.

Deadline: 8 February 2013
Please submit your project online: www.media.uoa.gr/hybridcity

All projects will be reviewed and selected by curators from the “Hybrid City II” organization committee, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens and the partner institutions (BIS and CIANT).

Please note that creators wishing to have their work published as a paper and presented in the conference must have already submitted an abstract under the call for papers.

The “Hybrid City” events are realized in the context of the “City as a Hybrid Interface – HYBRI-C” project of the EACEA Culture programme 2007-2013 (the partners in the project are: URIAC, Athens, BIS – Body Process Arts Association, İstanbul, CIANT, Prague and Fearless, Marseille). For more information on the project visit: http://hybri-city-project.eu/.

For any queries or further info please contact us at: hybridcityathens [at] gmail [dot] com