“More than just Space” : Designing to Support Assemblage in Virtual Creative Hubs

This paper aims to understand interactions at creative hubs, and how this understanding can be used to inform the design of virtual creative hubs – i.e., social-technical infrastructures that support hub-like interactions amongst people who aren’t spatially or temporally co-located. We present findings from a qualitative field study in UK creative hubs, in which we conducted seventeen observations and ten interviews in three sites. Our findings reveal a range of key themes that define interactions within creative hubs: smallness of teams; neutrality of the hubs; value of the infrastructure; activities and events; experience sharing; and community values and rules. These interactions together form a network and elements that influence one another to make a creative hub more than just physical space. We employ the concept of Assemblage introduced by Deleuze and Guattari to explore this network of interactions and, in doing so, reveal implications for the design of virtual creative hubs that seek to replicate them

Complex Adaptive Systems & Urban Morphogenesis:

This thesis looks at how cities operate as Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). It focuses on how certain characteristics of urban form can support an urban environment's capacity to self-organize, enabling emergent features to appear that, while unplanned, remain highly functional. The research is predicated on the notion that CAS processes operate across diverse domains: that they are ‘generalized' or ‘universal'. The goal of the dissertation is then to determine how such generalized principles might ‘play out' within the urban fabric. The main thrust of the work is to unpack how elements of the urban fabric might be considered as elements of a complex system and then identify how one might design these elements in a more deliberate manner, such that they hold a greater embedded capacity to respond to changing urban forces. The research is further predicated on the notion that, while such responses are both imbricated with, and stewarded by human actors, the specificities of the material characteristics themselves matter. Some forms of material environments hold greater intrinsic physical capacities (or affordances) to enact the kinds of dynamic processes observed in complex systems than others (and can, therefore, be designed with these affordances in mind). The primary research question is thus:   What physical and morphological conditions need to be in place within an urban environment in order for Complex Adaptive Systems dynamics arise - such that the physical components (or ‘building blocks') of the urban environment have an enhanced capacity to discover functional configurations in space and time as a response to unfolding contextual conditions?   To answer this question, the dissertation unfolds in a series of parts. It begins by attempting to distill the fundamental dynamics of a Complex Adaptive System. It does so by means of an extensive literature review that examines a variety of highly cited ‘defining principles' or ‘key attributes' of CAS. These are cross-referenced so as to extract common features and distilled down into six major principles that are considered as the generalized features of any complex system, regardless of domain. In addition, this section considers previous urban research that engages complexity principles in order to better position the distinctive perspective of this thesis. This rests primarily on the dissertation's focus on complex urban processes that occur by means of materially enabled in situ processes. Such processes have, it is argued, remained largely under-theorized. The opening section presents introductory examples of what might be meant by a ‘materially enabling' environment.   The core section of the research then undertakes a more detailed unpacking of how complex processes can be understood as having a morphological dimension. This section begins by discussing, in broad terms, the potential ‘phase space' of a physical environment and how this can be expanded or limited according to a variety of factors. Drawing insights from related inquiries in the field of Evolutionary Economic Geography, the research argues that, while emergent capacity is often explored in social, economic, or political terms, it is under-theorized in terms of the concrete physical sub-strata that can also act to ‘carry' or ‘moor' CAS dynamics. This theme is advanced in the next article, where a general framework for speaking about CAS within urban environments is introduced. This framework borrows from the terms for ‘imageability' that were popularized by Kevin Lynch: paths, edges, districts, landmarks, and nodes. These terms are typically associated with physical or ‘object-like features' of the urban environment – that is to say, their image. The terminology is then co-opted such that it makes reference not simply to physical attributes, but rather to the complex processes these attributes enable. To advance this argument, the article contrasts the static and ‘imageable' qualities of New Urbanism projects with the ‘unfolding' and dynamic qualities of complex systems - critiquing NU proponents as failing to appreciate the underlying forces that generate the environments they wish to emulate. Following this, the efficacy of the re-purposed ‘Lynchian' framework is tested using the case study of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar. Here, specific elements of the Bazaar's urban fabric are positioned as holding material agency that enables particular emergent spatial phenomena to manifest. In addition, comparisons are drawn between physical dynamics unfolding within the Bazaar's morphological setting (leading to emergent merchant districts) and parallel dynamics explored within Evolutionary Economic Geography).   The last section of the research extends this research to consider digitally augmented urban elements that hold an enhanced ability to receive and convey information. A series of speculative thought-experiments highlight how augmented urban entities could employ CAS dynamics to ‘solve for' different kinds of urban optimization scenarios, leading these material entities to self-organize (with their users) and discover fit regimes. The final paper flips the perspective, considering how, not only material agency, but also human agency is being augmented by new information processing technologies (smartphones), and how this can lead to new dances of agency that in turn generate novel emergent outcomes.   The dissertation is based on a compilation of articles that have, for the most part, been published in academic journals and all the research has been presented at peer-reviewed academic conferences. An introduction, conclusion, and explanatory transitions between sections are provided in order to clarify the narrative thread between the sections and the articles. Finally, a brief ‘coda' on the spatial dynamics afforded by Turkish Tea Gardens is offered

Virtual Hubs : Understanding Relational Aspects and Remediating Incubation

We have recently seen the emergence of new platforms that aim to provide remotely located entrepreneurs and startup companies with support analogous to that found within traditional incubation or acceleration spaces. This paper offers an understanding of these `virtual hubs', and the inherently socio-technical interactions that occur between their members. Our study analyzes a sample of existing virtual hubs in two stages. First, we contribute broader insight into the current landscape of virtual hubs by documenting and categorizing 25 hubs regarding their form, support offered and a selection of further qualities. Second, we contribute detailed insight into the operation and experience of such hubs, from an analysis of 10 semi-structured interviews with organizers and participants of virtual hubs. We conclude by analyzing our findings in terms of relational aspects of non-virtual hubs from the literature and remediation theory, and propose opportunities for advancing the design of such platforms

Framing the Startup Accelerator Through Assemblage Theory : A case study of an intensive hub in Indonesia

This article presents how assemblage theory, as taken from Deleuze and Guattari, can be used to understand the intensive approaches of startup accelerators in supporting startup companies. Through a study of a startup accelerator in Jakarta, Indonesia, we present three snapshots to exemplify manifestations of what we argue as the accelerator’s ‘seed accelerator’ form of content and ‘seed funding’ form of expression as well as their reciprocal presupposition to demonstrate the multiplicity of assemblage as the organizational principles of the accelerator. Employing the tenets of formalization and territorialization from assemblage theory to analyze the results, this article shows that the ‘seed accelerator’ form of content is manifested by way of how the accelerator’s bodies of its human elements, activities, events and infrastructure relate and interconnect throughout the accelerator’s 12-week program towards its end point, i.e. fulfilling the stakes for the Final Demo-Day, while, on the other hand, the ‘seed funding’ form of expression is manifested by way of the usage of terms related to fund-raising, expressions of worry and the expectations of the hub management and the VC in preparing the startups for the next level of funding. Moreover, we argue that the formalized function of the accelerator assemblage is to intensively seed scalable startups. This assemblage analysis thus offers an interrelational perspective regarding startup accelerators, and demonstrates the value of formalization and territorialization in assemblage theory to understand the programming arrangements in a startup accelerator

Mobile Utopia:Art and Experiments

The exhibition of 13 international artists, 12 Experiments, a catalogue of essays,and Mobile Utopias conference hosting 180 delegates, launched a new platformfor Art and Mobilities. The exhibition was developed in connection with the world leading Centre for Mobilities Research. In this context, the exhibition aimed to encourage artists, participants and spectators to take a fresh look at experiences of mobility, their connection with each other and space. To consider ways in which the artistic interventions contribute to the reconfiguration of spaces for experimentation, critique, and political communication, creating new organisational forms, and potentially the reformation of mobility regimes. Artworks were selected for the exhibition from an open call, through a rigorous selection process. The artists were from 4 continents: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal & UK and are established and internationally renowned artists. The exhibition included works in video installation, sound art, data sculpture, walking art, book works, performance, networked art and participation. It included the following artists: Kaya Barry, Tess Baxter, Valentina Bonizzi, Fernanda Duarte, Michael Hieslmair & Michael Zinganel, Vicki Kerr, Clare McCracken, Peter Merrington & Ilana Mitchell, Nikki Pugh, Max Schleser, Gerda Cammaer & Phillip Rubery, Samuel Thulin, Christina Vasilopoulou, and Louise Ann Wilson. Published in conjunction with the exhibition a catalogue of critical essays underpinned the concepts. This included an essay by Southern, J., Rose, E.E., O Keeffe, L., Art as a Strategy for Living with Utopias in Ruins and The Mobile UtopiaE xperiment by Bȕscher, M., alongside images and statements by the artists addressing the Mobilities theme.The project attracted a range of funders and sponsors. Followingthe exhibition, the curatorial team Southern, Rose, O Keeffe with Kai Tan established an international network in Art and Mobilities with a further symposium: The UK Art & Mobilities Network Inaugural Symposium held on 3rd July 2018, with 22delegates

Art as a Strategy for Living with Utopias in Ruins

The term ‘utopia’ is problematic. Originating in the Greek for ‘no place’ or ‘good place’ it suggests an ideal that can only be imagined. To imagine utopias could be seen as an unrealistic orientation to a future in which the local impacts of global change will be severe. However, utopian thinking also includes the pursuit of a transformation, it is about how we might strive towards a better future and find strategies for living with dystopic situations. Anthropologist Anna Tsing suggests that we need imagination to grasp the precariousness and unpredictability of contemporary life. She does this through both a metaphorical use of the Matsuke mushroom to imagine the possibility of life in a ruined landscape, and through detailed observations of the lives of mushroom pickers surviving economically in the ruins of capitalism. This parallel practice of imagination and observation also characterises the works in the Mobile Utopia exhibition. Through the works we see utopian plans and ideas come up against the frictions of physical place; where ideas are not only imagined, but attempted, enacted and grappled with. Although all the art works are distinctly mobile, they are grounded by the frictions that the artists unearth, enact and perform through investigations of situated and spatial practices. We suggest that the processes and journeys that produced the art works can be thought of as strategies for living and making meaning in the ruins of capitalism. We have grouped the works into three themes: an exploration of infrastructures that enable particular kinds of mobilities; the negotiation of identity on the move and in relation to changing geographies; and the questioning of veracity of or within distributed, networked and mediated mobilities. The themes often overlap within the works as the artists navigate between material geographies, mobile lives and distributed networks. The works are not propositions for the future, they are all explicitly grounded in the way that past, present and future are entangled in a complex relation to each other and to the frictions of location. While reminding us of past ideas of utopian planning they also offer new ways to make critical observations

Virtual Mega-event Imaginaries and Worldmaking Imperatives in Rio 2016

Mega-events of the Olympic proportions have multiple consequences for their hosts. For Brazil, hosting two in a limited time (the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games of 2016) has energised diverse and bilateral movements of ideas, human resources, technologies and labour. Mobilities enabled by Western technology (the Internet and its social media circuits) seem to have the most notable impact on the style and principles of Brazilian self-presentation to the world, thus making, demaking and remaking Brazilian character as a commodity. More specifically, the developing Rio 2016 website seems to project particular Brazilian worldviews to global audiences while concealing other, less palatable social realities (such as those of favela poverty, unemployment and protest) to potential visitors. Whereas favela cultures and the culture of Brazilian protest have diachronically contributed to the development of Brazilian socio-cultural identity and well-being, they have been side-lined or beautified in these digital self-narrations. The chapter takes a balanced view on these omissions and representations in view of the real pressures national polities have to address in international mega-event markets. It considers these digital discourses as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they align particular versions of Brazilian ethno-cultural self-narration with cosmopolitan cultures of travel to enable Brazil’s belonging in an international community of nations; on the other, they allow neoliberal networks to take over the governance of ethno-national habitus, thus either excluding vulnerable populations or coercing them into joining unregulated (tourist/consumption) markets in a battle for survival. Through an analysis of the Rio 2016’s web content, it is suggested that the host city’s creative imaginaries of habitus prioritise ideas of safe cosmopolitan travel, happiness and civilised exoticism to design and fully align Brazilian self-narration with the expectations of the global tourist gaze, ear, nose and palate. Whereas such self-presentations support a radical vision of Brazilianness in relation to well-being (communicating with embodied vividness, friendliness, hospitality and an ‘open’ reciprocal ethos), as tourist imaginaries they provide a partial view of the country’s socio-cultural realitie