Liveable Open Public Space - From Flaneur to Cyborg

Open public spaces have always been key elements of the city. Now they are also crucial for mixed reality. It is the main carrier of urban life, place for socialization, where users rest, have fun and talk. Moreover, “Seeing others and being seen” is a condition of socialization. Intensity of life in public spaces provides qualities like safety, comfort and attractiveness. Furthermore, open public spaces represent a spatial framework for meetings and multileveled interactions, and should include virtual flows, stimulating merging of physical and digital reality. Aim of the chapter is to present a critical analysis of public open spaces, aspects of their social role and liveability. It will also suggest how new technologies, in a mixed reality world, may enhance design approaches and upgrade the relationship between a user and his surroundings. New technologies are necessary for obtaining physical/digital spaces, becoming playable and liveable which will encourage walking, cycling, standing and interacting. Hence, they will attract more citizens and visitors, assure a healthy environment, quality of life and sociability. Public space, acting as an open book of the history of the city and of its future, should play a new role, being a place of reference for the flaneur/cyborg citizen personal and social life. The key result is a framework for understanding the particular importance of cyberparks in contemporary urban life in order to better adapt technologies in the modern urban life needs

Space Digitization as a Tool to Enhance the Identity of Historic Public Space

The 21st century is the era of new technologies, Internet, overall digitalization, and the applications that represent a major advance in science and technology. On the other hand, these innovative technologies have had a very challenging impact on various social activities. People are spending more time in a virtual space, instead going out, socialising or enjoining outdoor recreation. Despite this, digitalization has also led to new ideas and directions for creativity, such as the creation of various applications that can encourage human mobility and interaction in the open space of a settlement. Accordingly, these applications can supplement and upgrade the values of existing open spaces, adding them a new, ‘digitized’ dimension. This opportunity especially comes to light when these open spaces, such as public squares, streets or quays, contain the elements of culture and heritage that make up their identity. The aim of this paper is to examine the level which the digitalization of heritage, history, tradition, and culture is presented in open spaces in Serbia, including public squares and promenades, as well as heritage sites outside settlements. Based on this, a list of the nationally promoted digitized culture and heritage is formed, while few best-practice examples are elaborated. The focus is on their connection to real space and its identity. Therefore, all enlisted items are mapped. In that sense, the final contribution of the research is to understand the role of these innovative applications in the revitalisation and activation of open public spaces based on this new dimension of their identity

CyberParks: The interface between people, places and technology

This open access book is about public open spaces, about people, and about the relationship between them and the role of technology in this relationship. It is about different approaches, methods, empirical studies, and concerns about a phenomenon that is increasingly being in the centre of sciences and strategies – the penetration of digital technologies in the urban space. As the main outcome of the CyberParks Project, this book aims at fostering the understanding about the current and future interactions of the nexus people, public spaces and technology. It addresses a wide range of challenges and multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging phenomena related to the penetration of technology in people’s lifestyles - affecting therefore the whole society, and with this, the production and use of public spaces. Cyberparks coined the term cyberpark to describe the mediated public space, that emerging type of urban spaces where nature and cybertechnologies blend together to generate hybrid experiences and enhance quality of life

Urban Social Sustainability - Case Study; Gellerupparken–Denmark

Urban social sustainability represents a more specific part of urban development. Citizen involvement is a vital element of any future urban social development and helps to maintain the vision of human and diverse cities because it provides vibrant and sustainable cities in which everyone has a seat and can speak. Gellerupparken, as something new, also meets all five criteria for when an area is a ghetto during a given year. The criteria generally consist of income, ethnic origin, level of education, crime, and employment. The study’s aim is to present an objective means, to the reactivation of a passive multicultural zone in Aarhus city of Denmark to integrate it in the social life city by using the appreciative inquiry method by an introduction of new city functions. The study will assume the effect of sustainability in an urban social area, in a case study using the application of the pedagogical method, namely, the “appreciative inquiry” method

Producing space and reproducing capital in London's Olympic Park: an ethnography of actually-existing abstract space

This thesis examines the relationship between the production of urban space and the reproduction of capital. Taking the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a case study, I conducted ethnographic research during the London 2012 Olympics and the Park's first 'Legacy' year. My research proceeded from an embodied walking practice (which prompted reflection on my transgender presentation as a complicating factor), and also included interviews and archival research. My analysis centres on Henri Lefebvre, situating his work on space within a concern for the relationship between everyday life and the concrete abstractions constituted therein. Taking this relationship as essential to the reproduction of capital, I explore the production of the Olympic Park as an actually-existing abstract space that mirrors the dual character of the value form. I open my account of this production with the Olympic festival, a total social moment mobilised towards the realisation of value. I then examine each of Lefebvre's three formants of abstract space in turn. I present the construction of the Park as the materialisation of an abstractly conceived space designed to incorporate a disordered post-industrial space into a new mode of accumulation. I frame the inhabitation of the Park in its Legacy era as a temporalisation of empty space, arguing that abstract time is co-constituted with abstract space in internally contradictory everyday practice. And I address the incorporation of the Park into a set of post-industrial, anti-urban, and leisureoriented spaces that form a representational space reflective of the movement of capital in its ascendant, financialised, form. I conclude with a discussion of the Olympic Park as 'catalyst', securing the reproduction of capital by encouraging further redevelopment, but also sharpening capital's contradictions as an abstract space in conflict with its own concrete content, predicated on the subsumption of the utopian potential of everyday life

Para além do controle: estratégias para a agência do design no Antropoceno

This thesis provides a moral appeal. It sets out to inspire makers, doers and thinkers to strategically act, beyond control, in knocking at the door of socio-ecological crisis in Anthropocene. What is the role of design in the Anthropocene? What kind of ethical principles can be considered? And what does this imply for ‘response-able’ practices? These questions bind together the non-linear assemblage that this thesis is. Action, reflection, problem and solution are interdependent and unfold together, like the petals of a blooming rose. Complexity may be absorbed with honesty rather than with confidence. The voice in this thesis is an ‘I’, and ‘I’ am an ecological constructivist. The grounds for ecological constructivism are inter-personal or rather inter-actor relationships. Places, objects, processes and organisms are seen as entangled entities and are approached with a ‘tentacular’ sensitivity: the humanities’ object of study is no longer ‘man.’ Research and researcher, life and the living, site and situation are inevitably interwoven. Every ‘thing’ and every ‘action’ are data. The data is collected through a personal, subjective lens combining design practice with theory. It is assumed that when carried out trough time, with honesty and integrity, research (about, through and for design) can bring us closer to morphs of truth. With a creative hunch, I collect clues as a hunter-gather. By coding, categorizing and interpreting like a detective, with frames such as ‘entanglement’, ‘submergence’ and ‘contamination’ the research employs the method of abduction to develop constructs and theories. These are then used to build the argument for seven moral pleas meant as persuasions: normative aspirations for design agency in the Anthropocene. Design actions may focus on themes such as: unfolding together; responding beyond control; loving our monsters; an obligation to disobedience; form follows potential and being into Anthropocene fiction. The journey then concludes with a re-enchantment of decency towards all that matters, an animistic approach with pragmatic logic that sees the wellbeing of humans, animals and environments as deeply connected. Human interventions would preferably set out to enable autonomous ‘sympoeitic’ stewardship of the planet by including intentions for the unintentional. The implications of this research are related to context and method. A recursive use of a myriad of methodologies, playing their role at different moments of the research, may have given completely different results in another context, which may not appeal to all researchers. Eventually the exploratory, rather than explanatory nature of this research, revealed one thing: the main aim is not to achieve results, but to create a stage on which many perspectives can unfold: the result is that results are not all that counts. Attitude, rather than telos, lies at the heart of design agency beyond control.Esta tese oferece um apelo moral. Tem como objetivo inspirar os criadores, realizadores e pensadores a agirem estrategicamente, além do controle, batendo à porta da crise socioecológica no Antropoceno. Qual é o papel do design no Antropoceno? Que tipo de princípios éticos podem ser considerados? E o que isso significa para práticas "capazes de responder"? Essas questões a não linearidade metodológica desta tese. Ação, reflexão, problema e solução são interdependentes e desdobram-se juntos, como as pétalas de uma rosa desabrochando. A complexidade pode ser absorvida com honestidade e não com confiança. A voz nesta tese é um 'eu' e 'eu' sou um construtivista ecológico. As bases para o construtivismo ecológico são as relações interpessoais, ou melhor, entre os atores. Lugares, objetos, processos e organismos são vistos como entidades entrosadas e são abordadas com uma sensibilidade 'tentacular': o objeto de estudo das humanidades não é mais 'homem'. Pesquisa e pesquisador, vida e vivência, local e situação estão inevitavelmente entrelaçados. Cada "coisa" e cada "ação" são dados. Os dados são coletados por meio de lentes subjetivas e pessoais, combinando a prática do design com a teoria. Presume-se que, quando realizada ao longo do tempo, com honestidade e integridade, a investigação (sobre, por meio de, e, para design) pode aproximar-nos de formas de verdade. Com um palpite criativo, coleto pistas como um caçador-coletor. Ao codificar, categorizar e interpretar como um detetive, com quadros como "entrosamento", "submersão" e "contaminação", a pesquisa emprega o método de abdução para desenvolver construções e teorias. Estas são então usadas para construir o argumento para os sete fundamentos morais significados como persuasões: aspirações normativas para agência de design no Antropoceno. As ações de design podem concentrar-se em temas como: desdobramento conjunto; respondendo além do controle; amar nossos monstros; uma obrigação de desobediência; a forma segue o potencial e o ser (existência) na ficção do Antropoceno. A viagem então termina com um reencantamento da decência em relação a tudo o que importa, uma abordagem animista com uma lógica pragmática que vê o bem-estar de humanos, animais e ambientes profundamente conectados. Intervenções humanas seriam preferencialmente estabelecidas para permitir a administração "simpoeítica" autónoma do planeta, incluindo as intenções para o não ntencional. As implicações desta investigação estão relacionadas com o contexto e com o método. O uso recursivo de uma miríade de metodologias, desempenhando o seu papel em diferentes momentos da investigação, poderá dar resultados diferentes em outros contextos, o que poderá não ser consensual na comunidade científica. Por fim, o caráter exploratório, ao invés de explicativo, desta investigação revelou que o objetivo principal não é alcançar resultados, mas criar um palco no qual muitas perspetivas possam desdobrar-se: o resultado é que os resultados não são tudo o que conta em investigação mas a jornada é em si também um aspeto importante. Atitude, ao invés de perseguir um fim (telos), está na essência de design agency consciente da impossibilidade de controle.Programa Doutoral em Desig

The curator-as-accomplice : a self-reflexive and exhibition history study of contemporary art curation in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts, Massey University Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

This thesis contributes a new description of curating termed the curator-as-accomplice which is derived from and tested against examples of contemporary art curatorial practice situated in Aotearoa New Zealand. The ‘curator-as-accomplice’ is defined as a mode of creative and co- operative practice that resists the tendency to centralise curating by working complicitly alongside others to support their unrealised potential. The notion of ‘accomplice’, in association with curating, has received scholarship by Valentina Desideri and Stefano Harney but has not previously been developed into a conceptual framework applied to practice. By addressing this gap, this research provides an original contribution to knowledge via a self-reflexive approach analysing four exhibitions together with related exhibition history research surveying exhibitions within Aotearoa (1970–2020). Given the specific focus on practice situated within Aotearoa, this research has additional significance with regard to how to how the curator-as-accomplice performs both within a post-imperial, colonial context and in relation to Pākehā (New Zealand European) bias

The impacts of mega events: a case study of visitor profiles, practices and perceptions in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, East London

In 2012, London successfully hosted the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The main legacy of hosting the event is the 560 acre, mixed use Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park located in Stratford in the heart of London s former industrial East End. The Park is located across the four Park Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, each distinct in character but shaped by similar trends of urban regeneration and gentrification. This research examines the profiles, practices and perceptions of visitors to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as an impact study of mega events conducted within five years after the London Olympics. It draws on research about mega events and urban regeneration with a focus on sports science and geography that has largely neglected visitor experiences as an outcome of mega events. Based on a mixed methods approach combining a longitudinal face-to-face visitor survey conducted over two years, a postal survey among local schools, and interviews with stakeholders, this thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by proposing a new conceptual framework on mega event legacy and empirical findings on the use and perceptions of The Park by local, regional, national and international visitors. The conceptual approach (Chapter 3) bridges the two distinct literatures of mega-event legacy theory (and more broadly the sports literature) and actor-network theory. The framework allows for the study to approach the research questions from a tridic actor-network perspective, examining how material, immaterial and mainly human dynamic hybrids co-exist in complex webs of relations. It also allows for the unravelling of how these relations have given rise to impacts tied to the developments in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This unravelling is explored through the remainder of this thesis. Following the description and analysis of methods used in the thesis (Chapter 4), Chapter 5 provides a historic overview of the four Park Boroughs that define the study area of the thesis. The shifting nature of this multicultural area is contextualised in light of several catalytic events (industrialisation, de-industrialisation and finally the Olympic Games). At the heart of this examination is the intention to show that despite the narratives pedalled by policy makers, planners and politicians, areas of East London were inhabited by groups who for several centuries symbiotically produced and reproduced their own diverse identities and ultimately that of East London. Chapter 6 analyses and critiques 35 policy documents released during the Olympic cycle (broadly defined here as the period between 2003 and 2012) and follows both the visible and invisible actants. The key findings are that: poorly executed event planning is inextricably linked to a poor implementation of local community interests; there were unheard and excluded voices, particularly the disadvantaged and displaced, in these policy and planning documents and; that there was little opportunity for the youth voice to be heard. Finally, the analysis of policy documents has underlined the value of reflecting on legacy promises from a longer-term perspective, suggesting that the legally binding bid books should be compared with the actual outcomes from a long-term perspective. The typical visitor to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (Chapter 7) is a white middle-aged male or female (71% over age 25, ~50/50 male and female). They will be visiting the sports facilities and their frequency of use suggests that they have monthly membership to one of the leisure centres. This indicates that they have a relatively high level of both social capital and disposable income. They will reside within the Park Boroughs, often within walking distance of the Park or close to a transport link with a direct transport connection, probably by the Underground system. They will not often visit the Park with under 18s and if they do visit with anyone, it will be their partner or friend, and thus they resemble very closely the typical affluent gentrifier couples. The term experience athlete was coined for these visitors with 53% being from the Park Boroughs. In addition, there were those who came to sight-see, designated as Games tourists of whom 56% of these were international visitors. While ~20% of the visitors to the Park were under age 18 most of these were under 12s attending with their parents. Young people and particularly young people from the Park Boroughs were largely absent from the Park, which was contributed to by discriminatory practices (often under the guise of security issues) which focused on groups of ethnic minority youth. The possible reasons for the absence of young people from the Park are explored and unravelled in Chapter 8 by discussing the results of the semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders and the postal survey with school staff. The key issues raised in this chapter were that: the lack of a representative youth voice with a hidden and perceived to be cosmetic contribution to legacy planning and; the lack of social and financial capital in school staff and young people in combination with the gentrifying process and; spatial factors such as distance from the Park and poor acces routes, all contributed to the absence of young people from the Park. Overall, this thesis stresses the importance of unravelling networks to their fullest extent to truly understand the impact such spaces have on diverse communities

Feeling difference: history, encounter and the affective life of a postcolonial neighbourhood

In this dissertation I develop an account of Observatory, a neighbourhood of Cape Town, South Africa, and its fem (cis- and transwomen, feminine men and gender non-conforming) residents, to show how place history, personal identity and everyday encounters come to be co-constituted through affect. I argue that structures of feeling - overarching historical affects - and the feeling of structures - embodied experiences of historical affects and structures of difference, including race, class and gender - shape life over the long durée and in the immediacy of encounters. As different but connected affective scales they elucidate how fems, usually cast as subjugated in urban life, are implicated in the unfolding of history, how they accomplish specific trajectories, and unexpectedly summon the past or future through embodied encounters. Through intimate, visceral, but deeply social and historical ways of knowing their own bodies and others, fems feel out, enact and make differences daily. These differences are constructed relationally, not just hierarchically, as identities and histories are reconstituted and power geometries shift from encounter to encounter. This dissertation is purposefully transdisciplinary and seeks an intersectional sociological understanding of embodied affect through an expansive view of the gender-based violence literature, urban and diversity studies, and critical race and queer theory. It combines exploratory archival work, in-depth interviews with twenty fems, and ethnographic observation to produce a historically grounded and empirically rich take on the relationship between urban space, postcolonial time, and everyday forms of difference, embodiment and encounter. In doing so, it straddles a concern for how fems make liveable lives in contexts of gendered insecurity, but also for how their strategies may in turn operationalise other historically entrenched forms of difference, particularly race, thus constructing and endangering others. In this dissertation, I re-illuminate a familiar, although underexplored, race-gender-space encounter. I denaturalise not only the white, global north ciswoman as the focus of inquiry into gendered city life, but also her presumed position of oppression. By addressing a range of fem positionalities in Observatory, I argue instead that fems can and do access histories of power, shaped by colonialism and apartheid. This highlights fem capacity to effect and affect urban space and those within. In addition, I develop an empirical ground for the study of affect that attends to life as lived and emplaced, and that provides an analysis of postcolonial affects from the global south. In this way I push beyond narrow developmentalist approaches to global south cities to bring their rich affective life into focus