A flock of sparrows in the city of Ghent: a multidisciplinary case study

This article elaborates on the deployment of multipurpose, aesthetic smart objects, called ‘The Sparrows’ in the city of Ghent (Belgium, Europe).  The goals of the integration of the sparrows in the city were two-fold (1) augmenting the social engagement of citizens using a playful aesthetic smart artifact, and (2) exploring the ambient interaction zones with smart artifacts in a city context.  In this article we present the case study carried out on the integration of the smart artifacts in the city and we describe the experiences of the involved citizens with the sparrows and the embedded ambient interactions

Living labs managing the intra-organizational knowledge exchange process when transitioning from closed to open innovation

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An introduction to MAP-it and its uses for a public space context

MAP-it is a participatory mapping method that enables designers to moderate design processes through workshops with diverse participants. It is a low-tech and accessible toolkit that facilitates exchanges and disagreements in a playful but structured manner. MAP-it can contribute in interesting ways to engaging citizens, policy makers, private partners or other participants to participate in public space issues and finding solutions for them.status: publishe

Place@Space. Cross-disciplinary work and tactile interfaces

Every day we transform our surrounding space into proper place. We have our own ways to walk through the city and creatively reorganise our houses. Partly under the influence of new technologies our environment grows in diversity, size and complexity. We cross borders more easily and make faraway, invisible or vanished places “tangible” through television or mobile phone. This, however, stands in tension with the intangibility of all sorts of technological networks in our environment. We are not always aware of the “controlling” power of surveillance cameras, RFID or data banks. It is in the field of tension in between visible and invisible interferences, between actively and passively dealing with the environment where some developments within media art are situated. These projects do not only take the man/technology/environment relationship as a point of departure of an artistic interference, but also as a goal. The work of art is a result of reflecting on the relationship mentioned above, but at its turn wants to intrude on the environment and “tactically” (de Certeau, 1984) reassess the relationship between man, technology and living space. This they do, for example, by making invisible qualities of spaces visible, “writing” spaces or giving tools to people so they can create their place in space themselves. The often – literally - border and discipline transcending media works make a different, often more holistic approach to space possible. The fields of tension between tangible and intangible, place and space and between disciplines serve as the source of inspiration for alternative field studies on “space”. In this research we chose to combine methods in the cultural and visual studies with the artistic and design research to make a more holistic and material approach to the man/technology/environment relationship possible. The study takes shape in a tactile interface that reveals possibilities to develop a creative and enduring relationship with the hybrid environment.status: publishe

MAP-it. The Art of Designing a Participatory Mapping Method

Operating within a complex design context, research group Social Spaces (MAD-Faculty, LUCA/KU Leuven) experiences that solving design problems is not straightforward and sometimes requires the design of new methods. Therefore, Social Spaces designed ‘MAP-it’: a participatory mapping method that enables designers to moderate design processes through workshops with diverse participants. This paper shows how we ‘designed’ MAP-it. First, we will show that we conducted several case studies (of which we illustrate one), allowing us to iteratively evaluate the method. Second, we discuss our exploration of PD literature to research how a method can allow people to exchange and disagree. Third, we provide an insight in the three, connected dynamic layers of MAP-it, designed to facilitate participants’ exchanges and disagreements. A first layer entails the way the method allows participants to visualize ideas through a common language. To provide participants with sufficient agency in the process, a second layer involves MAP-it’s low-tech, cut-and-paste character that allows the ‘redesign’ of this language and the ideas expressed with it. Finally, in a third layer, the method facilitates sharing, essential to make the participatory process redesignable and readable for both participants and third parties not involved in the mapping. Finally, we discuss some concluding remarks.status: publishe

Des dispositifs d’enquête et d’intéressement: susciter l’intérêt, accueillir ce qui importe

Le projet du piétonnier est symptomatique du manque de participation que connaissent de nombreux projets urbains. Ce manque peut être imputé à l'absence de mise en place de dispositifs de participation, mais aussi à l'inadaptation de ces derniers aux contextes, ou encore à leur manque de représentativité et d'inclusion des publics marginalisés. Dans ce texte, les membres du collectif "Espèces Urbaines" reviennent sur la recherche-action qu'ils mènent sur la participation citoyenne, avec le piétonnier comme terrain d'études et d'intervention. En se basant sur des dispositifs d'enquête expérimentaux qu'ils ont développés - des dispositifs d'intéressement - ils tentent d'apporter des pistes pour repenser les dispositifs institutionnels de participation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

La participation urbaine en ses objets: Pour une “respons-abilité” accrue

Rendre les projets urbains pertinents, en accord avec les besoins et aspirations du terrain, voici à quoi rime – du moins en théorie – l’ambition de la participation urbaine. Comment ces aspirations sont-elles réellement tenues et composées ?Et comment pourrait-on améliorer la pertinence des projets vis-à-vis du terrain ?Ces deux questions sont ici abordées par le biais d’un cas vivant et complexe, celui de la mise en place d’une vaste zone piétonne dans le centre de Bruxelles. Plus spécifiquement, elles sont abordées sous un angle d’approche particulier, celui des objets. Qu’est-ce que cela fait de rendre compte de la participation vue au prisme de ses objets ?Objets de la planification, objets de la communication, objets quotidiens, objets critiques, choses publiques… L’approche « objectale » et les tendances concomitantes de l’attention accrue à la matérialité, à l’esthétique et aux entrelacements plus qu’humains nous permettront d’esquisser un programme pour la participation :prendre en compte les objets et les faire compter, afin d’améliorer notre « responsabilité » vis-à-vis du terrain. Making urban projects relevant by having them match the needs and aspirations of their publics, is – at least in theory – what urban participation aims for. But how are these aims pursued and fulfilled? And how can urban projects become even more relevant to the situation in which they intervene? This paper addresses both questions through a lively and complex case study: the recent development of a large pedestrian area in the centre of Brussels. More specifically, this case study is approached through the lens of the objects of urban participation, such as objects of planning, objects of communication, everyday objects, critical objects and public things. Thanks to this “objectal” approach, and an increased attention to materiality, aesthetics and more-than-human entanglements, we prepare the ground for our main claim: in order to improve their “response-ability”, both scholars and urban planners involved in urban participation processes need to take objects into account, not only by accounting for them but also by making them count, by bringing matter to matter.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Repopulating the City: Introducing Urban Electronic Wildlife

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

ZWERM: a modular component network approach for an urban participation game

As information technology is increasingly embedded in our cities, opportunities arise to design novel applications that benefit urban communities. We describe the design and evaluation of ZWERM (Dutch for the term 'swarm'), a public game that was specifically designed for augmenting community participation in urban neighborhoods. A network of ten components has been designed, some of which had different interfaces and design approaches: from totem-like Trees for gathering around with RFID cards to playful Sparrows that react on whistle sounds. After implementing the urban game in two city neighborhoods, we investigated the impact of each of these components on their communities. Our insights are useful for the public interaction design of future urban, interactive networks that aim to positively influence community participation and social cohesion

P-lab database: Base de données éthnographiques sur les formes de participation sur, autour et à propos du piétonnier du centre-ville de Bruxelles

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe