Tinkering Toward Utopia – Anthony Townsend
The reading seems to suggest that an artificial design like a suburb or maybe a ‘smart city’ results in failure because it lacks the opportunity for spontaneity or natural organic occurrences. But at the same time ‘DIYcity was a completely designed artificial organization that promoted interaction and participation, and was a success.
– How can we ensure that the direction we are moving in, creating smart cities from scratch and telling people to inhabit them and participate, is successful in the long run?
– Could smart cities have the potential to “live out a natural cycle” like Foursquare or DIYcity?
– Could we find a way to integrate the idea of the smart city with the idea of a ‘natural city’ like Alexander describes?
Engaging the Idiot in Participatory Digital Urbanism – Jennifer Gabrys
“If technologies are put to the test in these contexts, then participation becomes articulated through actual registers of engagement rather than as hypothetical platforms and gestures toward the common good. Idiots and idiotic encounters might even proliferate in these encounters and activate new approaches to the project of participation in the digital and sensor-based city.”
– What percentage of potential inhabitants of a smart city could be expected to act ‘idiotic’?
– Do all citizens have a tendency to act this way at some point or another?
– Are ‘idiotic’ citizens essential to the spontaneity of a “natural city” or rather a successful smart city?