Spaces are evolving as a result of designers’ works and the behavior of people interacting in them. This behavior is not only an outcome of the designed environment, but also a result of natural and sociopolitical complexities. Today’s technologies relate “designed environments” and “social rules” as two separate objectives in such a way that new digital platforms are becoming both environments to live in and platforms to change. “Ingress” and “Pokémon GO” are popular examples of mobile games that are changing the way people use urban spaces.

My research is based on the intersection of Online Social Networks, including their limits and potential, Civic Media strategies for maximum engagement, and Smart Distributed Networks. My primary imagination of the outcome, whether practical or speculative, is a self-governing system based on user participation input and data gathered by sensory networks.

This system, which should be situated in a limited context, is an attempt to represent a sample of living in the future of self-regulating social systems. This system contains evolving agents; at one side is the minimized state of a centralized management and on the other side is in the maximized civic engagement mode. The form of presentation could be an urban mobile game, a physical installation, a screen based simulation, or a combination of the aforementioned.
Though my research should be narrowed during the semester, I am trying to find answers to questions such as:
– What we can learn from the effects of social media algorithms on politics in society?
– How might decision makers be replaced by systems trained by artificial intelligence and machine learning?
– How do new modes of communication and cooperation between citizens change our cities?
– How can digital spaces maximize civic engagement?