A few weeks ago I had a chance to represent Edigma at the Zoom Smart Cities 2016 conference and talk a little bit about interactivity, art and technology in the public space.

1. Smart Cities:
Interactivity,
Art & Technology.
ZOOM SMART CITIES 2016

2. ‘Being smart is being able to
quickly adapt to changes in
the ecosystem.’
WHAT IS ‘SMART’?
Bill Buxton
Principal Researcher, Microsoft

3. ST. MARK SQUARE, VENICE 2012

4. Great interaction
builds great experiences.
At EDIGMA we look very closely to all new forms of communication and are often
inspired by art that is able to generate new and unexpected relations between
existing infrastructure, the surrounding context and its dwellers.
MAKE IT INTERACTIVE

5. Conceived as a dynamic,
interactive landscape, Impulse
responds to how it is used,
allowing the public to complete
the work.
The seesaws form repetitive units
of light and sound that can be
activated and played by the public
to create a temporal, ever-
changing event.
Vimeo
IMPULSE, MONTREAL 2016

6. We need to think beyond
technology to engage and
motivate communities.
TECHNOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH
There’s a huge infrastructural component which is part of the smart city definition but
an even bigger part is perhaps the social and experience capital generated for and by
the people of that city towards achieving their objectives.

7. OSAKA, JAPAN 2011
Since 2011, the Kingyobu
collective has reprocessed and
reinstated old phone booths in
Osaka as urban aquariums filled
with squirming, live goldfish.

8. ‘For most of us, design is
invisible until it breaks,
until it fails.’
GOOD DESIGN IS SEAMLESS
Bruce Mau
Massive Change, 2004

9. FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, 2011
“The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
disaster was an energy accident at
the Fukushima I Nuclear Power
Plant, initiated primarily by the
tsunami that was triggered by the
Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March
2011. The damage caused resulted
in three nuclear meltdowns and
the release of radioactive
material.”

10. Cities are now aiming to
reach a very sophisticated
level of control.
A WORLD FULL OF SENSORS: A GOOD IDEA?
Britain has a CCTV camera for every 11 people.
Source: The British Security Industry Authority (BSIA)

11. DRONE AVIARY, 2015
“The Drone Aviary - an R&D
project from The Superflux Lab - is
an investigation of the social,
political and cultural potential of
drone technology as it enters civil
space. Through a series of pieces
the project aims to give a glimpse
into a near-future city co-habit
with ‘intelligent’ semi
autonomous, networked, flying
machines.”
Vimeo

12. People are reacting to life
in increasingly monitored
environments.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
CCTV cameras and facial recognition algorithms are some of the technologies fueling
the debate.

13. BANSKY, LONDON 2008
“…an enormous protest against
Britain's surveillance society
painted just feet from a CCTV
camera.”
© GETTY/AFP

14. CVDAZZLE.COM
“CV Dazzle explores how fashion
can be used as camouflage from
face-detection technology, the
first step in automated face
recognition.
Since facial-recognition algorithms
rely on the identification and
spatial relationship of key facial
features, like symmetry and tonal
contours, one can block detection
by creating an “anti-face”.

15. Apply ICTs to support
citizen engagement in the
transformation process.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Technology can help citizens enable themselves and their communities and in this
transform their cities from the bottom up.

16. ASPIRE News app
“While the front page functions
like a regular news app, when you
go to the “Help” section of the
page it provides a list of local
domestic violence resources and a
“Go Button,” that, once pressed,
alerts the user’s chosen contacts,
local authorities and service
providers about the violent or
potentially violent situation.”

17. Participatory processes and
new ways to connect data,
people and knowledge.
HOW CAN IT BE DONE?
Create conditions that can lead to significant empowerment of those who at present
have little control over the forces that condition their lives and their cities.

18. Thank you.
pteixeira@edigma.com
ZOOM SMART CITIES 2016