Hi-Tech, Low-Tech, Self-Tech: Tactics for the Production and Consumptions of Playful Social Public Spaces - I

Abstract

The New Urban Agenda stresses the importance of Public Spaces that are safe, inclusive, and multifunctional to promote social interaction and integration. Considering the original meaning of technology - the systematic treatment of an art or technique, a method, system, or technique of making or doing - we consider the contested space of the city through the lens of Hi and Low Technologies and how these are employed and deployed in city space for the purposes of co-creation of public spaces; whether or not these actions are playful, provocative, blatant, or unconscious.
This panel invites inquiry into and discussion around:
• How do modern technologies, communication devices, gaming platforms, urban screens, or digital media innovate, interrupt, regenerate the traditional meaning of urban environments?
• How does technology afford and foster the co-creation of public spaces?
• How might technology be used to help challenge ‘rights to the city’ in today’s volatile political, social, and cultural environment?
The panel enlists Foucault’s theories of functional spaces and technologies of the self, along with Giddens’ (and Foucault’s) conceptions regarding the discipline of the body in society in reference to the production and consumption of time and space for play in the city. The purpose is to enquire technology and city space; technology as a medium to co-create meaning, connection, health, enjoyment, and political acts. To do so, our panel centers on the multiple forms of technology used in city space. Hi-Tech, Low-Tech and Self-Tech are considered as tactics and strategies for the production and consumptions of playful social public spaces.

Chair

• Matthew David Lamb, Penn State University

Discussant

• Benjamin Shirtcliff, Iowa State University

Individual Presentations

• Co-Creating Playful Public Space, a Design Studio Analysis - Karine Dupre, Griffith University; Ruwan Fernando, Griffith University

• Democratizing Design with Aging Adults: Libraries and Senior Centers as Playful Social Public Spaces? - Nathan Davis, University of Texas - Austin; Kristina Shiroma, University of Texas at Austin; Atami Sagna, Univesity of Texas at Austin; Bo Xie, Univesity of Texas at Austin

• Digital Intervention in Public Spaces: Opportunities for Engaging Young People Back with Public Space - Kuangfan Chen, QUT; Mirko Guaralda, Queensland University of Technology; Selen Turkay, Queensland University of Technology; Jeremy Kerr, Queensland University of Technology

• Situated Low-Tech Actions in Urban-Rural Settings in Colombia: Limitations of Challenging Power Through Play - Leonardo Parra-Agudelo, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia; Camilo Salazar-Ferro, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

Session Organizer

• Mirko Guaralda, Queensland University of Technology