Sensing Place / Placing Sense II
Accountability Technologies
Symposiumafo architekturforum oberösterreich hosted by Austrian Institute of Technology (AT) as part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2012
Curated by Dietmar Offenhuber and Katja Schechtner
Immer mehr Menschen ist es ein Anliegen, in verantwortungsvoll geplanten und verwalteten Städten zu leben. Wer mitgestalten will, ist allerdings gefordert, sich entsprechend zu informieren – in der gegenwärtigen Informationsgesellschaft eine schier unerfüllbare Aufgabe. Accountability Technologies schaffen inmitten der Informationsflut neue Möglichkeiten, wichtigen politischen und ökologischen Fragen die eigene Lebenswelt betreffend nachzugehen. Dabei handelt es sich beispielsweise um freie Visualisierungs-, Analyse- und Messwerkzeuge. Mit ihrer Hilfe können die AktivistInnen die für ihr Engagement unerlässlichen Daten etwa zu Lärm, Umweltverschmutzung, Mobilität oder Korruption erheben und darstellen. Sensing Place/Placing Sense, ein Symposium zu neuen experimentellen Technologien im Kontext Stadt, präsentiert in seiner zweiten Ausgabe wirksame Initiativen und wirft u. a. die Frage auf, wie Informationen aufbereitet sein müssen, um den Hebel der Veränderung im Verwaltungsapparat ansetzen zu können.
A growing part of the general public is concerned that cities are planned and governed in a responsible way. In the contemporary information society, however, the democratic obligation of the citizens to rigorously inform themselves so that they can participate in public affairs has become impossible to fulfill. Rather than submitting to the opinions of self-proclaimed experts, citizens need new ways to make sense of what is going on around them.
Accountability technologies stand for new innovative approaches to bottom-up governance: technologies to monitor those in power to make sure that they are held accountable for their actions. Accountability technologies are designed to support coordinated data collection, analysis and communication to achieve social change. The past years saw many examples dedicated to this concern: citizen sensing of traffic noise or congestion, pollution; monitoring of mobility infrastructures and urban energy consumption; whistleblowers revealing corruption and misuse of power.
We are interested in such projects and technologies that have succeeded in making an impact on the reality of the city. We are interested in the motivations, strategies and tactics of the people who create and use these technologies. We are also interested in the role of representation – does it make a difference how information is presented? How can data generated by citizens interface with official structures and put into action?
Schedule
10:00 – 10:30 Uhr
Introduction Dietmar Offenhuber and Katja Schechtner
10:30 – 12:30 Uhr
Collect. Data from the top-down and bottom-up – reflecting on truth, trust and politics
Jeffery Warren (US) Founder Public Laboratory
Ina Schieferdecker (D) Fraunhofer Fokus Zentrum für Smart Cities
Amber Frid Jimenez (US/NO) Artist, Professor at the Bergen Academy of the Arts
14:00 – 16:00 Uhr
Communicate. Data journalism and information activism – communicating data to the public
Michael Kreil (D) visualization and data journalism expert, Open Data City
Sami Ben Gharbia (TN) citizen journalist, activist
Marek Tuszynski (D) Creative Director, Co-Founder Tactical Technology Collective
16:15 – 18:30 Uhr
Compel. From data to action – strategies for achieving change in the public sphere
Michel Reimon (A) Journalist, Author, Politician
Dieter Zinnbauer (D) Senior Program Manager, Transparency International
Thomas Diez (ES) Director Fablab Barcelona
19:00 Uhr
José-Luis de Vicente (ES) Cultural Investigator, Curator
Keynote Lecture and Book Presentation Inscribing a Square: Urban Data as Public Space (edited by Dietmar Offenhuber and Katja Schechtner, Springer: Vienna, New York)
Die Veranstaltung ist frei zugänglich (Anmeldung nicht erforderlich) und wird in englischer Sprache abgehalten.