“We need moral imagination: the ability to dream up and morally assess a range of future scenarios.”

Cennydd Bowles​

© Mitchell Joachim/Terreform One

We invite you to visualize your views of the technologized urban environment of the future.

Open Call

The Learning Community Urban Interaction Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences calls on you to create and submit a provocatype (provocative+prototype) based on one of the speculative scenarios in this open call. 
A selection of chosen artifacts will be exhibited at the ‘Imagining the Unimaginable’ event at SPUI25 in Amsterdam and published in an accompanying magazine.

Deadline for submission: 3 April 2022
Event & Exhibition: 28 April 2022 @ SPUI 25, Amsterdam

  • Students
  • Designers
  • Creators
  • Researchers
  • Artists
  • Teachers
  • Architects
  • Urban planners
  • Citizens
  • Anyone else who wants to express their thoughts about the future city in a creative way…

 

Individual, group, experimental, interdisciplinary, conceptual, realistic, new and existing works are all encouraged!

Your provocatype should be inspired by one of the three speculative scenarios in this call.  Imagine that you are living in this world. What would it be like? How would the surroundings look? Create something that goes beyond the scenario itself. You could think about what a lamp in this world might look like. Or what kinds of billboards fill the streets. Imagine how the interface on a communication device might be designed. Or speculate on how people might dress.

We want to experience this future through your work. You are free to use any medium and method you choose to create outputs such as physical products, digital interfaces, fashion pieces, posters, films, artwork, multimedia work, creative interpretations… to spark debate on the values of the future. Ultimately, we want to see how you imagine the unimaginable.

Over the past decade, technology has radically changed everyday urban life. Now, no one leaves home without their mobile phone in their pocket –  their portals to the online world of information and social contacts. New technologies are constantly being designed and applied in the city. Governments and tech companies have started collecting all kinds of data about urban life, ranging from air quality to traffic congestion. And now software can organize city life just as well as the program of urban planners. These technologies are being implemented into the urban environment without knowing exactly how they will affect people and their environment. But, we do know that they are already having a major impact on our behavior and how we interact with each other. 

 

How can we give more direction to (future) use, design, and applications of new technologies in public space, so that we can be less surprised by unintended consequences? How can we develop and visualize/design such scenarios and make them experienceable so that they can better communicate possible futures and contribute to the social debate about technologies in public space?