Urban Computing and Its Discontents

Situated Technologies Pamphlets 1

In December 2007 the League launched a nine-part publication series to be published over three years, exploring the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture. Born out of the three-day symposium “Architecture and Situated Technologies,” presented by the League, the Center for Virtual Architecture, and the Institute for Distributed Creativity in October 2006, the series considers how our experience of the city and the choices we make in it are being affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics and other “situated” technologies. How will the possibility of designing increasingly responsive environments alter the way architects conceive of space? What do architects need to know about urban computing and what do technologists need to know about cities?

The first pamphlet in the series, written by Adam Greenfield and Mark Shepard, is framed as an overview of the key issues, historical precedents, and contemporary approaches surrounding the design of situated technologies and inhabiting cities populated by them.

For more information, go to www.situatedtechnologies.net.