Featuring Google Creative Lab’s Tom Uglow, architect Usman Haque, artist Luke Jerram and Ogilvy’s Tara Austin, this two-day international conference will explore the theme of the ‘Playable City’, asking what it might mean for citizens, urban planners, tech giants, small companies, artists and designers in imagining and making the cities of the future.
Playable City is a people-centred counterpoint to the notion of the Smart City, challenging public narratives around technology-driven cities which often feature a fear of isolation, or the extinction of community and conversation.
On 10 and 11 September, we will be bringing together a brilliant group of thinkers, makers, planners and civil disobedients to look at cities as playable places and ask the question: how do we make and unmake our future cities?
Convened by the Watershed, Festival of Ideas and UWE Bristol’s Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC), the conference will feature playful interventions, networking, debate and discussion, artist commissions and a cross-disciplinary academic strand.
As part of the conference we will unveil Shadowing by Jonathan Chomko and Matthew Rosier, the winning project of the 2014 Playable City Award. This brand-new artwork will give memory to Bristol’s city street lights, enabling them to record and play back the shadows of those who pass underneath, inviting interaction between those who share a space.
For more information on the conference programme and speakers, visit Making the City Playable Conference.
