The Wise city
A speculation on entanglements of non-humans and humans in an urban space.
This project tries to imagine what kind of technology might be developed to include non-human stakeholders. The particular scenario is built on the concept currently known as Smart City. This exploration proposes a speculation of a possible future where technologies in a Smart City are serving human and non-human citizens. The outcome is a fictional documentary that tells about life in the city from the viewpoint of its human citizens. The future scenario is neither utopic nor dystopic but simply a tale of an urban space that uses sensors, data collections and IoT systems to serve the needs of both its human and non-human-citizens.
The project is based on the idea of Polyphonic Assemblages as it has been proposed by anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.
Tsing understands assemblages as “open ended gatherings” of ways of being; human and nonhuman, living and nonliving. For Tsing, assemblages “…don’t just gather lifeways; they make them.” Meaning that the whole combination of different ways of being of the human and the non-human, in an assembly, has an effect on the lifeways of its many parts. In describing these assemblages as polyphonic, she clarifies this idea. In polyphonic music, independent melodies are played parallel to each other. The various melodies sometimes come together in synchronization only to separate into different rhythms again. Tsing uses this melodic phenomenon to propose a way of existing between humans and nonhumans.
The “Wise City” can be understood as a platform consisting of instruments which enables human citizens to “hear” the rhythms of the non-human citizens and to play together with them. While there are different instruments involved, they function as an assembly where the parts are interconnected. The assembly has two main parts: The city’s infrastructure and the Legends
The city infrastructure
The Wise City communicates the rhythms of non-human communities in different ways. It will, for example, change traffic patterns to serve the rhythm of a migrating community which moves on the ground. In the times when reindeer herds have to cross the city, the architecture will shift accordingly. Structures appear and disappear to serve the needs of a community. For example, nesting opportunities that are needed at certain times during the year, will appear, making the rhythm of non-humans apparent to human citizens. Some are not connected to any specific function but instead are an expression of information during a particular interval of the non-human community’s rhythm. For example, city lights will take a certain color for an evening, a sculpture that was not there before will appear, a sound will be played etc.
Legends
The Legends can be seen as a leading instrument of the Wise City. They are powerful in creating harmonies between the rhythms of the human citizens and the non-human citizens. Legends, here, is used as an umbrella term for all kinds of traditions, festivals, superstitions and rituals that have a connection to the rhythm of the non-human. For example, “Divaki, a festival connected to the arrival of Waxwing in the city. The city light will turn red, Waxwing songs are sung and humans are supposed to put a branch of rowanberries in front of the house of the person they love.
These two main instruments find themselves in a relationship of constant exchange. A Legend’s mind evolves as the city’s infrastructure changes, but the city structure can also be influenced by one of the legends. Both the city infrastructure and the legends are sensitive to the rhythms of non-human communities.
Process
As part of the process I hosted a Co-creation workshop using the Rhythm Board, which I designed for this workshop. It consist of a whiteboard-circle which is surrounded by 2 rings. The rings can be turned and different times of the day or month of the year can be selected. This selection offers a frame and provides an opportunity to find convergences or divergences, resonance or dissonances.
During the workshop participants got to represent different human or non-human actors and try to find ways to build the city together based on the different needs they had during the course of a ”year”. This idea of representation for non-humans in political discussion, is informed by Bruno Latour’s concept “The Parliament of Things” .
In this workshop the characters were: the Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus), two human citizens, a Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) and the larger family of lichen. Each player got an information card for their character detailing their character and their needs during the different months of the year, and times of the day. The workshop was held in four parts (Fall, Winter, Summer and Spring) with a discussion and ideation session between each season away from the board. In each part, participants first were asked to come up with ideas for what their character would like to see in the prospective city. Afterwards a discussion/making session took place where participants would draw or build their proposals on the whiteboard.
