Open call: Datapolis

We are pleased to announce the international open call for contributions to the upcoming Datapolis publication.

Datapolis is an ongoing project initiated at the architecture department of TU Delft, in The Netherlands. This collective effort will be published by Nai010 publishers and the book will be launched in fall 2022 with a major exhibition in the cultural institution in the Netherlands with a series of public events.

Hence, we would like to invite authors, thinkers, and researchers from a spectrum of disciplines—architects, designers, artists, journalists, anthropologists, philosophers, and economists—to contribute to this ongoing publication by sending their proposals.

Data has become a critical component of our life and we granted the idea that we are and will be connected. Yet, we hardly comprehend its mechanisms. Connected objects, self-driving vehicles, satellites, global internet cable networks, data centers, and humanoid robots are evidences of a complex and connected world. 

In this publication, we will explore the physical and spatial aspects of data, its effect on the society and environment, and its relevance to architectural research and design: from automated landscapes of factories and distribution centers to non-human architecture of datacenters and IXPs; From the effect and footprint of data on the earth to climate monitoring and the formation of global and/or planetary institutions; From the ownership system, political mapping and legal complexity and ambiguity of data to the appearance of digital identities; And from the manipulation of the body to the transformation of the healthcare system and the typology of hospitals; from the changing condition of work and labor to the [re]integration of logistics systems into the city and so on.

In a general framework, we consider two main trajectories being addressed in this book: The first trajectory is per se an ontological investigation. It tries to define what is the ‘cloud’ and how it operates. From the systems and infrastructures behind the Internet and data to the apparatus, objects (or things), and buildings that can transcend the scales and various temporal dimensions. 

The second trajectory tries to explore how data penetrates our existence, not only by affecting the ways that we live and work, or design and make cities in the most ever-connected world but by offering distinct ways of life, which otherwise would have been impossible. On one hand, we investigate data as an ethical and political phenomenon. On the other hand, we perceive how data through its apparatus and sensors give agency to things that had no voice before. 

In addressing the above trajectories we intend to go beyond the pure description of these systems and infrastructures as only services and backgrounds and thus to surpass the technological problem solving mandates by placing them in a rather more provoking political, economic, social, environmental, and aesthetic assemblages. 

While often discussions around big data and AI engage with global solutions and alternative modes of commoning, addressing larger scales, we ask if it is possible to involve cultural and contextual dimensions to ground the discussion? In that sense, we look for a multiplicity of scales: from micro-level of cells and individuals to the meso-level of ensembles and communities and macro-level of territories and supranational institutions and infrastructures. We ask if it is possible to go beyond the opposite narratives around technology-i.e. emancipation or oppression—and find alternative lenses to approach its agency. 

Placing the topic at the foreground of architecture and design speculation, our aim is to explore new spectrums, perspectives, opportunities, and challenges that digitalization poses to the discipline and practice (thinking and making) of our built environment. 

The editors of this upcoming publication—Negar Sanaan Bensi and Paul Cournet—invite the interested authors to send their proposals in the form of abstracts of 1000 words.

The application deadline for Abstracts is Friday, January 21, 2022, at 11:59 pm CET. 

Applications should be submitted in English here.

The abstracts will then be evaluated by the editors. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to develop their contributions for full articles (about 5000 words) by April 11, 2022.