Objectives
- to establish a critical humanities perspective on the historical development of the Smart City and Smart City Discourses
- to develop an understanding of how at the core of Smart City projects are processes of data gathering and categorisation that encode implicit value assumptions (often circumscribed and driven by sensing limitations and vested commercial interests) about the activities within a city
- To develop an understanding of inherent limitations of the data collection and to offer alternative solutions (for example, open data and citizen engagement initiatives)
- to experiment with forms of contributive economy of the Smart City that will stimulate and harness citizen participation
- lay the foundation for the develop of a digital hermeneutics for data analytics for the Data city
T.2.1: Developing the problematic of DATA CITY: Training through research at DIT as the host organisation (M1-M24). DIT will host 4 ESRs who will develop expertise in their trajectory of the development of the Data City research space expertise and will host Experienced Researchers (ERs) for Workshops and Research Innovation and Exchanges events. These 4 visiting ESRs will work alongside the ESRs in GradCAM who are currently working on the development of Digital Studies and on “Public Space and the Data City”, supervised by Dr. Conor Mc Garrigle and Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick. One ESR will work on “Public Space and the Shadow Self”, supervised by Dr. Brian Fay and Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick. Also, each ESR will establish, together with their supervisory committee (SC) in the host organisation, a Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP) comprising their training needs, and which will be reviewed each year of the project. The ESR research questions problematic will be developed through a seminar on the Smart City hosted within the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCAm). This , interdisciplinary the seminar will include an historical overview of the development of the Smart City and Smart City discourses. The interdisciplinary seminar will also investigate the current uses of the Smart City Technologies within the context of Dublin. The current researchers within GradCAM working on technologies of the city will present their work and members of the Smart City unit of DCC and the citizen engagement projects will also present ongoing activity.
T.2.2: Developing Modes of Analysis : Training in collaboration with non-academic partner Dublin City Council (M6-M12 or M18-M24). DIT together with DCC will arrange ESRs and ER non-academic secondment where ESRs/ERs will receive complementary skills training and on-the-job experience in the international and intercultural environment. The training will be open to visiting ERs from across the network. The development of new modes of data analysis will take place as part of on overall seminar series on Data and the City. This will lead on from the development of new modes of analysis from WP1, the development of layering of interpretation (a digital hermeneutics) will be accompanied by the development of an understanding of the current modes of analysis using standard formats of data analytics. This seminar will be lead by Prof. John Kelleher (DIT) and will demonstrate the biases of the current standard modes of data analytics.
T.2.3: Implementation of the Analysis: Training in collaboration with academic partners (M18-M24 and/or M18-M24). DIT together with DCC will arrange ESRs academic secondment and Experience Research for joined experience in doctoral training, knowledge transfer and knowledge exchange acquaintances with DCC setup and its local practices. This will include specific training on open data within the Smart City (example, Dublin Dashboard.ie)
T.2.4: Territorial Experimentation : Training through Experimental Practices in Public Space (EPPS) (timing will be set together with local ESRs). DIT in collaboration with a local partner DCC will set up Experimental Practices in Public Space (EPPS). EPPS apply to the local context and offer the ESR the possibility to experiment, test, and apply practical research insights under the joined supervision of DIT and DCC. EPPS are durational projects which will be longer than the secondment period. These territorial experimentations will incorporate the findings from some WP 1 and WP3 tasks.
T.2.5: Opening the Black Box Training during Research and Innovation Focus (RIF) week, part of network-wide training (M12). DIT in collaboration with their local partner DCC organises one RIF week with the focus on Data City, Big Data and Open Data. Four hosted ESRs and local ERs (DIT) will be responsible for the practical organisation of the RIF week and all ESRs and ERs will collaborate intensively on technologies and Data CIty, exchange their knowledge, and transfer their skills. This training week will focus on upskilling staff and the use of Data Analytics and Big Data in relation to the Smart City.
Description of Deliverables
D.2.1 The development of new mode of analysis. Two peer reviewed papers in international journals on the development of modes of analysis of the Smart City as part of a special edition of a peer-reviewed journal about the Real Smart City, coedited by Moore, Baranzoni and Vignola, and comprising worked up versions of M12
D2.2 The development of a new layers of interpretation, this will take the form of initial experimentation within digital hermeneutics, it is not envisaged to have a fully scoped and developed software tool, however, the deliverable will be a set of functionalities that could be built as beta phase test using public open data.
D2.3 Two journal articles on the experimental implementation of the new forms of digital hermeneutics.
D2.4 Exhibition based on the territorial experimentations with sonic art, Amateur and Participation
Post-digital Aesthetics and the Immaterial (M23)
D2.5 Opening the Black Box of the Smart City, collected publication of the outputs from the Research Focus week