[urban interfaces] research group at Utrecht University

[urban interfaces] Blogs

Diffracting Spaces and the Right to the Cities

– This article is part of the graduate seminar series The Right to the City 2018-2019 –  In the interesting work of reflection and analysis that is “The Right to the City”, David Harvey (2008) highlights the connections between society, capitalism and urban transformation. Harvey turns to Marx’s notion of surplus value, capital and production to…

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The Right to Public Musicking

– This article is part of the graduate seminar series The Right to the City 2018-2019 – It is difficult to explain to my German musician peers the idea that in Groningen one cannot simply perform music in the street. The idea that taking up sonic space is restricted, is well-understood: it’s an unwritten rule…

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Cities against Tech Giants

– This article is part of the graduate seminar series The Right to the City 2018-2019 – The recent debates concerning the big technology establishments within the major cities such as New York and Berlin caused a clash between big technology companies aiming to establish headquarters, business venues within the strategic locations of cities, and…

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Urban Sounds and the Right to Headphones

– This article is part of the graduate seminar series The Right to the City 2018-2019 – The right to the city also involves the right to sound. The collectively shared tangible and intangible urban resources of urban life make up a soundscape is subject the variety of uses of the public space by strangers…

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Agonistic Interfaces: A critical exploration of StalkShow through politics and curation

— This article is part of the Urban Friction seminar series 2017-2018 — During the course of the Urban Friction seminars, we discovered the potential socio-political and cultural repercussions of frictional interventions and engagements in urban life. As the etymology of the word suggests, friction means “rubbing” or “breaking”, which underlines physical connotations. However, in…

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