[urban interfaces] research group at Utrecht University

[urban interfaces] research group at Utrecht University

Academic Publications

Publications by [urban interfaces]

Merx, Sigrid, Coco Kanters, Michiel de Lange, and Nanna Verhoeff, eds. “Creative Urban Methods.” Mediapolis 8, no. 4 (2023).

With this collection of articles, we aim to explore the merits of creative methods for researching contemporary cities and urban culture. A growing catalog of new and innovative creative methods for urban inquiries demonstrates a wide array of theoretical approaches, critical concepts, and scholarly techniques. This dossier presents seven articles that think through the epistemological and ethical grounding of specific creative methods developed in direct response to particular, situated inquiries that are all, in their specific ways, related to, and responding to various (inter-)local, urban realities.

Urban Interfaces: Media, Art and Performance in
Public Spaces Leonardo Electronic Almanac,
Volume 22 Issue 4
Edited by: Nanna Verhoeff, Sigrid Merx, and Michiel de Lange

In this collection of essays, we advance the notion of urban interfaces to explore how situated media, art, and performances (co-)constitute and (co-)construct the public spaces of our mediatized cities. Central is the question how urban interfaces may act as privileged sites to negotiate contemporary frictions in and about these spaces – frictions around such issues as digitization and datafication, privatization and commercialization, individualization, and immigration. This issue investigates how these negotiations take shape and contribute to understandings of the role of art and technology in public space.

Further publications include:

2022

  • Forthcoming: Förster, Désirée. 2022. “Experimental environments and the aesthetic experience of metabolic processes.” Leonardo Volume 56 (2). MIT Press.
  • Förster, Désirée. 2022. “Atmospheric sensing – on the aesthetic experience of interrelations with environments.” Venti Journal 2 (2). https://www.venti-journal.com/desiree-foerster.
  • Hacopian, Anastasia. 2022. The Digital Museum: Learning through Interaction and Reflection. 1059-1067. 8th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’22), Valencia, Spain. https://headconf.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/14566.pdf.
  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2022. Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer. Science Fiction: A New Canon. London; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
    Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2022. Janelle Monáe’s Queer Afrofuturism: Defying Every Label.” Boston: Rutgers University Press.
  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2022. “Lana (1965-) and Lilly (1967-) Wachowski: US Film Directors, Writers, and Producers.” In Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture, edited by Anna McFarlane, Graham J Murphy, and Lars Schmeink, 246-251. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2022. “”An American Utopia” and the Politics of Military Science Fiction.” In Fredric Jameson and Film Theory: Marxism, Allegory, and Geopolitics in World Cinema, edited by Keith B Wagner, Jeremi Szaniawski, and Michael Cramer, pp. 235-251. Boston: Rutgers University Press.

2021

  • Baibarac-Duignan, Corelia, and Michiel de Lange. 2021. “Controversing the datafied smart city: Conceptualising a ‘making-controversial’ approach to civic engagement.”  Big Data & Society 8 (2). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/20539517211025557.
  • Förster, Désirée. 2021. “Awareness for Atmospheres.” Excursions Journal 11 (1).
  • Förster, Désirée. 2021. Aesthetic Experience of Metabolic Processes. Lüneburg: Meson Press.
  • Förster, Désirée. 2021.“Re-reading Whitehead Through the Pre-reflective Experience of Atmospheric Processes.” Ambiances Journal.

2020

  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2020. “Vision Quest of Fool’s Gold? Looking for Utopia in Hollywood Science Fiction.” Urban Utopias: Memory, Rights, and Speculation. Barnita Bagchi and Sujaan Mukherjee, eds. Kalkota: Jadavpur University Press, 2020.
  • Hacopian, A. 2020. Pop culture as pedagogy: Mindhunter as a Tool for Interdisciplinary Eduction.
  • van Es, Karin and Michiel de Lange. 2020. “Data with its boots on the ground: Datawalking as research method.” European Journal of Communication. 35 (3).https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0267323120922087.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna and Sigrid Merx. 2020.  “Mobilizing Inter-Mediacies: Reflections on Urban Scenographies in (Post-)Lockdown Cities.” Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture, 5 (3) (August 17) https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2020/08/mobilizing-inter-mediacies
  •  de Waal, Martijn , Michiel de Lange, and Matthijs Bouw. 2020. “The hackable city: exploring collaborative citymaking in a network society.” In The Routledge Companion to Smart Cities, edited by Katharine S.  Willis and Alessandro Aurigi, 351-366. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315178387.

2019

2018

  • de Lange, Michiel. 2018. “From real-time city to asynchronicity: Exploring the real-time smart city dashboard ” In Time for mapping: Cartographic temporalities, edited by Sybille Lammes, Chris Perkins, Alex Gekker, Sam Hind, Clancy Wilmott and Daniel Evans. Manchester: Manchester University Press. (free Open Access publication)
  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2018. “‘Life isn’t some cartoon musical’: Neoliberal identity politics in Zootopia and Orange is the New Black.” Journal of Popular Culture 51:2 (April 2018): 356–78.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna and Karin van Es. 2018. “Situated Installations for Urban Data Visualization: Interfacing The Archive-City.” With. In Pedram and Judith Naeff (eds.), Visualizing the Street: New Practices of Documenting, Navigating and Imagining the City. Cities and Cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
  • in press Sigrid Merx. “Between Realities #Athens. Or How Scenography can Facilitate The Re-Imagination of Public Space.” FORUM+

2017

  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2017. “Screens for Urban Data Dramaturgy.” 81-96 in: Blanca Motalvo (ed.), How Are Things Told? Proceedings Third International Congress ASC: Art, Science and City. University of Málaga, Spain
  • Verhoeff, Nanna, Heidi Rae Cooley and Heather Zwicker, eds. 2017. Urban Cartographies: Mapping Mobility and Presence. Special issue for Television & New Media 18, 4 (Sage)
  • Nanna Verhoeff. “Urban Interfaces: The Cartographies of Screen-Based Installations in the City.”Journal for Television and New Media. 18, 4: 305-319.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2017. “Interfaces of Media Architecture.” 43-58 in Alexander Wiethoff and Heinrich Hussmann (eds.), Media Architecture: Using Information and Media as Construction Material (Age of Access? Grundfragen der Informationsgesellschaft). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2017. “Performative Cartography.” 435-449 in Stephen Monteiro (ed.). The Screen Media Reader: Culture, Theory, Practice. New York: Bloomsbury. Reprinted excerpt from Mobile Screens: The Visual Regime of Navigation (2012: 149-163).
  • de Lange, Michiel. 2017 “Datafying The Commons: Data Publics and Smart Citizenship”. DRAFT PAPER for Workshop: “The Right to The Smart City: Civic Participation, Urban Commons, Co-Creation and Citizenship”, 5-6 Sept 2017, edited by Paolo Cardullo, Cesare Di Feliciantonio and Rob Kitchin. Maynooth.
  • de Waal, Martijn, Michiel de Lange, and Matthijs Bouw. 2017. “The Hackable City: Citymaking in a Platform Society.” Architectural Design 87 (1).

2016

  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2016.  “Utopian Afrofuturism in The Wiz.” Science Fiction Film and Television, 9:1 (Feb 2016): 88–90.
  • Merx, Sigrid. 2016. “Mapping Invisibility – Surveillance Art and The Potential of Performative Cartography.” In: Martina Leeker, Imanuel Schipper & Timon Beyes (eds.) Performing the Digital. Bielefeld: transcript. 157-171.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2016  “Screens in the City.” 125-139 in Dominique Chateau and José Moure (eds.), Screens. The Key Debates. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Open Access: http://www.oapen.org/download type=document&docid=607790
  • Verhoeff Nanna. 2016. “Curating the City: Urban Interfaces and Locative Media as Experimental Platforms for Cultural Data.” With Clancy Wilmott. 116-129 in Rob Kitchin and Sung-Yueh Perng (eds.), Code & The City. London: Routledge.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2016.  “A Tale of Two Times: Augmented Reality as Archival Laboratory.” 357-428 in Giovanna Fossati and Annie van den Oever (eds.), Exposing the Film Apparatus: The Film Archive as a Research Laboratory. Framing Film. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  • Schouten, Ben, Gabriele Ferri, Michiel de Lange, and Karel  Millenaar. 2016. Games as strong concepts for city-making. In Playable cities: The city as a digital playground, ed.  Anton Nijholt. London: Springer. 23-45.
  • van Erven, Eugene. 2016. “Towards a New Cutting Edge: Where Avantgarde Meets Community Art”. TDR/The Drama Review. Volume 60, Issue 4, Winter 2016,  p.92-107.
  • Förster, Désirée. 2016. “Being Interspecies. Negotiation Processes of Subjectivity and Event Beyond Representation”.
    Andreas Greiner: Anatomy of a Fairytale. Verlag für Moderne Kunst.

2015

  • Ampatzidou, Cristina, Matthijs Bouw, Froukje van de Klundert, Michiel de Lange, and Martijn de Waal. 2015. The Hackable City: A Research Manifesto and Design Toolkit. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Creative Industries Publishing.
  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2015. “The Politics of World-Building: Heteroglossia in Janelle Monáe’s Afrofuturist WondaLand.” Paradoxa: Studies in Literary Genres, 26 (Winter 2015).
  • de Lange, Michiel. 2015. “The Playful City: Using Play and Games to Foster Citizen Participation.” In Social Technologies and Collective Intelligence, edited by Aelita Skaržauskienė, 426-434. Vilnius: Mykolas Romeris University.
  • de Lange, Michiel. 2015. “Playing Life in The Metropolis: Mobile Media and Identity in Jakarta”. In Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures, eds. Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul and Joost Raessens. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 307-320.
  • Frissen, Valerie, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens. 2015. Playful identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  • de Lange, Michiel, Martijn de Waal, Nanna Verhoeff, Marcus Foth, and Martin Brynskov. 2015. Digital Cities 9 workshop proposal “Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change“. In 7th International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2015), 27-30 June 2015. Limerick, Ireland: ACM.
  • de Lange, Michiel. 2015. The Playful City: play and games for citizen participation in the smart city. COST TU1306 STSM report, http://www.bijt.org/wordpress/2015/06/01/bristol-report-the-playful-city-play-and-games-for-citizen-participation-in-the-smart-city/. [pdf 270 KB].
  • de Lange, Michiel. 2015. “The Playful City: Using Play and Games to Foster Citizen Participation.” In Social Technologies and Collective Intelligence, edited by Aelita Skaržauskienė, 426-434. Vilnius: Mykolas Romeris University. [pdf 780 KB].
  • de Lange, Michiel. 2015. Playing life in the metropolis: Mobile media and identity in Jakarta. In Playful identities: The ludification of digital media cultures, eds. Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul and Joost Raessens. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 307-320. [Open Access publication – free pdf download].
  • de Waal, Martijn, Michiel de Lange, Cristina Ampatzidou, and Matthijs Bouw. 2015. “A Hackable City Research Manifesto”. Paper read at workshop “Hackable Cities: From Subversive City Making to Systemic Change” at C&T ’15 7th International Conference on Communities and Technologies. Limerick, Ireland.
  • Frissen, Valerie, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens. 2015. Playful identities: The ludification of digital media cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [Open Access publication – free pdf download].
  • Frissen, Valerie, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens. 2015. “Homo ludens 2.0: Play, media, and identity”. In Playful identities: The ludification of digital media cultures, eds. Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul and Joost Raessens. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 9-50. [Open Access publication – free pdf download].
  • Frissen, Valerie, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens. 2015. “Introduction to Part I.” In Playful identities: The ludification of digital media cultures, eds. Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul and Joost Raessens, 53-54. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [Open Access publication – free pdf download].
  • Frissen, Valerie, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens. 2015. “Introduction to Part II.” In Playful identities: The ludification of digital media cultures, eds. Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul and Joost Raessens, 167-168. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [Open Access publication – free pdf download].
  • Frissen, Valerie, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens. 2015. “Introduction to Part III.” In Playful identities: The ludification of digital media cultures, eds. Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul and Joost Raessens, 263-265. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [Open Access publication – free pdf download].
  • Klichowski, Michal, Philip Bonanno, Sylwia Jaskulska, Carlos Smaniotto Costa, Michiel de Lange, and Francisco R. Klauser. 2015. “CyberParks as a new context for Smart Education: theoretical background, assumptions, and pre-service teachers’ rating.” American Journal of Educational Research (Special Issue “Schooling and the new ways of social reproduction: perspectives on policy research”).
  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2015. “Mobile Media Architecture: Between Infrastructure, Interface, and Intervention.” Observatorio (OBS*) Journal. Special issue: Media City: Spectacular, Ordinary and Contested Spaces. (November): 71-84.  http://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/article/view/974/749
  • Verhoeff, Nanna. 2015. “Footage: Action Cam Shorts as Cartographic Captures of Time.” Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication 5: 1 & 2. Special issue: Short Film Experience (January 1): 103-109.

2014

  • Hassler-Forest, Dan. 2020. “Zombie Spaces.” The Year’s Work at the Zombie Research Center. Aaron Jaffe and Edward Comentale, eds. Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2014, p. 116–49.
  • Verhoeff, Nanna and Heidi Rae Cooley. 2014.“The Navigational Gesture: Traces and Tracings at the Mobile Touchscreen Interface.” Necsus #5: Traces (Spring). http://www.necsus-ejms.org/navigational-gesture-traces-tracings-mobile-touchscreen-interface
  • Verhoeff, Nanna and Heidi Rae Cooley. 2014. “Performativity/Expressivity: The Mobile Micro Screen and Its Subject.” 207-216 in Annie van den Oever (ed.), Technē/Technology: Researching Cinema and Media Technologies – Their Development, Use, and Impact. The Key Debates. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Open Access: http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=607770 [/well]
  • Förster, Désirée. 2014. “Bioart – Vom Laborprojekt zum sozialen Subjekt.” Wissen und Leben – Wissen für das Leben. Edited by Vittoria Borsò and Michele Cometa. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.

Older

  • Olbrisch, Annika, Lisa Handel, Desiree Förster, Reinhold Görling. 2011. “Die Immersion des Bildes. Notizen zum VJing als eine hybride Bildpraxis.” Im Kontinuum der Bilder. VJing als Medienkunst. Edited by  R. Görling, D. Förster, A. Olbrisch, L. Handel. Frankfurt: Peter Lang Verlag.
  • Hacopian, A. 2006. Kafka’s bed. Die Verwanlung and the problem of the private. Medische Antropologie, 18(1), 105 – 116.