Walking-Thinking: Exploring the Openness of Our Cities

Organizers: Jente Hoogeveen  external link(MA), Dr. Corelia Baibarac-Duignan  external link, Dr. Sigrid Merx  external link, Utrecht University

Date & Time:

• Session 1: March 25, 10:00 – 12:00 (CET time)
• Session 2: March 26, 13:00 – 15:00 (CET time)

What is an open city? What makes a city open? When do we experience a city as open?

How we answer such questions not only depends on how we define openness, but also on our personal experiences of and in the city and neighbourhood that we live in, especially in this current time of the covid-19 pandemic. Taking into account this situatedness of openness we invite you for this two-session workshop. First, in a guided walk, participants are invited to explore the notion of the open city from an embodied and scenographic perspective. Armed with a collectively created legend, each participant will individually walk in her own neighbourhood, tracing experiences and instances of openness. We will experiment with exploring the neighbourhood through different lenses and draw alternative and multi-layered maps of the open city together. These maps will form the input for a second session in which we will reflect both on how openness manifests in our direct surroundings and what the value of openness for our cities might entail.

Session I – Walking the Open City 

Online: getting to know one another + instructions

Offline: 3 walks (15 min. each)

Online: uploading data

Session II – Thinking the Open City 

Completely online

Entrance fee
Free – Registration required

Registration

Register no later than Monday, March 22, by sending an email to opencity@uu.nl.

Upon registration, you will receive an email with instructions for the first session. The maximum number of participants is 12.

More information
The Open City Initiative