Martín Tironi
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Design, Faculty Member
International audienc
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International audienc
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Interview d'Antoine Hennio
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International audienc
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International audienc
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"Caminando. Prácticas, corporalidades y afectos en la ciudad" busca contribuir a abrir campos de exploración teórico-metodológica en torno a los significados, territorios e imaginarios que se conjugan en la práctica de... more
"Caminando. Prácticas, corporalidades y afectos en la ciudad" busca contribuir a abrir campos de exploración teórico-metodológica en torno a los significados, territorios e imaginarios que se conjugan en la práctica de caminar. No se trata un libro directamente orientado a la planificación urbana, ni tampoco pretende levantar respuestas o soluciones a los problemas asociados a la peatonalidad. Sin desconocer la importancia de la regulación territorial para mejorar las condiciones de caminabilidad en nuestras ciudades latinoamericanas, su propósito es ahondar en las prácticas y espacialidades que se expresan en esta forma de movilidad, reuniendo para ello diferentes perspectivas (arte, antropología, estética, fotografía, urbanismo, sociología, geografía, diseño) que confluyen al concebir el caminar como campo de estudio.
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Research Interests: Humanities, Art, Political Science, City, Sustainable Mobility, and 5 moreVille, Bicycle, Users, Vélo, and Usagers
Research Interests: Sociology, Sensors and Sensing, Actor Network Theory, Urban Studies, STS (Anthropology), and 15 moreDesign Anthropology, Experimental Design, Repair and Maintenance, Urban Computing, Cosmopolitics, science and technology studies (STS), Smart Cities, Information and Communication Technologies, Smart City, Urban Planing, Grassroots, Scrutiny, Opposition Politics, Tecnoscienza, and STS/ANT
Reseña del libro After Lockdown: A Metamorphosis, de Bruno Latour
The last years have witnessed the development of a questioning of the top-down character in urban planning and the inefficiencies sometimes evidenced by bureaucratic and centralized programs when dealing with the problems of the city.... more
The last years have witnessed the development of a questioning of the top-down character in urban planning and the inefficiencies sometimes evidenced by bureaucratic and centralized programs when dealing with the problems of the city. Consequently, there are today different terms (“open-source urban planning”, “do-it-yourself urban planning”, “smart citizens”, “participative urban planning”, “tactic urban planning”, etc.) to refer to more distributed, located and temporary forms of urban design. This scenario has led several authors to rethink the social, material and political conditions for a citizens’ urban planning that can bring into existence the right to a city and to the self-production of urban infrastructures. Starting from an urban hacking project with homeless persons in La Chimba neighborhood, this article explores the possibilities of this type of interventions, particularly in respect to the redistribution of abilities between the experts and the lay person, between d...
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In a milieu marked by increasing quantification of social life, many digital devices have emerged under the promise of a revolutionary change in areas such as urban planning and governance of Smart City projects. Starting from a... more
In a milieu marked by increasing quantification of social life, many digital devices have emerged under the promise of a revolutionary change in areas such as urban planning and governance of Smart City projects. Starting from a pragmatist approach based on Boltanski and Thévenot’s “orders of worth” framework, we argue that the promoters of digital devices must justify their worth by developing “technologies of justification” that go beyond data. In this article, we use a multi-case study of three digital devices—RUBI, Kappo, and Bikelite—for urban cycling created in Santiago de Chile to analyze the material, narrative, and economic technologies of justification mobilized to establish the worth of the data that these devices extract, analyze, and visualize for urban governance. This comparative analysis helps us problematize the homogeneous, neutral, and efficiency-focused valuations that are typically ascribed to these devices by laying out the wide range of operations that are use...
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In June 2012, the French car company Renault turned Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a town on the outskirts of Paris, into a test and demonstration laboratory. The company introduced a fleet of 50 electric cars as part of a car-sharing system... more
In June 2012, the French car company Renault turned Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a town on the outskirts of Paris, into a test and demonstration laboratory. The company introduced a fleet of 50 electric cars as part of a car-sharing system without fixed stations called Twizy Way. This scheme was a component of the manufacturer’s development strategy for the electric car market. This paper analyses this initiative in order to account for an experimental mode of industrial innovation. Characterised by the use of sociotechnical instruments in order to explore social and technical uncertainties and produce public demonstrations, this experimental mode is based on various kinds of experiments. Building on Science and Technology Studies and Actor Network Theory, this paper discusses two of them, which are in the same time two propositions for the organisation of codesign: a planned field test designed by Renault; and the collection of inquiries that resulted from the extension of the number of experimenters. These descriptions point to the analytical interest of the study of experimental trajectories in public and private interventions related to industrial projects, particularly in situations where the scope of the involved actors is not pre-given.
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En este trabajo nos proponemos rastrear y analizar controversias ciudadanas que agitan la ciudad de Calama desde un evento particular: la conversacion situada con el calameno Pablo Guzman por las calles del Centro Historico de Calama.... more
En este trabajo nos proponemos rastrear y analizar controversias ciudadanas que agitan la ciudad de Calama desde un evento particular: la conversacion situada con el calameno Pablo Guzman por las calles del Centro Historico de Calama. Esta conversacion particular sera analizada desde la nocion cosa-cosmos (Tresch, 2005; Latour, 2007), la que precipita dos presupuestos teorico-metodologicos. Primero, considerar simetricamente actantes humanos y no-humanos, renunciando a presupuestos ontologicos cerrados y esencialistas; segundo, que este asunto particular puede conectar, representar y reconstruir una totalidad -cosmograma. La nocion de cosa-cosmos nos permite ir mas alla un enfoque “externalista” y “desencarnado” de las controversias (Cefai & Terzi, 2012), para aprehenderlas desde la performance de los actantes. De ahi que -orquestando texto, mapas, fotos y otros- daremos cuenta de una experiencia situada que, discursiva, escenica y performaticamente, estresa la hegemonia de la repre...
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This article is based on the process of prototyping an environmental enrichment device for gibbons at the National Zoo of Chile (ZNdC). We analyse the capacity of prototyping to make the ontological qualities of the entities involved... more
This article is based on the process of prototyping an environmental enrichment device for gibbons at the National Zoo of Chile (ZNdC). We analyse the capacity of prototyping to make the ontological qualities of the entities involved perceptible while precipitating forms of care and connection. We will show that the very process of prototyping favours the mise en scène of an interspecies environment, sheltering the delicate unfolding of an 'us' that is based on mutual care and attention. We argue that this unfolding transforms prototyping into a cosmopolitical place for exercising modes of correspondence between humans, non-humans and environments. In an effort to understand prototyping as a scenario in which to perform our species interdependence, we propose a conversation between different concepts around the ideas of cosmopolitics and correspondence in order to encourage reflections on design practices that are sensitive to those entangled ʽbeyond the human.ʼ
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Este articulo propone una reflexion empirica en torno a procesos de diseno del habitat de animales del Zoologico Nacional en Santiago de Chile. Siguiendo el trabajo de un grupo de estudiantes de Diseno, describimos como el prototipado... more
Este articulo propone una reflexion empirica en torno a procesos de diseno del habitat de animales del Zoologico Nacional en Santiago de Chile. Siguiendo el trabajo de un grupo de estudiantes de Diseno, describimos como el prototipado contribuye a singularizar animales del zoologico. Se muestra que la operacion de prototipado puede ser comprendida como dispositivo cosmopolitico, al instaurar procesos abiertos de dialogo y exploracion sobre las especificidades de los animales. A partir del caso del enriquecimiento ambiental para chimpances, se observara como el prototipado despliega una vocacion ontologica, prototipando a los mismos animales como entidades singulares. El caracter provisional, maleable y fragil del prototipo, convierte a este dispositivo de prueba en un lugar de indagacion y experimentacion, re-problematizando las ontologias comprometidas en la interaccion disenadores animales-profesionales del zoologico. El caracter cosmopolitico del prototipo proviene de las formas ...
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While the real estate market engenders its own imaginaries, it is also influenced by the ones coming from the outside; for example, images of ideal potential consumers that prompt changes in supply. This research delves into real estate... more
While the real estate market engenders its own imaginaries, it is also influenced by the ones coming from the outside; for example, images of ideal potential consumers that prompt changes in supply. This research delves into real estate executives’ imaginaries to illustrate how they transform housing supply and, what is more, how they manage to adapt the offer when these imaginaries do not match the expected target.
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This issue of Disena explores beyond the restrictive boundaries that were originally imposed on design, installing questions about a design that reflects empirically on the conditions for the sustainability and habitability of the world... more
This issue of Disena explores beyond the restrictive boundaries that were originally imposed on design, installing questions about a design that reflects empirically on the conditions for the sustainability and habitability of the world (Sloterdijk, 2014). Instead of understanding design and politics as opposing and ontologically stable domains, we believe it’s relevant to revitalize design’s political drive, that is, its capacity to co-produce the social and unfold new political issues.
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Martin Tironi describes the continuous maintenance of another Parisian transportation network, the public bicycle scheme called Velib’. Tironi highlights the innovative aspect of this network’s maintenance. The agents engage in... more
Martin Tironi describes the continuous maintenance of another Parisian transportation network, the public bicycle scheme called Velib’. Tironi highlights the innovative aspect of this network’s maintenance. The agents engage in socio-technical inquiries on various aspects of the network (users, bikes, locations, time schedules, etc.). They actively transform them and, in so doing, the Velib’ maintenance agents contribute to urban innovation, showing the unfinished nature of the city. Tironi’s study highlights parts of the often invisible and largely ignored work through which mobility is sustained, taking seriously the value of the frictions and failures that populate urban life. Moreover, Tironi’s study emphasizes the close connection between maintenance routine, local inquiry and experimentation, working out in fine detail the heuristic interest of Dewey’s pragmatist notion of inquiry.
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Based on the Smart Cities imaginary, the bottom-up project Stgo2020 created a self-tracking device known as Rastreador Urbano de Bicicletas (or Urban Bicycle Tracker) to record the daily trips of cyclists in Santiago de Chile and use the... more
Based on the Smart Cities imaginary, the bottom-up project Stgo2020 created a self-tracking device known as Rastreador Urbano de Bicicletas (or Urban Bicycle Tracker) to record the daily trips of cyclists in Santiago de Chile and use the data gathered to help government officials make better and data-driven decisions on cycling infrastructure planning. In this article, we examine the iterative design of this technology as well as its introduction into the everyday practices of cyclists. We argue that efforts to quantify the ordinary experience of cycling were overwhelmed and interrupted by an ecology of breakdowns, everyday contingencies, forgetfulness, and re-interpretations in the assemblage of devices, data, humans, and bicycles. These breakdowns generated incoherent or absurd bits of information that we call them as “idiotic data” based on recent conceptualizations of the character of the idiot. Significant displacements were provoked by these idiotic data, forcing the engineer ...
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One of the most important challenges of the current democratic order in Chile refers to the need to satisfy the citizenship's expectations of equity and fairness. These expectations are fundamentally related with the demand for... more
One of the most important challenges of the current democratic order in Chile refers to the need to satisfy the citizenship's expectations of equity and fairness. These expectations are fundamentally related with the demand for protection of social rights. The existing institutional framework ...
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Ville durable, nouvelles technologies, nouvelle écologie: tels sont, entre autres, les termes habituellement employés pour qualifier le phénomène de mondialisation des systèmes de vélos en libre-service (VLS). Appréciés pour leur... more
Ville durable, nouvelles technologies, nouvelle écologie: tels sont, entre autres, les termes habituellement employés pour qualifier le phénomène de mondialisation des systèmes de vélos en libre-service (VLS). Appréciés pour leur caractère respectueux de l' ...
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Dentro de la tenencia mundial por generar ciudades más inteligentes y sustentables, la creación de infraestructura urbana en favor del uso de la bicicleta se ha vuelto una meta de varias capitales como es el caso de Santiago de Chile.... more
Dentro de la tenencia mundial por generar ciudades más inteligentes y sustentables, la creación de infraestructura urbana en favor del uso de la bicicleta se ha vuelto una meta de varias capitales como es el caso de Santiago de Chile. Ante la pregunta por cómo definir en dónde instalar esa infraestructura vial, el proyecto bottom-up Stgo2020 diseña un diminuto dispositivo de self-tracking llamado RUBI. Este permite registrar los recorridos cotidianos de ciclistas que voluntariamente deciden colaborar con el estudio. Con esta data ciudadana, los impulsores de este proyecto han creado mapas y visualizaciones del uso de la bicicleta en la ciudad, buscando ayudar a crear mejores políticas públicas en esta materia. Desde una enfoque teórico de los Estudios de ciencia, tecnologТa y sociedad, este artículo busca abrir la caja “negra de este dispositivo”, investigando de manera etnográfica sus diferentes prototipos, programas, experimentaciones y decisiones inscritas en él, así como las var...
Research Interests: Art, Ethnography, Digital Ethnography, Prototyping, Urban Design, and 3 moreSmart City, Bicycle, and STS/ANT
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In this article we describe the case of the National Housing Monitoring Network (ReNaM), an experiment by the Chilean State which, through the installation of sensors in homes in different cities of the country, seeks to generate a large... more
In this article we describe the case of the National Housing Monitoring Network (ReNaM), an experiment by the Chilean State which, through the installation of sensors in homes in different cities of the country, seeks to generate a large public database on the environmental behavior of homes in their real conditions and throughout their life cycle. With this information, it is hoped to advance in data-driven decision making and improve regulations on sustainable construction. Gathering theoretical contributions from Governmentality Studies and Science and Technology Studies, in this article we explore the distinctive mode of government that is activated with ReNaM and the ways to justify and materialize its intervention to households. As we argue, ReNaM is not only a new digital environmental monitoring mechanism but, more profoundly, a unique type of governmentality by sensors. The introduction of sensors in domestic spaces would be transforming the forms of knowledge and governmen...
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Dans deux des plus riches communes de Santiago du Chili, un systeme moderne de surveillance par aerostats a ete mis en place, les ballons se situant a une altitude elevee avec des cameras a haute resolution controlees a distance. Ce... more
Dans deux des plus riches communes de Santiago du Chili, un systeme moderne de surveillance par aerostats a ete mis en place, les ballons se situant a une altitude elevee avec des cameras a haute resolution controlees a distance. Ce systeme auto-identifie comme « smart », concu initialement pour les guerres et les controles frontaliers, a ete amene par des entites municipales pour pouvoir engager « la guerre contre la delinquance » et « gerer l’espace public plus efficacement ». Neanmoins, il a immediatement genere une serie de conflits lies aux profondes atteintes a la vie privee et a la surveillance excessive que pourrait impliquer ce dispositif dans la ville. Cet article decrit les tactiques diverses et opposees deployees par les acteurs impliques dans la controverse : d’une part, le travail de ses representants pour demilitariser et decontextualiser la technologie ; et d’autre part, la tentative de ses opposants de remilitariser et repolitiser cet artefact technologique de surve...
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In 2012, considering its development strategy for the electric car market, Renault turned the town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines into a experimentation and demonstration laboratory, with the installation of electric cars as part of a car... more
In 2012, considering its development strategy for the electric car market, Renault turned the town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines into a experimentation and demonstration laboratory, with the installation of electric cars as part of a car sharing system without fixed stations, called Twizy Way. In this paper the authors take into account the ontological work this experiment produces, its demonstrative ability and the way it intertwines knowledge, as part of boundary drawing within the framework of the experiment itself. They speak of a form of flexible laboratorisation affected by doubt and constant reorganisation of the elements making up, overflowing and interfering with the experiment.
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Valued for its 'planet friendly' character, these systems have become the hallmark for cities that want to become part of the so-called 'green culture'. The Velib' program is the largest system of its kind in the... more
Valued for its 'planet friendly' character, these systems have become the hallmark for cities that want to become part of the so-called 'green culture'. The Velib' program is the largest system of its kind in the world, with 1800 stations and 20600 bikes. This paper intends to analyze the Velib' system by considering an often ignored, but essential dimension on the subject: the invisible work, which about 400 agents realize on a daily basis to maintain the functioning of this sustainable mobility program. This presentation will analyse the plurality of operations through which the Velib' system is updated 24 hours a day. It does so by drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations made in a repair workshop, as well as observations made through accompanying technicians in the field. Through the description of the knowledge and the know-how mobilized by agents, I will show how these actors, through their daily contact with the city and users, become re...
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Describes the early stages of a large-scale public bicycle rental program in Paris, focusing on controversies around the envisioned urban and economic model.
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espanolCuando las palabras se ponen de moda, su uso modifica su significado. Asumiendo esacondicion performativa, este texto analiza los significados actuales de sustentabilidad, resiliencia e integracion. Asi, argumenta que debemos superar... more
espanolCuando las palabras se ponen de moda, su uso modifica su significado. Asumiendo esacondicion performativa, este texto analiza los significados actuales de sustentabilidad, resiliencia e integracion. Asi, argumenta que debemos superar la ciudad neoliberal para que los significados de estos conceptos se concreten. EnglishWhen words become fashionable, their use modifies their meaning. By understanding this performative condition, this text analyzes the current implications of the concepts of sustainability, resilience, and integration. Then, it argues the need to overcome the neoliberal city if we want these meanings to become real.
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ABSTRACT Smart devices are invading everyday spaces like our bedrooms and living rooms, making it possible to conduct new participatory experimentations in the ‘real world’. An example is the National Housing Monitoring Network (Red... more
ABSTRACT Smart devices are invading everyday spaces like our bedrooms and living rooms, making it possible to conduct new participatory experimentations in the ‘real world’. An example is the National Housing Monitoring Network (Red Nacional de Monitoreo, ReNaM). By installing networked sensors in homes in different cities in Chile, ReNaM seeks to generate a large public database on the environmental behaviour of homes in real life conditions and throughout their life cycle, in order to make data-driven policies and regulations on sustainable building. In this article, we argue that experiments with digital innovations like ReNaM are moving towards a ‘sensor governmentality’ or a mode of sensitive regulation of household behaviour at a distance, recomposing the relationship that the State establishes with its population. However, we find that this sensor governmentality is multivalent, fragile and friction-loaded. We analyse different scripts present in ReNaM and the frictions that emerge between divergent ways of materialising this sensor network from above and below. Moreover, the real environmental conditions and behaviours that the experiment seeks to capture through sensors are always challenged by the multiple entanglements that sensor devices unfold in domestic spaces, suggesting that affective and collective possibilities in these real-world experiments should be considered.
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En esta entrevista, Savransky analiza las implicancias de pensar y crear a partir de una mirada pragmatista, apuntando a los desafíos que enfrenta la investigación experimental en los tiempos turbulentos en que vivimos. Por medio de... more
En esta entrevista, Savransky analiza las implicancias de pensar y crear a partir de una mirada pragmatista, apuntando a los desafíos que enfrenta la investigación experimental en los tiempos turbulentos en que vivimos. Por medio de conceptos y autores clave que han marcado su trabajo intelectual, invita a concebir los ejercicios de pensamiento como prácticas de experimentalidad, a través de las cuales las situaciones inciertas e inestables de los problemas actuales suscitarían nuevas preguntas antes que respuestas cerradas
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Self-service bicycle systems are today being set up in a number of cities across the world. Seen as a means to promote a sustainable city and new forms of ecology, and valued for their ‘planet friendly’ character, these systems have... more
Self-service bicycle systems are today being set up in a number of cities across the world. Seen as a means to promote a sustainable city and new forms of ecology, and valued for their ‘planet friendly’ character, these systems have become a hallmark for cities that want to become part of the so-called green culture. Drawing from the experience of the Vélib’ programme in Paris and adopting a pragmatist perspective, this paper analyses the controversies which developed as this transportation infrastructure was implemented, as well as the definitions of ‘ecology’ which were at the centre of the dispute. In doing so it shows the capacity of the private firm involved in the system, JCDecaux, to ‘hijack’ and integrate the ecological critique, its rather powerful capacity to persuade other actors, and the popularity that the project achieved through a hard-won process of justification. At the same time, this paper argues that the mobility turn played a performative role in the justification and the definition of this new transport project.
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Resumen: El objetivo del presente trabajo es describir densamente algunas de las controversias que agitan la ciudad de Calama mediante el examen de un “evento” (WILKIE, 2014): nuestra “conversacion situada” (HARAWAY, 1988) con Pablo... more
Resumen: El objetivo del presente trabajo es describir densamente algunas de las controversias que agitan la ciudad de Calama mediante el examen de un “evento” (WILKIE, 2014): nuestra “conversacion situada” (HARAWAY, 1988) con Pablo Guzman por las calles del centro de Calama, ciudad natal de Guzman. Esta conversacion se analizara bajo la nocion de “cosa cosmos” (TRESCH, 2005; LATOUR, 2007a) la que precipita dos suposiciones teoricas y metodologicas. Primero, considerar simetricamente a los actores humanos y no humanos, renunciando a supuestos ontologicos esencialistas y cerrados; Segundo, que es factible representar y reconstruir la atmosfera controversial a partir de la descripcion densa de un evento. La nocion de cosa cosmos nos permite ir mas alla de un enfoque externalista y desencarnado de las controversias (CEFAI; TERZI, 2012), para comprender su constitucion atendiendo a la actuacion de los actores. En el presente trabajo, utilizamos texto, mapas, fotos y otros medios para re...
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In a milieu marked by increasing quantification of social life, many digital devices have emerged under the promise of a revolutionary change in areas such as urban planning and governance of Smart City projects. Starting from a... more
In a milieu marked by increasing quantification of social life, many digital devices have emerged under the promise of a revolutionary change in areas such as urban planning and governance of Smart City projects. Starting from a pragmatist approach based on Boltanski and Thévenot’s “orders of worth” framework, we argue that the promoters of digital devices must justify their worth by developing “technologies of justification” that go beyond data. In this article, we use a multi-case study of three digital devices—RUBI, Kappo, and Bikelite— for urban cycling created in Santiago de Chile to analyze the material, narrative, and economic technologies of justification mobilized to establish the worth of the data that these devices extract, analyze, and visualize for urban governance. This comparative analysis helps us problematize the homogeneous, neutral, and efficiency-focused valuations that are typically ascribed to these devices by laying out the wide range of operations that are used to justify and secure the embedding of these digital devices in societies. We conclude by offering a series of analytical clues to what may be a new order of worth, or what we conceptualize as the “datafied world.”
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Este artículo propone reflexiones metodológicas y teóricas a partir del proyecto interdisciplinario “Identidades algorítmicas”. Iniciado en 2019 entre investigadores de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile y la Universidad de... more
Este artículo propone reflexiones metodológicas y teóricas a partir del proyecto interdisciplinario “Identidades algorítmicas”. Iniciado en 2019 entre investigadores de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile y la Universidad de Warwick (Reino Unido), busca comprender cómo la persona es configurada en tiempos de algoritmos y datos digitales. Para ello, diseñamos un prototipo de aplicación, llamada Big Sister, que emula los sistemas de elaboración de perfiles y recomendaciones algorítmicas de las grandes plataformas digitales. Este prototipo ha servido de dispositivo de investigación social en un doble sentido: por un lado, nos permitió producir conocimiento en un hacer y deshacer crítico y descolonial; por otro lado, a través de entrevistas de rastros digitales con participantes usuarios del prototipo, pudimos explorar en sus experiencias y estimular la reflexión acerca de las mediaciones de algoritmos en sus vidas. En este artículo, examinamos el proceso de prototipado de esta ...
El artículo reflexiona sobre las posibilidades del diseño para expandir las formas de intervención e indagación de los problemas urbanos, generando espacios de colaboración, involucramiento y crítica. A partir del caso de urban... more
El artículo reflexiona sobre las posibilidades del diseño para expandir las formas de intervención e indagación de los problemas urbanos, generando espacios de colaboración, involucramiento y crítica. A partir del caso de urban hacking con personas en situación de calle en Santiago de Chile, el trabajo propone una conceptualización alternativa de la noción de urbanismo smart: en lugar de entender la ciudad como una entidad comercial que requiere más «inteligencia», mostramos que lo urbano aparece como un lugar poblado de formas heterogéneas de inteligencias y competencias movilizadas por los propios afectados, invitando a pensar en el diseño urbano a partir de las prácticas temporales y situadas de los sujetos. Por último y en continuidad con ciertas perspectivas contemporáneas sobre el diseño especulativo y sobre cómo la materialidad participa de lo político, el artículo pretende explorar un repertorio analítico para repensar la ecología de los espacios habitad...
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The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of "smart" urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a... more
The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of "smart" urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a technique for validating hypotheses about the future performance of products or policies, prototyping is based on the idea of generating original knowledge through the failures produced during the testing process. Through the study of an experimentation and prototyping project developed in Santiago de Chile called "Shared Streets for a Low-Carbon District," I analyse the technique of prototyping as a political device that can make visible (or invisible) certain entities and issues, determining what the experimental entities can do and say. I will show how the technique of prototyping defines modes of participation, what is visible and thinkable, what can be spoken and what is unspeakable. In this sense, I examine two ambivalent capacities of prototyping: as a mechanism of management and enrolment that seeks to prescribe norma-tivities (problem-validating prototype) and as an event that can make frictions tangible, articulating matters of concern and ways to open up alternative scenarios (problem-making prototype). K E Y W O R D S: curatorial interventions, public frictions, smart city, urban laboratory, urban prototyping
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n what follows, we seek to continue our dialogue with the reflections of Marisol de la Cadena and Keith Murphy on our article, ‘Cosmopolitical encounters: Prototyping at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile.’ Rather than defend our work... more
n what follows, we seek to continue our dialogue with the reflections of Marisol de la Cadena and
Keith Murphy on our article, ‘Cosmopolitical encounters: Prototyping at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile.’ Rather than defend our work –we agree with our commentators that our text is itself a prototype –or counter-criticize each of the observations of our reviewers, we are interested in using this space to reflect on certain premises underlying the three views concerned: ours and those of each reviewer. We will begin by reflecting on the framework with which Murphy approaches our work. We will then delve into the possibilities and potentials offered by de la Cadena.
Keith Murphy on our article, ‘Cosmopolitical encounters: Prototyping at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile.’ Rather than defend our work –we agree with our commentators that our text is itself a prototype –or counter-criticize each of the observations of our reviewers, we are interested in using this space to reflect on certain premises underlying the three views concerned: ours and those of each reviewer. We will begin by reflecting on the framework with which Murphy approaches our work. We will then delve into the possibilities and potentials offered by de la Cadena.
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In this chapter, we will understand the concept of Smart City as a sociotechni- cal imaginary (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015), that is, as a set of visions sustained by infrastructures, practices, and more or less shared meanings of social life... more
In this chapter, we will understand the concept of Smart City as a sociotechni- cal imaginary (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015), that is, as a set of visions sustained by infrastructures, practices, and more or less shared meanings of social life which in turn reveal futures that are desirable for a society (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015, p. 4). In this sense, the notion of Smart City mobilizes certain sociotechnical imaginar- ies that, on one hand, indicates what is desirable through the use of technology and, on the other hand, informs us of how cities should be managed. As we will show, the introduction of the term Smart City in Santiago is due to its nature as a floating and ambiguous signifier. Sometimes the concept is associated with sustainability or technological innovation, enterprises or creative urban spaces, data-driven decisions, or e-citizenship. In other words, it’s not only a way of re- ferring to solutions in the city, but it’s also a form of adding value to certain urban projects in a context that some call “platform capitalism” (Srnicek, 2017), which seeks to produce and refine the data generated by citizens themselves.
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In order to coexist with other species, human beings must be able to overcome the perception of being the dominant species. This article portrays how facts refuted the initial – anthropocentric – hypothesis explaining the failure of an... more
In order to coexist with other species, human beings must be able to overcome the perception of being the dominant species. This article portrays how facts refuted the initial – anthropocentric – hypothesis explaining the failure of an experiment with chimpanzees. This not only shows that it is wrong to ascribe human defects to other species, but also that we have a long way to go to understand more-than-human environments
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The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of "smart" urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a technique for... more
The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of "smart" urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a technique for validating hypotheses about the future performance of products or policies, prototyping is based on the idea of generating original knowledge through the failures produced during the testing process. Through the study of an experimentation and prototyping project developed in Santiago de Chile called "Shared Streets for a Low-Carbon District," I analyse the technique of prototyping as a political device that can make visible (or invisible) certain entities and issues, determining what the experimental entities can do and say. I will show how the technique of prototyping defines modes of participation, what is visible and thinkable, what can be spoken and what is unspeakable. In this sense, I examine two ambivalent capacities of prototyping: as a mechanism of management and enrolment that seeks to prescribe norma-tivities (problem-validating prototype) and as an event that can make frictions tangible, articulating matters of concern and ways to open up alternative scenarios (problem-making prototype).
K E Y W O R D S: curatorial interventions, public frictions, smart city, urban laboratory, urban prototyping
K E Y W O R D S: curatorial interventions, public frictions, smart city, urban laboratory, urban prototyping
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En estos últimos años, el concepto de smart city se ha impuesto en los discursos y prácticas urbanas, transformándose en un sello cada vez más anhelado por las me-trópolis de todo el mundo. El denominado smart urbanism surge de la premisa... more
En estos últimos años, el concepto de smart city se ha impuesto en los discursos y prácticas urbanas, transformándose en un sello cada vez más anhelado por las me-trópolis de todo el mundo. El denominado smart urbanism surge de la premisa que indica que, por medio de la aplicación de soluciones digitales, las urbes pueden transformarse en territorios más eficientes, predecibles y sustentables. Pero, ¿qué escenarios y consecuencias sociotécnicas plantea la extensión de sensores y algo-ritmos inteligentes en la ciudad? En este artículo exploro algunos de los debates contemporáneos y desafíos analíticos que emergen frente a la noción de ciudad in-teligente. Me sirvo de claves interpretativas provenientes de los Science and Technology Studies (STS) y discuto la naturaleza experimental de la noción de smart city y los efectos que presentan los procesos de dataficación sobre los espacios ur-banos y los individuos. Concluyo con una cita a la figura conceptual del idiota de Isabelle Stengers, enunciando una reflexión crítica sobre la visión de ciudad que contiene el paradigma de la smart city.
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Este artículo busca comprender las posibilidades de resistencia del acto de caminar en un contexto de la creciente digitalización de la vida. Variadas soluciones tecnológicas están traduciendo diversas actividades urbanas en bits de... more
Este artículo busca comprender las posibilidades de resistencia del acto de caminar en un contexto de la creciente digitalización de la vida. Variadas soluciones tecnológicas están traduciendo diversas actividades urbanas en bits de información para un manejo más inteligente, eficiente y sustentable de las ciudades. Una de ellas ha sido el caminar, la cual está comenzando a ser cuantificada por múltiples aplicaciones de auto-monitoreo que prometen un mayor optimización y promoción de esta actividad. Los autores introducen el personaje conceptual del “idiota” para realizar un ejercicio especulativo y contrafactual del programa tecno-inteligente que subyace en estas tecnologías de cuantificación digital del caminar. Se explora en las fallas, ruidos y formas de resistencia que surgen desde un “caminar idiotico”. Esta figura conceptual invita a ralentizar la codificación del ciudadano a datos digitales, ofreciendo posibilidades para repensar los alcances y límites de los proyectos de programación y dataficación de de nuestros entornos urbanos.
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This article reflects on the possibilities that speculative prototyping offers for rethinking forms of participatory design, generating spaces of friction and counter-participation. Based on a case of urban hacking conducted with homeless... more
This article reflects on the possibilities that speculative prototyping offers for rethinking forms of participatory design, generating spaces of friction and counter-participation. Based on a case of urban hacking conducted with homeless people in Santiago de Chile, the study deploys a critique of our current understanding of Smart urbanism, which is focused on aseptic and universal solutions. We describe the capacities of speculative prototyping to go beyond the logic of 'solutionism' present in the Smart City narrative and in some PD strategies, precipitating forms of participation-in-prototyping based on differences and dissensus. Specifically, we argue that the permeability of prototyping can evoke forms of counter-participation in which frictions are not limited under the concept of consensus, but rather used in an inventive manner to explore the issues at hand, inviting to reimagine the notion of participation trough prototyping.
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Based on the Smart Cities imaginary, the bottom-up project Stgo2020 created a self-tracking device known as Rastreador Urbano de Bicicletas (or Urban Bicycle Tracker) to record the daily trips of cyclists in Santiago de Chile and use the... more
Based on the Smart Cities imaginary, the bottom-up project Stgo2020 created a self-tracking device known as Rastreador Urbano de Bicicletas (or Urban Bicycle Tracker) to record the daily trips of cyclists in Santiago de Chile and use the data gathered to help government officials make better and data-driven decisions on cycling infrastructure planning. In this article, we examine the iterative design of this technology as well as its introduction into the everyday practices of cyclists. We argue that efforts to quantify the ordinary experience of cycling were overwhelmed and interrupted by an ecology of breakdowns, everyday contingencies, forgetfulness, and re-interpretations in the assemblage of devices, data, humans, and bicycles. These breakdowns generated incoherent or absurd bits of information that we call them as “idiotic data” based on recent conceptualizations of the character of the idiot. Significant displacements were provoked by these idiotic data, forcing the engineer behind the device to control and purify the sample by design and algorithms, waning the civic nature of the project at the same time. The case shows how new ways of knowing the urban space by smart devices should be not separated from the emergence of idiotic data, putting into question the versions of citizen participation and smartness at stakes.
Martin Tironi describes the continuous maintenance of another Parisian transportation network, the public bicycle scheme called Velib’. Tironi highlights the innovative aspect of this network’s maintenance. The agents engage in... more
Martin Tironi describes the continuous maintenance of another Parisian transportation network, the public bicycle scheme called Velib’. Tironi highlights the innovative aspect of this network’s maintenance. The agents engage in socio-technical inquiries on various aspects of the network (users, bikes, locations, time schedules, etc.). They actively transform them and, in so doing, the Velib’ maintenance agents contribute to urban innovation, showing the unfinished nature of the city. Tironi’s study highlights parts of the often invisible and largely ignored work through which mobility is sustained, taking seriously the value of the frictions and failures that populate urban life. Moreover, Tironi’s study emphasizes the close connection between maintenance routine, local inquiry and experimentation, working out in fine detail the heuristic interest of Dewey’s pragmatist notion of inquiry.
This article is based on the process of prototyping an environmental enrichment device for gibbons at the National Zoo of Chile (ZNdC). We analyse the capacity of prototyping to make the ontological qualities of the entities involved... more
This article is based on the process of prototyping an environmental enrichment device for gibbons at the National Zoo of Chile (ZNdC). We analyse the capacity of prototyping to make the ontological qualities of the entities involved perceptible while precipitating forms of care and connection. We will show that the very process of prototyping favours the mise en scène of an interspecies environment, sheltering the delicate unfolding of an 'us' that is based on mutual care and attention. We argue that this unfolding transforms prototyping into a cosmopolitical place for exercising modes of correspondence between humans, non-humans and environments. In an effort to understand prototyping as a scenario in which to perform our species interdependence, we propose a conversation between different concepts around the ideas of cosmopolitics and correspondence in order to encourage reflections on design practices that are sensitive to those entangled ʽbeyond the human.ʼ
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This article presents an empirical reflection on how the prototyping of an environmental enrichment device for chimpanzees at the National Zoo of Chile precipitates a cosmopolitical encounter. Using material produced by design students,... more
This article presents an empirical reflection on how the prototyping of an
environmental enrichment device for chimpanzees at the National Zoo of
Chile precipitates a cosmopolitical encounter. Using material produced by
design students, zookeepers and the chimps Judy and Gombe, we
describe how prototyping iterations establish open processes of
dialogue and encounters among humans and nonhumans. The case will
demonstrate how prototyping can go further than the generation of
models of an original. On the contrary, the cosmopolitical encounter
emerging from the prototyping process makes evident a truly
ontological vocation, acknowledging humans and other-than-human
beings as singular entities. Its provisional and malleable nature turns this
device into a privileged locus for the exploration of interspecies
entanglement. Although zoos are scientifically organized institutions, in
this case we observe how its anthropocentric hierarchy was
performatively reshuffled at certain moments of the prototyping
process. The cosmopolitical qualities of the prototyping process
analyzed derive from its capacity to deploy an ethics of attention and
care between the agencies at play, that is, for unfold gestures of mutual
vulnerability. Finally, we propose prototyping as a device for moving
from cosmopolitics as a way of understanding the world to
cosmopolitics as a matter of design.
environmental enrichment device for chimpanzees at the National Zoo of
Chile precipitates a cosmopolitical encounter. Using material produced by
design students, zookeepers and the chimps Judy and Gombe, we
describe how prototyping iterations establish open processes of
dialogue and encounters among humans and nonhumans. The case will
demonstrate how prototyping can go further than the generation of
models of an original. On the contrary, the cosmopolitical encounter
emerging from the prototyping process makes evident a truly
ontological vocation, acknowledging humans and other-than-human
beings as singular entities. Its provisional and malleable nature turns this
device into a privileged locus for the exploration of interspecies
entanglement. Although zoos are scientifically organized institutions, in
this case we observe how its anthropocentric hierarchy was
performatively reshuffled at certain moments of the prototyping
process. The cosmopolitical qualities of the prototyping process
analyzed derive from its capacity to deploy an ethics of attention and
care between the agencies at play, that is, for unfold gestures of mutual
vulnerability. Finally, we propose prototyping as a device for moving
from cosmopolitics as a way of understanding the world to
cosmopolitics as a matter of design.
Research Interests:
In what follows, we seek to continue our dialogue with the reflections of Marisol de la Cadena and Keith Murphy on our article, ‘Cosmopolitical encounters: Prototyping at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile.’ Rather than defend our work –... more
In what follows, we seek to continue our dialogue with the reflections of Marisol de la Cadena and Keith Murphy on our article, ‘Cosmopolitical encounters: Prototyping at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile.’ Rather than defend our work – we agree with our commentators that our text is itself a
prototype – or counter-criticize each of the observations of our reviewers, we are interested in using this space to reflect on certain premises underlying the three views concerned: ours and those of each reviewer. We will begin by reflecting on the framework with which Murphy approaches our work. We will then delve into the possibilities and potentials offered by de la Cadena.
prototype – or counter-criticize each of the observations of our reviewers, we are interested in using this space to reflect on certain premises underlying the three views concerned: ours and those of each reviewer. We will begin by reflecting on the framework with which Murphy approaches our work. We will then delve into the possibilities and potentials offered by de la Cadena.
Research Interests:
In light of the proliferation of sensors, data and analytics, multiple digital quantification regimes are emerging under promises of a revolutionary change in the way in which decisions are made in areas such as urban planning and... more
In light of the proliferation of sensors, data and analytics, multiple digital quantification regimes are emerging under promises of a revolutionary change in the way in which decisions are made in areas such as urban planning and government. These regimes present a growing need to differentiate themselves in order to capitalize their data, deploying particular technologies that go beyond the digital. In this paper, we review two digital quantification regimes of urban cycling in Santiago, Chile: the RUBI device and KAPPO smartphone application. Through the study of the design of material and narrative technologies of these regimes, we will show how they try to distinguish their modes of quantifying the cyclists’ mobility, configuring particular versions of target users, the city and its forms of government, in order to promote an urban planning driven by data.
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Walking: Ecologies, practices and affects in the city traces other, often unexplored, dimensions related to the ecology of affects, corporealities, and sensorial practices of walking. In the current moment, when quantitative perspectives... more
Walking: Ecologies, practices and affects in the city traces other, often unexplored, dimensions related to the ecology of affects, corporealities, and sensorial practices of walking. In the current moment, when quantitative perspectives on urban life are clearly dominant, we need to explore more sensitive methodological strategies to grasp the experiences and textures of the city. Although walking is one of the primary bodily acts
we learn and develop to relate with the environment, we still know little regarding the sensitive and urban configurations it produces.
(This is part of the introduction of the book Edited by Martin Tironi & Gerardo Mora: Walking: Ecologies, Practices and Affects in the City (Editorial Alberto Hurtado). The book will be available in April 2018)
we learn and develop to relate with the environment, we still know little regarding the sensitive and urban configurations it produces.
(This is part of the introduction of the book Edited by Martin Tironi & Gerardo Mora: Walking: Ecologies, Practices and Affects in the City (Editorial Alberto Hurtado). The book will be available in April 2018)
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The hypersensitive and cosmopolitical transformation of planet Earth has arisen not only from a political ecology driven by human beings, but also as a result of the emergence of new “aware” digital devices (Thrif, 2014; Tironi &... more
The hypersensitive and cosmopolitical transformation of planet Earth has arisen not only from a political ecology driven by human beings, but also as a result of the emergence of new “aware” digital devices (Thrif, 2014; Tironi & Sanchez-Criado, 2015) that are integral to how we represent ourselves and how we relate to ecology. But before settling on all-encompassing categories such as “anthropocene transhumanism” or “augmented humanity”, is an empirical investigation of the types of relationships, agencies and subjectivities that emerge from this entanglement of computer environments and nature worthwhile? What happens when our environmental experiences and decisions are visualized by technological sensors, translating into bits what can be seen and felt, computed and measured, touched and transmitted?
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In this article we will analyze the epistemological displacements experienced in the Interaction Design Workshop of the Design School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile during an intervention carried out in the first semester... more
In this article we will analyze the epistemological displacements experienced in the Interaction Design Workshop of the Design School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile during an intervention carried out in the first semester of 2016 at the National Zoo of Chile (NZC). First, we describe the process of transformation of the pedagogical practices raised in the Design School at the beginning of the 21st Century and the adoption of the ethnographic turn; then, we show how the intervention in the NZC became an impugnation to the epistemological and methodological frameworks of user-centered design and problem-solving design. Through the notion of ’cosmopolitical encounters’, inspired by the work of the philosopher Isabelle Stengers, and the interspecies experience in the NZC, we conclude that prototyping is a pedagogical tool that allows us to question epistemologies and hegemonic methods, encouraging the possibility of developing a ’cosmopolitical design’.
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This paper examines maintenance and repair work as forms of inquiry, experimentation and innovation in the city. Based on interviews and ethnographic observations with maintenance agents of the Parisian public bicycle scheme (Vélib), this... more
This paper examines maintenance and repair work as forms of inquiry, experimentation and innovation in the city. Based on interviews and ethnographic observations with maintenance agents of the Parisian public bicycle scheme (Vélib), this paper show that the maintenance and repair operations which stabilise the service are primarily based on inquiry. Vélib's handling and resolution of practical problems tests a type of inquiry ethic which is central to the development of the technology. By describing the knowledge and know-how used by maintenance agents, we show how these maintenance agents, through daily contact with the city and users of the scheme, become sort of 'sociologists' on the subject of mobility and users. For these actors the urban ecology becomes a place of inquiry and experimentation, a space populated with uncertainty which they must repair and maintain using diverse instruments and practices. The aim was to trace the trajectory of Vélib' technology in the act of maintenance and repair rather than through seemingly stabilised and ready to use objects. This approach invites us to study the infrastructures of the so-called smart city from the perspective of its varying degrees of temporary and material opening, observing its successive reconfigurations in the field.
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What has design to do with politics? The usual answer would be: nothing. At first glimpse, politics would be a realm indifferent and alien to design. While politics must deal with the governing of human interests for the sake of common... more
What has design to do with politics? The usual answer would be: nothing. At first glimpse, politics would be a realm indifferent and alien to design. While politics must deal with the governing of human interests for the sake of common good, design, instead, would be focused on form, the aesthetic and functional arrangement of the things that populate the world. The realm of the political would be populated by norms and values (liberty, tolerance, etc.), founding its duties on what Weber called 'the legitimate use of force' (Weber, 1944). The field of design, on its part, would respond to the rule of the needs of the user, focusing its forces on transforming, creatively and sensitively, the materialities into useful, usable or decorative products. It is precisely the separation between politics and design, deeply rooted in the thought and action of the latter, which this dossier attempts to thematise and problematise.
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This article reflects on the relations between transport infrastructure, affect and daily mobility. While transport systems has been always designed along the lines of discrete choice model paradigms, we want to show choice as a situated... more
This article reflects on the relations between transport infrastructure, affect and daily mobility. While transport systems has been always designed along the lines of discrete choice model paradigms, we want to show choice as a situated practice in which affects and emotions shape the way in which the infrastructure experience is configured. We show that decisions (regarding which mode of transport to use, which changes or connections to make, and which routes to prefer) are intertwined with affects and emotions that define relationships with the infrastructure and the situations encountered. Drawing on the travel experiences of the users of Santiago de Chile transport system (Transantiago) we analyse choice from the perspective of affects and emotions and examine the way in which certain decisions by users are temporally and empirically stabilized and constructed. Additionally, through this reflection we explore an aspect that is relatively undocumented in Science and Technology Studies (STS) about infrastructures, concerning the role played by affects and emotions in the way certain urban structures and technologies are used and appropriated.
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Bajo la justificación de una sensación de inseguridad, los municipios dedos de las comunas más ricas de Chile, implementaron un controversial dispositivo de vigilancia de globos aerostáticos con cámaras de última generación. Ideado... more
Bajo la justificación de una sensación de inseguridad, los municipios dedos de las comunas más ricas de Chile, implementaron un controversial dispositivo de vigilancia de globos aerostáticos con cámaras de última generación. Ideado originalmente para la guerra y el control fronterizo, los municipios buscaban enfrentar la “guerra contra la delincuencia” y gestionar el espacio público más eficientemente. De inmediato estos globos generaron rechazo por la invasión a la privacidad y sobrevigilancia que podrían implicar en la ciudad. Este artículo aborda empíricamente los distintos discursos desplegados por los actores involucrados en la controversia, las operaciones de mantenciónde este sistema de vigilancia, así como también las maneras en que las personas conviven cotidianamente con él. Por medio del análisis de estas dinámicas, el artículo muestra como esta tecnología foránea adquiere una particular visión sobre la ciudad que depende de entidades y fuerzas no siempre consideradas en los discursos públicos.
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TRANSFORMING BICYCLES INTO MOBILE LABORATORIES. The case of a citizen self-tracking device for the city of Santiago Dentro de la tenencia mundial por generar ciudades más inteligentes y sustentables, la creación de infraestructura urbana... more
TRANSFORMING BICYCLES INTO MOBILE LABORATORIES. The case of a citizen self-tracking device for the city of Santiago Dentro de la tenencia mundial por generar ciudades más inteligentes y sustentables, la creación de infraestructura urbana en favor del uso de la bicicleta se ha vuelto una meta de varias capitales como es el caso de Santiago de Chile. Ante la pregunta por cómo definir en dónde instalar esa infraestructura vial, el proyecto bottom-up Stgo2020 diseña un diminuto dispositivo de self-tracking llamado RUBI. Este permite registrar los recorridos cotidianos de ciclistas que voluntariamente deciden colaborar con el estudio. Con esta data ciudadana, los impulsores de este proyecto han creado mapas y visualizaciones del uso de la bicicleta en la ciudad, buscando ayudar a crear mejores políticas públicas en esta materia. Desde una enfoque teórico de los Estudios de ciencia, tecnología y sociedad, este artículo busca abrir la caja " negra de este dispositivo " , investigando de manera etnográfica sus diferentes prototipos, programas, experimentaciones y decisiones inscritas en él, así como las variadas discontinuidades y resistencias que se generan cotidianamente al insertar este dispositivo en la bicicleta y la vida de sus ciclistas. Se argumenta que el esfuerzo por laboratorizar y cuantificar la práctica afectiva y sensorial del andar en bicicleta en largas series de bits de información, se ve siempre limitada y sobrepasada por las resistencias sociomateriales que se generan en el ensamblado de dispositivos digitales, humanos y bicicletas. De esta manera, este caso nos permitirá dar ciertas luces sobre los así denominados proyectos Smart City para la movilidad sustentable, y los problemas se que revelan cuando la ciudad, los ciudadanos y las prácticas son traducidas y definidas por regímenes basados en la sensorización y dataficación de la ecología urbana Within the global trend to generate more intelligent and sustainable cities, creating urban infrastructure in favor of cycling it has become a goal of several capitals such as Santiago of Chile. When asked about how to define where to install the bike lines and infrastructure, the bottom-up project Stgo2020 designs a tiny self-tracking device called RUBI. This allows you to record the daily tours of cyclists who voluntarily decide to collaborate with the study. With this citizen data, the promoters of this project have elaborated maps and visualizations of the use of the bicycle in the city, seeking help to make more data-driven decisions and create better public policies. Starting from a theoretical approach of the Science, Technology and Society Studies, this article seeks to open the black box of this device, investigating ethnographically different prototypes, programs, experiments and registered decisions on it, as well as the various discontinuities and resistance that is generated daily by inserting this device on the bike and the lives of their cyclists. It is argued that the effort to quantify the emotional and sensory practice of cycling in a long series of bits of information, is always limited and overwhelmed by the sociomaterial resistance generated in the assembly of digital devices, humans and bicycles. Thus, this case will allow us to give some light on the so-called projects Smart City for sustainable mobility, and problems that are revealed when the city, citizens and practices are translated and defined by regimes based on sensing and dataficación of urban ecology Self-tracking. Yo Cuantificado. Ciudades Inteligentes. Resistencias Sociomateriales. Prototipos. Dataficación.
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While the real estate market engenders its own imaginaries, it is also influenced by the ones coming from the outside; for example, images of ideal potential consumers that prompt changes in supply. This research delves into real estate... more
While the real estate market engenders its own imaginaries, it is also influenced by the ones coming from the outside; for example, images of ideal potential consumers that prompt changes in supply. This research delves into real estate executives’ imaginaries to illustrate how they transform housing supply and, what is more, how they manage to adapt the offer when these imaginaries do not match the expected target.
Research Interests:
A modern surveillance system was implemented in two of the wealthiest municipalities of Santiago de Chile in the form of high- flying aerostats equipped with high-resolution cameras remotely controlled. This system auto-defined as “smart”... more
A modern surveillance system was implemented in two of the wealthiest municipalities of Santiago de Chile in the form of high- flying aerostats equipped with high-resolution cameras remotely controlled. This system auto-defined as “smart” and initially designed for war and border control was brought by municipal entities to face “the war against crime” and “manage public space more efficiently”. However, it immediately generated a series of conflicts related to the profound violation of privacy and the excessive surveillance that such a device may imply in the city. This article describes the different and opposing tactics displayed by the actors involved in the controversy: on the one hand, the work of its representatives in order to unmilitarize and decontextualize the technology; on the other hand, the attempt of its opponents to remilitarize and repoliticize the technological artefact of surveillance. Along with this study, in situ maintenance and operating interventions of the surveillance aerostats are analyzed, as well as the way people coexist and deal with the devices, making them part of their daily lives and routines. Through the analysis of these dynamics, the article shows how this foreign surveillance technology adopts different degrees of operation and how as an actor it is enacted with various hints, visions and activities.
Keywords: surveillance, military urbanism, controversies, panopticon, cosmopolitics.
Keywords: surveillance, military urbanism, controversies, panopticon, cosmopolitics.
Research Interests:
The paper reflects on the extent to which design may be able to expand forms of intervention and inquiry into urban problems by generating spaces for collaboration, involvement and criticism. Following on from the urban hacking case with... more
The paper reflects on the extent to which design may be able to expand forms of intervention and inquiry into urban problems by generating spaces for collaboration, involvement and criticism. Following on from the urban hacking case with homeless people in Santiago de Chile, this study proposes an alternative conceptualization of Smart urbanism: instead of understanding the city as a commercial entity that requires more “intelligence”, we show the urban space as a place populated by heterogeneous forms of intelligence and competences that are mobilized by the affected people themselves. This leads us to consider urban design in terms of the temporal and situated practices of its subjects. Finally, and in continuity with various contemporary perspectives on speculative design and the way in which materiality plays a part in the political, this paper examines an analytical repertoire for rethinking the ecology of inhabited spaces through intervention methods that are based on temporary prototypes.
Research Interests:
Ciudad Inteligente
Politizar
Smartcitizens
Apropriacion
Open-source urbanism
Formas de inteligencia
Politizar
Smartcitizens
Apropriacion
Open-source urbanism
Formas de inteligencia
Research Interests:
The aim of the present work is to thickly describe some of the controversies that agitate Calama city based on the examination of one “event”: our "situated conversation" with Pablo Guzman through the streets of Calama Center, Guzman's... more
The aim of the present work is to thickly describe some of the controversies that agitate Calama city based on the examination of one “event”: our "situated conversation" with Pablo Guzman through the streets of Calama Center, Guzman's hometown. This conversation is analyzed under the notion of "cosmic thing" to precipitate two theoretical and methodological suppositions. First, to consider symmetrically human and non-human actors, giving up essentialist and closed ontological assumptions; second, that is feasible to represent and reconstruct the whole controversial atmosphere from the thick description of an event. The notion of "cosmic thing" allows us to go beyond an externalist and disembodied approach of the controversies (CEFAÏ; TERZI, 2012), to comprehend its constitution attending the actors' performance. In the present work, we use text, maps, photos and other media to record and describe this located experience. The situated conversation with Pablo Guzmán through Calama challenges the effectiveness of a purely verbal representation, requiring new research methods and representation forms.
Research Interests:
Circuitos culturales
Urbanismo inteligente
Sector privado
Big Data
Laboratorios urbanos
Do-it-yourself (DIY)
Gubernamentalidad
Urbanismo inteligente
Sector privado
Big Data
Laboratorios urbanos
Do-it-yourself (DIY)
Gubernamentalidad
Research Interests:
This article proposes a reflection on the role of maintenance and repair practices in the study of urban infrastructures that equip contemporary cities. Based on an ethnography of maintenance practices carried out by agents of Paris... more
This article proposes a reflection on the role of maintenance and repair practices in the study of urban infrastructures that equip contemporary cities. Based on an ethnography of maintenance practices carried out by agents of Paris Public Bicycle Program (Vélib’), it shows the way in which these operators, by means of their daily contact with the city, become actual anthropologists of the breakdowns and the users. The article seeks to offer an understanding of urban mobility based on the tracks, traces, residues and malfunctionings that these service agents face daily. The study of maintenance, as an operation of socio-technical innovation, allows to make visible the invisible layers of the city, and to take more seriously the diverse ontological records that constitute it.
Research Interests:
This article presents an empirical reflection about the design of prototypes and the individualization of some animals at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile. Using the material produced by design students, we describe how the process of... more
This article presents an empirical reflection about the design of prototypes and the individualization of some animals at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile. Using the material produced by design students, we describe how the process of prototyping contributes to singularize those animals, therefore becoming a cosmopolitical device. The environmental enrichment for chimpanzees case will demonstrate how prototyping displays a truly ontological vocation, establishing open processes of dialogue and experimentation. Its provisional, malleable and fragile nature turns the prototype into a locus for inquiry and exploration; its cosmopolitical qualities derived from its many forms of ontological diplomacy: instead of stabilizing properties, it constantly re-specifies its conditions for verification. Finally, we attempt to develop the thesis of the prototype as a cosmopolitical device and its implications on design research as well as a way to intervene the world.
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This article reflects on the relations between transport infrastructure, affect and daily mobility. While transport systems has been always designed along the lines of discrete choice model paradigms, we want to show choice as a situated... more
This article reflects on the relations between transport infrastructure, affect and daily mobility. While transport systems has been always designed along the lines of discrete choice model paradigms, we want to show choice as a situated practice in which affects and emotions shape the way in which the infrastructure experience is configured. We show that decisions (regarding which mode of transport to use, which changes or connections to make, and which routes to prefer) are intertwined with affects and emotions that define relationships with the infrastructure and the situations encountered. Drawing on the travel experiences of the users of Santiago de Chile transport system (Transantiago) we analyze choice from the perspective of affects and emotions and examine the way in which certain decisions by users are temporally and empirically stabilized and constructed. Additionally, through this reflection we explore an aspect that is relatively undocumented in in Science and Technology Studies (STS) about infrastructures, concerning the role played by affects and emotions in the way certain urban structures and technologies are used and appropriated.
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In June 2012, the French car company Renault turned Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a ntown on the outskirts of Paris, into a test and demonstration laboratory. The company introduced a fleet of 50 electric cars as part of a car-sharing system... more
In June 2012, the French car company Renault turned Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a ntown on the outskirts of Paris, into a test and demonstration laboratory. The company introduced a fleet of 50 electric cars as part of a car-sharing system without fixed stations called Twizy Way. This scheme was a component of the manufacturer’s development strategy for the electric car market. This paper analyses this initiative in order to account for an experimental mode of industrial innovation. Characterised by the use of sociotechnical instruments in order to explore social and technical uncertainties and produce public demonstrations, this experimental mode is based on various kinds of experiments. Building on Science and Technology Studies and Actor Network Theory, this paper discusses two of them, which are in the same time two propositions for the organisation of codesign: a planned field test designed by Renault; and the collection of inquiries that resulted from the extension of the number of experimenters. These descriptions point to the analytical interest of the study of experimental trajectories in public and private interventions related to industrial projects, particularly in situations where the scope of the involved actors is not pre-given.
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This essay reviews diverse strands of empirical and theoretical work in different urban studies areas (urban planning, urban ethnography, urban geography, and STS) reflecting on the manifold ways in which the smart city project is being... more
This essay reviews diverse strands of empirical and theoretical work in different urban studies areas (urban planning, urban ethnography, urban geography, and STS) reflecting on the manifold ways in which the smart city project is being “opened up” for scrutiny through experimental projects developing digitally-mediated sensing practices of either a specific or broad kind: i.e., producing both devices formally devised for sensing spe- cific parameters, and sensing devices –emerging from less specific digital technology arrangements– used to share experiences, show solutions or politicize different urban issues. In doing this, we seek to understand, from an STS standpoint, the different ways in which a broad range of works are analysing the development, intervention, maintenance, and opposition of these ideas. In the first section we focus on understanding the definitions, features and clashes that several of these corporate projects (mostly mu- nicipal in nature) have come across, deploying smart devices, such as sen- sors to produce an “algorithmic city”. In the second section we expand the meanings of “smartness,” focusing on grassroots appropriations of broader digital arrangements and politicizations of open source infrastructures to display other forms of urban sensitivities, contributing to the cosmopolitici- zation of the “smart city” project.
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Maintenance and repair are actions that prevent the transformation of resources into waste. Thus, for the con temporary city to qualify as e§cient, the invisible work of those who maintain and repair urban resources is essential. Delving... more
Maintenance and repair are actions that prevent the transformation of resources into waste. Thus, for the con temporary city to qualify as e§cient, the invisible work of those who maintain and repair urban resources is essential. Delving into the invisible layers of the city, this research brings awareness to those, almost artisan, practices that, without much publicity, let us enjoy ‘intelligent’ cities or ‘sustainable’ transportation systems
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Este artículo propone una reflexión empírica en torno a procesos de diseño del hábitat de animales del Zoológico Nacional en Santiago de Chile. Siguiendo el trabajo de un grupo de estudiantes de Diseño, describimos cómo el prototipado... more
Este artículo propone una reflexión empírica en torno a procesos de diseño del hábitat de animales del Zoológico Nacional en Santiago de Chile. Siguiendo el trabajo de un grupo de estudiantes de Diseño, describimos cómo el prototipado contribuye a singularizar animales del zoológico. Se muestra que la operación de prototipado puede ser comprendida como dispositivo cosmopolítico, al instaurar procesos abiertos de diálogo y exploración sobre las especificidades de los animales. A partir del caso del enriquecimiento ambiental para chimpancés, se observará cómo el prototipado despliega una vocación ontológica, prototipando a los mismos animales como entidades singulares. El carácter provisional, maleable y frágil del prototipo, convierte a este dispositivo de prueba en un lugar de indagación y experimentación, re-problematizando las ontologías comprometidas en la interacción diseñadores-animales-profesionales del zoológico. El carácter cosmopolítico del prototipo proviene de las formas de diplomacia ontológica que despliega, donde en lugar de estabilizar propiedades, re-especifica permanentemente sus condiciones de verificación. Finalmente, y en un gesto de reflexividad, nos interrogamos respecto a qué es aquello que estamos efectivamente prototipando y en qué medida la operación de prototipado no sólo pone a prueba un dispositivo, sino también a los animales y al propio concepto de cosmopolítica.
The prototype as a Cosmopolitical Device: Ethnographic design practice and research at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile
This article proposes an empirical reflection related to design processes of the habitats of animals at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile. Using the material produced by a group of design students, we describe how prototyping procedures contribute to singularize animals at the zoo, and how the prototype becomes a cosmopolitical device. We demonstrate that the prototyping operation can be understood as a cosmopolitical device when it facilitates open processes of dialogue and exploration, concerning the specificity of the animals. Focusing on environmental enrichment for chimpanzees it will be observed that prototyping displays a truly ontological vocation, prototyping the animals themselves as singular entities. The provisional, malleable and fragile character of the prototype turns it into a locus for inquiry and experimentation, confronting the ontologies involved in the interactions between designers, animals and professionals. The cosmopolitical character of the prototype derives from the ontological diplomatic forms that it unfolds: instead of stabilizing properties it demands to specify, time and again its conditions for verification. Finally, in a reflective gesture, we ask ourselves what it is that we are effectively prototyping, and to what extent the prototyping operations not only test the device, but also the animals, and the very concept of cosmopolitics
The prototype as a Cosmopolitical Device: Ethnographic design practice and research at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile
This article proposes an empirical reflection related to design processes of the habitats of animals at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile. Using the material produced by a group of design students, we describe how prototyping procedures contribute to singularize animals at the zoo, and how the prototype becomes a cosmopolitical device. We demonstrate that the prototyping operation can be understood as a cosmopolitical device when it facilitates open processes of dialogue and exploration, concerning the specificity of the animals. Focusing on environmental enrichment for chimpanzees it will be observed that prototyping displays a truly ontological vocation, prototyping the animals themselves as singular entities. The provisional, malleable and fragile character of the prototype turns it into a locus for inquiry and experimentation, confronting the ontologies involved in the interactions between designers, animals and professionals. The cosmopolitical character of the prototype derives from the ontological diplomatic forms that it unfolds: instead of stabilizing properties it demands to specify, time and again its conditions for verification. Finally, in a reflective gesture, we ask ourselves what it is that we are effectively prototyping, and to what extent the prototyping operations not only test the device, but also the animals, and the very concept of cosmopolitics
Research Interests:
Self-service bicycle systems are today being set up in a number of cities across the world. Seen as a means to promote a sustainable city and new forms of ecology, and valued for their ‘planet friendly’ character, these systems have... more
Self-service bicycle systems are today being set up in a number of cities across the world. Seen as a means to promote a sustainable city and new forms of ecology, and valued for their ‘planet friendly’ character, these systems have become a hallmark for cities that want to become part of the so-called ‘green culture’. Drawing from the experience of the Vélib’ program in Paris and adopting a pragmatist perspective, this paper analyses the controversies which developed as this transportation infrastructure was implemented, as well as the definitions of ‘ecology’ which were at the centre of the dispute. In doing so it shows the capacity of the private firm involved in the system, JCDecaux, to ‘hijack’ and integrate the ecological critique, its rather powerful capacity to persuade other actors, and the popularity that the project achieved through a hard-won process of justification. At the same time, this paper argues that the mobility turn played a performative role in the justification and the definition of this new transport project.
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Este artículo propone una reflexión sobre el rol de las prácticas de mantenimiento y reparación en el estudio de las infraestructuras urbanas que equipan las ciudades contemporáneas. A partir de una etnografía de las prácticas de... more
Este artículo propone una reflexión sobre el rol de las
prácticas de mantenimiento y reparación en el estudio de
las infraestructuras urbanas que equipan las ciudades
contemporáneas. A partir de una etnografía de las
prácticas de mantención llevadas a cabo por los agentes
del programa de bicicletas públicas de Paris (Vélib’), se
muestra cómo estos operadores devienen, en su contacto
cotidiano con la ciudad, en auténticos antropólogos
de las panas y los usuarios. El artículo busca ofrecer
una comprensión de la movilidad urbana a partir de
las huellas, indicios, residuos y disfuncionamientos
que confrontan diariamente los agentes del servicio. El
estudio del mantenimiento como operación de innovación
sociotécnicas permite hacer visibles las capas invisibles
de la ciudad, y tomar en serio los diferentes registros
ontológicos que la constituyen
prácticas de mantenimiento y reparación en el estudio de
las infraestructuras urbanas que equipan las ciudades
contemporáneas. A partir de una etnografía de las
prácticas de mantención llevadas a cabo por los agentes
del programa de bicicletas públicas de Paris (Vélib’), se
muestra cómo estos operadores devienen, en su contacto
cotidiano con la ciudad, en auténticos antropólogos
de las panas y los usuarios. El artículo busca ofrecer
una comprensión de la movilidad urbana a partir de
las huellas, indicios, residuos y disfuncionamientos
que confrontan diariamente los agentes del servicio. El
estudio del mantenimiento como operación de innovación
sociotécnicas permite hacer visibles las capas invisibles
de la ciudad, y tomar en serio los diferentes registros
ontológicos que la constituyen
Research Interests:
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Valued for its 'planet friendly' character, these systems have become the hallmark for cities that want to become part of the so-called 'green culture'. The Vélib’ program is the largest system of its kind in the world, with 1800 stations... more
Valued for its 'planet friendly' character, these systems have become the hallmark for cities that want to become part of the so-called 'green culture'. The Vélib’ program is the largest system of its kind in the world, with 1800 stations and 20600 bikes. This paper intends to analyze the Vélib’ system by considering an often ignored, but essential dimension on the subject: the invisible work, which about 400 agents realize on a daily basis to maintain the functioning of this sustainable mobility program. This presentation will analyse the plurality of operations through which the Vélib' system is updated 24 hours a day. It does so by drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations made in a repair workshop, as well as observations made through accompanying technicians in the field. Through the description of the knowledge and the know-how mobilized by agents, I will show how these actors, through their daily contact with the city and users, become real "sociologists" of mobility and of the users. The urban ecology appears to the maintenance agents as a real field of exploration and experiment, a space inhabited by uncertainty, which the agents have to repair and maintain by a diversity of instruments and practices. Rather than to consider the objects as stabilized and ready to use, the analysis follows the trajectory of the Vélib' technology in the action of maintenance. It is by investigating the operations of maintenance that we are going to see a certain ‘modes of existence’ of Vélib' emerge, showing that these local and yet disperse practices are the ones who participate in the composition of the Vélib’ system.
In June 2012, Renault turned Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a town on the outskirts of Paris, into a experimentation and demonstration laboratory. The company introduced a fleet of 50 electric cars as part of a car sharing system without... more
In June 2012, Renault turned Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a town on the outskirts of Paris, into a experimentation and demonstration laboratory. The company introduced a fleet of 50 electric cars as part of a car sharing system without fixed stations called Twizy Way. This scheme falls in line with the manufacturer's development strategy for the electric car market. According to one of the main project managers, this program is a “first step into new mobilities”. In this paper will try and present what we consider a quite poorly documented aspect of the STS debate on experimenting and related to boundary work for the experiment. We will therefore take into account the ontological work the experiment will produce as well as its demonstrative ability and the way it intertwines knowledge, as part of this boundary drawing within the framework of the experiment itself. We do not aim at challenging the countless works focusing on the performative effects of experiments, we rather reflect on the fact that its limits are often taken for granted and analyse moments of doubt and negotiation
concerning what is considered experimental or not. We do not plan on using definition for any social, technical, economic, ecological, urban or political element involved in the experiment and will consider them, on the contrary, as the temporary and negotiated result of this very operation of laboratorisation. That is why we will speak of a form of flexible laboratorisation affected by doubt and constant reorganisation of the elements making up, overflowing and interfering with the experiment.
concerning what is considered experimental or not. We do not plan on using definition for any social, technical, economic, ecological, urban or political element involved in the experiment and will consider them, on the contrary, as the temporary and negotiated result of this very operation of laboratorisation. That is why we will speak of a form of flexible laboratorisation affected by doubt and constant reorganisation of the elements making up, overflowing and interfering with the experiment.
Research Interests:
A partir del análisis de “Ecopoemas” de Nicanor Parra, “Escrito en el desierto” de Raúl Zurita y Huacho, película de Alejandro Fernández Almendras, el siguiente artículo busca cuestionar la pertinencia de la epistemología dualista en la... more
A partir del análisis de “Ecopoemas” de Nicanor Parra, “Escrito en el desierto” de Raúl Zurita y Huacho, película de Alejandro Fernández Almendras, el siguiente artículo busca cuestionar la pertinencia de la epistemología dualista en la comprensión de lo natural y cultural de Chile. El objetivo es no tomar la dupla cultura/naturaleza como punto de partida, sino más bien como el punto de llegada de un proceso de composición que involucra múltiples prácticas y estrategias narrativas que serán el objeto de análisis en este documento. Se discutirá así el carácter político de las operaciones que configuran y construyen el universo de estas obras.