Gernot Riether, associate professor
and director of the School of Architecture at the College of Architecture and
Design at NJIT, co-authored a book on information technology and urban space
with Marcella Del Signore, associate professor at New York Institute of
Technology.
“Urban Machines: Public Space for a Digital Culture” was published by LISTLAB
earlier this year and describes how digital technology disrupted city life at
the beginning of the 21st century by changing the way we communicate, we gain
goods, and we receive information. It also speculates in how these changes may
affect the physical public space of our cities itself.
The book describes a particular landscape of projects that engage information
technology to alter public space and social interactions in the urban space. It
also addresses a series of questions that affect how information technology
will be integrated in public space: Does the internet have to be free for a
public space to be truly public? How accessible should the information of smart
cities be for its citizens? The book also describes the potential of
information technology to allow citizens to actively participate in the
creation of public space.
Through essays, case studies and conversations, this book presents a recent history and overview of the impact of information technologies on the physical public space while providing an inspiring vision of possible future scenarios for the public realm in a digital culture.
The book is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Urban-Machine-English-Italian/dp/8898774281