Valletta, Malta | 18-19 April, 2016
Aula Magna, University of Malta Valletta Campus, St Paul Street, Valletta, Malta
COST Action TU1306 | CyberParks Fostering Knowledge about the Relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and Public Spaces
The mid-term conference for COST Action TU1306 CyberParks: Fostering Knowledge about the Relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and Public Spaces, shall be held in Valletta, Malta between the 18–19 April 2016. ICiTy – Enhancing places through technology is an interdisciplinary scientific conference that shall be open to academics, researchers, practitioners and PhD students alike. It will focus on the opportunities and challenges to public spaces, brought about by the advancements of ICT, and is part of the wider research interests being explored by the COST Action TU1306.
This international conference provides a significant opportunity to synthesise the current 'state of the art' with regard to the development of ICT and the re-questioning of public spaces, from technological, human, philosophical and design perspectives. ICT may add value to public spaces and to the user experience therein. Understanding fully the implications of ICT to place-making requires, in turn, a complete understanding of the relations between users and their behaviour, new media and the spatial practice, as well as new methodologies using technology that are being developed. ICiTy aims to expose participants to novel ideas about future ICT development and contemporary knowledge about new ways of urban life people are tending or searching for in connection with new media. It shall also showcase a vast array of case studies – both in terms of field experiments with new methodologies and innovative design approaches related to the development of urban open spaces.
A number of distinguished keynote speakers shall be presenting during the plenary session. These include Professor Matthew Carmona (University College London), Professor Alessandro Aurigi (Plymouth University), Professor John Cook (University of the West of England, Bristol), Professor Eva Savina Malinverni (Universta Politecnica delle Marche), Professor Matthew Montebello (University of Malta) and Mr Dave Carter (Centre for Urban Policy Studies, University of Manchester) who will be dealing with issues ranging from new challenges to public spaces, urban design and place-making in the information age; citizen interaction; ICT tools and citizen interaction in Smart Cities.
There shall also be parallel sessions organised around three main tracks:
Track 1: Digital methods and social practices in public spaces
Papers submitted in relation to this track will deal with recent and novel ICT-tools that have been (or are being) developed in order to research the use of, and user-behaviour within, public spaces.
Track 2: Ethnographic challenges and the creation of digitally mediated urban places
Papers submitted in relation to this track will:
- explore contemporary design research and innovative open space development practices, illustrating the design challenges of new media to urban and landscape design; and
- discuss cultural and sociological fieldwork using innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, addressing contemporary knowledge about the use of new media technologies in public spaces from an ethnographic viewpoint.
Track 3: Reflecting on the relationships between people, spaces and technology
Papers submitted in relation to this track will reflect on philosophical and methodological approaches and illustrate evidence-informed practice that seeks to understand the complex relationships between humans, public spaces and new media development and how it is (or should be) reflected in the urban fabric and place design.
Registration for the ICiTy conference is now open, through www.um.edu.mt/events/eptt2016/registration.
Early bird rates apply until 29 February 2016 midnight CET.
ICiTy is supported by the University of Malta, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the Valletta 2018 Foundation, the Malta Communications Authority and studjurban.