Who are we?

The Mobile City is an independent research group that investigates the influence of digital media technologies on urban life, and the implications for urban design. We like to collaborate with institutions, organizations and individuals from various disciplines who share our interest in these issues.

Aims

• We aim to understand the ways digital media technologies shape urban life. How is urban life changing, and what are the main challenges and opportunities? (More >>)

• We want to bring these insights back to urban design. How can cities become better and more interesting places to live in? (More >>)

Scope

In our view it is no longer useful or even possible to understand urban life as separate from information and communication technologies. Today’s cities are shaped by a wide variety of digital technologies, with acronyms like GSM, GPS, CCTV , UMTS, LBS, AR, Wi-Fi, and RFID (or in plain English: mobile phone networks, satellite navigation, security camera’s, wireless data communication systems, location based services, augmented reality, chips and sensor-networks).

The city is physical and digital. It has become a ‘hybrid city’. Developments like these profoundly change our ideas of time and space, culture and identity, solidarity and citizenship.

As a consequence, urban design is expanding beyond architecture and urban planning. It includes all disciplines that contribute to the shaping of urban life: from architects and urban planners to policy makers; from media developers and artists to telecom companies; and from technology research to urban anthropology. We claim that the design of the hybrid city benefits from the mutual involvement of multiple disciplines.

Focus

In order to provide directions to the broad emerging field of new media urbanism, we specifically focus on three issues:

• Home. How to feel at home amidst the diversity and tensions of urban life?
• Ownership. How to evoke engagement with urban life and provide opportunities for citizens to act?
• Play. How can playful interventions, from storytelling and art to urban gaming, stimulate unexpected encounters and enrich urban life?
  In the near future (2011-2013), The Mobile City will research and organize events on these topics.

What can we do for you?

We like to cooperate with third parties (commercial and non-profit; individuals and institutions) who are interested in integrating digital media technologies with urbanism and urban design. The Mobile City makes a distinction between its funded not-for-profit activities, as described here, and its commercial services.

Our core activities are:

• Research. We investigate and write about current developments at the intersection of new technologies and urbanism.
• Events. We regularly organize and contribute to conferences, workshops, and expert meetings with professionals from a range of disciplines and nationalities to exchange knowledge and collaborate.
• Networking. We operate as a networked organization that seeks alliances with partner organizations. Join our social networks on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin to become part of these networks and share your insights and questions with us.

Contact us

If you have a proposal for collaboration, please contact us at info@themobilecity.nl. Or see the Contact page for more details.

Partners and sponsorships

The Mobile City wishes to thank its sponsors, partners and contributors that have enabled us to keep up this website and organize our events.

For 2011 The Mobile City has received a generous grant from the Pauwhof Fonds.

From 2008 to 2010 The Mobile City collaborated with (amongst others) Virtueel Platform, Shanghai eArts, Waag Society, The Architectural League of New York, Kitchen Budapest, V2_, Cybercity Ruhr and Dynamic City Foundation, the Dutch Culture Centre (DCC) in Shanghai, the Netherlands China Arts Foundation, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) and the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA), the research groups New Media, Public Sphere and Urban Culture at the University of Groningen & Playful Identities at the the Erasmus University Rotterdam & University of Utrecht. And we received grants from the Rotterdam municipality, the Rotterdam Trustfonds, and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).