In 2017 I co-produced a manifesto for the public authoring of our cities as a call-to-action for academics, digital practitioners and citizens. Power to the Citizen! outlines key ideas emerging from a 2017 debate on data co-creation in the digital city.

Challenging the rhetoric of unimaginable convenience, efficiency, predictability and connectivity pushed by the narrow smart city agenda, the manifesto contests that the ‘smartness’ of cities is in fact the product of an intricate knowledge and insight borne by its citizens.

The project was made possible through funding received from the UCL Grand Challenge of Transformative Technologies, which was secured in collaboration with UCL’s Engineering Exchange for work exploring the concept of smart cities and its impact on London’s communities.

I led the project in collaboration with Claire McAndrew in The Bartlett School of Architecture, and Sarah Bell and Charlotte Barrow at the Engineering Exchange.

Participants in the panel included curator and author Lucy Bullivant, researcher Nicolas Fonty, the Greater London Authority’s Smart London strategy and Delivery Officer Stephen Lorimer, Adam Dennett from The Bartlett’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, and Ava Fatah gen. Schieck from The Bartlett School of Architecture.

The publication was designed in collaboration with Unlimited.

Find out more and read the manifesto: ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/publications/2018/dec/power-citizen