Urban informatics on peripheries - report on Lift Workshop @ Hungary

This post is a recap by Attila Bujdosó of the Lift @ Hungary event he co-organized in Pécs.

The first edition of Lift Workshop in Hungary took place in the Eastern Quartier of Pécs, European Capital of Culture in 2010. And more specifically, in Széchenyi István akna, a former coal mine, which is now part of the city’s cultural heritage.

The event was held in the amazing-looking but abandoned, old compressor hall. Despite the unfortunate weather on this cold and rainy late-September day, 35 participants gathered from 10 different countries: students, architects, designers and media lab researchers, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe.

Keynote presentations

In the morning session keynote presentations were given by the four invited speakers. Their talks formed a basis to explore the implications of urban information systems for architecture and urban design with a special focus on the context of peripheral urban areas.

In his talk, Marcus Foth highlighted how new technologies can make things visible that were invisible before, how urban informatics can mediate between people and he detailed some projects at the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology.

Martijn de Waal introduced his research on 'the mobile city' and pointed out that modern technologies can not only help practitioners to harvest data input for design processes but can also create new relationships between designers and clients. He investigated the possible motivations that make such situations emerge and also raised the critical question of data ownership in public space.

Christophe Guignard, an architect, introduced his projects that deal with a great global sensibility. He gave examples on how hidden layers of information create value or difference. He raised the question: if with electricity we created a second day, what will ubiquitous computing create for us?

Violeta Bulc described herself as a shamanic practitioner, martial arts sensei, engineer and humanist. She works as a business consultant for organizations but her approach is singular: instead of maximizing profit she focuses on sustainability, human emotions and trust in her projects. In her keynote she emphasized the human perspective behind growth and drew a line along the different shapes it forms (productivity, quality, innovation, intuition).

Afterwards workshop participants formed groups, led by one of the four speakers, and literally grouped... around gas heaters. The moment was quite remarkable when each group grabbed a gas patio heater and took it around the old compressor hall. People occupied the space loosely while avoiding the water puddles on the floor caused by the leaking roof.

The topic of the workshop was deeply inspired by the site. The main question ‘What are the possibilities of new technologies in the socio-cultural periphery of a post industrial urban landscape?’ could be interpreted on many different levels. Széchenyi István akna, the former coal mining site itself is located on the periphery of the city of Pécs, whereas Pécs is on the periphery of Hungary, and its Barany county is on the periphery of the European Union. The organizers intended to take the site as a trigger for ideas, which seemed to work out well, maybe too well: participants stuck strictly to the location and looked for models for local interventions.

Workgroups

The workgroup led by Marcus proposed to turn the site into a research hub, “a dream destination for ones sabbatical” that offers a monastical environment for scientific pursuits and for the “cross pollination” of ideas. Its research focus is guest curated and constantly reconfiguring although it also connects with local narratives in terms of resources and problems to consider (for example urban agriculture research because of current land use practices in the former mining area, or post war studies because of the proximity of Balkans).

The idea emerged while rethinking the notion of periphery in the networked world understood as the lack of connectivity. While geographic remoteness can be considered as a resource (solitude, inspiration for interdisciplinarity), disconnection cannot. The centre’s name, Aleph (inspired by Borges’s novel) also summarizes this dream-like scenario. Aleph is referring to a point in space that contains all other points simultaneously; one who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously.

Martijn's group visioned that activities taking place in the compressor hall could reconnect the local community with the greater population of city Pécs. The closer neighborhood of the former mine district is inhabited by three distinguishable groups: families of former mine workers, inhabitants of social housing (mainly roma people) and ‘newcomers’ that moved in recently and have nothing to do with the mine.

Draft concepts were brought up such as ‘illegal cinema’ which could be a way to attract local people; be an excuse to gather people from a greater vicinity; a way to engage with technology; and get involved in media production (increasing media literacy in the long-term). Also, communication methodologies were discussed, whether the site can be turned into an ‘Urban Legend Factory’ which could boost the above mentioned activities.

Participants in Christophe’s group were strongly inspired by the spatial quality of the building which creates a very poetic atmosphere that is composed by vanished times and current emptiness. In the process of finding the future usage of the building they envisaged a transitional period that would first of all make people aware of the history and the existence of the building.

According to their imaginations, they would put the emphasis on two things. Firstly, to involve the neighbourhood through activating and presenting related memories (a research work where the result would take shape in the form of sound, video and objects). Secondly, to create installations amplifying the existing natural phenomena (light, darkness, rain, airflow, etc..) that comes with the current conditions of the building: a contradictory presence of inside and outside.

As a first step, Violeta’s group built a safe and creative work environment for the diverse team of architects, artists, an archaeologist, a philosopher, a sociologist and an economist. Violeta gave a very clear methodology for designing community projects that was implemented in the following steps in the work process: intuitive exploration of the site's atmosphere; finding together a new purpose for the post-industrial buildings; finding all the potential stakeholders of the visioned story; determining their needs and their earnings from the project; summarize the general needs and all the values gained; formulating a mission by assigning time to the plan.

‘Think about human, about his needs and give him a chance to realize all his possibilities. Then find a place, listen to its history, look for the signs which I'm sure, lie just nearby, close your eyes and imagine what possibly the best could take place here. Then take a piece of paper, chose your key concept, find people who may be interested in this idea. Simple, isn't it? Too idealistic, some may say. But it's worth trying it once and then looking for the sparkle in people's eyes.’

The group’s final proposal was creating an “Engine of Open Secrets - Experimental Center of Engineering and Technology” that provides infrastructure for research and education on engineering to broaden general perspectives on technology.

Conclusion

We think that the process the workshop participants underwent was as important as the actual outcomes which were developed in the form of proposals.

One of the main goals of the workshop was to help establish a network of international professionals shaping the discourse around urban informatics, and professionals from the region. As a conclusion, this happened entirely according to the original aim of the organizers (Daniella Huszár, Melinda Sipos and Attila Bujdosó at Kitchen Budapest).

There is more information about the workshop on its homepage. We will soon feature the videos of the four presentations.