Urban Party Tricks

A video essay that explores the concept of ‘platform cognition’ in urban environments by discussing BIM vs. ecological information modelling, kilojoules vs. updates, hashgraphs vs. blockchains and executive power vs. institutional jargon, while tracking through immediate urban surrounds in Moscow. These concepts are approached through an initial polemic that maybe ‘smart city’ innovation is mostly driven by the desire of silicon valley bros to show off and find the next cool party trick for machines to perform.

Created at Strelka Institute, Moscow in response to a seminar with Google AMI. A collaboration with:

Qiao Lin, US programmer

Seva Okin, Russian developer

Lukas Likcavan, Slovak philosopher

Chapters

1. Ecological Information Modelling or “The Infinite Food ‘Splain” #ecology #objectflows #legibility

2. Public Ledger for Intermodal Consensus #overlap #legibility #enforcement

3. JARGONs #play #legibility #ecology

4. Glitch City / Camouflage Economy / Potemkin Ontology #legibility #play #enforcement

5. Commitment [Update] #objectflows #ecology #temporality