Fifteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

In collaboration with the Center for Human and Social Sciences-CSIC and the Pro-Common Laboratory, MediaLab-Prado, Madrid, the research analyzes the participatory urban space created in Brazil between 2013 and 2018, defined by the political and cultural performance of a “new middle class” articulated by online networks, aiming to contribute to the joint knowledge of academics, artists, hackers and activists in the sense of establishing a language capable of expressing the multifaceted world of common goods. In the transcultural logic - defined by the transformations that occur in the friction of distinct cultures - academic knowledge in architecture and urbanism turns to a discussion in the field of anthropology and digital technologies, aiming at finding viable solutions to the current impasse of megacities Brazilians relating the occupation of the public space, housing and mobility that define the quality of urban life. This project explores design logics of urban design responsible for spaces of socioeconomic exclusion and disciplinary schemes of public-private control. It contrasts Brasília’s occupation with daily violence in Rio de Janeiro, comparing the modern design of the capital with spaces of power and updating of a supposed citizenship, to the eclectic architecture of the Rio’s center. Since June 29, 2013, collective forces published by social networks have emerged indicating that, as Lévy (1996) has suggested, online space is a real space. The fundamental question can be summarized as follows: How can online networks create a real digital world and produce a new political and aesthetic image of urban contemporary Brazil?