De gemeente Amsterdam, het IAM en het ISCB hebben vanaf eind 2005 samengewerkt aan wat een interdisciplinaire minor zou worden. In het Sociaal Structuurplan 2004-2015 (gemeente Amsterdam, 2006) zijn de verwachtingen van interactieve media en glasvezel hoog en de toekomstbeelden voor 2015 positief. Onduidelijk is echter nog wat interactieve media via de nieuwe infrastructuur kunnen bijdragen op het sociale vlak. De opdracht aan de minor werd dan ook om de sociale kracht van interactieve media 2007-2017 in kaart te brengen en over bijzonderheden te rapporteren. De scenariomethode voor het hoger onderwijs is leidend geweest gedurende de minor. Belangrijkste reden is de brug die deze methode slaat tussen de vraag naar de oorzaken van maatschappelijke problemen en de vraag naar de oplossingen daarvoor. De methode combineert namelijk feitelijk onderzoek naar bestaande problemen, waarderend onderzoek naar succesverhalen en creatief denkvermogen richting de toekomst. De minor is aangevuld met een aantal verdiepende groepsactiviteiten in en rond Amsterdam.
This report serves as one of the two background documents for the HvA/UvA research proposal concerning cultural interventions in the process of urban regeneration in Krachtwijken in Amsterdam. The report at hand, based on a review of the international literature on art and regeneration, and on international and Dutch practices, shows why the proposed research will be both valuable to the practice of Amsterdam and to international research. The report starts with a description of the role of the arts in urban regeneration (§2) and the objective of regeneration processes: ‘feeling at home’ (§3). Next, paragraph 4 further explores the role of the arts in urban regeneration by focussing on the forms and impacts of and critique on different cultural interventions. Finally, §5 summarises the preconditions for effective cultural interventions. This general overview of the functions of cultural interventions in the urban context provides the background against which our research agenda is presented.
This paper explores the intersection of Human-Comput- er Integration (HInt) and Critical Disability Studies (CDS) to explore how a posthumanistic epistemology in design can produce knowledge and know-how for the application do- mains of Health and Well-being. To use disability as a catalyst for innovation, a rethinking in the philosophy of sciences is necessary to establish knowledge production that emerges from new fluid politics that operate in ‘composition’ instead of ‘organization’. By placing an emphasis on nomadic practic- es that move beyond fixed borders, the encounters between Disability Studies or Human-Computer Integration can pro- duce situated, embodied and contingent design knowledge that study deviant and complex embodiment, and the kinds of alterations of human characteristics and abilities through technology. The first section of this paper explores the re- thinking in the philosophy of sciences. The second section ar- gues for a posthumanistic epistemology in design, which can be seen as the perfect way to produce situated, embodied and contingent design knowledge on the intersection of HInt and CDS. The final section of this paper highlights the poten- tial for the disciplines of Somatechnics and Soma Design to engage in each other’s body of knowledge to produce trans- formative knowledge through a shared focus on deviant em- bodiment and disability. The takeaway message of this paper is that the intersection of HInt and CDS potentially leads to new – otherwise overlooked - insights on the human-technol- ogy relationship, and therefore can take part in the historical strive for man-machine symbiosis. The posthumanist episte- mology allows for alternative ways of thinking that move be- yond the current Humanist perspective, and builds on a plu- ral, relational and expansive foundation for the development of design practices that catalyze innovation in the application domains of Health and Well-being.
