Conference, workshops and parallel events
17-19 September 2015
University of Athens, Athens, Greece
http://uranus.media.uoa.gr/hc3/

About

Hybrid City is an international biennial event dedicated to exploring the
emergent character of the city and the potential transformative shift of the
urban condition, as a result of ongoing developments in information and
communication technologies (ICTs) and of their integration in the urban
physical context. It aims to promote dialogue and knowledge exchange among
experts drawn from academia, as well as researchers, artists, designers,
advocates, stakeholders and decision makers, actively involved in addressing
questions on the nature of the technologically mediated urban activity and
experience. The second installment of the Hybrid City, that took place in
2013 boasted seven keynote speakers, sixty-eight paper presentations and
diverse parallel events, that were documented in the printed volume of
proceedings.

Hybrid City Conference 2015 in Athens, Greece will consist of three days of
paper presentations, panel discussions, workshops and satellite events,
under the theme “Data to the People”. The events are organized by the
University Research Institute of Applied Communication (URIAC), in
collaboration with New Technologies Laboratory, of the Faculty of
Communication and Media Studies, of the University of Athens. The main venue
of the conference is the central, historic building of the University of
Athens, while workshops, projects’ presentations and parallel events will
take place in other University venues and collaborating centers and
institutions, in the center of Athens

The 2015 theme: Data to the People

So far in the 21st century, we have experienced a multi-faceted crisis
that’s challenging the current structural paradigm at a global scale. This
crisis is not only economic; it is also social, political and environmental.
As such, it has a very prominent urban dimension, exposing cities to a
diverse spectrum of distress. Acute natural disasters -earthquakes, fires,
or phenomena related to climate change; floods, severe snowfall, fires etc.
– precarious access to basic resources such as food and water, lack of
opportunities for employment, inefficient social services, e.g. healthcare
and education, along with ever increasing unforeseeable acts of violence -a
complex and manifold phenomenon on its own right- render living in urban
areas vulnerable.

The third Hybrid City Conference seeks to investigate Information
Communication Technologies (ICTs) as means of supporting more Sustainable
Cities and Resilient, Self-Reliant Communities and for empowering Citizens.
By proclaiming “Data to the People” the Hybrid City Conference adopts a
citizen centered approach and seeks to highlight bottom-up projects and
initiatives and processes of technological mediation, which assist
individuals, communities and cities in responding and adapting to
challenges. The Hybrid City Conference aims to offer insights into the
complexity of factors that weaken the city fabric and affect urban
wellbeing. Furthermore, it aims to investigate the potential of ICTs to
support proactive and collective design towards future cities, focusing on
real needs and away from a smart-everything rhetoric.

Hybrid City cordially invites papers both employing a theoretical and/or a
practical approach that present concepts, case studies, projects, works of
art and best practices promoting the discussion on the theme. Emphasizing
the inherently interdisciplinary nature of technologically mediated urban
activity, we welcome proposals discussing concepts or documenting projects
of urban innovation, that through originality contribute to shaping the
future of the hybrid city and offer useful insights to the hybridization
process of the urban environment.

Submissions may critically examine the following topics, or suggest other
relevant lines of research within the Hybrid City context:
. Environmental sensing and the Internet of things: regaining control
. Open urban data, capturing and visualization
. Environmental perception, cognition, immersion and presence in the context
of hybrid urban spaces
. Psychosocial perspectives into the impact of locative and pervasive media
use
. Placemaking, place attachment and place identity in the hybrid city
. New public spaces: From creative spatial re-use to urban farming
. Peer to peer urbanism: From open source to doing it with others
. Collaborative economies and sharing cities practices
. Urban self-reliance: Alternative collectives and support networks
. Resilience and sustainability: Emerging citizen-driven toolkits,
methodologies and prototypes
. Artworks, and urban interventions for citizen empowerment
. Transmedia location-aware storytelling
. Performative bodies, gendered spaces and technofeminism in the Hybrid City
. Infrastructural fails and alternative communication systems: Critical
perspectives and responses to stacktivism
. Autonomous, offline file-sharing and communication networks
. Open hardware and sustainability

Author’s Guidelines

Submissions should include:
. Extended abstract of 750 – 1000 words, (including references).
. Biographical statement of no more than 250 words.
. Keywords (at least five).
All abstracts will undergo a double, blind peer review. Selected authors
will be asked to submit a full paper (8 pages), or short paper (4 pages) to
be included in the printed conference proceedings. Further details will be
announced right after the notification of acceptance

Important dates
Deadline for extended abstract submissions: 15/3/15
Response to authors: 22/4/15
Camera ready full paper submission: 22/6/15

Submission
Please submit your contribution using the online platform.

For any queries or further info please contact us at:

hybridcityathens [at] gmail [dot] com