Deep City:
Climate Crisis,
Democracy
and the Digital
24—26/03

Registration open Click here to register for the Deep City
Registration open Click here to register for the Deep City
Registration open Click here to register for the Deep City

Open Call & Submissions

Big data, smart systems, machine learning – it is inevitable that these new technologies will change the way we study, build and manage our cities. At the same time resurgent interest in consensus and contributive action seems to oppose an exclusively data-driven urbanism. Is the opposition of machine intelligence and democracy inevitable, or are shared trajectories possible?

 

Politicians, social scientists, urbanists, and architects find their working methods and disciplinary knowledge challenged by insights derived from big data, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). As both citizens and experts in the many respective fields, our mission must be to bring in our disciplinary knowledge and civic engagement to support the appropriate development and discussion of data-driven tools, to consider both their biases and potentials, and to promote broader social literacy and criticality. Ultimately, it is a question of both decanting the technical quality of these new instruments of design, management and decision making, as well as enhancing democratic control over them. How do we do this?  Do our disciplines currently lack adequate strategies to understand, let alone critique or exploit the knowledge-products of machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data?

 

Due to the ongoing covid-19 crisis, the International DEEP CITY Latsis Symposium has been rescheduled to March 2021 with an innovative conference concept where the digital and the physical will join to create a global dialogical field. To ground this field and foster meaningful exchange, we launch a CALL FOR PROPOSALS, ranging from operational practices to speculative and theoretical questionings. These can be presented in written, built, coded, drawn, figured, imagined, filmed, modelled or in any other way conveyed format. Participants will be able to attend and present their work in person at any of its three main sites or through the DEEP CITY analog-digital platform where they’ll be able to participate and discuss with the event’s global audience.

 

DEEP CITY will take place on the EPFL Campus in Lausanne, from March 24th to 26th 2021, with parallel and common activities in partner sites Singapore (in collaboration with SUTD Singapore University of Technology and Design) and Hong Kong (in collaboration with Hong Kong University). This social and cultural event will connect different cities and time zones, augmenting the physical experience through the digital and augmenting the digital through a unique approach to the physical. Within this framework, we will host keynotes and paper presentations, as well as a range of crossing formats such as workshops, political debates, table dinners, exhibitions and guided tours to collectively grasp the DEEP CITY.

Download the Full Program of the DEEP CITY.

Submission guidelines

Themes

Program

24—26/03

The dialogical field of DEEP CITY will evolve over time through a series of differential events, both scientific, social and cultural, each with their own unique character. Its changing spatial disposition will shift according to coexisting temporalities and activities as to support the encounters between different voices, practices and knowledges. Its activities will be documented and post-produced along the way, and a pamphlet publication will summarize the main outcomes at the end of the event.

 

Download the Full Program of the DEEP CITY.

 

Workshop 01
Terra Forma
Sampling, mapping and recomposing the Earth

Organized by Alexandra Arènes and Axelle Grégoire (Studio S.O.C.)

 

Workshop 02
Agitation and Propaganda
Architectural narratives in the age of the image

Organized by Bartlebooth.

 

You can register to the Deep City here.
For the workshops, you can go to General Audience > Choose the Workshop you prefer. You will also get access to all activities of the conference.

Timeline

Submission deadline

Notification of Acceptance

Early Bird Registration opens

Normal Registration opens

Registration (for in-person participation) closes

Symposium

Fees & Registration

Register here

 

To attend the DEEP CITY Latsis Symposium, both as a participant or as general public, it is necessary to be registered. Only accepted and registered proposals will be able to take part in the conference, either on site or remotely, appear in its proceedings and conference documentation as well as on the exhibition. The full on-site registration fee includes admission to all sessions, parallel activities and keynotes conferences, as well as breakfasts, coffee breaks and dinners. For all those who can only attend remotely, only one day, as well as for the general public interested in the evening keynote conferences, there are specific passes available at lower rates.

Know more

About

EPFL is Europe’s most cosmopolitan technical university. It welcomes students, professors and collaborators of more than 120 nationalities. EPFL has both a Swiss and international vocation and focuses on three missions: teaching, research and innovation. EPFL collaborates with an important network of partners, including other universities and colleges, secondary schools and gymnasiums, industry and the economy, political circles and the general public, with the aim of having a real impact on society.

 

The Fondation Latsis Internationale is a non-profit, public benefit Foundation established in 1975. Based in Geneva, it is established to support scientists and research teams in recognition of their outstanding and innovative contributions to various scientific fields.

 

Follow us on Twitter or
send us an email at deepcity [at] epfl.ch

Team

DEEP CITY Symposium Latsis EPFL 2020–21 is organized by two EPFL labs, ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’espace) and the Media and Design Laboratory (LDM). This joint adventure allows us to bring together ALICE’s concern for situated practices dealing with the emerging and supportive qualities of space as well as with the collective and political dimension of architecture and the city, with LDM’s attention to the links between physical and virtual environments and the effects of digitalization on architecture and contemporary cities, all while making the most of their experience in transdisciplinary cultural and scientific projects.

Know more