The Appropriation of Interactive Interventions in Urban Social Contexts

As urban technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent, it is of the utmost importance that they are not only deployed for the benefit and use of governments and corporations, but are also open for citizens to use and appropriate for the good of themselves and their communities. This practice-based PhD thesis intends to identify the critical conditions necessary for inhabitants to successfully adopt and adapt, or appropriate, interactive interventions for placemaking and the strengthening of urban communities. I thereby present the appropriability of interactive civic interventions as a critical design goal in order to address the local environment's diversity and changing nature. Exemplified in this thesis is how an interactive intervention is able to give rise to DIY participant adaptions. This research confirms prior studies describing appropriation as a process of step by step growth requiring the nurturing and guidance of local actors. After introducing the lens of Portals and Paths of Urban Appropriation, a metaphor intended to clarify and visualise emergent uses and appropriation in urban contexts, the thesis presents a total of seven temporary urban interventions and their resulting participant appropriations. These interventions were (co)developed by myself as part of my design research practice and are considered the artistic output conjoined with this thesis. The interventions offer a highly diverse spectrum of urban interventionist approaches and appropriations. The PhD interventions consist of a participatory mapping trajectory leading to community actions in an urban wasteland, an urban 'hack' of a bus stop to give 'social shocks' to passersby, an interactive musical swing, and three urban games consisting of a modular component network employing playful and aesthetic objects to spark participant engagement. For all of these interventions, the aims, design rationale and intervention are described as well as an ethnographic account of the appropriations. Multiple critical considerations are identified for intervention appropriation in urban contexts by contrasting the cases' various design and deployment approaches, including intervention design aspects and social/community approaches. One of the strategies put forth in this thesis is to offer a multitude of specifically targeted intervention components to enable a large portion of the urban community to contribute their interests, skills and time. The thesis also introduces the definition of blended urban interventions, which consist of a combination of online platform components, physical intervention components, includes social activation by actors, and considers participant appropriations in the form of contributed objects/components and activities. Such blended urban interventions allow for transversal effects, where participation with one intervention component draws participants in and lowers the barrier for participation with other components. Therein, it does not matter where engagement starts but how it flourishes and motivates citizens to take up an ever more active role as participants and, eventually, how the engagement propagates throughout the urban community. I conclude the thesis by offering a tentative outline for a user-centred design trajectory that combines the multiple insights of this research and makes it actionable for urban practitioners.

Jaar van publicatie:2023

Toegankelijkheid:Closed