What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section at the Biennial to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the “Eyes of the City” curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, the Politecnico di Torino and SCUT. If you are interested in taking part in the exhibition at UABB 2019, submit your proposal to the “Eyes of the City” Open Call by May 31st, 2019: www.eyesofthecity.net
Without the city, modernity could never have been invented. What we are in the midst of discovering now is whether modernity can survive in a city transformed by the digital revolution. The village may offer security and community, but what it does not allow its inhabitants is the possibility of being different, a phenomenon that is as true now as it was during the witch-burning era.
At its best, the city allows for difference and for tolerance. That is what made and still makes the city such a powerful magnet for the ambitious and the creative, the poor and the desperate. To walk into a bar, or a store, to rent a room, or buy a book, or log onto the web, without having anyone know who you are, is a precious, and essentially modern, a privilege that some of us have been fortunate enough to be able to expect as a right.
