Image Credits: Lithopy – the Cartesian Church of 3D Printing. Director: Petr Šourek. Design: Eva Holá. Photo: Jan Hrdý⠀

Together with Pakhuis de Zwijger and Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Circulate project organised a series of three livecasts to discuss implications of blockchain and digital platforms for the management and governance of the urban commons.

Governments and venture capitalists alike are investing in blockchain technologies, hoping for examples to create robust governance systems or to streamline operations. While many blockchains will remain quite invisible to their end-users, many expect that they will be embedded in fundamental public and private systems such as taxation and ID management, and various everyday transportational and transactional processes.

What will these new technological systems mean for how people live together in cities? This online event series brings together researchers, technologists, designers, and artists to explore the social, political, and environmental impact of blockchain technology. Asking important questions about power, access, and transparency throughout, the events each feature a specific perspective:

Rights to the Blockchain City #1: The uses of disorder in the blockchain city searches for the human in the machine, featuring designers and researchers that explore the (im)possibilities of human messiness in optimizing blockchain governance systems.
Wednesday, FEB 10th, 2021 at 18:30 CET 

Speakers:
Martijn de Waal – Lector at Civic Interaction Design and author of ‘The City as Interface: How New Media Are Changing the City”
Inte Gloerich – Researcher at Institute of Network Cultures and PhD Student ‘Blockchain Imaginaries’ at Utrecht University
Rob Kitchin – Professor at Maynooth University, Ireland
Denisa Kera – Designer and philosopher
Petr Šourek – Philosopher, playwright and new media and performance

Rights to the Blockchain City #2: Values in the blockchain city looks at proposals from researchers, artists and technologists for blockchains designed with solidarity and fairness as core principles.
Wednesday, FEB 17th, 2021 at 18:30 CET 

Speakers:
Inte Gloerich – Researcher at Institute of Network Cultures and PhD student ‘Blockchain Imaginaries’ at Utrecht University.
Alex Pazaitis – Core member of P2P Lab
Stacco Troncoso – Teacher and writer, DisCO.coop
Silvia Semenzin – Researcher and activist

Rights to the Blockchain City #3: Urban commons in the blockchain city grounds the series with real-world examples of blockchain projects focussing on sustainable development and the commons.
Wednesday, FEB 24th, 2021 at 18:30 CET 

Speakers:
Guido Boella, Professor at Univerisity of Torino
Joost Beunderman, Director at Dark Matter Laboratories & OO Architecture
Tara Karpinsky, Researcher lectureship Situated Design
Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Researcher Digital Culture at Het Nieuwe Instituut
Sarah Friend, Developer at Circles

⠀