The artistic and political avant-garde Situationist International (1957-72) had a major impact on art, architecture, urbanism and counterculture. Their Utopian urban proposals anticipated recent transformations / expansions of cities and sociopolitical networks that have manifested with the advent of cyberspace and new media technologies.

Self Organized Urbanism is a partnership between Architecture and Digital + Media departments to explore, assess and develop SI ‘s Unitary Urbanism in the digital age. Armed now with several decades of advance in digital technology since the SI introduced their radical ideas, we will refresh their methodologies as contemporary research tools to understand urbanism as a technology of power.

Reading the urban life as a fluid play on a dynamic stage, the students will assume the role of ethnographers, sociologists, directors, activists or simply citizens to critically survey and infiltrate urban sites and communities with various digital media. We will practice SI ’s dérive (urban wandering) and psychogeography (mapping) to analyze the ongoing action on the urban stage and to identify places of conflict. Through détournement (subversion) and setting up of situations we will suggest new creative spaces of play, freedom and critical thinking.

After a series of in depth workshops in object-oriented programming, networking, mobile technologies, an an introductory lecture in physical computing / robotics the students will develop a final project in the digital media of their choice. Seminar style reading will carefully examine the legacy of SI. The projects, that could find their premiere in virtual and / or physical space, will attempt to create unexpected urban narratives in order to subvert preconceived systems and initiate passionate connection between people, places and events.

“Be realistic – demand the impossible!”