The Master in City & Technology’s academic structure is based on IAAC’s innovative, learn-by-doing and design-through-research methodology which focuses on the development of interdisciplinary skills. During the Master in City & Technology students will have the opportunity to be part of a highly international group, including faculty members, researchers, and lecturers, in which they are encouraged to develop collective decision-making processes and materialize their project ideas.

ILLA DE RAVAL

This project focuses on establishing a community-centered public space in Santa Coloma. Situated at Block Illa de Raval, a designated “green finger” of the Pinta Verde initiative, the project seeks to improve accessibility, enhance social engagement, and address infrastructural needs based on local context and community input. HUMAN Research and analysis The research highlighted several … Read more

FLUTTERING CONNECTIONS

This project is an experiment of connecting Plaça d’Albert Francàs with flora and fauna, giving a prospective of designing for more than humans. This design exercise was built upon the previous workshop “Co-creating Public Spaces”. For more information about the previous proposal, please visit the blog post. In our co-creation project, Spaces of Negotiation, we … Read more

A more than human Care Hub

Following up on the project from the seminar “Co-creating Public Space”, where we explored the human layer through participatory processes in urban design, we have now ventured into adding a more-than-human layer. This approach challenges us to step out of conventional design thinking and consider perspectives invisible to anthropocentric eyes, enabling us to create a … Read more

Digital Culture(s): A cultural blindspot of solutionism

photo credits: ‘Imagining Intercitizenships’ 3D artwork by Lorna Pittaway for IAM

In an era of accelerating change, digital cultures weave together a mosaic of materiality, temporality, and social impact, redefining the very essence of culture itself. The interplay between these dimensions raises compelling questions about the way we live, create, and envision futures. From solutionism in the face of a polycrisis to the extractivist underpinnings of … Read more

Interconnected Futures in Digital Cultures

Kaleidoscope for plural perspectives, 2024 The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles – 2024 Studio Olafur Eliasson

Kaleidoscope for plural perspectives, 2024The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles – 2024Studio Olafur Eliasson The Digital Cultures course offered a transformative exploration of the intricate relationships between society, culture, and digital technologies, especially within the pressing context of the climate emergency. The course challenged conventional thinking and emphasized the principle of relationality—underscoring that nothing … Read more

Collective imagination in a crisis scenario

In order to overcome the current climate emergency and polycrisis a critical approach needs to be explored. This implies analyzing the impacts and trends of the contemporary (inter)relationships between society, culture and digital technologies.     However, the nature of those phenomena is multiclausal. There is not a single factor who produces it. Although capitalism and its … Read more

Exploring Digital Futures: Embracing Complexity and Imagination

In a world marked by interconnected crises and technological change, understanding Digital Cultures helps us navigate how we engage with technology and address pressing global challenges. This exploration underscores the critical role of narratives, metaphors, and values in shaping our responses to an uncertain future. The Context of Polycrisis Our journey began by examining the … Read more

Data Conscious Environment

This blog post is a reflection of the course and lectures given by Andres Colmenares. The course is an intersection of data/digital driven world and realization of the impacts due to it. It gives you an environment, social and cultural consciousness of using the data which emphasizes on knowing the power and importance of the … Read more

Poly-Exploration with Digital Cultures

The course of Digital Cultures, tutored by Andres Colmenares, took an investigative approach on the relations between the present and the future through the lens of art, journalism, urbanism, technology, human networks and global market. Course was structured in a “non-linear” way, what makes our tutor’s pride, yet consistent in terms of narrating through scale … Read more

Reimagining Our Culture(s): The Interplay of Society, Culture, and Technology

“Digital technologies do not exist in isolation; they are deeply embedded within the complex web of social, cultural, and political systems that shape and are shaped by them. By understanding these interconnections, we can begin to reimagine a future where technology serves not only efficiency and growth but also social justice, sustainability, and cultural transformation.” … Read more

Post-Technological Perspectives on Society, Digital Technologies, and Culture

The course “Digital Cultures” emphasized a critical perspective on technology and associated dynamics by focusing on humanity and tech-related consciousness rather than technology itself. This post-technological approach reorients the discussion to the interrelationships between society, digital technologies, and culture(s), stressing relationality—an understanding that nothing exists in isolation. This essay addresses key aspects of these themes … Read more

Excavating Digital Futures

In this term’s Digital Cultures course, we studied the interrelationships between society, culture, and digital technologies, exploring their nexus today and in the futures.  The beginning of the course set the context on designing in a polycrisis. From a western perspective, polycrises are difficult to understand as they require people to go beyond a national … Read more

Designing Futures: Exploring Digital Cultures in a Climate Emergency

This course examined the interplay of ecological, cultural, and digital transformations amidst a climate emergency, emphasizing the need to prioritize cultural over economic value. It explored how language shapes perceptions of technology, the hidden environmental costs of digital infrastructures, and the biases embedded in AI systems. Addressing the prevalence of misinformation, it highlighted the role … Read more

Unmasking Digital Culture: Rethinking Progress, Equity, and Sustainability

Accumulation: A Mirage of Progress Imagine a minimalist workspace—a pristine desk, a single laptop, a small plant to complete the tableau. It’s serene, efficient, and modern. Yet, behind this simplicity lies a sprawling network of data centers consuming vast amounts of energy, hidden from view. This duality invites a deeper reflection: is our pursuit of … Read more

Navigating Digital Culture(s): Complexity, Imagination, and Responsibility

In a world of interconnected crises and rapid technological change, Digital Cultures provides a lens to explore how we interact with technology and respond to global challenges. The Digital Cultures class invited us to reflect on these dynamics, highlighting the importance of rethinking the narratives, metaphors, and values shaping our present and future. Central to … Read more

Reading Urban Planetary

This blog post reflects the lectures and exercises given by Professor Mariano Gomez-Luque, supported by readings from Katherine Hayles, Neil Brenner, David Harvey, and Benjamin Bratton. These texts provided a foundation for discussions on human cognition, social structures, ecological dynamics, and planetary computation. The lecture commenced with Katherine Hayles’ exploration of evolving reading practices, contrasting … Read more

CONVERGING FUTURES

“Planetary-scale computation is an example of what may be called, after the great Polish novelist Stanislaw Lem, an ‘epistemological technology.’ The most important social impact of some technologies is not just in what they allow people to do, but in what they reveal about how the world works.”​ (Bratton, 3). We are currently experiencing a … Read more

Understanding Planetary Urbanization and Capitalism

“capitalism as a mode of production has necessarily targeted the breaking down of spatial barriers and the acceleration of turnover time as fundamental to its agenda of relentless capital accumulation” (David Harvey.) 01. The Evolution of Urban Reading Urbanization, much like the transition from print to digital media, reflects evolving modes of engagement. The shift … Read more

Shaping the Urban: Technology, Capitalism, and the Dynamics of Change

Quotation ” The urban in the 21st century is no longerconfined by traditional boundaries; itis a dynamic space shaped by digitaltechnologies, capitalism, and planetaryurbanization. Understanding thisevolving landscape requires embracingcomplexity, rethinking governance, andprioritizing justice and sustainability tonavigate the challenges of a globalizedworld. “ The nature of the urban is being redefined in the 21stcentury, shaped by … Read more

An Urban Frontier

SUMMARY 01. An Adapted Urbanism02. Extended Cognitions03. Excavating Futures04. In Defense of the Local “The places whose stories I am trying to tell cannot be understood as geographiesof urbanization. Nor can the politics of space present in these locations be readas urban in the ways in which critical urban theory would lead us to believe.”(Ananya … Read more

Urban Complexity: Rethinking Space & Knowledge

01 Reading as Urban InsightIn a rapidly urbanizing world, the ability to read critically across diverse mediums—both digital and print—serves as an indispensable tool for interpreting the complexities of urban theory. Techniques like HYPERREADING, which facilitates navigation through vast digital information, and CLOSE READING, which emphasizes deep textual analysis, are crucial for decoding the nuanced … Read more