Sensing the City: A Creative Data Literacy Perspective

The image of a smart city comes with the impression of an intelligent digital place (Albino V, Berardi U, Dangelico RM, J Urban Technol, 22(1), 3–21, 2015; Karvonen A, Cugurullo F, Caprotti F (eds), Inside smart cities: place, politics and urban innovation. Routledge, 2018). From a citizen perspective it brings about the need for a literacy that can navigate the manifold kinds of data surrounding us in everyday city life (Cowley R, Joss S, Dayot Y, Urban Res Pract, 11(1), 53–77, 2018), understand their potential effects, and make informed choices in relation to data (Kunze J, Geoforum Perspektiv 19(35). https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs.perspektiv.v19i35.6423 , 2020). Focusing on experiences from a series of workshops in a midsize city in Germany, this chapter argues for the inclusion of making and crafting as alternate methods for urban data literacy. These, we show, can be a means to bring unseen city life dimensions to the fore, and to include young inhabitants, as well as those whose access to the digital sphere is challenged, to the discourse on data and its implications for everyday city life, planning, and design. As a workshop outcome a city of sound was crafted from wood. Equipped with programmable micro-boards this wooden artifact was used to assemble collected audio files about certain aspects of city life. Upon touch, these sounds could be reproduced in a certain manner from predefined spots on the city artifact. The possibility to remix the sounds created a basis for discussion about abstract concepts of city life such as religion and nature. The tactile and artistic approach to data and its meaning in the city enables their discussion across communities. It can be a creative means to add to the data-basis used to legitimize urban design choices.