Cities Are All About Difficulty

Posted: August 23rd, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Adam Greenfield on the present and future of cities in the premiss of his talk at PICNIC:

“You know, I believe that cities are all about difficulty. They’re about waiting: for the bus, for the light to change, for your order of Chinese take-out to be ready. They’re about frustration: about parking tickets, dogshit, potholes and noisy neighbors. They’re about the unavoidable physical and psychic proximity of other human beings competing for the same limited pool of resources.
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And as it happens, with our networked, ambient, pervasive informatic technology, we now have (or think we have) the means to address some of these frustrations.

bicing waiting
Daily urban difficulty, waiting for a free and working slot at a Bicing station in Barcelona.

Why do I blog this: As always enjoying Adam’s pragmatic view on the state of urban informatics that echoes well with Sliding Friction, From Sentient to Responsive Cities, Embracing the Real World’s Messiness and Phil Hubbard’s hybrid city. I would add to Adam’s comment that urban informatics also add new types of frustrations. In addition, our ability to overcome the tiny urban frustrations and difficulties is part of the joy of urban life. I would argue that urban informatics are about promoting this sustainable chaos and not eliminate it (Visions of “Next Generation” Cities).

One Comment on “Cities Are All About Difficulty”

  1. 1 AG said at 9:12 pm on August 23rd, 2008:

    [O]ur ability to overcome the tiny…frustrations and difficulties is part of the joy of urban life.

    Thoroughly, thoroughly agree, of course, and that too is part of what makes up urban savoir faire – what constitutes being urbane even.

    It’s entirely possible, as you suggest, that we’ll come to admire those best able to navigate the pitfalls and roadblocks thrown up by urban informatics, but for whatever reason it doesn’t strike me as being quite the same thing. I wonder, for example, if it’s quite as performative – Google-fu is harder to show off than the knack of knowing where services are located (especially specialist ones), and developing relationships with those who provide them.