Hybrid city. Mediation of ICT in the city experience

Abstract

The concept of “hybrid city” is being built in the new technological context to indicate a range of contemporary phenomena that occur at the junction of the physical conditions of the city and the virtual­ity of technological support. The term can be found associated with current categories such as “smart cities” or “open source cities” and new “learning” to “make city” by means of “the everyday use of Internet.” Here however we aim to extend the scope of its meaning by making a synthesis of different ways of “learning” that change our perception of the environment. From the world of art as photogra­phy and cinema to television and now the internet and the daily use of many online tools, we see how technological mediation affects enhancing sensory perception of the city and expanding the citizens’ imagination. Consequently new habits in civic life are being founded and new models of city management are taking place. The hybrid identity of space between the presential and digital reality is, in fact, a kind of new space that integrates the virtual imaginary potential facilitated by digital technology in the physical space. In these spaces, which are generated in the network and developed in situ, interactive dynamics are being deployed helping develop citizens´s creativity. They often constitute the informal part of the city.