Thinking the city again. Towards a framework to understand citizenryfostered aesthetics of technology in urban metamorphosis

Abstract

This article offers a philosophical approach based on aesthetics to understand the consequences of the technological empowerment of citizens for the design of cities. First, we analyse the corporative aesthetic of smart cities and its narrative that has played a dominant role since the late Nineties. The smart city model is inspired by the imaginary of the cyberculture of the Eighties and Nineties that has been rewritten to fit into the business framework. Then, we focus on the growing protagonism of the alternative, citizenry-fostered aesthetics of technology since the beginning of the 21st century and point out some of their key features as compared with the corporative, high tech technological aesthetics.