[Air-L] The Synthetic City: Extended Deadline and Keynote Speakers

[Scott Rodgers]

We have two important announcements for the forthcoming conference ‘The Synthetic City: Potential, Politics and Everyday Life<https://syntheticcity2023.wordpress.com/>’, to be held 6-7 September 2023 at Dublin City University, Ireland, hosted by the ECREA Media, Cities and Space Section<https://mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/>.


First, we are extending our submission deadline to 12 June 2023 (by midnight anywhere in world). That’s more time to craft your proposals for individual papers, practice-based interventions, and paper or panel sessions! Read the revised call for more details<https://syntheticcity2023.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/>.

Second, we are very pleased to announce two fantastic keynote speakers for the conference: Aphra Kerr and Alison Powell. Their details are below, and available at the conference website<https://syntheticcity2023.wordpress.com/keynotes/>.

Aphra Kerr

Dr Aphra Kerr is Professor in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University, Ireland. She is a co-PI and science lead within the Transparent Digital Governance strand at the Science Foundation Ireland funded ADAPT Centre for AI and Digital Content Technology, a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary national research centre (2021-2026). She is also PI on two collaborative projects with Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin (2022-2024) which focus on novel applications of digital technologies, including digital twins, in the public sector and for civic engagement. In addition, she is co-PI on the YouGamSI project (2022-2024) which examines gambling marketing on the island of Ireland funded by the HEA North South research programme. Her current research focuses on the design, governance and social impacts of AI across media, games and everyday smart technologies. Her books include Global Games: Production, Circulation and Policy in the Networked Age, Routledge, 2017, and she was associate editor of The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. In 2021 she was invited into the Academy of Europe on the Film, Media and Visual Studies panel. In 2016 she received a Distinguished Scholar award from the international Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). She was awarded a PhD in Communication Studies (DCU, 2000). For more see Maynooth University work website<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.maynoothuniversity.ie%2fpeople%2faphra-kerr&c=E,1,xSBhKUCTyqA1IaC9eZGUP4Qg_17I4QkLQDDDEUCjm6n-mLXHlZq_rJCfW4c13vHF4y3Ucw1Xp81_6o9ZYPEhyUDX65xS5eGybxTSsoY4rCErxt0,&typo=1>, LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-aphra-kerr-74b630/> or Twitter @aphrak<https://twitter.com/AphraK>.

Alison Powell

Dr Alison Powell is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She researches how people’s values influence the way technology is built, and how technological systems in turn change the way we work and live together. Dr Powell’s book Undoing Optimization: Civic Action and Smart Cities (Yale University Press) argues that ‘techno-systemic frames’ of urban smartness shape not only commercial and government interventions but also configure citizen responses. In big data optimised cities, citizenship performs to techno-systemic norms. The book provides a historically grounded critique of smart-city optimisation, while outlining the roots of some new ethics and practices that might transform it. Dr. Powell’s other research includes a project on explanation as governance in complex systems, another on the concept of ‘repairable AI’, and acting as Director of JUST AI, a humanities-led network inviting new ways of thinking about data and AI ethics, supported by the AHRC and in partnership with the Ada Lovelace Institute. For more see LSE work website<https://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/people/academic-staff/alison-powell> or Twitter @a_b_powell<https://twitter.com/a_b_powell>.