Presenter(s): Marcella Rosen—Art and Technology
Faculty Mentor(s): David Rueter
Session 3: An Unprecedented Creative Work
In June 2018 the Portland City Council adopted Resolution 37371, which aims to implement programs that will transition Portland, OR, into a smart city . This thesis investigates Resolution 37371’s obscured relationship to large tech conglomerations such as Google and AT&T . It explores the financial incentives that drive corporations to hide their influence over the urban built environment, and the digital facades that are created in order to do so . Employing the work of contemporary artists such as Mishka Henner, Guy Debord, and Hito Steyerl, as well as contemporary theorists such as Shoshana Zuboff, Shannon Mattern, Maros Krivy and Orit Halpern . This thesis will build a framework for understanding the dangers of hidden profit-driven cybernetic urbanism that will inform better conceptualization of Resolution 37371, as well as contribute to the methodology of a web and video art piece that will be accessible and digitally circulatable .