Anne Schirner, In Touch with Debate: Physicalizing Negotiation of Contested Urban Open Space, Köln: KISDedition 2017.
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Carolin Höfler, KISD, TH Köln

Urban space has become increasingly heterogeneous and is often site of negotiation and contestation involving diverse stakeholders, complex processes, and dynamics. The city has always been a setting for social conflicts and political debates. Since a couple of years the built environment and its development has regularly been subject of heated controversy surfacing on the internet. In particular urban open spaces – such as Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul or Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin – are affected.

This publication explores the intersection of urban transformation, Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and information visualization. It deploys digital methods and ANT’s material-semiotic approach to the analysis of an urban controversy.