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Sabina Andron, Konstantinos Avramidis, and Tom Ward
Sabina Andron, Konstantinos Avramidis, and Tom Ward
Yufeng Zhao, a graduate student in the Future Sketches group at the MIT Media Lab, presented at the Urban Surfaces Research Network's 5th international workshop, contributing to ongoing discussions about urban surfaces as spaces of communication, governance, and political contestation. The workshop is organized by University of Melbourne and held online via Zoom.
"A discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities"
Responding to three core prompts—Define, Intervene, and Challenge—Yufeng Zhao explored how digital archives transform physical urban surfaces into searchable data. The presentation featured all text in nyc, demonstrating how democratizing computational tools can shift power dynamics in urban data access.
The Urban Surfaces Research Network (USRN), established in 2023 by Sabina Andron (University of Melbourne), Konstantinos Avramidis (University of Cyprus), and Tom Ward (Uppsala University), brings together 85 members from 23 countries. This workshop was part of their Urban Studies Foundation Seminar Series Award project "Walls speak. Are you listening? A research agenda for urban surfaces."
Workshop contributions were compiled into USRN Vol. 5, an open-access publication available at DOI: 10.26188/30577919