Hybrid City Symposium in Athens

“Hybrid City” is the title of a two-day international symposium that opens at the University of Athens on March 4, organised by the University Research Institute of Applied Communication (URIAC) in collaboration with the New Technologies Laboratory of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens’ Faculty of Communication and Media Studies.

The Symposium, to take place at the Ioannis Dracopoulos Amphitheater in the University’s downtown Athens building, is organised in the context of the Global Gateway action and the EU-funded program “Civil Society Dialogue – Istanbul 2010 European Cultural Capital”.

The Symposium brings together experts drawn from academia, as well as artists, designers, researchers, cultural operators and others as presenters.

The keynote speakers are Edinburgh University professor and head of the School of Arts, Culture and Environment Richard Coyne, and Martin Rieser, artist and joint research professor between the Institute of Creative Technologies and the Faculty of Art and Design at De Montfort University.

The primary goal of The Hybrid City Symposium is to highlight the potential transformative shift of the urban condition, as a result of recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Emphasizing the inherently interdisciplinary nature of technologically mediated urban activity, the Symposium aims at exploring the emergent character of the city, addressing resurfacing questions on the nature of the urban experience, and outlining strategies and tools for future social interaction and participation.