Exploring the role of language in contemporary urban questions.
UrgentCity: Towards a New Vocabulary of Terms is a research project and a program of activities, which investigates the challenges present in communication and collaboration between disciplines involved in city-making. We start from the premise that the language we use does not only describe our reality but also actively shapes it. Our contemporary vocabulary is dominated by terms, that may appear generic, confusing, hyped, redundant, or simply understood differently by people from different disciplines. How can we trace these terms and compose them in a contemporary vocabulary? And what does the language we use say about our contemporary society?
The language we use does not only describe our reality but also actively shapes it.
Throughout this project, we have been collecting, analyzing, and discussing terms used in contemporary urban discourse. With an open call, interview series, and public events we managed to get an incredibly interesting palette of terms and definitions and various opinions professionals have on how they are used and abused. We explored the terms under four umbrella themes: New Ecologies – looking at the changing relationship between urban environments and nature, Urban Assets – addressing the notion of value in cities, Digital Toolkit – taking a closer look at how technology changes our lives, and New Collectives – asking about current and future ways of social coexistence. Terms were initially collected through an online open call. Further on, twenty renowned experts were interviewed on ways to better communicate about urban challenges. Finally, UrgentCity brought together a group of 30 young professionals from various backgrounds in a two-day conference in Florence to elaborate on the meaning of the collected terms and initiate a dialogue on bridging gaps in trans-disciplinary understanding.
In August 2017, an UrgentCity workshop at Strelka Institute in Moscow expanded the dialogue outside of Europe.
