Reframing digital practices in mediated public open spaces associated with cultural heritage

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between digital media technologies (delivered via smart phones, tablets, wi-fi connections) and their use in public open spaces (parks, gar-dens, squares, plazas, streets, etc.). The consequences of technology pervasiveness in the context of the everyday operation of urban environments are not yet fully investigated. Furthermore, due to the rapid development and increasing possibilities of ICTs for appli-cation in the public realm, digital tools challenge a better understanding of the conse-quences of technology pervasiveness by urban designers and social scientists. This leads to questions about the many ways ICTs affect the use of public open space, the risks included as well as the degree to which these new, emergent, uses fit into the concept of a virtual society. This article addresses the capacity of ICTs to transform our cities into more social places and contribute to more interesting and engaging ways to navigate and interact with public spaces, rather than merely offer high-tech interfaces to data about the operation of urban infrastructures, e.g., transportation networks, or measurements of energy consump-tion and atmospheric conditions. It is based on the European COST network CyberParks. Several analysed aspects of the relationship of ICTs with public spaces and urban design show that ICTs cause and enable innovative outdoor social practices which could provoke spatial and social experts to use them in policies, design and research in order to produce responsive and inclusive urban places. Therefore, aspects as leisure and recreation, social media and heritage will be ex-plored and discussed on the basis of examples already implemented in different cities. Heritage can be used to influence positively the social cohesion of neighbourhoods as it can be promoted in such a way that, instead of provoking tensions and division, would offer spaces of inclusion, interesting everyday experiences and provide a sense of belong-ing to socially excluded communities.