Welcome to my living lab

The project Welcome to My Living Lab consists of interventions in public spaces. The first part took place in Amsterdam in December 2017.

The project reacts to the rise of the ‘Living Lab’. It’s important for the community to be involved in these developments. Now Living Labs tend to be black boxes: no one knows exactly which data are being collected and what happens with these data. Proper regulation is missing and supervision is limited, which makes that corporations have free reign too often.

The rise of Living Labs in public spaces stands not by itself and can be seen in the perspective of states and corporations taking possession of the streets. It’s time to raise the question: to whom does our public space belong?

Read more on the project website https://www.mylivinglab.nl

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LIVING LABS

Living Labs are domains where the goverment, together with the industry and scientists, conduct experiments on citizens. Sometimes this happens in private homes, but usually it concerns a test area the size of a street, a district or a complete city.

In an area that has been designated as a Living Lab large amounts of data about people are collected. This often happens without informing them or asking their permission. Think about the collection of video and audio recordings, social media posts and wifi-tracking of your mobile phone. These data are linked to each other and analyzed. Subsequently there are interventions to try to influence people’s behaviour.

​The Living Lab is a relatively new phenomenon related to the creation of smart cities, where data and smart technology increasingly influence the daily life. In the Netherlands several big projects are running, without being known. If you live in or visit one of the larger cities there is a big chance that you unwittingly are part of a Living Lab.

This project is supported by the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts)