Cities: How Good is Smart?
Dubai Art Fest |
HSBC's airport ads tell us: "In the future, we will be planting cities." Indeed, we already are. Dubai has declared its ambition to be the world's smartest city by 2020. Other "smart cities" are sprouting up from Masdar to South Korea's Songdo. Should more cities be smart -- in the sense of efficient and sustainable -- or are they already too smart surveillance states that homogenize society? What is the balance between culture and technology in this new global form?
At the Global Art Forum, Parag Khanna (Managing Partner, Hybrid Reality Pte Ltd) moderates a discussion with Ayssar Arida (Urbatect and author, Co-Creator of urbacraft City Crafting System), Amar Bakshi (Founder and Lead Artist, Shared Studios, JD Candidate at Yale University), and Noah Raford (Advisor, Special Projects, UAE Prime Minister’s Office).