Shamiyeh on Eco-effective Cities at Future en Seine 2011

Futur en Seine, Festival Paris, June 17-26, 2011

Current ambitions towards digitalization render cities certainly more efficient in terms of reducing the unintended negative consequences of all kinds of urban processes (e.g., time loss or emissions reduction through digital traffic flow etc.); however, and what we are currently witnessing  in Fukushima and elsewhere, efficiency alone doesn't help us in the long run. There is a strong need for effectiveness, for designs and productions of systems, goods, and services that engage in a positive relationship with ecological health and abundance, maintaining or even enhancing  social, economic, and environmental benefit. Thus, an approach towards effectiveness, rather than efficiency, offers the chance to think about positive alternatives. My talk will elaborate this argument in detail and puts forward cases for clarification.

Futur en Seine´s five themes areas from the basis of a high level international program, comprising keynotes, conferences, workshops, contests, popular juries, award ceremonies and evening events.

Futur en Seine 2011 will be one of the first international events to address the question of scalability, the industrialization of innovative digital products and services Scalability ist he key issue for all the cultural and creative industries, particulary since the digital revolution.