Machine Species

At some point in history, the infrastructure that keeps urban environments in motion became concealed in grey boxes throughout the city. Hidden underground and held within the confines of centralised systems. The messages are translated for humans, with graphic interfaces on screens, flashing lights, and messages that tell us how to behave. An adjustment to the discourse surrounding the “smart city”, introduces a dialogue between urban Humans and non-biological inhabitants, whose behaviour, and our interpretation of it, can aid our understanding of the environment. Intangible municipal networks are redefined as machine organisms who live autonomously in the same spaces that we do. The process of reading civic data becomes akin to watching sitting cows in a field to tell if it will rain.