Dimendx ECIU Smart-ER seminar: Reflecting on Contemporary Urban Living and Human-machine Agency Through Performance Art

In this seminar, Dr. Marcos Dias presents his research on the role of performance art as a means of reflecting on contemporary urban living and assemblages of human-machine agency. Based on his recent book The Machinic City: Media, Performance and Participation (Manchester University Press, 2021), Marcos draws on perspectives from philosophy, machine aesthetics, posthumanism and urban studies to conceptualise the machinic city as a performative space that provides a counterpoint to the narrative of efficiency and predictability of the ‘smart city’.

Marcos Dias is Assistant Professor and Programme Chair of the BSc in Multimedia at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. His research investigates the social and spatial impact of digital technologies in the city and citizen wellbeing in urban space. He was Co-PI on the PUDU C-19 project (with Dr. Carol Barron) that investigated the changing patterns of urban park usage in Dublin during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effectiveness of digital media towards communicating park events. As a recipient of the Irish Research Council New Foundations 2022 award, Marcos is leading a research project in partnership with Create – The National Agency for Collaborative Arts and Ukrainian Action in Ireland that analyses the potential of performance art to enable Ukrainian refugees to raise awareness of their current situation to the Irish community.