Trust in invisible agents

The Dutch Design Week closing keynote looks at how to develop cities and technologies that are based on trust and agency in an age of algorithmic intelligence, and how to combine a participative society and a smart society. The focus is how to connect communities to the ownership of the technologies they use and the data they create, and the value of building on and contributing to the cultural life of the city, its artists and creative industries. The conference paper looks at two important challenges: the design for legibility of data practices for citizens within the public domain, and possibilities of empowerment of citizens through access to data and data practices. The author presents his work with FutureEverything implementing citizen and artist led interventions in large scale initiatives including the Singapore Smart Nation programme, the UK's IoT Smart City demonstrator, and the EC IoT large scale pilots. The paper will also present Open Prototyping, a framework and methodology to introduce art, creativity and public participation in technology innovation and demonstration. It looks at key issues such as transparency and empowerment, with a focus on actionable steps for the city of Eindhoven.