More and more often, artists, scientists, researchers and technologists are engaged in urban planning processes, developing and questioning the future design of our cities and bringing in their artistic and creative approaches to problem-solving.

Now, in times of a pandemic spreading across the globe, applying these kinds of strategies becomes ever more urgent, as we face wide-reaching questions of how to rethink the design and application of technology in public spaces and urban areas to accommodate new requirements for health and safety of citizens. One of the ways to tackle these challenges will be through initiating collaborations between art, science and technology.

This panel hosted by S+T+ARTS and moderated by curator Manuel Cirauqui brings together creative technologist, HCI expert and technology strategist Mara Balestrini, and architect and designer Andrea Ling and Joseph Klatt, responsible for business development and business tools at open source platform Precious Plastic. They discuss their experiences and projects in the areas of civic technology, open-source technologies and platforms, physical storytelling as well as architectural and material design and reflect on the future of their practice in the wake of COVID-19.

S+T+ARTS=STARTS – Innovation at the Nexus of Science, Technology, and the ARTS: STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of technology and artistic practice that effectively implement European policymaking to nurture innovation and that benefit the art world as well. The focus is on people and projects that contribute to mastering the social, ecological and economic challenges this continent faces.