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Project short description

The film shows an analysis of multiple materials presented simultaneously. Using Multimodal Anthropological Videography (MAV), it focuses on the disconnect between urban digitalization and everyday practices in urban spheres and will promote an argument about the uncodability of urban life.

Project long description

By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities. This scenario, issued by the UN, is widely presented as the raison d'être of the "smart cities" field, where digitalization is perceived as the solution to concerns arising from speculated population growth.

The film will describe how smart city entrepreneurs legitimize their entry into urban spheres using the following axiom: To cope with an increase in their population, cities must be made more intelligent by digital technology.

Using a method of Multimodal Anthropological Videography (MAV), the film will present an analysis of the disconnect between "city smarters" and everyday practices in urban spheres and will promote an argument about the uncodability of urban life.

The film uses materials from my multi-sited fieldwork in various urban locations and in locations where city smarters meet: exhibitions, conferences, meetups, and hackathons. It also integrates media materials such as news reports and advertisements. The film will present and analyze these materials based on a neo-Bourdieusian approach (Wacquant, 2023) that unveils the trialectics of symbolic space, social space, and physical space.

Methodologically and analytically, the videography is aimed to propose a multimodal approach for the presentation and analysis of multiple materials presented simultaneously. The attached link presents an abstract for the film (sent to ISA's Forum in Rabat, July 2025), and it still doesn't show an implementation of the MAV method, which I am currently developing and would love to discuss and receive feedback on.