Proceedings from MediaCity 4: MediaCities, the International Conference, Workshops and Exhibition mounted at the University at Buffalo May 3-5, 2013. Edited by Jordan Geiger, Mark Shepard and Omar Khan.

The augmentation of urban spaces with technology, commonly referred to as Media Architecture, has found increasing interest in the scientific community within the last few years. At the same time architects began to use digital media as a new material apart from concrete, glass or wood to create buildings and urban structures. Simultaneously, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers began to exploit the interaction opportunities between users and buildings and to bridge the gaps between interface, information medium and architecture. As an example, they extended architectural structures with interactive, light-emitting elements on their outer shell, thereby transforming the surfaces of these structures into giant public screens. At the same time the wide distribution of mobile devices and the coverage of mobile internet allow manifold interaction opportunities between open data and citizens, thereby enabling the internet of things in the public domain. However, the appropriate distribution of information to all citizens is still cumbersome and a mutual dialogue not always successful (i.e. who gets what data and when?). In this book we therefore provide a deeper investigation of Using Information and Media as Construction Material with media architecture as an input and output medium.

The digital transition of our economies is now entering a phase of broad and deep societal impact. While there is one overall transition, there are many different sectoral transformations, from health and legal services to tax reports and taxi rides, as well as a rising number of transversal trends and policy issues, from widespread precarious employment and privacy concerns to market monopoly and cybercrime. They all are fertile ground for researchers, as established laws and regulations, organizational structures, business models, value networks and workflow routines are contested and displaced by newer alternatives. This Research Handbook offers a rich and interdisciplinary synthesis of some of the current thinking on the digital transformations underway.

Generally taking place in front of closed curtains during set changes between acts, the entr'acte delivers a fleeting new purpose and event to the otherwise sometimes inert space between stage and pit. This collection employs the entr'acte as a model for conceptualizing emerging formations of publics and of public space.

“MEDIACITY: Situations, Practices and Encounters” investigates how the social settings and spaces of the city are created, experienced and practiced through the use and presence of new media. It takes the position that new media enables different settings, practices and behaviours to occur in urban space. Contributions from academics, practitioners and activists from disciplines such as Media Studies, Architecture, Urban Studies, Cultural and Urban Geography and Sociology present a critical reflection on the processes, methods and impacts of technologies in urban space.

I-Media-Cities. Innovative e-Environment for Research on Cities and the Media presents the results of an innovative project undertaken by the film archives of Athens, Barcelona, Bologna, Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Turin and Vienna, in conjunction with several leading research centres and technological innovators. Together they have developed a digital platform for viewing a wide range of images and motion pictures. More than 1,000 films dating from 1890 to 1989 have been incorporated in the platform, expressly selected to give the project coherence and meaning. Each city is represented both singularly and generally, revealing similarities and differences between them. The producers, actors, directors, places, people, and historical, social and political events are listed to facilitate analysis in areas such as sociology, urban anthropology, town planning, and architectural history, among others. The objective is to propose a new way of disseminating film collections, bringing them to a wider public, and stimulating research into cities in the fields of the humanities.