The Spring 2019 Series:
Infrastructures of Geo-Spatial Computing: Histories, Practices, and Values 

Urban design and planning practice incorporate systems for geospatial computing in different ways –for representation and design, to manage urban policy and performance evaluation, and as media for unambiguous communication. Geospatial Computing Systems take many forms in planning practice, such as maps, master plans, drawings, rules, and simulations, but more importantly, these systems show how design and computation are an important part of the urban planning process. The development of tools for geospatial computing and their use in practice has not come without friction between the theory embedded in their systems, the limits and politics of their representations and infrastructures, and the problems of everyday urban design and planning practice. Geospatial Computing Systems construct their own realities and compute with geographic space through technological, personal, cultural, and disciplinary meanings – with values and relationships that are attached to given computational infrastructures.  This lecture series explores different infrastructures of geospatial computing, and the ways in which geospatial computing has been used in planning and urban design practice. Collectively, invited speakers will address questions such as: What kinds of politics do spatial computing tools embody, and what constraints and affordances do they provide for the spatial designer and planner? What type of representations, if any, can provide a more adaptive picture of the world that captures the diffuse, difficult, and exasperating quality of daily urban experience, while at the same time support creative possibilities for the future?