From Smart City to Urban Digi-Doomsaying
Creating a counterpoint to commonplace imaginaries of the smart city as a utopian space where all prob-lems are solved through digital optimization of the socio-cultural status-quo, Dani Ploeger’s public artwork Post-Apocalypse Smart City Lagoon uses an icon of smart city ideology – the QR code – to invoke visions beyond the impending catastrophe of techno-consumer culture. Drawing from Jean-Pierre Dupuy’s concept of enlightened doomsaying, QR codes on public trash cans across Venice lead to immersive digital videos that show the Venetian Lagoon after the water has risen and only floating trash cans remain.