Chapter 6 examines the role of performance art to speculate on future urban living. Blast Theory’s app-based project Karen is discussed as an example of how performance art adapts to emerging technologies. This is followed by an account of Dante or Die’s User Not Found, as an example of a participatory performance that examines the future consequences of a contemporary technology (social media) while using this technology as a key component to support the narrative; the participants are provided with mobile phones preloaded with fictional social media apps. Blast Theory’s 2097: We Made Ourselves Over is discussed as an example of a performance art project that conceptualises the future of city living through multiple outputs: live performance, film screenings and a downloadable app, which extend the duration and reach of the performance. The work of architect Liam Young is discussed as an example of speculating on the future of urban living through an ‘exaggerated present’, where the future of contemporary developments – such as smart cities built from scratch – is teased out from the current status of these developments and their interactive modes. Young emphasises the increasing autonomy granted to the technologies that mediate urban life and reflects on its potential outcomes. China’s Social Credit System project is analysed as an example of this outcome, while the importance of performance art is emphasised as a counterpoint to prescriptive future narratives that are based on the model of the machine-city.

The introduction describes the concept of the machine-city as representative of the ideal of an efficient city controlled by technical machines. It argues for the importance of aesthetic machines to generate spaces of deliberation on our role as participants in the contemporary mediated city. It provides an example of an aesthetic machine in the form of a performative art intervention in urban space – Graffiti Research Lab’s Laser Bombing – to symbolise the role of media, performance and participation as key factors in how we interact with urban space. Furthermore, it conceptualises the machinic city as a model that represents the current state of urban affairs and the relational nature of the actants that constitute it, comparing it against the vision of the machine-city based on the uncritical acceptance of the effects of technical machines on the city and on social interactions. The concept of the aesthetic machine is briefly discussed by referring to Guattari’s key argument that the aesthetic paradigm is capable of traversing other ‘Universes of value’ and enabling emerging modes of subjectivity. This is followed by a brief outline of the chapter structure of the book.

Chapter 1 provides a participatory account of A Machine To See With, a performative art intervention in urban space by Blast Theory. This is used as a basis to reflect on how participation unfolds in performance art as it is assembled with everyday urban interactions. This account highlights the multiple modes of participation that emerge from the assemblage of artistic narrative, urban space and digital technologies. These modes are subject to technological failure and the many ways in which participants interpreted the artistic narrative of the performance. The importance of tracing relations between actants and analysing their agency is supported by Actor-Network Theory’s (ANT) argument about the difference between mediator actants (actively reconfiguring meaning) and intermediary actants (who simply transport meaning). This is followed by an account of Blast Theory, a renowned artist collective, and some of its most relevant digitally mediated performance art projects: Desert Rain, Can You See Me Now? and Uncle Roy All Around You. These projects illustrate common features across Blast Theory’s body of work, such as the ability to generate hybrid spaces, create playful and fictional interventions in urban space, employ ambiguous narratives and challenge participants to reflect on their ability to trust strangers in urban space.

Chapter 3 reconceptualises the term ‘machine’ from a technical device to a device with abstract potential and multiple forms. Five main types of machines that are constitutive of both performance art (as a form of aesthetic machine) and urban life are analysed in this chapter: performative, media, Capitalist, human and urban machines. A particular emphasis is placed on the importance of assembling efficient with not-so-efficient machines, and on the potential of machine failure to trigger unexpected but meaningful events. The performative machine is discussed through existing theoretical frameworks of performance that foreground its potential for enabling improvisation and reflection. The media machine is conceptualised through the dominant power of media in contemporary society as the most important commodity. The Capitalist machine is described as a resilient actant that adapts and resists any attempts to criticise or confront it. The human-machine is described through the paradigm of the posthuman and its connection to the cybernetic machine. It is conceptualised as a hybrid where human beings and technological apparatus are assembled to produce new modes of subjectivity. The urban machine is defined through its double role as a stage for performance but also as a collective of actants. Following the analysis of these machines, a definition of machinic subjectivity is provide by referring to Guattari’s definition of the machine and his focus on the aesthetic machine as a means of eschewing the homogeneity of capitalist subjectivity.

Chapter 5 opens with a discussion of the process of researching performance art in urban space and recording patterns of participation and the challenges faced by the researcher. Three modes of participation identified in A Machine To See With are discussed: play (game-like and immersive participation), exploration (reflective and emotional engagement) and critique (the desire to understand the mechanics of the narrative). These are illustrated by case studies on participants. Participatory failure and participant reconfiguration of the artistic narrative are discussed by referring to performance art projects from Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. This is followed by a critique of the concept of the emancipated spectator and the acknowledgement (based on Rancière’s argument) of the process of artistic narration and participant translation, where the latter might diverge significantly from the stated aims of the artist. This in turn highlights the importance of dissensus as a desirable outcome of both performance art projects (through multiple modes of machinic subjectivity) and everyday life in the contemporary city. This chapter concludes with a participatory account of Ciudades Paralelas, a series of performances that intervene in the functional spaces of the city and that demand active participation and reflection from participants.

We are so used to the idea of consumer power as a force for sustainability that it has become one of the primary selling points of many products. Green claims are ubiquitous and consumers look for them, hoping that an ethical purchase will be a small way to combat climate change. This is the illusion of green capitalism. On the high streets of the rich world, there is barely a product on sale today that does not make green claims of some sort. Yet, in the messy and complex world of the global factory, these claims are merely a lucrative illusion: greenwashing at best, outright lies at worst. Removed from the direct political governance of national production, manufacturing in the global factory is effectively a black hole. Companies enact standards on their supply chains, but these standards are self-defined and self-enforced. Without independent oversight and scrutiny, global corporations are effectively free to make any claim they wish; naturally, a situation that suits them. A green image is highly lucrative because consumers want green products, so without having to worry about the veracity of their claims, global corporations are able to devote their attention to publicising them.

Greenwashing is not the preserve only of companies, but of a political establishment that has quickly familiarised itself with the tricks of more than half a century of ‘sustainable’ trade. Even on the grandest stages, the language of the climate emergency, as it is employed by world leaders, is in most cases a smokescreen; window dressing for the environmental status quo. It is onto this terrain that the battle over climate change policy has shifted in recent years, sowing discord and disruption from within, rather than engaging in open combat. Yet, as with many high-stakes conflicts, it never erupts into open battle, but plays out in the proxy terrain of culture, values, and knowledge. Proponents of both radical and incremental action share the same fora and ostensibly hold the same goals. Yet hidden beneath the surface is fundamental disagreement, much of which comes down to a fundamental question: can we continue to increase the amount we produce and consume without doing permanent damage to the planet’s ecosystems and those who depend on them?