Connected seeds and sensors: co-designing internet of things for sustainable smart cities with urban food-growing communities

Heitlinger, S; Bryan-Kinns, N; Comber, Rob

doi:10.1145/3210604.3210620

Connected seeds and sensors: co-designing internet of things for sustainable smart cities with urban food-growing communities

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sara Heitlinger ORCiD, Dr Robert Comber

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a conference proceedings (inc. abstract) that has been published in its final definitive form by ACM, 2018.

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Abstract

We present a case study of a participatory design project in the space of sustainable smart cities and Internet of Things. We describe our design process that led to the development of an interactive seed library that tells the stories of culturally diverse urban food growers, and networked environmental sensors from their gardens, as a way to support more sustainable food practices in the city. This paper contributes to an emerging body of empirical work within participatory design that seeks to involve citizens in the design of smart cities and Internet of Things, particularly in the context of marginalised and culturally diverse urban communities. It also contributes empirical work towards non-utilitarian approaches to sustainable smart cities through a discussion of designing for urban diversity and slowness.