Vita

Christiane Wagner collaborates with the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo (IEA USP) as a research professor, leading a project on the smart city concept in São Paulo and Berlin. Christiane Wagner began her studies and professional training in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin and continued her career in São Paulo while maintaining connections with Germany and internationally. She holds a Ph.D. in design and architecture as well as a master’s degree in the science of communication from the University of São Paulo, and a Ph.D. in aesthetics and the science of art from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

She has held professorships at the Institute of Arts (UNICAMP) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo (MAC USP) in undergraduate and postgraduate programs, qualifying her for a professorship in aesthetics and the science of communication (Habilitation). Among her publications, standouts include the book Visualizations of Urban Space: Digital Age, Aesthetics, and Politics for the Advances in Urban Sustainability series (2022), and the co-edition and co-authorship of Kunst, Design und die ‘technisierte Ästhetik’ (with Lars C. Grabbe and Tobias Held, 2023).

Environmental Sustainability: Public Spaces and Collaborative Actors in a Digital Ecosystem
Affiliated Project 2023-24

Christiane Wagner’s research delves into the consequences of digital technology, verifying the connections between actors and actions based on collaboration. Wagner focuses on design and architecture projects and artistic performances by applying digital devices, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in the context of environmental sustainability. The implementation of her project targets the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development following the Charter of the United Nations, which includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She focuses on the eleventh goal, which is sustainable cities and communities, and explores the potential of sustainable infrastructure through digital connectivity and interaction, where human participation becomes the main interest. She analyzes cultural differences and similarities between the Global North and South under industrial, technological, aesthetic, and sociopolitical circumstances.

From that perspective, Christiane Wagner explores concepts of the smart city in São Paulo and Berlin. Using the method of creative problem-solving, the project investigates opportunities for collaborative actors in a digital ecosystem. Her empirical research analyzes two specific scenarios. First, by drawing on a critical theory background and by using observation and the contextual framing of digital spatial models, this approach considers questions of sociality, ethics, aesthetics, public policy, social welfare, and political will as they relate to the human challenges that arise with the use of digital tools. Second, this research investigates the transformative potential of technological utopian visions through technique — under which the term art is included. These visions are treated as simulations of built environments for an urban planning project aiming at integrated, human-centred, and public-interest design.