A City Eating Itself (in less than 10 minutes) is a spatial media artwork that takes the form of an interactive audio walk in a neighbourhood in Amsterdam. It combined speculative fiction and months of in-depth research with local residents, dark store workers, urbanists, architects and policy makers. The result was a playful location-responsive storytelling walk for the residents of Amsterdam. The artwork was open to the public for 4 months with the artwork reaching 4500 participants across different media. It opened a space for critically challenging and reflecting on the presence of on-demand delivery services in the city.

At the end of 2019, dark stores started to appear all over Amsterdam. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they succeeded under lockdown conditions, when “regular” stores didn’t have capacity to open their doors. As residents we were concerned about what was happening in communities due to the rise of flash delivery services. We noticed a shift in Amsterdam – from the city as a space for chance encounters and neighbourly interaction to a place of individualist consumption, catalysed by pandemic lockdowns. Specifically we saw a huge rise in on-demand delivery services, known as flash delivery, such as Flink, Gorillas, Getir and Zapp. So, at the heart of this artwork is one key question: What influence do flash delivery services have on the social fabric of neighbourhoods in Amsterdam? Our artistic research included first-hand field notes written by a member of our team who worked as a flash delivery picker and rider. She gave us a direct account, drawn from hundreds of hours of work. We then examined an explosive stand off between the British flash delivery company Zapp and the residents of a neighbourhood in Amsterdam West. These neighbours contributed to our research through interviews, recalling their experiences. We then invited a group of eight urbanists to participate in a speculative worldbuilding workshop about flash deliveries in the city. Ultimately, we pulled all of this research together into a playful (sometimes hilariously absurd) audio walk that transported participants to a dystopian year 2040 where Amsterdam has been overrun by a flash delivery company called Chomp, that wields unbridled power over the entire city. The CEO of Chomp is also the mayor of the city and all deliveries are made with drones directly to residents. The story triggered certain scenarios and requests from participants as they walked the streets with their phones: “look into the dark store window” or “take a seat next to the water” to activate the space. Participants were asked to download the the echoes.xyz app, a community run spatial audio technology that triggered particular story lines as participants walked into designated street routes. For 4 months in the Spring of 2023 the public was invited to walk a 20 minute route engaging with landmarks and the audio in the neighbourhood and ultimately to reflect upon the future of their city. At the end of the walk every person submitted a hand-written postcard containing their feedback which was later included in our book. We hosted a special edition of the walk with academics, artistic researchers, artists, students, local residents from Amsterdam West, and city policy makers. One resident described it as “a convincing glimpse of what could happen in 20 years”, while a policy maker informed us that she would also be debating the future of dark stores that same day.

https://www.affectlab.org/a-city-eating-itself

https://tinyurl.com/3prck9ee

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Details

Building or project owner : affect lab

Project artist/ concept/ design/ planning : Artists: Natalie Dixon & Klasien van de Zandschulp; Script by Minnie Bates and Natalie Dixon; Sound by De Slapende Hond; Visual identity: Lyanne Tonk; Illustrations Koos Groenewald; Photography : Jannie Guo, Mark Manzi, Anisa Xhomaqi; Trailer track: Hysics; Contributors: residents of Amsterdam.

Project co-ordination : Shea Elmore

Interaction design/ programming : Klasien van de Zandschulp

Project sponsor/ support : Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Creative Industries Fund NL

Descriptions

Urban situation : Our spatial artwork (which took the form of a location-based audio walk) played out in the Frederik Hendrikbuurt, a neighbourhood in Amsterdam West. It took place over roughly 1km of various street walks in a quiet residential neighbourhood with leafy trees, tiny flower-filled pavement gardens, and the gentle rhythm of bicycles passing through. It was situated close to a picturesque park and a peaceful canal just a stone’s throw away. Along the route participants passed by 2 dark stores in the neighbourhood which were key landmarks in the narrative of the audio walk.

Participatory architecture & urban interaction

Community or communities involved : At its heart, “A City Eating Itself (in less than 10 mins)” is a community based project. The community of Amsterdam West directly contributed to our research through interviews. We worked closely with residents to realise our final artwork and they participated in the walk in their neighbourhood. The larger community of Amsterdam were invited to participate in the walk, and for this purpose we made it entirely free to access, no fee was charged to participants.

Issues addressed : We initially addressed the issues of dark stores and the impact they were having on the typology of street facades in the city. But soon this curiosity morphed into a much deeper concern for what was happening to social cohesion in communities due to the rise of flash delivery services.

Impact : A fundamental shift occurs in Amsterdam: from a place of (often) collective action to a more dominant individual culture of consumption. We explored ways of creating awareness of the consequences of this trend for both city politics as individual consumers. At the time of this artwork, the Amsterdam city council were debating policies towards dark stores which are under adjustment to find common ground with all involved. Our artwork and research highlights the roles of residents, policy makers, flash delivery workers and customers, who all play a part in the future of flash delivery. Through future scenarios, we promote a playful and yet critical perspective on these services to make their impact on the city, neighbourhood and individuals more visible.

Tools used : The audio walk was hosted via the Echoes.xyz app. We deliberately chose a platform that is non-profit and is respectful towards usage of data and privacy. The platform was founded by sound artists who highly value the quality of their platform. The project can be experienced with just your own smartphone and headphones, and is considered low-tech. We don’t need to purchase high technology or rely on a high bandwidth internet to run the project.

Next steps : The project has been turned into an open-access book that is currently being distributed to outlets around the Netherlands and selected bookshops in Europe. It is also free to download online under a Creative Commons Licence for others to remix and share.

Mediacredits

photographer Anisa Xhomaqi

photographer Anisa Xhomaqi

photographer Anisa Xhomaqi

photographer Anisa Xhomaqi

photographer Anisa Xhomaqi

photographer Anisa Xhomaqi

affect lab