Title: POLITICAL MEMORY AND THE FORM OF PLACES (Artificial Intelligence, Cultural Heritage, and Smart Cities)
Chair:
Prof. Konstantinidou Elena
&
Em. Prof. Moraitis Konstantinos
School of Architecture
National Technical University, Greece
Abstract/Description:
Political memory is constituted not only through narratives, archives, and institutions, but also through the material and spatial organization of places. Architectural forms, urban spaces, monuments, sites of trauma, and landscapes of absence operate as dynamic fields in which memory emerges, is transmitted, preserved, and re-signified through material, spatial, and intangible practices. In the context of smart cities, these processes are increasingly mediated by digital technologies, particularly through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in culture and tourism.
This special session explores how memory sites are created and transformed through practices of documentation, mapping, visualization, and storytelling. At the same time, it examines how artificial intelligence influences what is recognized, highlighted, or marginalized as cultural heritage and political memory, as well as how collective narratives and tourism experiences are shaped within smart cities.
The session approaches space not as a neutral backdrop, but as a field of negotiation where technological innovation intersects with questions of power, historical interpretation, and identity. By bringing together perspectives from spatial studies, cultural heritage research, urban planning, tourism studies, and artificial intelligence, the session highlights the political, social, and ethical implications of data-driven systems in the management of memory.
Closely aligned with the main theme of the conference, the session critically examines the role of artificial intelligence in the promotion and utilization of cultural heritage and tourism in smart cities, while challenging assumptions of technological neutrality. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions on sustainable, inclusive, and socially responsible strategies for urban and tourism development.
THEMATIC AREAS
The session invites contributions that address, indicatively but not exclusively, the following themes:
• Political memory as cultural heritage in the context of smart cities
• The material and spatial embodiment of memory in architecture, urban form, and landscapes
• Monuments, urban spaces, and sites of trauma as digital and data-driven entities
• Artificial intelligence applications in the mapping, documentation, and analysis of sites of memory
• Algorithmic storytelling, recommendation systems, and immersive technologies (AR/VR) in cultural and memory-based tourism
• The management of politically charged or contested heritage in smart urban environments
• Issues of visibility, selection, and exclusion in AI-mediated representations of memory
• Ethical, social, and political dimensions of using artificial intelligence in memory and cultural heritage
• Spatial practices of forgetting, erasure, and silencing
• Resistance, counter-memorial practices, and alternative digital narratives
• Everyday experiences of political memory in public space
• Transformation and adaptive reuse of politically charged places
INDICATIVE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How does spatial form shape what and how we collectively remember?
• In what ways do places legitimize or challenge dominant political and historical narratives?
• How are conflicts over memory expressed through spatial and digital interventions?
• What is the role of absence, ruin, or invisibility in the construction of political memory?
• How does artificial intelligence influence what is recognized, promoted, or marginalized as cultural heritage and memory?
• In what ways do smart cities reframe politically sensitive places within tourism development strategies?
• How do algorithmic systems shape or constrain plurality and conflict in memory narratives?
• Which actors design, regulate, and control “smart” digital representations of the past, and with what political or ethical consequences?