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Article ID: CBB882721308

Minnesota Experimental City, oder: Zukunft als Experiment. (Minnesota Experimental City, or: Future as an Experiment) (2021)

Technikgeschichte: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie
Volume: 88
Issue: 1
Pages: 43-78
Publication date: 2021
Language: German

DOI: 10.5771/0040-117X-2021-1-43

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Future, The Cybernetics Data collection Environmental protection Cities and towns Urban planning 20th century Minnesota (U.S.) Stilhaus, Athelstan

Der Beitrag stellt das nie gebaute US-amerikanische Planstadt-Projekt Minne sota Experimental City vor, das zwischen 1966 und 1973 unter der Federführung des Geophysikers Athelstan Spilhaus und des Zeitungsverlegers Otto Silha vorangetrieben wurde. Ziel des Projekts war es, einen universellen Prototyp für die Lösung urbaner Probleme zu entwickeln. Umweltverschmutzung wurde unter diesen Problemen als zentral erachtet, weshalb die Kontrolle der städtischen Umgebung mittels neuester (Computer-)Technologien von vornherein in die Stadtkonzeption implementiert wurde. Wie der Aufsatz zeigt, korreliert das Verständnis der Stadt als geschlossenes Ökosystem mit ihrer Konzeptualisierung als einer Maschine der Datenerhebung. Für die historische Einbettung des Projekts werden zunächst zeitgenössische ingenieurtechnische Kuppelstadtdiskurse skizziert. Überleitend wird das Denken von Spilhaus als einem im deutschsprachigen Raum kaum bekannten Akteur an der Schnittstelle zwischen Naturwissenschaften, Technologiesektor und Wissenschaftspopularisierung beleuchtet. Die Betrachtung der Genealogie der Experimentalstadt wird durchweg medientheoretisch saturiert und die MXC als ein Kapitel kybernetisch-systemtheoretischen Denkens in der Geschichte stadtplanerischer Imaginationen und ingenieurtechnischer Praktiken kontu-riert. Aufgrund seines experimentellen Charakters und seiner spezifi schen Temporalität kann das Projekt als Vorläufer des heutigen Testbed-Urbanismus (Halpern et al.) betrachtet werden. The article presents the Minnesota Experimental City, an American project that never materialized. Promoted between 1966 and 1973 mainly by the geophysicist Athelstan Spilhaus and the newspaper publisher Otto Silha, its aim was to develop a universal prototype for solving urban problems, especially pollution. That is why (computer) technology as a means of controlling the urban environment was part of the design from the outset. As the article demonstrates, the inherent understanding of the city as a closed ecosystem correlates with its conceptualization as a data generator. The paper first embeds the project within an historical outline of contemporary domed city visions in engineering and city planning. Against this background, the thinking of Spilhaus is highlighted. This hardly known actor in German-speaking circles operated at the intersection between the natural sciences, technology and popular science. The subsequent discussion about the experimental city’s genealogy is steeped in media theory, framing MXC as a pivotal chapter on cybernetic thinking in the history of urban planning visions and engineering practices. Due to its experimental character and specific temporality, the project can be considered a predecessor to modern-day testbed urbanism (Halpern et al.).

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Article Marcus Popplow (2021) Einleitung Themenheft „Technik und Zukunft“. (Introduction to article theme: "Technology and the Future". Technikgeschichte: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie (pp. 3-10). unapi

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