Experiential Design – Rethinking relations between people, objects and environments Florida State University, AMPS, Architecture_MPS Tallahassee, Florida: 16-17 January, 2020 DIGITAL ZONING: IN THE AGE OF ‘SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM’, CAN URBAN PLANNING HELP REGULATE TECHNOLOGY? Author: KAI REAVER Institution: THE OSLO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN INTRODUCTION Elaborating on the term “Digital Zoning,” this paper discusses the use of urban planning procedures as a form of technology regulation in physical space. As the ubiquitous use of smartphones and wearable devices within the ‘Smart City’ increasingly brings technology into our everyday life, this model of urban planning simultaneously heightens debate on possible risks to user privacy and democratic societal norms. For architects and urban planners, this becomes important when considering how spatial computing technologies such as augmented reality (AR), facial recognition, sensors, and 5g network positioning are rapidly expanding the domain and precision of technology within physical space. Here, recent literature suggests close links between technology platforms and the overall political-economic incentives of technology companies through emerging terms such as “Surveillance Capitalism” (Zuboff, 2019), “Behavioral Commodification” (Morozov, 2019), etc, elevating concerns that the traditions of physical spatial planning could suffer under such antidemocratic effects in light of “Smart City” projects. Discussing the regulation of technology in physical space, the paper discusses recent calls for regulation from several high-level tech executives such as Tim Cook of Apple and Brad Smith of Microsoft. The paper suggests considering this development in relation to observing how various cities and public venues around the world are beginning to experiment with “tech-free zones”, which may signal a growing need to develop coherent theories and techniques for technology regulation in physical space directly. While questioning how such zoning would be technically implemented, the paper speculates that emerging forms of spatial zoning such as techniques known as “geofencing” may specify ways in which a physical space could have a digital policy. The paper concludes by presenting some of the current technical and legal challenges such “Digital Zoning” may imply.