The Smart City 2013 exhibition kicked off at the China Millennium Monument Museum of Digital Arts on Sept 26 in Beijing. As one of the main exhibitions of Beijing Design Week 2013, Smart City 2013 leads a critical discussion on the global and local smart city movement by investigating digital design's role and contribution potential.

2013 has seen a boom of smart city pilots in China with support from the State and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. A "smart city" is a city utilizing an integrated urban development and management model based on information technology and orchestrated application systems. In China, it is strategically attached to the development of new urbanization.

Smart cities cover sectors such as living, green architecture, community, health, education, security, transportation and environment. By sharing information resources, the movement will help create a new management eco-system.

Human-centered design and approaches play an indispensable role in smart city development, and smart city development will also fuel the development of information design, service design and system design.

According to a press release from the CMoDA, the Smart City 2013 exhibition is a warm-up of the National Smart City Innovation Center. The center will be jointly completed in 2014 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China and Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group.

Interviewee background:

Dr. Drew Hemment is the founder and CEO of FutureEverything and is also a Dundee Fellow, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee. Over the past 20 years, his work around the world in digital culture and innovation has been recognized with awards in the arts, technology and business sectors, including the Lever Prize 2010 (Winner) and Prix Ars Electronica 2008 (Honorary Mention). His work has also been covered by the New York Times, BBC and NBC.

According to its official website, FutureEverything is an international R&D hub for digital culture. It presents industry conferences, innovative projects, artwork and live experiences that showcase a digital future.

Michael Badics was the founder and managing director of Memetics GmbH. He studied computer science at Linzer Johannes Kepler University. Michael spent 15 years as a software engineer and manager in the multinational software company Fabasoft AG. He later spent 8 years managing the Ars Electronica Futurelab. About 50 researchers and artists are working in the lab to plan and realize international art projects, cooperation projects or third-party projects in the context of Ars Electronica, focusing on cutting edge technologies in the areas of media performances, media art and architecture, information design and exhibits.

AE Solutions is a new division of Ars Electronica. AE Solutions develops the most promising prototypes and research from the Ars Electronica Futurelab into products ready for real-world implementation.

Kevin Walker is a researcher, designer, writer and artist working at the boundaries of the digital and physical -- specifically in curation and computation in physical spaces grounded in cognitive and cultural theory. Author of Hackers and Slackers (2012) and co-editor of Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience (2008), he has a background in journalism, design, interactive media and education research.

Video photographer: Liu Zheng

Editor: Liu Zheng

Producer: Nie Peng

Executive producer: Han Lei