Documenting Smart Hems

How can the use of an experiential and creative moving image practice impact upon the user-centred development of the smart city? This paper will present an argument for the use of experiential and creative moving image practice as a tool to facilitate user inclusivity in the development of smart cities. Ho Chi Minh is redeveloping at an astonishing speed to accommodate an increasing population, and an expanding and diversifying business environment. In this context Ho Chi Minh City is ideally placed to explore new ways of implementing the smart city, that is inclusive of all stakeholders, and not driven by corporate and top-down solutions only. Through the use of three processes of observation, the experiential the post-production, and the exposition, moving image sequences can capture and present valuable information about how our cities are occupied by the residents who live and work in these spaces. Keeping this process independent of agenda, either corporate or political, allows for the program of individual spaces to be recorded and presented as data that can shape the development of the city. This development towards a smart city should emerge from all forms of data, and qualitative visual data is key to ensuring inclusivity. The rapid changes witnessed in Ho Chi Minh, have been progressive but in some cases implemented without care and attention to cultural values that define what makes this city unique. The desire to impose a 'city image' (Cassia et al., 2018) from overseas, only succeeds in removing the very qualities that attract people to this city. By including all stakeholders, the smart city vision is a vision for Ho Chi Minh City, and not a copy of solutions implemented in other cities which are defined by different concerns, cultures and agendas