Public space is traditionally defined as a domain of free exchange, welcoming the participation of all citizens: meeting places in the city, the market, newspapers and other public media. The rise of digital technologies has a great influence on the structure of this space. Is today’s “public domain” more scattered or broader and richer than before the “digital revolution”? This question is crucial in debates about architecture, urban planning and art, and about the roles they play in society. Is the public domain still a place for acting and intervening? Where does the “public” take place nowadays and who shapes it by developing spatial and cultural strategies? How can one claim these new public spaces?

To define what’s public, and to name and identify what and who is considered to be part of the common cultural and intellectual heritage of humanity, is a fundamentally political act that affects humans and matter in different ways. While copyright or patent restrictions may expire and be renewed, the opportunity for an individual to integrate (or reintegrate) into a community may not present itself as easily. Arranged around the topic of the “Public Domain,” many of these programs considered notions of the public and how they relate to objects, people and knowledge in terms of economics, law, politics, religion, culture and psychology.