Living (with) Waste : Augmented Reality, Public Spaces, and Participation in Maputo city, Mozambique.

Abstract: Background: Cities worldwide are growing fast, and so is solid waste production, which calls for different stakeholders to come together and find creative ways to deal with urban growth and waste. This study explores how Augmented Reality (AR) could enhance public participation in public spaces and deal with solid wastein Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo. The study draws on material semiotics, detournement theorists and study participants’ views gathered through a questionnaire on urban public spaces in the city to make a case for AR technologies to enhance public engagement. Methodology: The study received responses from 57 participants (n=57). Inspired by theparticipants’ answers, Detournement theory, and AR activism, an AR experience called the Trash Snail to symbolise the slowness of the municipalityin gathering solid waste and properly managing it and the waste’s agency in shaping life in public spaces was created. Results: Three participants placed and experienced the Trash Snail in public spaceswith poorly managed solid waste. They also responded to two surveys, one before the experience with AR and the other after experiencing AR. The results were screenshots depicting the Trash Snail co-habitating with waste from human consumption and modes of living in contemporary Maputo and residents’ opinions about public spaces in Maputo. Conclusions: Drawing on those materials, Detournement theory and AR activism, the study concluded that AR, rather than just relaying computer-generated graphics information onto the real world, is best understood as an agent that shapes the users’ relations with it. AR has the potential to enhance public engagement in public spaces and in dealing with solid waste issues in Maputo. However, structural challenges related to the digital divide and financial shortcomings are limiting factors that one needs to consider when employing AR in Maputo and similar contexts. On a more extrapolative note, the study argues waste in public spaces needs to be seen as more than an administrative and technical problem, but one that is deeply embedded in lifestyles and accelerated consumption.