What if digital layers mediate
interactions in urban space?
View Whitepaper What is the project about?
IPPSO is a transdisciplinary research initiative exploring the future of phygital public spaces and their impact on democracy, human rights, and urban life.
IPPSO explores the intersection of law, policy, and design in the governance of phygital public spaces, where digital layers mediate human interactions and shape urban experiences. Bringing together legal scholars, designers, and policymakers, the project develops new methodologies for regulating emerging technologies such as smart glasses and spatial computing in urban settings. Through speculative design and policy research, IPPSO offers actionable insights to navigate the challenges of AI-driven phygital urban environments, ensuring inclusive, ethical, and democratic governance of tomorrow’s cities.
Our approach integrates legal analysis with speculative design workshops conducted in Jerusalem and Potsdam, engaging 60 participants across government, industry, academia, and civil society. Using gamified, scenario-based methods, we explored policy blind spots, power asymmetries, and socio-technical frictions inherent to phygital public spaces. Our research proposes innovative policy frameworks, such as the Ethics of Interactions, to ensure that technological progress aligns with human rights and democratic values.
A unique aspect of the project is its comparative approach, incorporating perspectives from European and non-European contexts, particularly Israel and Germany. IPPSO is a collaborative effort between UCLAB at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and the Israel Democracy Institute. It is generously funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
What are phygital spaces?
A Phygital Space is an environment where the physical and digital realms seamlessly merge, creating a hybrid experience.
Dimensions
Our research revealed critical insights that challenge existing regulatory paradigms and propose a new governance model for phygital spaces.
We identified five distinct relational dimensions requiring tailored governance:
Person-to-Person
Social filtering, augmented surveillance, and mediated interactions altering human connection.
Person-to-Space
Privatization of digital overlays in urban spaces, raising concerns over corporate control.
Person-to-Reality
Manipulation of public perception via misinformation, deepfakes, and digital artwork.
Person-to-Machine
Seamless integration of devices into the physical world by moving beyond screen-based interactions
Person-to-Platform
Platformization and increasing dominance of profit-driven tech companies in urban governance.
Speculative Play for Policy
Speculative play serves as a powerful tool for policy development by enabling stakeholders to engage with emerging socio-technical challenges in an immersive and participatory way.
Drawing on speculative design and game design, the team developed a methodology to make ethical dilemmas more visible. Through role-playing, scenario-building, and gamified foresight methods, policymakers and other stakeholders can explore blind spots, unintended consequences, and governance gaps before they materialize in real-world settings. This approach advances future literacy, allowing for the proactive design of adaptive and inclusive regulatory frameworks that balance innovation with societal well-being. By translating abstract legal and technological complexities into experiential, interactive engagements, speculative play cultivates collective intelligence, bridging the gap between policy, technology, and public interest.
Workshop in Potsdam
Workshop in Jerusalem
1. Translating between Designers and Policymakers
Bridging the gap between designers and policymakers requires a structured translation process that reconciles the creative, open-ended nature of design with the rigorous, regulatory-driven approach of policy making. Designers bring speculative design and game design methodologies that provoke alternative futures and challenge assumptions, while policymakers require actionable insights grounded in legal and ethical considerations. By integrating participatory frameworks, visual mapping, and scenario-based gamified storytelling, this process facilitates cross-disciplinary communication, ensuring that design-driven insights are translated into viable policy recommendations. This interplay fosters mutual understanding, equipping policymakers with future-oriented strategies while empowering designers to engage with regulatory constraints in a meaningful way.
2. Game Description
The speculative design game the team developed is a participatory policy tool designed to explore the societal, legal, and ethical implications of smart glasses and phygital public spaces. Through role-playing exercises, interactive scenario-building, and guided ethical provocations, participants navigate simulated urban environments where AI-driven interfaces mediate daily interactions. Players engage with five key interaction types - Person-to-Person, Person-to-Space, Person-to-Reality, Person-to-Machine, Person-to-Platform - identifying governance blind spots, power asymmetries, and ethical dilemmas. By blending speculative design and game design principles with policy engagement, the game fosters collaborative problem-solving, equipping stakeholders with the tools to anticipate emerging technologies and close regulatory gaps.
3. Setting maps
Setting maps serve as visualization tools that help participants navigate and interpret the complexities of phygital public spaces. They provide a structured framework for understanding how augmented reality, AI-driven interfaces, and digital overlays shape human interactions and urban environments. Different public spaces afford distinct types of interactions, governed by social codes, spatial dynamics, and regulatory contexts. For the game, we selected diverse public spaces to explore varying power structures and potential conflicts: a shopping mall food court, a train station adjacent to an eerie parking lot, an elderly home overlooking a public beach, and a town square with visible police presence. The illustrations were intentionally non-granular, emphasizing spatial elements as the stage for near-future phygital interactions. Throughout the game, participants annotated these maps, identifying points of friction and confrontation between the roles they assumed, offering insights into how emerging technologies might redefine social and regulatory boundaries. By plotting out different layers of agency, ownership, and visibility, setting maps surface power asymmetries, contested spaces, and regulatory gaps, enabling policymakers and designers to strategically analyze and intervene in digital-physical environments. This method ensures that policy discussions remain contextualized, participatory, and informed by real-world dynamics.
4. Phygital Vocabulary
To discuss new developments we need new terms. For that reason we developed a speculative vocabulary that attempts to describe possible characteristics of phygital spaces. In the speculative role play, this vocabulary was visualized in a pack of cards and served to provoke imaginations of concrete social situations and their ethical and legal implications. The terms should be considered as a selection and do not aim to depict the full complexity of phygital characteristics. They are rather a starting point to enable the emergence of new conversations.
Virtual Ownership
What if you can own spaces and objects that only exist virtually?
Perception Personalization
What if your perception gets curated and personalized by algorithms?
Behavioral Recommendation
What if you receive recommendations of what to do in specific situations?
Reality Adaptation
What if the physical reality gets visually adapted to your desires, needs and taste?
Spatial Accessibility
What if you get assistance on how to engage with spaces, objects and people?
Environmental Transparency
What if you receive real-time information about surrounding people, objects and spaces?
Sharing Option
What if you can capture, share and stream moments you are experiencing?
Imagination Bridge
What if in planning and decision-making conversations your ideas become real through computationally generated imagery?
Projected Entertainment
What if you get entertained through visual layers that are projected into physical space?
Social Blocking
What if you can block people you do not want to meet through invisibility on both sides?
Object Filtering
What if you can filter the physical world to better find what you are looking for?
Hyper Focus
What if in a world of increasing complexity you can turn on a hyper focus mode to engage with what really matters?
Worldview Translation
What if you receive real-time translations about the perception of other human and non-human cultures?
Vision Governance
What if laws, regulations and norms get translated into visual options that shape your actions and behaviors?
Human Incognito
What if you could decide to be invisible when moving through specific spaces?
Embedded Services
What if you receive service offerings that are directly coupled with the physical space you are embedded in?
Policy Recommendations
Emphasizing the Concept of “Phygital Spaces”
We recommend using the term “Phygital Spaces” instead of “spatial computing” to emphasize the complex, multidimensional reality being created, rather than the computational aspects behind it. This terminology shift can contribute to a deeper understanding of the concept and serve as an introduction to an epistemology of the possible.
Mapping Interactions Across Contexts
We recommend mapping sub-interactions in specific physical environments, such as indoor and outdoor spaces, and various types of public spaces. The design of interactions must consider the type of service provided, the characteristics of the space, and the specific impact on users. Age, locality, accessibility, and emotional states should all be part of this comprehensive mapping effort.
Addressing Power Imbalances
The power relations that have enabled the emergence of smart glasses must be critically examined. The significant influence held by a few companies—operating solely for profit without adequate regulatory oversight—raises ethical concerns.
Team
Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, where she leads the Media Reform Program and Democracy in the Information Age Program. She holds a doctorate in law (LLD) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed her post-doctoral studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Shwartz Altshuler is an expert in law and technology. In recent years, she led a cross-sectoral team of experts that proposed a new privacy protection law for Israel. She is the co-author of Human, Machine, State: Toward the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence, the first book on the regulation of artificial intelligence in Hebrew. She had published numerous articles, books, and policy papers on information policy topics, including government transparency, open data, cyberspace regulation, social networks regulation, and more. She is one of the founders of the Privacy Israel Association and serves on the Supreme Council of Archives of the State of Israel and the Executive Committee of the Open University.
Dr. Romi Mikulinsky is a visiting researcher at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University. Previously she was the head of the Master of Design (MDes) program in Industrial Design and a senior lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Her dissertation at the University of Toronto's English dept. was dedicated to photography, memory, and trauma in literature and film. Mikulinsky researches and lectures about digital and counter-culture, algorithmic art, as well as design-led innovation. She has worked with various start-up companies and media websites, corporations, and municipalities on the implementation of technological innovation across the organization. She served as the Director of The Shpilman Institute for Photography and worked with various art museums and cultural institutions.
Prof. Boris Müller is a Professor for Interaction Design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and co-director of the Urban Complexity Lab, a research space sitting at the intersection of design and science. There, he focuses on design’s ability to make science and its progress understandable. Boris earned his MA from the Royal College of Art London in Computer Related Design, and his award-winning work focuses on generative design, data visualization and science communication. Boris’ prolific and honest writing about the prominence and purpose of interaction design has earned him a reputation as a thought leader in the field.
Dr. Rachel Aridor Hershkovitz is a senior researcher in the Democracy in the Information Age Program at the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute. She holds a Master’s degree in Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law from the NYU School of Law, and a PhD from the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa. Aridor-Hershkovitz specializes in law and technology, with a focus on privacy rights, cybersecurity protection, and the challenges of the phygital (physical-digital) reality. Her research encompasses a range of topics, including government information accessibility, the dangers of SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) and potential regulatory responses, updating the Israeli Privacy Protection Law, mapping key players in the cyber arena, addressing cybersecurity challenges, and legal responses to privacy violations stemming from surveillance malware and employee monitoring technologies. She actively contributed to drafting a proposal for a new privacy law for Israel, a project led by an expert team from academia, the business sector, and civil society, initiated and managed by the institute. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she also opposed the use of the Shin Bet’s contact tracing for quarantine enforcement, highlighting Israel’s unique stance on this issue compared to other Western democracies.
Aya Bentur is a designer and researcher, she believes body movement as a subjective expression can and should be facilitated through design. Her research focuses on body gestures as an integral part of both physical and digital experiences, often merging the two. Aya leads product development and creative processes, using game-based methodologies to inspire curiosity, informal learning, SEL, and self-expression in children. She is a lecturer in the Master’s program in Industrial Design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and co-founded the Fictional Collective. Aya holds a Master's degree in Social Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven and a Bachelor's in Jewelry Design from Bezalel Academy.
Micaela Terk is a designer, facilitator, and researcher concerned with the integration of bodily sense-making within academic knowledge production. An independent lecturer and researcher, she works at the intersection of choreography, socio-spatial design, and sensory awareness. Micaela is co-founder and director of the Embodied Knowledge Bureau, an independent platform for investigating, reclaiming, and engaging the body within academic spaces. She has received training in conflict mediation, movement research, Social Presencing Theater, and a myriad of somatic practices. Micaela holds a Master’s degree in Design from the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and a Bachelor’s in Visual Communication from Bezalel Academy Jerusalem.
Markus Kreutzer is a designer focused on exploring possibilities for systemic transformation. He is a research associate at the Urban Complexity Lab at FH Potsdam and a lecturer in the MA in Strategic Design at HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd. Most of his work engages with the intersection between social, technological and ecological transformation. By exploring alternative pathways to current trajectories he aims to create discourse, enable negotiation and facilitate action. Markus is specifically interested in the role of human imagination for individual and collective behaviors. Some organizations Markus worked with include the Stockholm Resilience Centre, moovel lab, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Domestic Data Streamers, Emerging City Lab Addis Ababa and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has a MA in Futures Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin and a BA in Communications Design from the HTW Berlin.
