ThingsCon Salon - RIOT 2025

What are the possible futures and impact of generative things?

As AI and generative technologies reshape our relationship with physical objects, ThingsCon presents a new edition of the report RIOT 2025, themed Generative Things.

The RIOT publication is the fifth edition of the report, which ThingsCon started in 2017 as the State of Responsible IOT.

"The State of Responsible IoT is a collection of essays by experts from the ThingsCon community of IoT experts and practitioners. It explores the challenges, opportunities, and questions surrounding the creation of a responsible Internet of Things (IoT)."

In RIOT 2025, about 15 articles will be published*, linked to the theme of Generative Things. Authors have a mix of backgrounds from design practitioners to academics.

In this Salon, RIOT editors Andrea Krajewski and Iskander Smit will introduce the theme and reflect on the contributions. We officially launch the publication.

In a panel, authors of four of the articles share their positions and discuss the topics, moderated by Monique van Dusseldorp.

The articles that will be part of the panel are:

• Karola Köpferl (, Albrecht Kurze) - Machines, AI, and the Past//Future of Things
• Kars Alfrink - Embodied AI and Collective Power: Designing Democratic Generative Things
• Troy Nachtigall, (Tejaswini Nagesh, Francesco Sollitto, Marina Castán) - From Glitches to Fixes Hacking Loopholes for Sustainable Innovation
• Iskander Smit - Ubiquitous immersive relations with generative things
• Tessa Steenkamp, (Mike de Kreek) - Reclaiming the human dimension in automated urban enforcement services

After the panel, there are drinks and food to meet and connect, and discuss the insights.

Practical details:

Schedule:
Friday 6 June 2025
17:30 Welcome, launch publication
18:00 Panel
19:00 Meet & greet, drinks and food
20:00 Closing

Location:
We are hosted by VONK Innovation Center of City of Rotterdam, Timmerhuis, Halvemaanpassage 90, 3011 DL Rotterdam.

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* All articles that are planned for RIOT 2025:

· Albrecht Kurze, Arne Berger, Andreas Bischof - Smart, simple, sincere - Why and how we should rethink connected things in our smart homes
· Eva van der Born, Anna Merl - Embracing More-Than-Human Perspectives in a Transforming World
· Heather Wiltse, Johan Redström - On finding our place in a world
· Iohanna Nicenboim - More-than-human-AI
· Iskander Smit - Ubiquitous immersive relations with generative things
· Joep Frens, Mathias Funk, Janet Huang - Distributed everything – a workshop on weird modularity
· Jonne van Belle, Pieter Duysburgh, Willemien Laenens - Find the blind spots in your use of generative AI
· Karola Köpferl, Albrecht Kurze - Machines, AI, and the Past//Future of Things
· Kars Alfrink - Embodied AI and Collective Power: Designing Democratic Generative Things
· Matthew Lee-Smith, Garrath T. Wilson, and the Poly Collective - Exploring Diverse Forms of “Generativeness” Through Flash Fictions
· Mike de Kreek, Tessa Steenkamp - Reclaiming the human dimension in automated urban enforcement services
· Ola Bonati - From Generative to Re-generative technologies: empowering creatives to adapt regenerative practices
· Omar Heuves - The effect of Things on our Everyday Rituals
· Sabine Reitmaier - (Un)making the future: Some Thoughts after Reading ‘The Importance of Speculation in Design Research’
· Tejaswini Nagesh, Francesco Sollitto, Marina Castán, Troy Nachtigall - From Glitches to Fixes Hacking Loopholes for Sustainable Innovation
· Zeynep Ugur - Urban Emergence through Data: promise or paradox?