Martijn de waal

Martijn de Waal (1972) is a writer and researcher focussing on the implications of new media for public spaces.

I am currently working as a professor (lector) at the research group Civic Interaction Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. I also serve as the Academic Director for the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation, a collaboration between my institute, InHolland University of Applied Sciences, the Amsterdam University of the Arts, and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

During 2018 I functioned as the head of research for the faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at my university.

Formerly I worked as an assistant professor in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. I hold a PhD (2012) from the University of Groningen, where I was a member of the research group of practical philosophy, and the digital media & urban public space programme. In 2009 I spent a semester as a visiting scholar at the M.I.T. Center for Civic Media.

In November 2016 De Platformsamenleving was published, a book I co-authored with Jose van Dijck and Thomas Poell. An updated English version The Platform Society appeared in the fall of 2018 with Oxford University Press.

In 2014 I wrote The City as Interface (Rotterdam: Nai010 Publishers), a book on the relation between digital media and the urban public sphere.

Other key books and articles include: The Hackable City Cahiers and The Hackable City book, edited with Michiel de Lange and Matthijs Bouw; Responsive Urban Spaces, written with Frank Suurenbroek and Ivan Nio; Owning the city: New media and citizen engagement in urban design (co-authored with Michiel de Lange); With Michiel de Lange, in 2007 I founded TheMobileCity.nl, an international think tank and research network on New Media and Urban Culture.

I was appointed as the general chair for the Media Architecture Biennale that took place in Amsterdam and Utrecht in June 2021. Frank Suurenbroek, Michiel de Lange and Nanna Verhoef have joined me in the executive committee organizing the event.

In the past I have worked as a journalist for a broad variety of Dutch media such as de Volkskrant and VPRO Radio, and organized various workshops on digital media and interactive storytelling. I also contributed to Neville Mars study The Chinese Dream with a travelogue.

From 2008-2014 I served as a member of the board of the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund. From 2017-2020 I chaired the grant program for Digital Culture at the Creative Industries Fund NL.