How to make an experimental concept seem real, convincing, and graspable? The videoblog ‘What is a smart city?’ (Nader Sayún 2020) featured on the website of the Smart Kalasatama district of Helsinki performs this act of persuasion. In the ten- part English- speaking vlog series Michel Nader Sayún, an MA student majoring in design, visits various smart infrastructures and projects in Kalasatama and conducts interviews with stakeholders. Each vlog delves into one aspect of Smart Kalasatama, including themes such as transportation, culture, citizen engagement, energy use and sustainability, and well- being. What is most interesting is the reference to the lack of knowledge, as well as the suspicion and scepticism, about smart cities that can be discerned in the vlog series.

In the vlog on the theme of energy use and sustainability, Michel visits the Hanasaari power plant, which is located in Kalasatama. Subsequently, during a Smart Kalasatama guided tour, Michel reflects on the paucity of knowledge regarding the energy infrastructure of smart cities. ‘Apparently the program about sustainable energy is happening here, the guides know about it but they don’t know much and they are not telling it to the people so nobody really knows what’s going on’ (Nader Sayún 2020: n.p.). In the same episode, Michel interviews Professor Eva Heiskanen from the University of Helsinki, who was involved in a pilot energy monitoring system in Kalasatama. Eva expresses reservations about the concept of smart city ‘because it easily is sort of just focusing on digital solutions and big data and lots of collection of data’ (Nader Sayún 2020: n.p.). ‘Everybody who is developing smart cities should also read steampunk science fiction and think about other ways of being smart’ (Nader Sayún 2020: n.p.), Eva says at the end of the interview with a smile and an assertive look that is telling of the simultaneous non- sensical and consequential nature of smart city projects.

Eva’s concerns regarding the overreliance on digital solutions are not addressed or commented on in the entirety of the vlog series. Furthermore, although the involvement of residents is emphasised, the vlog series fail to identify how residents perceive the lack of knowledge about smart cities’ environmental implications.