Tamara Witsche | Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

What moves people? Sustainable travel to events.

What do creativity and mobility have in common? Three major event locations are located right next to each other in Amsterdam ZO: the Johan Cruijff Arena, Ziggo dome and AFAS live. If there is an event in all three at the same time, ±90,000 people are on the road, and in combination with offices, Pathé cinema and homes, this can increase to a peak load of ±100,000 - ±150,000 people who want to enter and leave the same area at the same time. On average, 55% - 60% of visitors come by car. This has a major impact on the development of traffic jams, the environment and the use of public spaces and nuisance for residents and people who work in the area.

Tamara Witschge, professor Creative Media for Social Change at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and Maurits van Hövell, consultant Mobility & Environment at the Johan Cruijff ArenA, worked together with students from the BA Communication and Multimedia Design and the MA Digital Design. They explored creative forms for the question: how can we encourage more people to travel to and from our events more consciously and sustainably? and show how social innovation can be stimulated through creative, experiential and emotion-driven interventions that aim to increase the acceptance of existing solutions.

Tamara Witschge (PhD, Amsterdam) is professor “Creative Media for Social Change” at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and scientific director of the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation. Until 2021 she held a chair in Media and Cultural Industries at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her work highlights the importance of wonder, doubt, and empathy in understanding current social issues and explores how we can facilitate more inclusive and sustainable societies through creative media and creative research methods. She studied at the Free University of Amsterdam and gained her PhD at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research at the University of Amsterdam (2007). From 2007-2009 she worked at the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Center and from 2009-2011 at the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University.