ABSTRACT
This chapter starts from the observation that a recurrent theme in the smart cities discourse is a reference to truth, objectivity, evidence, along with other similar concepts aligned with the positivist tradition. International Business Machines (IBM) might well be pioneering what people could call the stochastic city the construction of the city as an unstable object through the use of algorithms, visualisation and modelling. It explores what the author has termed the visual formation of smart cities. In which several modes of visual perception have been built into and also marketed into, smart city software packages. It has identified some linkages between technopolitical practices of the urbanising state, particularly in the Victorian period of urban municipalism. It is important to conclude by considering how the range of modes of smart visual perception introspection and foresight might be applied to the study of political leadership.
