ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that smart cities are brought into existence through their imagery in different ways. Data is at the core of a smart city, but that data is invisible. The chapter explores the claim in relation to one smart-city image, of a particular kind: the promotional videos made by the large corporations who want to sell their smart-city products. While a smart city can in principle take many forms, much smart-city discourse is generated by large software corporations hoping to sell their products to city authorities, and understanding these powerful accounts of smart cities is thus an important part of understanding smart itself. The chapter investigates how smart cities appear on just one of the platforms; it is based on an analysis of 21 YouTube videos by seven US and European companies who deal in smart products: IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Siemens, Thales and Vinci.
