a journal of cities and culture
In the latest episode of our Events podcast series, Manu Luksch, Melissa Butcher, Sarah Keenan and Joel McKim discuss the Predictive Cities VR Exhibition, specially available to Mediapolis listeners and readers until the end of 2021.
Robert Joseph reflects on teaching an interdisciplinary social science course on mapping film and television cityscapes.
Catherine Benamou discusses the urban musical In the Heights and unpacks its complex relationship with the Latinx neighborhood of Washington Heights.
Mara Ferreri and Ella Harris discuss their books The Permanence of Temporary Urbanism: Normalising Precarity in Austerity London and Rebranding Precarity: Pop-Up Culture as the Seductive New Normal.
In this installment of our Q&A series, digital media and society scholar and Editorial Board member Tanya Lokot interviews Marcos Dias on his recent book The Machinic City: Media, Performance and Participation.
A collaborative team at the Getty Research Institute has been working to digitize and analyze the influential Los Angeles street photography of Ed Ruscha. Mark Shiel provides an overview of the project and discusses parallels between Ruscha’s photographs and LA cinema in the 1960s.
Helen Kim speaks to Malcolm James about his book, Sonic Intimacy: Reggae Sound Systems, Jungle Pirate Radio and Grime YouTube Music Videos.
Christoph Lindner introduces a six-part dossier on Lockdown Aesthetics and Gentrification. In this opening post, he argues that gentrification has accelerated in London under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aesthetics of vacancy.
The global pandemic has exposed fissures of race and class in Washington DC. Brandi Summers examines how the aesthetics of blackness have been co-opted in the gentrifying city during a period of crisis.
How have bike delivery services changed the aesthetics and politics of the cityscape during lockdown? Daan Wesselman discusses mobility-by-proxy, visual branding, and “gentrification on wheels” in Amsterdam.
COVID-19 has created new challenges for community activism in Los Angeles. Jonathan Jae-an Crisman discusses gains and setbacks for Little Tokyo’s anti-gentrification arts activists during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted Montreal’s efforts to become a “design city.” Guillaume Sirois scrutinizes the city’s urban design policies and examines the impact of lockdown on its design boutiques and flagship public spaces.
Susanna Phillips Newbury looks at zoning, urban development, and gentrification in Las Vegas before and during the pandemic, critiquing the city government’s claims to make “Streets for People.”
