In the latest episode of our Voices podcast series, Christian Olesen discusses with Scott Rodgers the kinds of environments and atmospheres made possible in and through film sound, and the broader practices, politics, and ethics of sonic appropriation.
Caitlyn Williams analyzes the film Crazy Rich Asians in conjunction with contemporary cultural policy efforts in Singapore that emphasize the creative economy.
Christian Golden compares the use of ruins in the documentary Detroit: Comeback City and the fiction film Gran Torino, arguing that ruins in these two films resonate with the city’s efforts to attract business and investment through imagining a nostalgic past that can be retrieved to renew Detroit’s future.
In “Ruins, Representation and the Right to the City,” Spencer Cunningham provides a deft summary of the ongoing discussion surrounding the redevelopment of the City of Detroit, exploring the aesthetics (or, rather, the aestheticization) of the city’s urban ruins, and the contradictory forces of gentrification that continue into the present day.