vol. 8

Sensing Nature: Green Databases and Maintenance as/of Care

Linda Kopitz traces how the vision for Amsterdam’s sustainable future has been digitally mapped by “green” databases in ways that construct ideas of maintenance as care, and care as maintenance. Yet such mediations of urban nature risk fragmenting sustainable practices in the present.

Caring Cities: An Introduction

and
In their introduction to the Caring Cities dossier, Linda Kopitz and Pei-Sze Chow consider how care intersects with the urban, and how care might be “designed," through the lenses of technology, politics, and the senses.

Lefebvre and the Media Production Space

Maria O'Brien draws on Henri Lefebvre's spatial theories to argue for the continued importance of the state in the media production process, via the example of Irish audiovisual taxation policies.

Gaza’s Shadow: Israel’s Urban Imaginary of the Gaza Strip

Yulia Gilich is this year's graduate student essay winner for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Urbanism, Geography, Architecture Scholarly Interest Group. They examine how Israeli and Western media primarily depict Gaza as a site of destruction and violence, which naturalizes this perception of the Gaza Strip and absolves Israel and its allies from responsibility for the suffering caused there.

Wanghong Urbanism for our Single Planet

Can the phenomenon of wanghong urbanism be harnessed for positive change? Reflecting on some of her projects, the architect Anna Liu discusses the challenge of creating landmarks for a digital world and the potential for design to catalyse environmental awareness.