Lefebvre and the Media Production Space

O'Brien, Maria

March 31, 2023<April 20, 2023

Lefebvre and the Media Production Space

Maria O’Brien

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.

March 31, 2023<April 3, 2023

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

Yulia Gilich

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.

March 31, 2023<April 4, 2023

Wanghong Urbanism for our Single Planet

Anna Liu

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.

March 30, 2023<March 30, 2023

Spectacle and/as the New Urban Aesthetic

Monica Degen and Gillian Rose

Emphasising the sensory experience of the digitally mediated city, Monica Degen and Gillian Rose propose critical tactics for understanding the everyday power relations of the “new urban aesthetic.”

March 30, 2023<March 30, 2023

Corporate Afrofuturism: Development Strategies for African Smart Cities

Kola Heyward-Rotimi

Kola Heyward-Rotimi investigates the speculative aesthetics of “corporate Afrofuturism” as a mode of neoliberal world-building. For smart city projects such as Nigeria’s Eko Atlantic, international architecture firms render digital projections of the continent’s urban future.

March 29, 2023<March 29, 2023

Events Episode 2: Media, Cities and Space at ECREA 2022 in Aarhus

Scott Rodgers

In the latest episode of our Events podcast series, Lisa Schulze, Karin Larsson, Mortiz Schweiger and Derya Özkan discuss their recent research on media, cities and space with Erasmus Mundus journalism students.

March 29, 2023<March 29, 2023

Intentional Wanghong Environments Mediating Urban Futures in Xiongan New Area

Antonie Angerer

Exploring China’s latest megacity, Xiongan New Area, Antonie Angerer shows how social media and urban-digital spectacle have become incorporated into the urban planning process.

March 28, 2023<March 29, 2023

“Influencers crush Wukang Road”: Creating Wanghong Landscapes in the Former French Concession in Shanghai

Chensi Shen

The former French Concession in Shanghai has become a key destination for tourists and social media influencers. Chensi Shen investigates the area’s cultural symbolism and its new status as an urban-digital landscape.

March 28, 2023<March 28, 2023

The Development of Edinburgh’s Harry Potter Tourism Scene and TripAdvisor as an “Ordering Resource”

Kath Bassett

Kath Bassett examines how locative media platforms such as TripAdvisor have shaped the development of Harry Potter tourism in Edinburgh.

March 27, 2023<March 27, 2023

The Urban Attention Economy: How Our Cities Are Rebuilt for Social Media

Petter Törnberg

Urban aesthetics have become social media aesthetics, argues Petter Törnberg. Drawing on research from São Paolo, Törnberg shows how the logics of social media have become integral to the new urban attention economy.

March 27, 2023<April 20, 2023

Introduction: Urban-Digital Spectacle

Amy Y. Zhang, Asa Roast, and Carwyn Morris

In their introduction to the dossier on urban-digital spectacle, Amy Y. Zhang, Asa Roast, and Carwyn Morris reflect on the complex roles that digital technology and social media play in the production and consumption of urban space.