In this second edition of the Student Voices Undergraduate Research Section, Stephanie DeBoer’s students from Indiana University reflect on their experiences studying screen culture in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, as well as the idea of the urban as screen and spectacle.
Uncovering the Media City: Public Screens and Urban China (June 20, 2018)
Stephanie DeBoer introduces this section of Student Voices on public screens in urban China, detailing the myriad ways in which screens are integrated into everyday life in the media city, both announcing and constituting Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as global urban centers that its inhabitants and passerby must contend with.
The Screen City and the Absence of Choice (June 20, 2018)
Calvin Badger starts off this round of student essays analyzing the extent to which individuals can express agency vis a vis public screens in Shanghai and Hong Kong, considering the ways in which those screens are bound up with relations of power in the city.
Disenchantment of the Spectacle: What Happens When the Lights are Turned Off (June 20, 2018)
Madeline Dippel continues the discussion of public screens in Hong Kong and Shanghai by considering how public screens shape architecture and engagement, particularly when the spectacular lights of the screens are “turned off.”
The Use of Enchantment in Shanghai and Hong Kong (June 20, 2018)
Naomi Farahan turns to looking at the ways in which public screens work as forms of enchantment, questioning precisely for whom this enchantment is intended.
The Ordinary vs. the Spectacular (June 20, 2018)
Maggie Farwig’s essay considers the ways in which screens manifest in the practices of everyday life in both ordinary and spectacular ways, creating both connections and disconnections and blurring relations between public and private.
Micro to Macro in Hong Kong and Shanghai: How Media Cities View Mega Screens (June 20, 2018)
Celia Grubba discusses the ways in which public screens position and constitute China as global and cosmopolitan.
Access, Control, and Consent in the Urban Metropolises of Hong Kong and Shanghai (June 20, 2018)
Keenan Lacy-Rhodes argues large public screens communicate and constitutes a global, commercial elite, further exacerbating inequalities within Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Integrated Spectacle Perpetuation Within Metro China (June 22, 2018)
Emma Suzanne Hamilton discusses public screens in China’s metro stations, arguing they constitute a form of integrated spectacle.
Directing the Consumer’s Attention through Public Screens: A Critical View (June 22, 2018)
Rachel Leffers argues public screens create spectacles that promote a sense of aspirational culture, but, in so doing, they risk overexposure and therefore must be continually upgraded in order to maintain the illusion.
Shiny Diversions (June 22, 2018)
Myalisa Miroballi considers how screen culture pervades the streets of Hong Kong and Shanghai in ways that constitute the cities as aspirational, global consumer hubs.
The Spectacle of Screen Environments (June 22, 2018)
Kyle McClarney explores the ways in which public screens become “integrated spectacles” in their environments in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Public Screen Culture in Modern Hong Kong (June 22, 2018)
Cara Singell discusses the varying degrees of “publicness” of contemporary public screens in Hong Kong, suggesting that screens vary from “partially-obsolete publicness,” “semi-publicness,” to “true/pure publicness.”
Light Wins: Commercial Placemaking and Public Screens (June 22, 2018)
Kyle Winkel considers the ways in which advertisers utilize light art and technology as a way to captivate increasingly desensitized passerby in public screen spectacles in urban Hong Kong.