SYLLABUS - FPZG

SYLLABUS
Media and the city
Nositelj kolegija dr. sc. Zlatan Krajina E-mail zlatan.krajina@googlemail.com
Studijski program: Diplomski
Vrsta kolegija: Izborni
Godina studija: Druga
ECTS bodovi: 7
Oblik nastave: 2 + 2
Cilj kolegija
Media and the city have always been implicated in each other as structures and practices, as
well as strategies and tactics, of communication within and across socially organised space.
Media have always been utilised in the tension between the urban planners’ efforts to control
space by drawing coherent maps from macro vantage points, and the subversive
fragmentary realities lived at the micro-level of mobile pedestrians. In fact, to say that most of
the world population now lives in cities, actually means that they live in spaces managed and
negotiated through the use of communication technologies situated in the specific contexts of
(post)modern urban heterogeneity. Media technologies are not only located in, but also form
part of the infrastructures of public space. Urban screens occupy space, but also represent
other spaces. Modern city is a media city – mediation defines urban space we live in.
At first, in the early 20th century, it was the varying angles, perspectives and montage of
photography and films, and, more recently, it is the data circulation through technologies such
as geospatially responsive mobile phones, personal laptops, digital surveillance and large
scale urban screens that planners and pedestrians use to make sense of the permanently
growing and changing urban space. Rather than merely suggesting that the city is mediated
anew in the spirit of the increasingly popular notion of ‘abundance of information and
mediation’, this course offers a range of views of the contemporary city as re-mediated along
much older spatial vectors of continuity and change.
In what is a developing field in media and cultural studies, the concoction “media city” is
increasingly the focus of debates, which cannot satisfactorily examine the dual object of study
from a single field, but require specialised inputs from a range of fields (such as urban
sociology, sociology of everyday life, sociology of media consumption, computing studies,
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urban studies, architecture, and critical theory). Adopting this inter-disciplinary frame, in this
course we examine how contemporary urban spaces manifest themselves as “media cities”,
and why we can most usefully understand a wide array of forms of media communications in
the particular, urban context. The course is divided into two key parts, adopting Michel de
Certeau’s seminal dichotomy between institutional strategies of organising space and
pedestrian tactics of resisting the institutional arrangements of everyday environments. The first
part of the course will examine forms of the former (strategies of designing, promoting and
imagining the city as a photographic and filmic city; the creation of so-called ‘virtual cities’ by
virtue of connecting transnationally positioned urban electronic informational nodes; outdoor
advertising; urban screens and architectural media facades), while the second part of the
course will examine cases of the latter (the flâneur, extended media audiences, community
media, mobile phone, IPod and walkman users, public art with practices of graffiti and posters,
habituation of mediated public spaces).
Uvjeti za upis predmeta i ulazne kompetencije potrebne za predmet
Excellent command of academic English.
Ishodi učenja na razini studijskog programa kojima kolegij pridonosi
By the end of the course students will:
• become familiar with some of the key concepts surrounding the emergences of the
modern city and the post-modern metropolis, and the processes of (re)mediation
• be able to identify and choose an appropriate conceptual methodology to analyse a
case of how cities are technologically mediated, and how urban mediation informs
the senses of time and space
• develop a historicised, multi-level and inter-disciplinary understanding of interactions
with media and urban space
Očekivani ishodi učenja na razini kolegija (4-10 ishoda učenja)
By the end of the course students will be able to:
• engage in an independent informed exploration of a particular practical case and a
conceptual domain relevant to understanding urban mediations and mediated cities
• undertake research of a multidimensional conceptual and methodological design,
and to report on that research within the time constraints, and in the required
standards of quality and form
• feel comfortable about transgressing traditional (often unproductive) boundaries
between scholarly disciplines and to think inter-disciplinarily
• identify connections between, and the potential for synthesis of, micro and macro
levels of enquiry in examining particular cases
• generously historicise the popular presentation, actual usage, and implications in
particular cultures and societies, of the present developments in spatial design and
technological innovations, and identify what might be new developments therein
work individually and in groups, and make use of a diverse range of academic and
non-academic resources (libraries, electronic sources, public sites, archives, etc.)
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Sadržaj kolegija detaljno razrađen prema satnici nastave
TJEDAN TEMA
1. susret Introduction: Defining the Media City
2. susret
Key Approaches to the study of media and the city: the spatiality of a
mediated urban space
3. susret The Cinematic and Photographic City
4. susret Exploring Urban Screens
5. susret Outdoor Advertising and Urban Consumption
6. susret Easter – no lectures (preparations for coursework)
7. susret Urban Branding and Regeneration
8. susret Myths and realities of a 'virtual' city
9. susret
Key Approaches to the study of urban subjects and mediated urban
experience
10. susret Negotiating the City: Personal stereo and mobile phones uses
11. susret Media, Community and the City
12. susret The subversive potentials of mediated public art
13. susret Habituating mediated urban space: the uses of existential geography
14. susret
Obveze studenata
INvestigating the mediated city: Some methodological issues and concluding
remarks
Students are required to attend one-hour lectures, followed by one-hour small group seminars
(the student qualifies for the examination by having between not more than four absences),
and, in preparation for the seminar, to read the text(s) set for each week’s session (available in
advance through the library and online learning resources) and to think of ways of engaging
with those texts with reference to empirical cases of their choice, so as to discuss and examine
the pertinent issues.
Ocjenjivanje i vrjednovanje rada studenata tijekom nastave i na završnom ispitu
In all aspects of work on this course, students will be encouraged to act creatively and critically
in reflecting on the postmodern urban spaces they inhabit, drawing on arts, graffiti, films, music,
public events, and other particular forms of mediations.
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Students will be encouraged (but not obliged) to prepare, in advance of each week’s session,
individual and/or group presentations of weekly readings thinking through the main points,
their weaknesses and strengths, as well as examples useful in an examination of the text.
Students are invited to refer to cases identified in (as well as own produced work in, where
appropriate and applicable) photography, film, exhibition and everyday urban spaces.
Students will be encouraged to embark on their own explorations of the city, its spaces,
objects, and mediations, to critically reflect on their experiences of everyday life in a
technologically mediated city, and to seek out most useful ways of understanding and
researching issues arising from those explorations. In the middle of the term students will be
asked to submit a 2000 word long coursework, answering the examined essay question, but
with reference to only one of the approaches covered in the course so far. Students are
encouraged to do so, especially because they will be allowed to use the same material in their
final examined work, and can thus seek appropriate feedback well in advance of the final
deadline. The examined essay should be written in an intelligible academic English and in an
engaging way (intellectually, empirically and conceptually), in 4-5000 words (bibliography
excluded). The examined essay question is: With reference to two theoretical approaches
covered in the course, discuss a case of urban mediation, paying particular attention to
institutions’ strategies and tactics of resistance involved. All three key elements of the question
– one empirical case and two theoretical approaches (based on several key texts, by the
student’s own choice, any from the reading list) – must be present in the essay for a minimum
of a pass (grade 2). Other grades will vary depending on a) the intellectual rigour, depth and
complexity demonstrated, b) the clarity, coherence and presentation of the text, and c) the
appropriateness of the chosen theories and the example, and the effective mobilisation of the
three elements in an independent and critical study. Students will have plenty of opportunity to
prepare for the examination, by attending individual tutorials with the course leader and
interacting with one another (see below).
Obvezna literatura (dostupna u knjižnici i putem ostalih medija):
• Couldry, N. and McCarthy, A. (eds.) MediaSpace: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media
Age London and New York: Routledge
• Eckardt, F. (2008) Mediacity: Situations, Practices and Encounters Frank & Timme.
• McQuire, S. (2008) The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space Los Angeles,
London, New Delhi and Singapore: Sage Publications.
• Gordon, E. (2010) The Urban Spectator: American Concept-Cities from Kodak to Google
University Press of New England (Hanover and London).
• Krajina, Z. (2009) ‘Exploring Urban Screens’ in Culture Unbound: Journal Of Current Cultural
Research Vol 1
Dopunska literatura:
• LeGates, R. T. and Stout, F. (2000) The City Reader 2 nd edition Routledge. [a single most
comprehensive reader to date on all matters of cities, urban space and urban sociology,
parts will be useful to individual sessions throughout the course]
• Miles, M. And Hall, T. (2004) City Cultures Reader 2 nd edition Routledge, parts 1 and 2
• Lefebvre, H. (1996) Writings on Cities Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
• Massey, D. (2005) For Space London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: Sage Publications.
• Soja, E. (1989) Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory
Verso
• Soja, E. (1996) Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined
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• Places. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Soja, E. (2000) Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions. Oxford:
• Blackwell.
• Massey, D. (2007) World City Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press.
• Massey, D. et al (eds) (1999) City Worlds Routledge (with Open University Press)
• ag4 (2006) Media Facades Cologne, London and New York: daab.
• Blau, E. and Rupnik, I. (2007) Project Zagreb: Transition as Condition, Strategy, Practice
Harvard University: Actar A.
• Kasinitz, P. (ed.) Metropolis: Center and Symbol of Our Times New York: New York University
Press.
• Betsky, A. et al. Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Dillard + Scofidio New York:
Whitney Museum of American Art.
• Augé, M. (1995) Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity London,
New York: Verso.
• Leach, N. (ed). Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory London and New York:
Routledge.
• Benjamin, W. (1999) Illuminations London: Pimlico.
• Berker, T. et al. (eds.) (2006) Domestication of Media and Technology Maidenhead and
New York: Open University Press.
• Berry, C. et al. (eds.) Electronic Elsewheres: Media, Technology, and the Experience of
Social Space Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
• Borden, I., Kerr, J. et al (eds.) Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space MIT
• Parker, S. (2004) Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City Routledge
• Donald, J. (1995) 'The City, The Cinema: Modern Spaces' in Jenks, C. (ed) Visual Culture
London and NY Routledge, pp. 77-95.
• Aronczyk, M. (2006) 'Place as Brand: Lessons from Two Canadian Cities', Paper from the
ESF-LiU Conference “Cities and Media: Cultural Perspectives on Urban Identities in a
Mediatized World”, Vadstena 25–29 October 2006. (Available online at
www.ep.liu.se/ecp/020/)
• Ridell, S. (2010) 'The cybercity as a medium: Public living and agency in the digitally
shaped urban space', in Nagenborg, Michael, Albrechtslund Anders, Klamt Martin and
Murakami Wood David (eds) ICT & The City (special issue of International Review of
Information Ethics) Vol. 12 pp. 11-19.
• Morley, D. (2000) Home Territories: Media, mobility and identity London and New York:
Routledge (excerpt – pp. 128-146, 149-170)
• Gaved Mark and Mulholland Paul (2008) 'Pioneers, Subcultures and Cooperatives: the
Grassroots Augmentation of Urban Places' in Aurigi, A Cindio G (2008) Augmented Urban
Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City Ashgate, pp 172-184.
• Miles, M. (1997) Art, Space and the City: Public art and urban futures
• London: Routledge, pp 3-11
• Bullivant, L. (2007) ‘Beyond the Kiosk and the Billboard’ in Architectural Design Special
Issue: 4dsocial: Interactive Design Environments Volume 77, Issue 4, pages 14–23,
July/August 2007
• Sassen, S. (2008) ‘Reading the City in a Global Digital Age’ in McQuire et al (eds) Urban
Screens Reader Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
• Ward, J. (2004) 'Berlin, the Virtual Global City' in Journal of Visual Culture Vol 3(2): 239-256.
• Bull, M. (2000) Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday
Life Oxford: Berg.
• Colomina, B. (1994) Privacy and Publicity: Architecture as Mass Media Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
• Castells, M. et al. (2007) Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective
Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
• Gitlin, T. (2001) Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our
Lives Metropolitan Books: New York.
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• Fuller, M. (2005) Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
• Frisby, D. (1985) Fragments of Modernity: Theories of Modernity in the Work of Simmel,
Kracauer and Benjamin Cambridge: Polity Press and Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• de Certeau, M. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life Berkley, Los Angeles and London:
University of California Press.
• Cronin, A. M. (2010) Advertising, Commercial Spaces and the Urban Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
• Goffman, E. (1972) Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books.
• Kwon, M. (2004) One Place after Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity
Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
• Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production of Space Malden, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
• Lynch, K. (1960) The Image of the City Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press.
• Massey, D. (1991) ‘A Global Sense of Place’ in Marxism Today June 1991, p. 24-29.
• McCullough, M. (2004) Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and
Environmental Knowing Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Moores, S. (2003) ‘Media, Flows and Places’ in Media@LSE Electronic Working Papers
• Mouffe, C. (2008) ‘Art and Democracy: Art as an Agonistic Intervention in Public Space’ in
Art as Public Issue: How Art and Its Institutions Reinvent the Public Dimension (Open: Cahier
on Art and the Public Domain 2008/No.14) Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, pp. 6-13.
• Park, R. E. et al. (1968) The City Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
• Venturi, R. et al. (1977) Learning From Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural
Form Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
• Virilio, P. (2004) ‘The Overexposed City’ in Redhead, S. (2004) (ed.) The Paul Virilio Reader
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 83-99.
Načini praćenja kvalitete koji osiguravaju stjecanje izlaznih kompetencija
In addition to preparing and giving short summary presentations week by week, emphasising
some of the key issues in seminar texts, students will be encouraged to embark on their own
explorations of the city to critically reflect on their experiences of everyday life in a
technologically mediated city, and to seek out most useful ways of understanding issues arising
from those explorations, especially in preparation of their examined essays. To assist this work,
there will be a series of field lectures guest lecturers giving presentations on particular issues,
such as the key Croatian public urban artwork (Ana Kutleša from Urban Festival), urban walks
(taking a tour through regenerated spaces and squats in Zagreb, such as “Medika”, with the
prominent writer on Zagreb Saša Šimpraga) and urban anthropology (by a key researcher in
the field Valentina Gulin Zrnić from the Institute of Ethnology), and others. Students will be
strongly encouraged to attend those sessions and interact with the guest lecturers and make
links and try out their own prospective essay projects. There will be collaboration with the
“Urban Festival” in Zagreb, where students will be invited to join the curators in the preparation
of the festival and make use of that experience in their essays. In the middle of the term
students will be encouraged to submit a 2000 word long coursework, answering the examined
essay question, but with reference to only one of the approaches covered in the course so far,
so as to seek appropriate feedback well in advance of the final deadline. The examined essay
will be assessed depending on a) the intellectual rigour, depth and complexity demonstrated,
b) the clarity, coherence and presentation of the text, and c) the appropriateness of the
chosen theories and the example, and the effective mobilisation of the three elements in an
independent and critical study. At the end of the course students will be encouraged to give
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short presentations of the planned essays so as to acquire feedback from their peers in
advance of the submission.
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