IIPC Debate 116, Wednesday 28.9. 16-18, Arcanum A355 (Arcanuminkuja 1, University of Turku).
The New Urban Aesthetic: Digital Experiences of Urban Change
Professor Monica Degen (Brunel University, UK)
In this talk I will introduce some of the key ideas and case studies from our book (co-written with Professor Gillian Rose, Oxford University) “The New Urban Aesthetic: Digital Experiences of Urban Change”. I will explore the ways in which digital technologies have transformed the everyday life, branding and redevelopment of contemporary cities. Drawing on two case studies from Doha (Qatar) and Smithfield Market (London, UK), I will suggest that as cities are reconfigured by the deployment of digital technologies from Instagram to computer-generated advertising images, particular sensory embodied constellations are emerging. This digitally mediated re-configuration of embodied experience is what this book calls “the new urban aesthetic”, and I will describe two of its possible expressions: glamorous and dramatic.
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Dr Monica Degen is a Professor in Urban Cultural Studies at Brunel University London. Her research focuses on the politics of space with a particular interest in the ways sensory, temporal and emotional dimensions underpin urban culture, urban redevelopment and everyday politics in the city. In 2016/17 she was awarded British Academy Fellowship to research ‘Timescapes of Urban Change’, she has published widely in a range of international journals, her most recent publication is The New Urban Aesthetic: Digital Experiences of Urban Change (Bloomsbury 2022)
To find out more about her work and projects see:
https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/monica-degen
www.sensorysmithfield.com
www.sensescitiescultures.com
www.sensorycities.com
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