This week, as part of its Distinguished Visiting Speaker Seminar series, the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research will be hosting Professor Alison Young from the University of Melbourne, who will be speaking on ‘Street Art and the Contemporary City’. In the past I have assigned at least one of Young’s papers in my class The … Continue Reading
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Screening of new documentary Secret City
Though I think I might regrettably not be able to attend, tomorrow there is a free, public screening of what looks like a very interesting new documentary film titled Secret City. The result of a collaboration between documentary filmmaker and academic Michael Chanan and journalism and media researcher Lee Salter, the film takes an inside … Continue Reading
Conference on communication and the city
In the pleasant myopia for relaxation which characterized of my recent holidays, and which led to the accumulation of many emails from many listservs, I almost missed news of what sounds like a fantastic conference. At least if you’re like me and are really, really interested in the intersections of cities and media. Communication and … Continue Reading
Without irony, city ranking magazine Monocle tells us how media makes a city
London-based travel and lifestyle magazine Monocle has published its annual ranking of what it describes as the top 25 liveable cities around the world. Coming out on top this year is Zurich, and no doubt happy to edge into the 25th spot of this top-flight group is its French Swiss cousin Geneva. If we regionally … Continue Reading
Event next week: The Art Market and the Art Museum
Matthew Morgan, a PhD student who I co-supervise with Ben Cranfield, is organizing an interesting seminar next week on The Art Market and the Art Museum, to be hosted by Birkbeck’s Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice. The event, and Matthew’s research, touches in part on the relations museums have with cities as well … Continue Reading
Media and cities in the Global South: questioning the questions
I recently participated in an Urban@LSE sponsored event titled Visible Cities: International Media Portrayals of Cities in the Global South. This event – a full video recording of which is available above – brought together urban geographers, media theorists and practical journalists to discuss how media tend to portray cities in the Global South. I … Continue Reading
CCR Seminar: the mediated phenomenologies of urban life
Earlier this year I gave a seminar at the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) at the University of Western Sydney, a video of which is now available in the ‘virtual seminars’ section of the CCR website. To access the video you’ll need to navigate through to the clips from 1 July 2010 (there are two … Continue Reading
Television, city and the British countryside
Came across an interesting forthcoming symposium at the University of Derby on Saturday 13th November entitled ‘Television explores the Hinterland’. The main themes of the conference (appended below) appear to focus primarily on those programs that explore Britain’s countryside – such as the excellent BBC/Open University program Coast (which will be discussed in the symposium) … Continue Reading
Intensive media-cultural-urban Amsterdam summer course
For all you undergraduate and master’s students with interests in the intersections of media, cultural and urban studies, note that The University of Amsterdam is sending out a last call for applications for an intensive summer programme running from June 27 – July 10, 2010. The programme on Popular Culture and the City explores media, … Continue Reading
Visualizing cyberscapes
Caught wind of a really interesting new blog called Floating Sheep. As many will be aware, more and more of the data we see emerging through the Internet is geo-coded, that is, it is associated to a particular location on the earth (for example, by longitude and latitude). And, increasingly this data is user created. … Continue Reading