Embodied Aesthetics in the Immersive City

Time: 6:30 - 8:30pm CEST

This talk considers the digital-spatial strategies that cities such as London are using to revivify urban public spaces after the pandemic. Drawing on findings from the recently published book Aesthetics of Gentrification, I argue that many cities worldwide are experiencing a rise in embodied aesthetic practices – rooted in digital/immersive forms of urbanism – following the restrictions of lockdown and social distancing. Far from being unique to London or the post-pandemic moment, these practices have a long, deep history tied to the neoliberal project of post-industrial renewal. The difference now is that the after-effects of the pandemic, combined with new digital technologies of simulation and immersion, are making it possible to remake cities in more extreme and divisive ways. As cities recover from the pandemic and urban publics return to the shared spaces of the city, there is urgency in understanding these transformations and their effects on contemporary urban life. 

Short Bio 

Christoph Lindner is President and Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, where he also holds the title of Professor of Visual Culture. He is a fellow of both the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Geographic Society. He is the author or editor of 15 books in the fields of art, architecture, and urban geography, including Imagining New York City (Oxford University Press, 2015) and the edited volumes Aesthetics of Gentrification (Amsterdam University Press, 2021), Deconstructing the High Line (Rutgers University Press, 2017), Global Garbage (Routledge, 2016), and Cities Interrupted (Bloomsbury, 2016).  

All welcome-this event is free to attend, but advance registration is required.

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