This course examines visual culture of the city, from the dynamics of visuality in the nineteenth-century modern cityscape to the mega cities of globalization. It addresses the visual dynamics, infrastructure, architecture, public art and design imaginaries of urban spaces, taking New York City and Paris as primary case studies and including other cities from the nineteenth century to the present. We will consider the politics of urban design, the city as a site of division, disaster, and memory, and the city as political activism. In tracing the history of the city as a site of visual culture, we can gain understanding into the complexities of global visual culture.
CORE Requirement Equivalency: Societies and Social Sciences