The New Urban Aesthetic : Digital Experiences of Urban Change

Cities are key sites for the reproduction of global capitalism, and urban branding is central to this transformative dynamic. In the 21st century, cities are also being profoundly reconfigured by the deployment of many kinds of digital technologies. Both of these shifts entrain sensory bodily experiences. This digitally mediated reconfiguration of what cities feel like is what this book terms __the new urban aesthetic__. The book focuses on three examples of urban change in which digital technologies of different kinds were central: a large scale urban redevelopment in Doha, the retrofitting of Milton Keynes to become a smart city, and the cultural regeneration of Smithfield Market into the Culture Mile in London. Each case study focusses on a different kind of digital mediation, including the computer-generated images created to sell new urban developments, smart city phone apps, and Instagram posts about particular urban places. The book identifies three versions of the new urban aesthetic: glamorous, flowing, and dramatic. It shows how each of these organize sensory experiences through particular distributions of temporality and spatiality. As well as exploring the importance of sensory constellations in our digitally mediated cities, the book also offers ways to investigate their fragility and potential for subversion. __The New Urban Aesthetic__ is essential reading for researchers and students in urban studies, architecture, digital studies, sociology, and human geography. Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Illustrations 9 Preface and Acknowledgments 11 Chapter 1: Introducing the New Urban Aesthetic 14 1 Setting the Scene 15 2 The Urban: Materialities and Imaginaries 18 3 The Aesthetic: Sensations and Staging 20 4 The Digital: Devices and Data 22 5 Differentiation and Power Relations 23 6 Case Studies, Methods, and Evidence 27 7 Conclusion 28 Chapter 2: The New Urban Aesthetic: A Conceptual Framework 30 1 Introduction 30 2 Branding Cities, Shaping Experiences 32 3 Urban Experiencing and Digital Mediations 36 4 Aesthetics: Produced, Conceived, Perceived, Lived 38 5 The New Urban Aesthetic, Difference, and Power 45 6 Conclusion 50 Chapter 3: The Conceived Aesthetics of Urban Redevelopment: The Case of Msheireb Downtown, Qatar 54 1 Introduction 54 2 The Case Study: Introducing Msheireb Downtown 57 3 Spatializing Urban Glamour: “Something One Wants on the Cover of a Magazine” 64 4 The Temporalities of Urban Glamour: “The Key to the Image Is That You Are Telling a Story” 70 5 The Conceived New Urban Aesthetic: When Glamour Goes Wrong 74 6 Conclusion: Texturizing Glamour 78 Chapter 4: The Perceived Aesthetics of Digital Urbanism: Feeling Digital Embodiment in Smart Milton Keynes 82 1 Introduction 82 2 The Case Study: Milton Keynes, Smart City 85 3 Conceiving Smart Cities: Storytelling about Smart MK 89 4 Perceiving the New Urban Aesthetic in a Smart City: The Flow of Bodies and/as Data 93 5 Appified Sensations in Smart MK 96 6 Perceiving the New Urban Aesthetic of Flow, Again 101 7 Conclusion: Texturizing Flow 103 Chapter 5: The Lived Aesthetics of Urban Social Media: Anticipating the Culture Mile’s Future 106 1 Introduction 106 2 The Case Study: The Culture Mile, Smithfield Market, and Anticipatory Urbanism 108 3 Instagram as an Expressive Infrastructure for Branding 114 4 Dramatizing the Culture Mile: The Culture Mile Branding Strategy on Instagram 118 5 The Lived Experiencing of Smithfield with Instagram 122 6 Conclusion: Texturizing Drama 133 Chapter 6: The New Urban Aesthetic and Its Power 136 1 Introduction 136 2 Power and the New Urban Aesthetic: Differentiating and Distributing 139 3 Storytelling and the New Urban Aesthetic 142 4 Animating the New Urban Aesthetic 147 5 Seamfulness: Seeing Aesthetic Labor 150 6 Conclusion 156 Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Differentiation and Potentialities of the New Urban Aesthetic 158 1 Introduction 158 2 The New Urban Aesthetic: Reprise 159 3 The Limits of the New Urban Aesthetic 162 4 Other New Aesthetics of Cities 164 5 Afterword 166 References 168 Index 185 "Cities are key sites for the reproduction of global capitalism, and urban branding is central to this transformative dynamic. In the 21st century, cities are also being profoundly reconfigured by the deployment of many kinds of digital technologies. Both of these shifts entrain sensory bodily experiences. This digitally mediated reconfiguration of what cities feel like is what this book terms the new urban aesthetic. The book focuses on three examples of urban change in which digital technologies of different kinds were central: a large scale urban redevelopment in Doha, the retrofitting of Milton Keynes to become a smart city, and the cultural regeneration of Smithfield Market into the Culture Mile in London. Each case study focusses on a different kind of digital mediation, including the computer-generated images created to sell new urban developments, smart city phone apps, and Instagram posts about particular urban places. The book identifies three versions of the new urban aesthetic: glamorous, flowing, and dramatic. It shows how each of these organize sensory experiences through particular distributions of temporality and spatiality. As well as exploring the importance of sensory constellations in our digitally mediated cities, the book also offers ways to investigate their fragility and potential for subversion. The New Urban Aesthetic is essential reading for researchers and students in urban studies, architecture, digital studies, sociology, and human geography"-- Provided by publisher "From smartphone apps to smart cities, digital technologies are reconfiguring urban space and altering our everyday experiences in the city. The New Urban Aesthetic brings an important new angle to our understanding of digital technology in the urban domain - examining how our experiences are altered through interaction with digital devices and screens, and exploring how the visual, sensory, temporal and spatial aesthetics of everyday urban life are changing as a result of the digital. Introducing the concept of the urban aesthetic, as a term which focuses on the bodily experiencing of urban space, the book presents three major new case studies - Milton Keynes, UK; Doha, Qatar; and Barcelona, Spain - which each observe how specific digital technologies are changing the urban aesthetic . We see how bodies are modified through a changing 'smart' environment; how CGI-led urban design is reconfiguring the streets; and explore the impact of social media in both civic participation and in gentrification. Introducing a new vocabulary to understand the ways in which the digital mediates the making and experience of urban space, The New Urban Aesthetic is essential reading for anyone interested in the power of digital culture and technology to transform urban spaces and communities around the world."-- Provided by publisher Shortlisted for the Jane Jacobs Urban Communication Book Award 2023The New Urban Aesthetic explores how cities worldwide are being transformed and reconfigured by the twin forces of digital technologies and'urban branding'in the name of global capitalism. Both of these shifts entrain new sensory bodily experiences, and this digitally-mediated reconfiguration of what cities feel like is what this book terms the new urban aesthetic.Focussing on major case-studies of urban change from London to Doha, the book explores how different kinds of digital mediation play a central role in urban transformation, from smart city phone apps, to social media interactions, to computer-generated visualisations. The book reveals how different versions of the new urban aesthetic organize different sensory experiences of temporality and spatiality – leading to a new understanding of the way we experience cities today.The New Urban Aesthetic is essential reading for researchers and students in urban studies, architecture, digital studies, sociology, and human geography. The New Urban Aesthetic explores how cities worldwide are being transformed and reconfigured by the twin forces of digital technologies and 'urban branding' in the name of global capitalism. Both of these shifts entrain new sensory bodily experiences, and this digitally-mediated reconfiguration of what cities feel like is what this book terms the new urban aesthetic . Focussing on major case-studies of urban change from London to Doha, the book explores how different kinds of digital mediation play a central role in urban transformation, from smart city phone apps, to social media interactions, to computer-generated visualisations. The book reveals how different versions of the new urban aesthetic organize different sensory experiences of temporality and spatiality leading to a new understanding of the way we experience cities today. The New Urban Aesthetic is essential reading for researchers and students in urban studies, architecture, digital studies, sociology, and human geography.