Media and the Urban Environment
In recent decades, scholars and practitioners of urban studies, art history, architecture, urban planning, sociology, and anthropology have paid greater attention to the role of media in planning and designing urban areas and the impact of media on cityscapes and city dweller experiences. At the same time, scholars of media and communication studies have taken more interest in urban communication. This convergence of interests between media studies and design, between the university and urban contexts, makes The New School an ideal place and now an ideal time to investigate the relationship of urban studies and media studies and how these fields interact with the city itself. In Media and the Urban Environment, the students and faculty explore how
- media and the urban environment interact
- media represent the city
- urban spaces "mediate" their functions and identities
- people communicate and use and make media within the city's spaces
- media technologies inform the design of space
- media connect cities and the people in them
- media contribute to the imaging and re-imaging, the sounding and resounding, the mapping and navigating that lead to the betterment of cities.
This focus area incorporates existing courses and new service-learning initiatives offered by the Bachelor's Program and draws on the resources of the other divisions of The New School and of New York City itself.
A Sampling of Courses: