IAHIS 3260 Public Space and the Politics of Representation
As the artist Adrian Piper famously stated: "Public spaces are political arenas in which power is recognized, underwritten, disputed, attacked, lost and gained." This course explores the ways in which different forms of representation and speech – whether visual, textual or verbal – serve to politicize public spaces, thereby shaping our sense of cultural identity on both an individual and collective basis. Towards this end, students will examine diverse modes of representation in order to determine how they mediate our relationship to social, physical and virtual landscapes. Throughout the semester, students will employ their research to explore and propose possible interventions into public spaces and built environments in order to raise critical awareness regarding the politics of representation within contemporary culture.