engleski

From place to non-place: a phenomenological geography of everyday living in media cities

The emergent literature on media cities tends to emphasize the ‘impact’ of mediation upon social life, often emphasizing conceptual over empirical issues. Yet as far back as the ethnographic turn in the 1980s, critical questions have been raised about the merits of claiming media have direct influence on people, outside of contextual conditions. Drawing on a comparative ethnography of new public screens such as outdoor advertising and media façades, this chapter develops a ‘phenomenological geography’ of the routine exposure to media in everyday urban life. Phenomenological geography suggests we see urban screens not as primarily occupying the ‘forefront’ of citizen’s attention, but more significantly, its background. Everyday users may first inspect how a novel public screen works, but then use this knowledge in further negotiating such screen spaces. Thinking of urban screens in this way suggests we rethink assumptions that such media engender ‘placelessness’ or ‘non- places’, and attend to how such encounters constitute familiar, orientational forms of quotidian urban place. This, in turn, invites us to see media as spaces, rather than as discrete technologies or texts, as conventionally conceived.

screens ; space ; city ; media ; phenomenology ; place ; everyday life

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