16906

WiSe 21/22: Cities of the Future. Utopian and Dystopian Urban Visions in Reality and Fiction

Susanne Scharnowski

Kommentar

Subject: Cities are ambivalent. They are laboratories and seismographs of modernity, and they condense the promises as well as the risks of modern societies. Real cities with their technological and social dynamics are the cradle of innovation and progress, but also the testing ground for grand ideas of architects, urban planners, and social engineers. But cities also show the risks and the dark side of modern civilization: poverty, crime, dilapidation, isolation and massification. Fictional cities often serve as the setting for books or filmic narratives that imagine hypermodern, rational, utopian models of an ideal society – or, on the other hand, dystopian futures either characterized by total control through surveillance and authoritarian structures, or by total chaos with rapidly spreading epidemics, social divide, destruction, violence, and mass death. In any case: whenever we imagine future visions of the city, we address our present hopes and fears. Program: We will examine selected visions of cities from the 20th and 21st centuries: visions designed by architects, engineers, or urban planners as well as visions in fictional narratives. The focus will be on the tension between the fear of chaos and the longing for order on the one hand – and the worries associated with authoritarian excesses of order on the other hand. Among the visions we shall discuss are Le Corbusier’s modernist idea of the “Radiant City” from the 1920s, the concept of the “smart city” as well as visions of the city in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. The Blade Runner and The Dark Knight can be watched for a reasonable price on streaming platforms. Is this course suitable for you? The course is open to students from all fields. However, you should be able to read English texts at a fairly high level, be prepared to study a wide variety of texts, and be willing to engage in in-depth analysis of texts, films, and theoretical concepts. Workload and Assessment: To obtain 5 ECTS credits, you will have to study and engage with the course materials (study an average of 15-20 pages of text or watch one film of 90-120 minutes per week) and submit one piece of written work during the course (summary of a text OR a discussion in the course) as well as at the end of the semester (in-depth analysis/ discussion of one “vision of the city”). Both texts together: 2000-3000 words, submission date of the final assignment: March 31st). Schließen

16 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Di, 12:00 - 14:00 16 Termine

Di, 19.10.2021 12:00 - 14:00

Dozenten:
Dr. Susanne Scharnowski