Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park

Submitted by Jordan M. Phillips on Thursday, 12/10/2009, at 3:18 AM

 

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Atlanta's Centennial Olympic park, to me, represents the convergence of global and local forces into one space. A city which was originally based on Southern railroad tracks is one of the most diverse in the South. The park was built when the city found out it would be the host to the 1996 Summer Olympics. The city was then the location where nearly every nationality in the world would meet together to celebrate athletics and diversity. However, I remember the moment, even though I was young, when chaos did ensue. The apparent order and power of the city was broken down by a bombing which left the city and the world shook. To me, this space represents the narrative of order, power and chaos which is a global city.

Modern Metropolitan Crisis

Submitted by Nicole E. Bishop on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 11:34 PM
The impetus of modern metropolises clarifies the distinction between the rich and the poor. As this photo of India expresses, both literally and figuratively, beneath the structures that define globalization and the modern metropolis lie those who are increasingly separated and largely ignored by the modern global world. Behind the backdrop of a city that is industrializing and urbanizing exist the visible signs of the metanarrative that contains not only growth, but also crisis. Mike Davis explains that the number of those living in blight in developing metropolises will proliferate in coming years, which presents a unique problem for the world community. These problems will force society to look past the “flaneur” image of the European metropolises and look beneath the foray of lights, billboards, and skyscrapers to truly see and resolve this modern crisis. *Post edited at a later time to include caption and curatorial statement
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Eddie Adams, " Execution of a Viet Cong Guerilla, silver gelatin print, 1968

Submitted by Natalia Bohm on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 8:46 PM
When we think of the "global city", an image of the large, densely populated, technologically advanced, bustling, greatest cities of our time are conjured. However, Adam’s image taken during the Vietnam War gives us a personal expression of the violence and discord that Nutell saw in the emerging metropolis of Johannesburg. This is juxtaposed with the anonymity de Certeau’s hotel lobby as well as in the reflections of the faces in Model’s piece. This contrast expresses the space of the metropolis as a relationship between the personal and the impersonal, the local culture and the global culture, and the informal and the formal economy.
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Lisette Model, "Reflections, NYC, Rockefeller Center", silver gelatin print, 1960

Submitted by Natalia Bohm on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 8:44 PM
When we think of the "global city", an image of a large, densely populated, technologically advanced, bustling, greatest cities of our time are conjured. However, Adam’s image taken during the Vietnam War gives us a personal expression of the violence and discord that Nutell saw in the emerging metropolis of Johannesburg. This is juxtaposed with the anonymity de Certeau’s hotel lobby as well as in the reflections of the faces in Model’s piece. This contrast expresses the space of the metropolis as a relationship between the personal and the impersonal, the local culture and the global culture, and the informal and the formal economy.
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Submitted by Lindsey B. Moran on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 5:04 PM
The dominant presence of advertisements in Teatralnaya Square, adjacent to Red Square, evokes Moscow’s meta-narrative of progress as it seeks to assimilate into the new world order. The illuminated billboards advertising the western labels of Rolex, Movado and Versace exemplify the penetration of, and Moscow’s acceptance of, capitalism as a globalizing force. These advertisements can be interpreted, using Nuttall and Mbembe’s concept of self-styling, as Moscow’s effort to create a new identity and urban narrative to demonstrate its continuing transition towards becoming a global city. (* This image should be after the one of Red Square)
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Submitted by Lindsey B. Moran on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 5:01 PM
Red Square, the literal and figurative heart of Moscow, is a dynamic and “practiced” public space in which many forces (politics, religion, history, capitalism) converge as the old is simultaneously juxtaposed with the new, which is visually represented in the buildings that dominate the Square. In Mrazek’s words, history is actively integrated into the local experience, as different spatialities and temporalities intersect. These forces contribute to the Square’s seductive ambient power that influences each visitor, making his or her experience sensory, holistic, and like a string of memories, as Calvino would say.
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The Global City

Submitted by Courtney Z. Deutsch on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 4:34 PM
This image of New York City's Time Square exemplifies the definition of a global city: the people walking around in the image can come to fully understand the metropolis and those who live there either by reading or experiencing the city, as described by Leach. The occurring denationalization has led to an "unbundling of the national," as argued by Saskia Sassen, and resulted in the flow of currency, ideas, and items without borders, all culminating and generating the global New York City that is connected to other places and spaces by the accelerated innovation of technology in this digital age. The delineated and emergent subcultures and youth cultures all converge to create the urban politics of New York City, which has ambiguous geographical limits, a somewhat seductive ambient power structure(as described by Allen), and micropolitics that have been elevated to the global.
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Rich versus Poor

Submitted by Casey M. Silver on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 4:33 PM
The growing disparity between the rich and poor is prominently illustrated in this photo. As cities become more globalized, such a disparity not only develops as a result of economic change but as as indication of social preference as well. This vast difference might lead one to question which side of the wall truly experiences the city.
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A Separate World

Submitted by Casey M. Silver on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 4:26 PM
The above image portrays the Rocinha Favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one the the largest slums in South America. With its immense poverty, the disparate neighborhood fosters high rates of crime and violence. However, from this view one clearly stands apart and separated from the favela, viewing it instead from a distance. In his work on gated communities, Monterescu describes this distance as becoming more and more pronounced as the gap between the rich and the poor widens.
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Globalization in Luxor

Submitted by Evan J. Peters on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 3:18 PM
Globalization is elastic: This is an image of a donkey hauling Coca-Cola, Nestle and Dasani Water as well as some other soft drink products in Luxor, Egypt. Save for one onlooker, this picture is absent of people, but is laden with the distillates of globalized socioeconomic transaction. Here, we see the merging of seemingly divergent, yet not opposed logics. The globalized economy has brought Coca-Cola products to Egypt, but they are being pulled by a donkey and are therefore being interpreted within a localized framework. beneath air conditioner advertisements, vaunting technological progress, we see that aspects of traditional culture remain viable.
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Iranian Presidential Protests

Submitted by Evan J. Peters on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 3:10 PM
This is an image of Iranians protesting their Presidential elections during the summer of 2009. Against a commercial backdrop of what ostensibly looks like Simmel's organized Metropolis, a chaotic and unsettled mass is issuing a direct challenge to the standing top down power structure in the open street. The white lines that guide traffic cannot corral this discontent and the unspoken social norms of social interaction that govern this space cannot diffuse these peoples' indignation. This is urban reality for much of the world's population. As Mike Davis has predicted, these people have not gone gently into the night.
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Submitted by Caroline G. Argibay on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 12:45 PM
This image of a busy urban street filled with walkers illustrates de Certeau’s assertion that urban spaces are actually “practiced places,” and that the act of walking, living, and practicing affords one the opportunity to truly experience a city. Through the act of walking and experiencing the city, one is able to gain a deeper understanding and insight into the true nature of the metropolis and its inhabitants, whether this be witnessing urban politics firsthand through sidewalk demonstrations or various organized protests, learning about different urban subcultures through examples of guerilla gardening or graffiti, or witnessing the different relations of inequality and fear with slums and gated communities. The practice of walking also allows one to see the effects of globalization on the urban city through the spread of ideas and goods, such as with the McDonald’s sign pictured here in this Asian city, and its results in tearing down national territorial boundaries and creating a more connected, interrelated world, as can be seen economically with Stoller’s African street vendors and their trade connections as well as culturally with the emergence of a global youth culture.
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Images of the City

Submitted by Evan A. Redwood on Wednesday, 12/9/2009, at 12:14 AM

 

Central Park NYC

The above image is of New York City's Central Park.I chose this image to harken back to Italo Calvino's piece "Hermit In Paris" and the difference between how we perceive cities and how we experience them in actuality. If I had not told you that this was New York City, I think it is safe to say that you would have never guessed this greenery was located there.

 

Berlin Wall

The above image is a picture of the construction of the Berlin Wall. I chose this image to represent the many boundaries that exist in cities around t he world; walls both concrete and conceptual. In cities, walls of socioeconomics, race and politics decide the make up of different areas, as do the actual walls that give the "urban jungle" order.

 

lobby

The above image is of a hotel lobby in an urban tropical location. I chose this particular lobby to demonstrate further what Tallack described in his piece the "Hotel Lobby". That is that the hotel lobby is both an outside and inside space. It is separate from the hustle and bustle of the outside street, yet it is still a place to see, be  seen and interact with the people around you on multiple different levels.

 

Mbembe and Nutall

Submitted by Meredith A. Santonelli on Tuesday, 12/8/2009, at 8:48 AM

Mbembe and Nutall wrote that when scholars look at Johannesburg they see only apartheid and so do not compare it to other cities in the world. When, if at all, do you think it is possible or practical to look past apartheid when looking at South Africa?