Visual Culture of Cities

About this course

This course examines how contemporary visual urban culture and visuality in the public realm facilitate communication of political and societal values in a city.

With Copenhagen and Berlin as our cases, we examine how a city integrates visual culture into urban planning and design. The course looks into spatial components of creating a visually democratic city, and the effects that street art, urban design, places of memory, and commercial interests, have on the identity. Does street art democratize the walls of the city? Or does it de-democratize them? How do cities remember? Who presents the loudest voice in a city? What makes a visual message in a public space be either inclusive or exclusive? This course will investigate these topics, with a focus on how urban planning and policy can integrate and positively make use of the visual culture.

Faculty

Salim Aykut Ozturk

Faculty

Ph.D. in Anthropology (University College London, 2020). MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies (School of Oriental and African Studies, London 2010). MA in Political Science and International Relations (Bogazici University, 2009). BA in Political Science and International Relations (Bogazici University, 2007). Quantitative and qualitative researcher with work and field experience in Istanbul, London and Jerusalem. First book, “Mobility and Armenian Belonging in Contemporary Turkey: Migratory Routes and the Meaning of the Local” (London: IB Tauris, 2022). Currently working on a second book, “An Island that is No More: Politics and Placemaking in Istanbul.” With DIS since 2021.