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.
Syllabus
Summer 2026
This is a draft syllabus. The final syllabus will be available here a few days prior to the new course’s first start date.
Nantes offers a unique setting for exploring how cities use visual culture to remember, reinvent, and represent themselves. As France’s once-largest port involved in the transatlantic slave trade, Nantes holds a dark history and is still learning to negotiate this uncomfortable history. Later, after the harbor industry collapsed in the late 1980s, Nantes took a bet on culture and public art to reinvent itself as a destination. These efforts were concentrated on Île de Nantes, which is still undergoing a massive urban transformation more than 30 years later. During our stay, you will learn how a city remembers its history, how industrial heritage is transformed through creative practices, and how public art and culture can shape the identity of a city. You will do that through city walks, site visits, guest lectures, and visual observation exercises.
Learning outcomes
Understand how Nantes remembers its colonial and industrial past through memorials, architecture, and public art
Explore how the former shipyards of Île de Nantes have been transformed through urban regeneration and culture, and compare that model with Copenhagen
Analyze how cultural policies, including the Voyage à Nantes, shape the image and visual identity of the city
Examine who gets to shape the visual identity of a city, and whose histories become visible or not
Possible activities
Visit the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery and explore how its architecture and location on the Loire shape the experience of historical memory
Visit Les Machines de l’Île and encounter the city’s iconic mechanical elephant
Get a historic tour of the former merchants’ quarter and document visual traces of Nantes’ involvement in the Atlantic slave trade
Follow the Voyage à Nantes art trail and pick and study one art piece in detail
Meet an urban planner from SAMOA to see the latest transformations of Île de Nantes
About this tour
Berlin is an epicenter of urban culture in Europe and has been for the last three decades. During our stay in Berlin, we will study the visual language and visual culture of the city. We will look at the differing perspectives of the political, social, and historical mechanisms that form the current urban make-up of the city. You will learn to identify the modes in which a city remembers historical events through memorials, alongside different styles of graffiti and how they represent an urban landscape, and you will observe Berlin through its counter culture activities. You will acquire these skills through city walks, guest lectures, active workshops for creating your own tag, and urban exploration.
Learning outcomes
Understand and identify the cultural and visual differences between East and West Berlin
Explore the historic context of Berlin through a memorial tour and analyze its impact on the current visual identity of the city
Explore street art, facades, culture, and commercial signage through observational exercises and visual recording methods learned in class
Make a mark on the city with your own graffiti piece
Possible activities
Visiting the world famous Boros Collection
Gaining historical context and perspective from a guided “how cities remember” tour looking at the scars of the city and the memorials left
Engaging in a walking tour to see famous graffiti pieces and create your own graffiti piece
Experience alternative culture in Berlin by visiting a local drag show
Visit a local design firm working with the city’s contemporary cultural scene
Looking for some advice? We’ll support you every step of the way.
