Seeing the City: Critical Perspectives on Urban Representation

Description

- In getting to know a place we primarily rely on personal experiences; walking down a road expands our mental imagination of the city while learning about the dense network of metro internalises the idea of the city as a web of underground tunnels. But as we form our perceptions of the city, we also absorb various representations of it: diagrams that break down its intricate systems, maps that help us physically navigate and plan, photographs that draw attention to details we mig ht otherwise overlook, oral narratives that colour our perceptions or films that offer someone else’s perspective. These visual and narrative perspectives shape our collective understanding of cities, making certain spaces, communities and narratives visible while rendering others invisible. This course encourages students to think critically about the multiple ways in which Indian cities are “seen”—by residents, policymakers, artists, and governments —and the implications of these perceptions for how cities function. The course aims to answer the following questions: 1. How do different forms of visual and narrative representation, such as maps, films, and stories, shape our collective understanding of urban spaces and the communities within them? 2. Who gets to represent the city, and who is left out of these representations? 3. What are the alternative ways of representing cities? Prerequisites- NA Scheme of