Ruined Skylines: Author meets Critics

This event has ended.

In Ruined Skylines: Aesthetics, Politics and London’s Towering Cityscape, Günter Gassner challenges conservative approaches to capitalist urbanisation in order to open up a wider debate about how future cities are to be(come) both liveable and alive. Examining the skyline as a space for radical urban politics, he focuses on the relationship between aesthetics and politics in London’s tall-building boom and develops a critique of the construction of more and more speculative towers as well as a critique of the claim that these buildings ruin the historic cityscape. Gassner argues that the commodified and financialised cityscape needs to be ruined instead and makes a case for reanimating urban politics as an art of the possible.

Full details about the book: https://bit.ly/2kNMCDP

This Author meets Critics event brings Gassner into conversation with two interlocutors – Emma Fraser and Julian Brigstocke – with an expertise in urban geography, social theory, and philosophies of space.

The event is followed by a drinks reception.

Emma Fraser is Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the Sociology Department, Lancaster University. She researches cities and digital media, critical theory, Walter Benjamin and theories of ruins and progress.

Julian Brigstocke is Lecturer in Human Geography at the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University. In his research he explores urban histories, posthuman aesthetics, authority crises and violence.

Günter Gassner is Lecturer in Urban Design at the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University. He specialises in questions about relationships between aesthetics and politics, history and power, and urban visions and visualisations.

*This event will be delivered through the medium of English.