WORKSHOP (Berlin): Urban Heritage und Urban Images: Imagineering Urban Heritage (29-30 Oct.)

Urban Heritage und Urban Images: Imagineering Urban Heritage
Humboldt University of Berlin, 29-30th October 2015

In Cooperation with the Institute for Art – and Image history at the Humboldt University of Berlin

Images of cities have a long history and have long been research objects in art history and related disciplines. But city images, produced for economic purposes, have only been analysed recently, and primarily in the social sciences. The production of city images is conceptualized as Urban Imagineering. This describes a differentiated field of discourses and practices in which above all agents from city branding and urban economy are involved, but also urban politics and architecture, in order to generate specific pictures, narratives and symbols of urbanity. Nevertheless, these city-branding and identity-creating processes are continuously changing and at the same time influencing the self-image of the city: this happens in a matrix of urban images, history, economy and heritage.

In this context, tangible heritage gains a special function: different components of heritage are interpreted anew with the help of history. They are overloaded with different symbols and narratives in order to acknowledge their uniqueness.

Within these frameworks the workshop aims to examine the interaction between image, history and architecture. The following questions are formulated: 

Which interaction exists between the tangible heritage and the production of city images? 

To what extend does history play a role in the process of transformation of heritage into images? 

The workshop intends to introduce and analyze case studies from all over Europe. There will be special focus on cases studies which discuss the following perspectives: 

In the realm of architecture, they focus on the interaction between image, history and materiality in urban space; 

In the realm of social practices, they analyse the constructed and projected images. 

The whole programme of the workshop can be found under the following link:

stadtforschungmeetsheritage.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/urban-imagineering-workshop-programm.pdf

Location: Institue for European Ethnology/Georg-Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, Humboldt University Berlin

Address: Mohrenstraße 40/41, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Registration is required.

If you would like to register, please send an email to urbanheritage@t-online.de