Research Area B Urban Sensories (B3)

Project Leader: Christiane Brosius, Marcus Nüsser

The aim of this pilot project was to explore the practicalities of a new approach towards the experience of urbanism as a glocalised process that is constantly reshaped through large-scale infrastructural interventions, media flows and micro-level agency. Centre-stage, and intertwined, are a) globalised mega-events (e.g. World Expositions, Asian or Commonwealth Games, Olympics) and b) the shaping of urban sensoriums by means of creating spatial modes of control (CCTV, censorship) that imbue on the perception of public space and publicity. The focus of research was two-fold and spread across diachronic and synchronic levels: marginalised and untapped material from (official and unofficial) archives in Europe, China and India was complemented by high-resolution satellite imagery, the integration of mapping results in GIS and ethnographic fieldwork. The pilot project focused on New Delhi and Shanghai/Beijing 2010.