Week 1
Contents: Introduction to the main aims of the course (I). Presentation and definition of main concepts regarding heritage and culture. Discussion on these introductory ideas in relation with the city and the urban experience.
Lecture 1: Culture and heritage: main concepts approaching the cityspace.
Lecture 2: Culture and heritage: main theories approaching the cityscape.
Week 2
Contents: Introduction to the main aims of the course (II). Presentation and definition of main concepts regarding information and telecommunication technologies (ITT). Discussion on these introductory ideas in relation with the city and the urban experience.
Lecture 1: The ITT today: main concepts approaching the cityspace.
Lecture 2: The ITT today: main theories approaching the cityscape.
Week 3
Contents: The development and evolution of the urban culture. Main considerations made on the role of heritage in the definition of both the physical built urban environment and the human relationships shaping the urban life. Key statements cover important discussions such as:
- Main differences between the modern and the postmodern city, culture and society.
- Main reasons explaining the evolution of museums and the role of cultural urban policies at the present moment.
Lecture 1: The evolution of the urban culture (19th and 20th centuries).
Lecture 2: The role of the urban heritage from modern to postmodern cities.
Week 4
Contents: Historical evolution of the information and telecommunication technologies (ITT) considering the changing dimensions of the relationships between technology and society. Main statements cover key discussions related to the transition from the fordist to the postfordist city such as:
- The development of technological networks.
- Main reasons explaining the present role of telecommunications defining both physical spaces and the cyberspace.
Lecture 1: The evolution of the ITT (19th and 20th centuries).
Lecture 2: The role of the ITT from the fordist to the postfordist cities.
Week 5
Contents: The relationships between culture, heritage and technology at the present moment. Main discussions cover economic, social and cultural perspectives. Key statements refer to the explanation of the present day digital audiovisual mobile culture and the new roles and functions played by museums and cultural heritage offers in cities. Some study-cases and key-projects will be presented to illustrate facts and conclusions.
Lecture 1: From the physical to the digital, from the permanent to the mobile.
Lecture 2: Economic and social perspectives on cultural heritage and the ITT.
Week 6
Contents: Overview of relevant transformations affecting the urban landscape (20th and 21st centuries). Main statements put in relation changes in the cityscape with lifestyle mutations emphasizing the idea of the city as a container of both physical and intangible connected evolutions. Finally, main changes in urban perception are discussed suggesting the present moment relationship between individuals and space as specifically defined and mediated by information and telecommunication technologies.
Lecture 1: Cityspaces, landscapes and lifestyles in transition.
Lecture 2: Digital culture changing the built environment perception.
MIDTERM BREAK
Week 7
Contents: Presentation of main approaches referred to the standard use of the Information and telecommunication technologies in cultural heritage management projects. Main discussion focuses on the increasing availability and portability of information changing the nature of cultural heritage consumption. Samples of projects and initiatives worldwide are presented to illustrate how new technologies have changed the way in which heritage is managed and offered to cultural consumers.
Lecture 1: Main uses of the ITT in cultural heritage intervention/management.
Lecture 2: Availavility/portability of information and new heritage consumption.
Week 8
Contents: Presentation of main relationships between cultural heritage, new technologies and the city considering the museums planning and design as a relevant study case. Main experiences and practices are presented to explain the evolution and the changing roles of the museum in the city. Samples of cultural planning projects involving new definitions of the museum conceived as an urban heritage highlight are explained and discussed.
Lecture 1: The museums planning: evolution and new trends in urban heritage.
Lecture 2: The museums design:new experiences redefining cultural heritage.
Week 9
Contents: Presentation of main relationships between urban heritage, new technologies and the city considering the capability of cultural projects for providing with innovation and creativity. Inspiring approaches to cultural heritage and cultural consumption 'outside the museum' are presented to illustrate how both tangible and intangible cultural heritages can be mobilize. The consideration of citizens and visitors' urban experience and the links between urban heritage consumption and built environment perception appear as particularly relevant elements for the design of highly innovative heritage management projects.
Lecture 1: Cultural projects 'outside the museum': the urban experience.
Lecture 2: Tangible and intangible cultural heritage: key ideas and definitions.
Week 10
Contents: Following the previous session suggestions, some key projects worldwide are presented to illustrate how the confluence of cultural heritage, information and telecommunication technologies and the perception of the urban built environment are redefining the conditions for innovation and creativity in heritage management experiences.
Lecture 1: Tangible cultural heritage at work: sample of creative projects.
Lecture 2: Intangible cultural heritage at work: sample of creative projects.
Week 11
Contents: Final discussion on how digital technologies have been mainly used as a basic technical support for the availability and portability of information regarding heritage. However, information and telecommunication technologies clearly offer inspiring possibilities to design more attractive and successful heritage management projects. The main conclusion leads to the understanding of urban heritage not as a simple collection of highlights to be put in a photo but as a very important part of the built environment shaping urban perception hand in hand with the ordinary city.
Lecture 1: New relationships between cultural heritage and the ITT today.
Lecture 2: New visions on urban cultural heritage mediated by the ITT.
Week 12
Contents: Final discussions on how digital technologies are representing new challenges for cultural heritage management in cities at the present moment. Presentation of final remarks and conclusions of the course.
Lecture 1: Summary of main points on new technologies and the urban.
Lecture 2: Summary of main points on cultural heritage and the city.
Exam week
Final Seminar (presentation of the final research papers).
30% two presentations
20% one essay on observation and research
10% one essay on a group work and discussion
40% final research essay
Required readings
-Ashworth, G.J; Tunbridge, J. E. (2000) The touristic-historic city: Retrospect and prospect of managing the heritage city. Oxford: Pergamon (1st edition in 1990).
-Bridge, Gary; Watson, Sophie (2000, eds) A companion to the city. Oxford: Blackwell.
-Castells, Manuel et al (2006) Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
-Castells, Manuel (2011) The Internet Galaxy. Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
-Choay, Francoise (2001) The invention of the historic monument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1st French edition 1992).
-Choay, Francoise (2010) "Conservation in the age of gentrification: historic cities from the 1960's". In Contemporary European History, 19, 4 (375-385).
-Darley, Andrew (2000) Visual digital culture: surface, play and spectacle in new media genres. Routledge, London.
-Goggin, Gerard (2011) Global mobile media. London: Routledge.
-Graham, Stephen; Marvin, Simon (1996) Telecommunications and the city. Electronic spaces, urban places. London: Routledge.
-Graham Stephen (2004, ed) The Cybercities Reader. London: Routledge.
-Hall, Tim; Hubbard, Phil; Renni Short, John (2008, eds) The Sage Companion to the City. Los Angeles: SAGE.
-Kavoori, Anandam; Arceneaux, Noah (2006, eds) The cell phone reader. Essays in social transformation. New York: Peter Lang.
-Kitchin, Robert (1998) Ciberspace.The world in the wires. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
-LeGates, Richard; Stout, Frederic (2002, eds) The City Reader. London: Routledge (1st edition in 1996).
Suggested readings
-Brenner, Neil; Keil, Roger (2006, eds) The global cities reader. London: Routledge.
-Castells, Manuel (2004) The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, Edward
Elgar.
-Graham, Stephen; Marvin, Simon (2001) Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infraestructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition. London: Routledge.
-Hannigan, John (1998) Fantasy city. Pleasure and profit in the postmodern metropolis. London: Routledge.
-Muñoz, Francesc (2010) "Urbanalisation: common landscapes, global places". In The Open Urban Studies Journal, num. 2 (75-85).
-Norris, Clive; Armstrong, Gary (1999) The Maximum Surveillance Society. Oxford: Berg.
