Mediapolis Journal
@mediapolis.bsky.social
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Hey Bluesky! Welcome to new followers and hello to old friends. Stay tuned for issue 9.4, in which you'll find spectacular dirigibles, the media archaeology of supercomputers, feminist videotape networks, Mexican graffiti, homelessness in Hollywood, gentrification and media, and more!
What happens when cities become datasets for AI competitions? Sam Hind shows how machine learning’s scoreboards distance practitioners from the real-world impacts of their work.
Playing Domains: Codes, Cities, and Cultures in the Viral World of Machine Learning
What happens when cities become datasets for AI competitions? Sam Hind shows how machine learning's scoreboards distance practitioners from the real-world impacts of their work.
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
What happens when cities become datasets for AI competitions? Sam Hind shows how machine learning’s scoreboards distance practitioners from the real-world impacts of their work.
Games and cities are shaped by protocols and procedures. Drawing on the concept of ‘Gamespace,’ Connor Cook discusses how gamic principles are applied to urban planning and how these might be playfully resisted in turn.
Gamespace Odyssey: Notes on the Procedural Transformation of Athens
Games and cities are shaped by protocols and procedures. Drawing on the concept of ‘Gamespace,’ Connor Cook discusses how gamic principles are applied to urban planning and how these might be playfull...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Games and cities are shaped by protocols and procedures. Drawing on the concept of ‘Gamespace,’ Connor Cook discusses how gamic principles are applied to urban planning and how these might be playfully resisted in turn.
Bringing together artistic interventions and urban acts of resistance under the umbrella of ‘sensor games,’ Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske explore playful practices that strategically engage with and expose surveillance infrastructures.
Playful Resistance: The Politics of Sensor Counter-Practices in Urban Technospheres
Bringing together artistic interventions and urban acts of resistance under the umbrella of ‘sensor games,’ Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske explore playful practices that strategically engage with...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Bringing together artistic interventions and urban acts of resistance under the umbrella of ‘sensor games,’ Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske explore playful practices that strategically engage with and expose surveillance infrastructures.
The artwork Too Rich City transforms China’s housing crisis into a virtual playground, where NFT properties and augmented reality offer young people alternative forms of urban belonging. Hsin Hsieh both embraces and critiques this artwork.
Too Rich City: A Sinofuturist Playground
The artwork Too Rich City transforms China's housing crisis into a virtual playground, where NFT properties and augmented reality offer young people alternative forms of urban belonging. Hsin Hsieh bo...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:06 AM
The artwork Too Rich City transforms China’s housing crisis into a virtual playground, where NFT properties and augmented reality offer young people alternative forms of urban belonging. Hsin Hsieh both embraces and critiques this artwork.
Play activates our imagination, but it can also fall short in fostering real change. Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran reflect on this tension in relation to rapidly changing neighborhoods.
Defamiliarizing the City: Play, Affect, and the Activation of Imaginaries
Play activates our imagination, but it can also fall short in fostering real change. Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran reflect on this tension in relation to rapidly changing n...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Play activates our imagination, but it can also fall short in fostering real change. Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran reflect on this tension in relation to rapidly changing neighborhoods.
Are we playing … or are we being played? In this conceptual contribution, Conor Moloney maps the tensions between public and counterpublic, culture and counterculture, play and counterplay in relation to urban experience.
Beyond Nice: Mediating Urban life Through Play and Counter-play
Are we playing … or are we being played? In this conceptual contribution, Conor Moloney maps the tensions between public and counterpublic, culture and counterculture, play and counterplay in relation...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Are we playing … or are we being played? In this conceptual contribution, Conor Moloney maps the tensions between public and counterpublic, culture and counterculture, play and counterplay in relation to urban experience.
Seeing and knowing a city are not necessarily the same: based on an interactive workshop with international students in London, Photini Vrikki and Giota Alevizou position photographic practices as a critical part of urban play.
Framing London: Vernacular Photography and the Playable City in Student Life
Seeing and knowing a city are not necessarily the same: based on an interactive workshop with international students in London, Photini Vrikki and Giota Alevizou position photographic practices as a c...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Seeing and knowing a city are not necessarily the same: based on an interactive workshop with international students in London, Photini Vrikki and Giota Alevizou position photographic practices as a critical part of urban play.
From playable to instagrammable: Paul O’Connor, Julian Mcallister Groves, Yingxin Du and Tina Sze Nga Ho trace the ‘colorful’ history of the Choi Hung Public housing estate, and what that might mean for its future.
Colourful Play in Hong Kong’s Rainbow Estate
From playable to instagrammable: Paul O’Connor, Julian Mcallister Groves, Yingxin Du and Tina Sze Nga Ho trace the ‘colorful’ history of the Choi Hung Public housing estate, and what that might mean f...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:23 AM
From playable to instagrammable: Paul O’Connor, Julian Mcallister Groves, Yingxin Du and Tina Sze Nga Ho trace the ‘colorful’ history of the Choi Hung Public housing estate, and what that might mean for its future.
A children’s menu, a play kitchen, a coloring book: Is that what makes a space #kidsproof? Laura Vermeeren explores how Instagram’s aestheticized content increasingly shapes what family leisure in the city should look like.
Babyccinos and Reel Making: Who is Really Playing?
A children’s menu, a play kitchen, a coloring book: Is that what makes a space #kidsproof? Laura Vermeeren explores how Instagram’s aestheticized content increasingly shapes what family leisure in the...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:19 AM
A children’s menu, a play kitchen, a coloring book: Is that what makes a space #kidsproof? Laura Vermeeren explores how Instagram’s aestheticized content increasingly shapes what family leisure in the city should look like.
Focusing on Istanbul’s Etiler neighborhood, Aylin Kartal follows different waves of urban transformation from the 1950s onwards, connecting street play, urban planning and collective memory.
Come Out and Play: A Historical Exploration of Street Play and Urbanization in the Etiler Neighborhood in Istanbul
Focusing on Istanbul’s Etiler neighborhood, Aylin Kartal follows different waves of urban transformation from the 1950s onwards, connecting street play, urban planning and collective memory.
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Focusing on Istanbul’s Etiler neighborhood, Aylin Kartal follows different waves of urban transformation from the 1950s onwards, connecting street play, urban planning and collective memory.
Reflecting on her experiences of skateboarding in Cairo, New York and other cities as a form of ‘rolling ethnography’, Alia ElKattan positions ‘seeing like a skater’ as a new way to approach urban landscapes.
Seeing Like a Skater: Skateboarding as Poetic Technology
Reflecting on her experiences of skateboarding in Cairo, New York and other cities as a form of ‘rolling ethnography’, Alia ElKattan positions ‘seeing like a skater’ as a new way to approach urban lan...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reflecting on her experiences of skateboarding in Cairo, New York and other cities as a form of ‘rolling ethnography’, Alia ElKattan positions ‘seeing like a skater’ as a new way to approach urban landscapes.
Contrasting the visibility of playful art installations with a decline in funding for public infrastructures, @alisonstenning.bsky.social discusses how playability of ordinary urban environments is often ignored, devalued and undermined in urban planning.
When Cities Aren’t Playable: Placing Children’s Play in Urban Environments
Contrasting the visibility of playful art installations with a decline in funding for public infrastructures, Alison Stenning discusses how playability of ordinary urban environments is often ignored,...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Contrasting the visibility of playful art installations with a decline in funding for public infrastructures, @alisonstenning.bsky.social discusses how playability of ordinary urban environments is often ignored, devalued and undermined in urban planning.
Reposted by Mediapolis Journal
For @mediapolis.bsky.social, I wrote a short article provoked in part by the jarring visions of play represented by art like this on the one hand and the Play Commission's All To Play For report and the everyday spaces of play that I engage with in my research on the other.
November 14, 2025 at 10:13 AM
For @mediapolis.bsky.social, I wrote a short article provoked in part by the jarring visions of play represented by art like this on the one hand and the Play Commission's All To Play For report and the everyday spaces of play that I engage with in my research on the other.
Anthony Albright and Frans Willem Korsten discuss the playful appropriation of a vacant building by a squatters’ group as part of an effort to recapture urban environments from the profit-oriented ‘game’ of waiting by investors.
Urban Investors’ Play with Time: Stakes of the Game and Waiting as Playful Strategy
Anthony Albright and Frans Willem Korsten discuss the playful appropriation of a vacant building by a squatters’ group as part of an effort to recapture urban environments from the profit-oriented ‘ga...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Anthony Albright and Frans Willem Korsten discuss the playful appropriation of a vacant building by a squatters’ group as part of an effort to recapture urban environments from the profit-oriented ‘game’ of waiting by investors.
In our latest Q&A, Erica Stein speaks to İpek Çelik Rappas about her new book Filming in European Cities. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/11/film...
The Mediapolis Q&A: Ipek Çelik Rappas’s Filming in European Cities
Erica Stein speaks to İpek Çelik Rappas about her book Filming in European Cities.
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:16 PM
In our latest Q&A, Erica Stein speaks to İpek Çelik Rappas about her new book Filming in European Cities. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/11/film...
The city is a playground. But is it really? In the intro to the Playable Cities dossier, @carobirdsall.bsky.social, @lindakopitz.bsky.social and Alex Gekker discuss how cities are built, how cities are navigated, and how cities are resisted with and through play.
Playable Cities: An Introduction
The city is a playground. But is it really? This introduction to the Playable Cities dossier discusses how cities are built, how cities are navigated, and how cities are resisted with and through play...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The city is a playground. But is it really? In the intro to the Playable Cities dossier, @carobirdsall.bsky.social, @lindakopitz.bsky.social and Alex Gekker discuss how cities are built, how cities are navigated, and how cities are resisted with and through play.
Reposted by Mediapolis Journal
Proud to present the Dossier „Lightscapes/Nightscapes“ I edited together with my friend and colleague Patricia Pia Bornus for @mediapolis.bsky.social - Full Issue here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/07/ligh... Lightscapes/Nightscapes – An Introduction – Mediapolis
Lightscapes/Nightscapes – An Introduction
Patricia Pia Bornus and Bianka-Isabell Scharmann introduce the dossier on Lightscapes and Nightscapes with some reflections on cities, light, and night.
www.mediapolisjournal.com
July 11, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Proud to present the Dossier „Lightscapes/Nightscapes“ I edited together with my friend and colleague Patricia Pia Bornus for @mediapolis.bsky.social - Full Issue here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/07/ligh... Lightscapes/Nightscapes – An Introduction – Mediapolis
Reposted by Mediapolis Journal
Call for Papers: The Synthetic City
We’re putting together a special issue dossier for @mediapolis.bsky.social on 'urban AI' and seek short essays, provocations, creative-critical reflections on synthetic urbanism.
📅 Abstracts due: Nov 30
🔗 Details: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
We’re putting together a special issue dossier for @mediapolis.bsky.social on 'urban AI' and seek short essays, provocations, creative-critical reflections on synthetic urbanism.
📅 Abstracts due: Nov 30
🔗 Details: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
CFP: ‘The Synthetic City’ Dossier for Mediapolis Journal
The Synthetic City A Dossier for Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture Guest Editors: Scott Rodgers, Helena Atteneder, Lou Therese Brandner, Marcos Dias, Diogo Pereira Henriques and Sara Tren…
mediacitytwg.wordpress.com
October 16, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Call for Papers: The Synthetic City
We’re putting together a special issue dossier for @mediapolis.bsky.social on 'urban AI' and seek short essays, provocations, creative-critical reflections on synthetic urbanism.
📅 Abstracts due: Nov 30
🔗 Details: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
We’re putting together a special issue dossier for @mediapolis.bsky.social on 'urban AI' and seek short essays, provocations, creative-critical reflections on synthetic urbanism.
📅 Abstracts due: Nov 30
🔗 Details: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
In the latest podcast, @baykurt.bsky.social discusses with @scott-rodgers.bsky.social her longstanding interests in Google as an increasingly influential agent in urban affairs, and her efforts to rethink ‘test-bed urbanism’ through the local.
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/voic...
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/voic...
Voices Episode 8: Burcu Baykurt on Google Urbanism
In the latest episode of our Voices podcast series, Burcu Baykurt discusses with Scott Rodgers her longstanding interests in Google as an increasingly influential agent in urban affairs, as well as he...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
April 29, 2025 at 12:28 PM
In the latest podcast, @baykurt.bsky.social discusses with @scott-rodgers.bsky.social her longstanding interests in Google as an increasingly influential agent in urban affairs, and her efforts to rethink ‘test-bed urbanism’ through the local.
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/voic...
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/voic...
What happens when a Brutalist building becomes a screen? Drawing on the Concrete Cinema project in Coventry, Michael Pigott explores the affordances and potentials of outdoor moving image projection for the analysis and critique of architecture. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/conc...
April 17, 2025 at 12:41 PM
What happens when a Brutalist building becomes a screen? Drawing on the Concrete Cinema project in Coventry, Michael Pigott explores the affordances and potentials of outdoor moving image projection for the analysis and critique of architecture. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/conc...
How do residents respond to public art in gentrifying areas? Pauline Panetta investigates attitudes to activist projection art in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighborhood and its Lundtoftegade housing complex. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/acti...
Activist Screen Projection Art in the Gentrifying Neighborhood
How do residents respond to public art in gentrifying areas? Pauline Panetta investigates attitudes to activist projection art in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighborhood and its Lundtoftegade housing compl...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
April 17, 2025 at 12:40 PM
How do residents respond to public art in gentrifying areas? Pauline Panetta investigates attitudes to activist projection art in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighborhood and its Lundtoftegade housing complex. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/acti...
Duncan Whitley and Mel Jordan discuss the film Phoenix City 2021 and the potential for site-based artworks to challenge placemaking narratives and the politics of the UK City of Culture.
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/phoe...
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/phoe...
Phoenix City 2021: Art, Regeneration, and Counter-Atmospheres in the UK City of Culture
Phoenix City 2021 explores the role of art in Coventry’s regeneration. Duncan Whitley and Mel Jordan discuss the various iterations of the film and the potential for site-based artworks to challenge p...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
April 16, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Duncan Whitley and Mel Jordan discuss the film Phoenix City 2021 and the potential for site-based artworks to challenge placemaking narratives and the politics of the UK City of Culture.
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/phoe...
www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/phoe...
The dossier continues ... Giorgia Rizzioli explores how posthumanist theory helps us to understand the potential for projection activism as a feminist spatial practice. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/proj...
Projection Activism as Spatial Practice: Words and Gestures for a Feminist City
Giorgia Rizzioli explores how posthumanist theory helps us to understand the potential for projection activism as a feminist spatial practice.
www.mediapolisjournal.com
April 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
The dossier continues ... Giorgia Rizzioli explores how posthumanist theory helps us to understand the potential for projection activism as a feminist spatial practice. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/proj...
From May 1968 to Black Lives Matter, visual and textual strategies have been central to protest movements. Giuseppe Previtali reflects on projection activism as a tool for bringing new political configurations into being. More to come in this dossier soon! www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/take...
Take Your Desires for Realities: Projection and Political Imagination
From May 1968 to Black Lives Matter, visual and textual strategies have been central to protest movements. Giuseppe Previtali reflects on contemporary projection activism as a tool for bringing new po...
www.mediapolisjournal.com
April 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM
From May 1968 to Black Lives Matter, visual and textual strategies have been central to protest movements. Giuseppe Previtali reflects on projection activism as a tool for bringing new political configurations into being. More to come in this dossier soon! www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/take...
Giorgia Rizzioli introduces the Projection Activism dossier with some reflections on urban projection as a means to assert the right to the city. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/urba...
Introduction – Urban Light, Activist Fight: Redesigning Spaces of Change
Giorgia Rizzioli introduces the Projection Activism dossier with some reflections on urban projection as a means to assert the right to the city.
www.mediapolisjournal.com
April 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Giorgia Rizzioli introduces the Projection Activism dossier with some reflections on urban projection as a means to assert the right to the city. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2025/04/urba...