Eric Gordon
On his book The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities from Kodak to Google
Cover Interview of March 08, 2010
media studies /
everyday existence /
new york city /
urbanism /
technology /
hollywood /
de certeau michel /
Editor’s note
Originally, this interview ran on the Rorotoko cover page under the headline
“Media affect the nature of experience in and the physical layout of cities.”
We highlighted two quotes.
On the first page:
“The Urban Spectator is a series of vignettes, assembled to produce the semblance of a whole, just as media representations possessed by the spectator are assembled to produce a legible experience of the city.”
On the second:
“It is imperative for designers, planners, and architects not to mistake spectatorship for the technology that helps shape it. Spectatorship is culture; and the way we design and inhabit cities is a direct reflection of that culture.”