HCRT-304: The Factory of Experience

The Factory of Experience Political and Micropolitical Ecologies of the City Are subjects as products of the city as much cities are products of subjects? This course will examine dialogic forces that coexist in the creation and transformation of the city: the production of space via urban planning at city level and the adaptation processes of space performed by groups and individuals at a local level. Cycles of rise and decay of urban areas, and the ever changing vitality of the city dwellers produce effects on each other: space produces bodies while bodies produce space. The Factory of Experiences is a space for divergent thinking on how urban processes shape human behaviors and more specifically, creative processes such as art and design. Through urban sociology, critical theory, visual studies, philosophy and art theory, the course will study practices that address the experience of living, working, creating and dissenting in the city and by means of the urban space. There will be lectures, site visits and walking tours during the semester as a complement to the seminar and discussion sessions.