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The political construction of Medellín’s global image

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Through the examination of physical and photographic images of Medellín’s architectural phenomena, Christina Deluchi explores how politics operates via representations of urban transformation.

Further links:

https://www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/uts-represents-australia-at-inaugural-chicago-architecture-biennial/
https://architectureau.com/articles/from-mcmansions-to-the-world/

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 13, 2024

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This video is a transcription of a discussion focused on the political construction of men's global image, particularly through the lens of urban transformation and architecture in the context of a city referred to as "Mendelin" (potentially Medellín, Colombia). The speaker, Christina, outlines her research, which examines how architecture, politics, and visual representations interact to shape urban identities and narratives.

Key points from the discussion include:

1. **Context of Research**: Christina acknowledges the Indigenous peoples of the lands where her research takes place and discusses her interest in destabilizing dominant narratives about urban identities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

2. **Media and Urban Identity**: She explains that images, driven by state and market interests, play a critical role in reshaping the identity of cities like Medellín, which has undergone significant urban renewal after being previously branded as dangerous.

3. **Political Manipulation of Images**: Christina highlights how urban images, especially architectural ones, are used to create a narrative contrasting historical violence with modern architectural achievements—often presented as a "tale of two cities."

4. **Case Study of Medellín**: The discussion dives deeper into the urban transformation initiated by political leaders, specifically citing Mayor Faha’s social urbanism efforts to enhance the city’s international image by focusing on inclusivity and addressing urban challenges.

5. **Themes of Violence and Erasure**: Christina introduces three concepts—replacement, erasure, and disconnection—to explain how urban development projects replace existing community structures, erase historical narratives, and create disconnections between represented and lived realities.

6. **Future Research Directions**: Finally, Christina expresses her intention to further examine the relationship between architecture, politics, and images. She plans to focus on how images shape urban narratives and identity, emphasizing the need for critical reflection on visual media's role in urban storytelling.

Overall, the discussion illustrates the complexities of urban renewal, identity politics, and the pervasive influence of images in shaping perceptions of cities undergoing transformation.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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Before I begin, I would just like

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to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eura nation,

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whose ancestral lands some of my research takes place.

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I would also like to acknowledge all indigenous peoples

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of this earth and all peoples

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who have dis been displaced from their lands.

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So, my current research

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examines the relationship between architecture, politics,

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and images, essentially to attempt to destabilize

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dominant urban identities and render visible different

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and equally important accounts

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of architecture's role in the contemporary city.

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So, to do so, my research deploys popular market driven

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and state led images as critical mechanisms for retooling

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and expanding ways

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for potentially retelling master narratives.

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So my interest in Metin comes from a collective project

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that I did with some colleagues several years ago

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that studied the emergent regional condition

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of the Indo-Pacific.

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So Metin, while not directly located in the Indo-Pacific

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Oceanic territory, but along its regional arc,

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provided a case study for tracing those intersections

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of media capital flow gentrification,

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and post-traumatic conditions that were kind

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of consistent across the region.

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So for this project,

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my research users well used diverse image-based sources

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to speculate on urban imaginaries, progressive development,

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and spectacular transformation.

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So this work has set the context for my continued,

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continued research on how images have become essential

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to city branding practices

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and how the combination of narrative

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and image, accelerates political ideology

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resulting in the redistribution

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and re represent of power in the context of metin.

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So after the negative media of the 1990s

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that really showcased Metin

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as the most dangerous city in the world, images

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of new architecture

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and urban urban space have been critical

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to this reorientation of its global perception.

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So essentially images have been mobilized by the state

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and the media to restructure the city's identity

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and establish a binary understanding

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that sets historic violence against this kind

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of new spectacular urban transformation Mein,

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is commonly presented as a tale of two cities.

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So these two distinct urban realities which are set against

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each other, relentless urban

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and political warfare, which is of course underpinned

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by the narco bourgeoisie

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and the professionalization of gangs.

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And then in contrast, the winner of prestigious awards

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for state of the art, urban and architectural renewal.

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So while images of architecture capture this aesthetic

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vision, vision, they also emphasize, a polarity

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between informality and new buildings and precincts.

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So the images are circulated then by the state architects

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and also in professional journalistic and touristic media.

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Um, and that juxtaposition of old

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and new essentially underscores the urban binary of violence

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and transformation or before and after.

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And that has shaped

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and also at times limited perceptions

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of this urban identity.

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So if we wanted to start right at the beginning to see

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how politics operates via representations of the,

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this transformation would need to go back to Mayor Gio

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F'S transformation project,

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for the city social urbanism.

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And that's an internationally recognized project

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for its radical architectural intervention,

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which is founded on inclusivity, education and innovation.

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So during his election campaign,

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Faha essentially executed his most critical political move,

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which was to rebuild alliances

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and partnerships with meta gen's,

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political corporate bodies, and important civic groups.

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So the support of this alliance combined

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with his sheer political will,

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has re result well resulted in fajas election in 2003.

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And all of those pieces kind of were put in place

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to launch his participatory project for the city.

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So during his term, he was able to use social urbanism

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to begin to reorient meta gen's international image

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by establishing this kind of shift towards

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positive urban operations.

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These operations included addressing precarity

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and violence with novel prevention me measures,

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in peripheral areas of the city

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that have historically been marginalized.

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So essentially state-of-the-art urban intervention was then

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used as a mechanism to reduce crime

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and social debt, while also rebuilding civic, pride,

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both physically

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and symbolically in that,

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in this transformation of the city.

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And as a result, of course,

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Metagene then acquired this portfolio of,

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international awards for design excellence and innovation.

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And of course then that resulted in architecture being used

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and mass as a str as a strategic material

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and visual tool in the city's contemporary transformation.

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So projects then at the urban

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and building scale alongside more punctual micro

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interventions have constructed that narrative of change.

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And the municipality

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and the local government has

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also strategically used international media

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to celebrate this new version of the city

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and to produce its contemporary portrayal. Whereby

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Representations of spectacular projects kind

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of explicitly contrast the traumas of recent history.

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And even today, 20 years later,

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Baha's successes have really ensured this continuity

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of his urban vision

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and continue to exhaustively plan new architectural works

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to really uphold social urbanisms ideological

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superstructure, looking at images

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that document meta's transformation,

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of course namely architectural images.

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We can really start to identify typologies, image typologies

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or tropes that have structured this outward facing,

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outward facing vision for the city.

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So, for example, the techniques

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that are recognizable in Dutch photographer Ewan Barnes

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iconic aerial photographs of the city from 2013

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have later been adopted by local photographers.

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So these visual strategies include repetition,

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serialization, and montage,

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and essentially create a hyperbolic representation

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of this transformation.

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I guess Iwan Barn's famous, image

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of the Biblioteca Espania is probably a good example just

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to introduce why we can ask some of these questions.

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Um, so its photograph is widely circulated

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and well recognized

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and consists of three black geometric boulders

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that are perched on the hillside.

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So this building is either surrounded by informal dwellings

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or looking down into Meins Valley in all of its images.

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So that makes all its images uncannily similar.

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And for this reason, this photograph became the portrait

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for the city's transformation,

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but the reality of the building's current condition,

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from 2017, it was closed for repair

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and its facades had collapsed.

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It really epitomizes this kind of paradox, of its image,

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and how

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and what it had created for the city, essentially.

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So it reveals that the physical

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and photographic image it produces is neither accurate,

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nor empirical.

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It was real at a time, but is currently fictional.

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So all of these things kind of happen simultaneously.

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Uh, further it's new facade,

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it's currently under construction,

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will be radically different to the original.

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And I guess we can start to ask what that means

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for this famous image

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that made this new identity for the city.

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So in response to such questions, there are kind

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of three provisional,

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and I'm sure many more image construction strategies

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that I have become, that I have begun to explore.

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Those are replacement, erasure and disconnection,

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and these conditions manifest in both the physical

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and photographic representation of sports infrastructure,

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transport infrastructure, and commercial districts.

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So I'm just gonna tell a couple of little stories about

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how all of those things can actually start

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to be identified in some images.

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Uh, so for example, strategies

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of replacement can be seen in sporting infrastructure.

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So primarily, meta gyms, sport co sports complex,

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which was built for the 2010 South American games.

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And this is a model planning project for the city.

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So its new facilities have essentially resulted in this

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island like collage

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of superimposed architectural interventions, which we see

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in spectacular aerial photographs.

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So Ewan Barn does take some of these photographs as well.

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Uh, so while sporting facilities do occupy a significant

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portion of the city's new constructions,

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they have also been historically used as spatial mechanisms

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to test and expand the demarcation of urban territory

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by both government and criminal agents.

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So from 1973,

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when meta gen's team won the Colombian soccer league

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for the second time in history,

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soccer actually rapidly grew in popularity.

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And because of this narco, Barron's then saw its potential

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and saw an opportunity

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to involve sporting facilities in property for portfolios,

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and also to secure patronage in marginalized neighborhoods

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through public investment.

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And so then later in 1993,

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the mayor's office created Inda,

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which is a sporting institute to promote sport

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as a recreational activity

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and formalize sporting infrastructure and programs in urban

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and rural territories.

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So this was essentially to align

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to the social urbanism project, which was

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to improve citizen culture and quality of life.

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But in reality, for decades in these contexts

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where the state had historically been absent,

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communities themselves had fulfilled these needs

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by collectively financing

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and actively building upon their own sports fields

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and associated infrastructures.

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So upgrading projects, whilst core

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to the city's social urbanism project

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and this kind of restructuring of identity,

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they ultimately replace existing structures established

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by community organizations.

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So new physical representations,

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therefore are always replacing

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existing community infrastructures in a way.

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Um, further we can see the notion

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of erasure in transport infrastructure.

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So namely, the photographs

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or the physical kind of image of the electric escalators in

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these bright orange escalators have replaced 350

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concrete steps used by over 12,000 local residents.

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So whilst transport

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and mobility infrastructures have said, are said

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to be in place to empower the community in mein,

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these projects also operate as architectures of control,

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both physically and pictorially.

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They, they have a system of rules that control

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and limit the usage of the escalators for examples.

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Um, so these are in place for protection,

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but they read as they are implemented to upkeep their image,

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bringing into question the real,

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they're real community impact.

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So for example, you know,

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heavy objects are not allowed a band basically not

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allowed to be carried.

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Uh, prams cannot be used

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and small things is ridiculous as like shoe laces need

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to be tied that kind of, listed on these set of rules.

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So additionally, the escalators are located at the site

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of violent military operation Orion.

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And for this reason, actors have used the escalators

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as a mechanism to not only stimulate,

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stimulate local cultural practices,

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but also simultaneously develop community tourism.

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So tourists then ride the escalators daily

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and the function of the escalator has

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therefore shifted from being mobility to city branding

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and then to tourism or now to tourism I should say.

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So the replacement of ethical

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with aesthetic concerns results in the neighborhoods.

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So neighborhoods of social cultural milieu being overlooked.

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And in reality, high tourism traffic increasing territorial

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to conflicts between street gangs

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and this expansion

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of outsider tour guides has caused a sense of displacement

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and dispossession of history, territory

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and memory for local residents.

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And this has led to new social inequalities

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that essentially erase the needs of the community.

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And lastly, we can look at disconnection,

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which is evident in the commercial district of El Blato.

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So it appears regularly in digital

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and printed media promoting local and international tourism,

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and is described as having a timeless aesthetic,

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is a hotspot filled with cultural institutions

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and is really the epicenter of meta's nightlife.

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Its image is used as an example of

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how urban public policy can generate positive experiences

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and exchanges in the contemporary spaces of the city.

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However, the quality of urban life presented

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by this image is, you could say circumstantial.

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It seeks to attract capital affluent residents

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and high paying visitors by concealing the social

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and economic disparities

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that actually occur throughout other parts of the city.

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Um, even its neighboring

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barrios comprise large informal settle settlements.

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So in this context, we see

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amplified disparities, confl concerning inflation,

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financial security, land grabbing, property ownership,

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and demolition among the city citizens.

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Um, and this makes visible

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deficiencies in formal leadership, education,

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employment opportunities, resources and mobility,

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and really the inability of the formal housing market

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to reach all sectors of the population.

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So essentially recent arrivals displaced

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by territorial conflict with no financial resources,

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residing on the city's fringe are like heavily,

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impacted, for this reason.

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Uh, peripheral neighborhoods still experience the effects

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of systemic power imbalances

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and social inequalities daily through the legal

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and criminal erasure of houses and lives.

15:59.875 --> 16:03.895
So I guess in a sense, El Pablo's image serves the market

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by providing a more recognizable and commercialized

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or appealing representation of the city that underscore,

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but it really underscores this di disconnection

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between the reality of everyday life

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and hegemonic city branding practices,

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and then revealing significant tensions in the city's

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representation by reinforcing notions of exclusion

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through a homogenizing visual discourse

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that essentially instrumentalize citizens

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to benefit dominant urban narratives.

16:35.915 --> 16:40.095
To conclude that research, you can see these physical

16:40.095 --> 16:44.295
and photographic operations in mein, are really used to

16:45.125 --> 16:47.975
further demarcate urban territory,

16:48.835 --> 16:51.815
and really potentially institute new forms

16:51.875 --> 16:52.935
of political violence.

16:53.595 --> 16:57.335
So if we go through those three categories, so, you know,

16:57.615 --> 17:01.255
violence by architecture that actively separates this idea

17:01.275 --> 17:02.655
of the past from the present

17:03.755 --> 17:06.655
and community solidarity from state driven social

17:06.685 --> 17:09.735
initiatives is really a violence by replacement.

17:10.245 --> 17:15.135
Yeah. Um, then we have violence by state led interventions

17:15.135 --> 17:17.695
and services that have quickly been monopolized

17:17.695 --> 17:19.815
by outsiders, local gangs

17:19.835 --> 17:22.695
and illicit actors as new resources

17:22.715 --> 17:24.095
for control and clientele.

17:25.155 --> 17:27.215
So that's this violence by erasure

17:28.515 --> 17:32.215
and then violence by difference whereby, notions

17:32.275 --> 17:35.335
of otherness continue to facilitate this demonization

17:35.335 --> 17:39.695
of the criminal underclass via physical reconfigurations

17:39.995 --> 17:42.655
of barriers located on frontier zones

17:42.715 --> 17:45.615
and simultaneously affluent neighborhoods.

17:46.115 --> 17:49.525
So that's this violence by disconnection that disjunct

17:50.385 --> 17:54.205
so hinging on that research and its conclusions.

17:54.565 --> 17:57.445
I guess it's leading me to examine the relationship

17:57.445 --> 17:59.205
between architecture, politics,

17:59.205 --> 18:02.165
and images more intensely by exploring

18:02.225 --> 18:05.125
how images carry narrative qualities

18:05.345 --> 18:07.565
to produce an idea of the city.

18:08.545 --> 18:11.885
So if we're talking about our world, which is saturated

18:11.905 --> 18:14.605
by visual information, you know, the naturalization

18:14.605 --> 18:18.085
of the consumption of images together with their cheap

18:18.085 --> 18:19.525
and rapid reproduction

18:19.625 --> 18:22.045
and circulation, it really kind

18:22.045 --> 18:24.245
of requires a critical reflection

18:25.105 --> 18:27.165
and a deeper engagement with the role

18:27.165 --> 18:29.365
that images play in narrative practices.

18:30.425 --> 18:34.085
So the rapid, as we know, the rapid distribution of urban

18:34.185 --> 18:37.565
and architectural media does cause this continuous,

18:37.735 --> 18:40.485
continuous reshaping of urban narratives,

18:41.025 --> 18:44.125
but it also potentially dismantles traditional power

18:44.525 --> 18:48.725
structures and produces new political, political

18:49.615 --> 18:52.925
ideologies and geographies that are effectively built

18:53.025 --> 18:54.725
by images in a way.

18:55.785 --> 19:00.365
So my research, if we're talking about the future,

19:00.365 --> 19:03.285
is now shifting toward a study of images.

19:03.865 --> 19:06.645
Uh, so this would be either a single image

19:06.745 --> 19:11.005
or a suite of images of a given city, not necessarily megin.

19:11.505 --> 19:15.565
Um, I have recently published some work on photographs,

19:15.565 --> 19:18.445
contemporary photographs of Tarana, in Albania.

19:19.185 --> 19:22.725
Um, but the cities themselves are not case studies.

19:23.585 --> 19:28.445
So this image study would then seek to explore, further

19:29.035 --> 19:33.525
this typological compositional or aesthetic system of tropes

19:34.345 --> 19:37.965
and how images operate across multiple registers

19:38.025 --> 19:42.245
to reveal more nuanced, often contradictory

19:42.625 --> 19:46.445
and more diverse relations between images, architecture,

19:46.445 --> 19:50.125
and politics to really render visible other types

19:50.125 --> 19:51.605
of critical narratives on the city.

"Exploring Urban Narratives: The Interplay of Architecture, Politics, and Images in Metin"

00:00:00 - Before I begin, I would just like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eura nation, whose ancestral lands some of my research takes place. I would also like to acknowledge all indigenous peoples of this earth and all peoples who have dis been displaced from their lands. So, my current research examines the relationship between architecture, politics, and images, essentially to attempt to destabilize dominant urban identities and render visible different and equally important accounts of architecture's role in the contemporary city. So, to do so, my research deploys popular market driven
00:00:47 - and expanding ways for potentially retelling master narratives. So my interest in Metin comes from a collective project that I did with some colleagues several years ago that studied the emergent regional condition of the Indo-Pacific. So Metin, while not directly located in the Indo-Pacific Oceanic territory, but along its regional arc, provided a case study for tracing those intersections of media capital flow gentrification, and post-traumatic conditions that were kind of consistent across the region.
00:01:26 - my research users well used diverse image-based sources to speculate on urban imaginaries, progressive development, and spectacular transformation. So this work has set the context for my continued, continued research on how images have become essential to city branding practices and how the combination of narrative and image, accelerates political ideology resulting in the redistribution and re represent of power in the context of metin. So after the negative media of the 1990s that really showcased Metin as the most dangerous city in the world, images
00:02:07 - and urban urban space have been critical to this reorientation of its global perception. So essentially images have been mobilized by the state and the media to restructure the city's identity and establish a binary understanding that sets historic violence against this kind of new spectacular urban transformation Mein, is commonly presented as a tale of two cities. So these two distinct urban realities which are set against each other, relentless urban and political warfare, which is of course underpinned by the narco bourgeoisie and the professionalization of gangs.
00:02:51 - for state of the art, urban and architectural renewal. So while images of architecture capture this aesthetic vision, vision, they also emphasize, a polarity between informality and new buildings and precincts. So the images are circulated then by the state architects and also in professional journalistic and touristic media. and that juxtaposition of old and new essentially underscores the urban binary of violence and transformation or before and after. And that has shaped and also at times limited perceptions
00:03:31 - So if we wanted to start right at the beginning to see how politics operates via representations of the, this transformation would need to go back to Mayor Gio F'S transformation project, for the city social urbanism. And that's an internationally recognized project for its radical architectural intervention, which is founded on inclusivity, education and innovation. So during his election campaign, Faha essentially executed his most critical political move, which was to rebuild alliances and partnerships with meta gen's, political corporate bodies, and important civic groups.

"Transformative Urbanism: Reimagining Metagene's Identity through Social Change and Architectural Narratives"

00:04:15 - with his sheer political will, has re result well resulted in fajas election in 2003. And all of those pieces kind of were put in place to launch his participatory project for the city. So during his term, he was able to use social urbanism to begin to reorient meta gen's international image by establishing this kind of shift towards positive urban operations. These operations included addressing precarity and violence with novel prevention me measures, in peripheral areas of the city that have historically been marginalized.
00:04:57 - used as a mechanism to reduce crime and social debt, while also rebuilding civic, pride, both physically and symbolically in that, in this transformation of the city. And as a result, of course, Metagene then acquired this portfolio of, international awards for design excellence and innovation. And of course then that resulted in architecture being used and mass as a str as a strategic material and visual tool in the city's contemporary transformation. So projects then at the urban and building scale alongside more punctual micro
00:05:42 - And the municipality and the local government has also strategically used international media to celebrate this new version of the city and to produce its contemporary portrayal. Whereby Representations of spectacular projects kind of explicitly contrast the traumas of recent history. And even today, 20 years later, Baha's successes have really ensured this continuity of his urban vision and continue to exhaustively plan new architectural works to really uphold social urbanisms ideological
00:06:22 - that document meta's transformation, of course namely architectural images. We can really start to identify typologies, image typologies or tropes that have structured this outward facing, outward facing vision for the city. So, for example, the techniques that are recognizable in Dutch photographer Ewan Barnes iconic aerial photographs of the city from 2013 have later been adopted by local photographers. So these visual strategies include repetition, serialization, and montage, and essentially create a hyperbolic representation
00:07:05 - I guess Iwan Barn's famous, image of the Biblioteca Espania is probably a good example just to introduce why we can ask some of these questions. so its photograph is widely circulated and well recognized and consists of three black geometric boulders that are perched on the hillside. So this building is either surrounded by informal dwellings or looking down into Meins Valley in all of its images. So that makes all its images uncannily similar. And for this reason, this photograph became the portrait for the city's transformation, but the reality of the building's current condition,
00:07:49 - and its facades had collapsed. It really epitomizes this kind of paradox, of its image, and how and what it had created for the city, essentially. So it reveals that the physical and photographic image it produces is neither accurate, nor empirical. It was real at a time, but is currently fictional. So all of these things kind of happen simultaneously. further it's new facade, it's currently under construction, will be radically different to the original. And I guess we can start to ask what that means for this famous image

"Exploring Image Construction Strategies in Urban Infrastructure: Replacement, Erasure, and Disconnection"

00:08:31 - So in response to such questions, there are kind of three provisional, and I'm sure many more image construction strategies that I have become, that I have begun to explore. Those are replacement, erasure and disconnection, and these conditions manifest in both the physical and photographic representation of sports infrastructure, transport infrastructure, and commercial districts. So I'm just gonna tell a couple of little stories about how all of those things can actually start to be identified in some images. so for example, strategies of replacement can be seen in sporting infrastructure.
00:09:13 - which was built for the 2010 South American games. And this is a model planning project for the city. So its new facilities have essentially resulted in this island like collage of superimposed architectural interventions, which we see in spectacular aerial photographs. So Ewan Barn does take some of these photographs as well. so while sporting facilities do occupy a significant portion of the city's new constructions, they have also been historically used as spatial mechanisms to test and expand the demarcation of urban territory
00:09:56 - So from 1973, when meta gen's team won the Colombian soccer league for the second time in history, soccer actually rapidly grew in popularity. And because of this narco, Barron's then saw its potential and saw an opportunity to involve sporting facilities in property for portfolios, and also to secure patronage in marginalized neighborhoods through public investment. And so then later in 1993, the mayor's office created Inda, which is a sporting institute to promote sport
00:10:35 - and formalize sporting infrastructure and programs in urban and rural territories. So this was essentially to align to the social urbanism project, which was to improve citizen culture and quality of life. But in reality, for decades in these contexts where the state had historically been absent, communities themselves had fulfilled these needs by collectively financing and actively building upon their own sports fields and associated infrastructures. So upgrading projects, whilst core to the city's social urbanism project and this kind of restructuring of identity,
00:11:19 - by community organizations. So new physical representations, therefore are always replacing existing community infrastructures in a way. further we can see the notion of erasure in transport infrastructure. So namely, the photographs or the physical kind of image of the electric escalators in these bright orange escalators have replaced 350 concrete steps used by over 12,000 local residents.
00:11:59 - and mobility infrastructures have said, are said to be in place to empower the community in mein, these projects also operate as architectures of control, both physically and pictorially. They, they have a system of rules that control and limit the usage of the escalators for examples. so these are in place for protection, but they read as they are implemented to upkeep their image, bringing into question the real, they're real community impact. So for example, you know, heavy objects are not allowed a band basically not allowed to be carried.

"Urban Transformation and the Disconnection Between Aesthetic Representation and Community Reality"

00:12:40 - and small things is ridiculous as like shoe laces need to be tied that kind of, listed on these set of rules. So additionally, the escalators are located at the site of violent military operation Orion. And for this reason, actors have used the escalators as a mechanism to not only stimulate, stimulate local cultural practices, but also simultaneously develop community tourism. So tourists then ride the escalators daily and the function of the escalator has therefore shifted from being mobility to city branding
00:13:25 - So the replacement of ethical with aesthetic concerns results in the neighborhoods. So neighborhoods of social cultural milieu being overlooked. And in reality, high tourism traffic increasing territorial to conflicts between street gangs and this expansion of outsider tour guides has caused a sense of displacement and dispossession of history, territory and memory for local residents. And this has led to new social inequalities that essentially erase the needs of the community. And lastly, we can look at disconnection,
00:14:09 - So it appears regularly in digital and printed media promoting local and international tourism, and is described as having a timeless aesthetic, is a hotspot filled with cultural institutions and is really the epicenter of meta's nightlife. Its image is used as an example of how urban public policy can generate positive experiences and exchanges in the contemporary spaces of the city. However, the quality of urban life presented by this image is, you could say circumstantial. It seeks to attract capital affluent residents
00:14:48 - and economic disparities that actually occur throughout other parts of the city. even its neighboring barrios comprise large informal settle settlements. So in this context, we see amplified disparities, confl concerning inflation, financial security, land grabbing, property ownership, and demolition among the city citizens. and this makes visible deficiencies in formal leadership, education, employment opportunities, resources and mobility,
00:15:29 - to reach all sectors of the population. So essentially recent arrivals displaced by territorial conflict with no financial resources, residing on the city's fringe are like heavily, impacted, for this reason. peripheral neighborhoods still experience the effects of systemic power imbalances and social inequalities daily through the legal and criminal erasure of houses and lives. So I guess in a sense, El Pablo's image serves the market by providing a more recognizable and commercialized
00:16:12 - but it really underscores this di disconnection between the reality of everyday life and hegemonic city branding practices, and then revealing significant tensions in the city's representation by reinforcing notions of exclusion through a homogenizing visual discourse that essentially instrumentalize citizens to benefit dominant urban narratives. To conclude that research, you can see these physical and photographic operations in mein, are really used to further demarcate urban territory, and really potentially institute new forms

"Architectural Violence: Analyzing the Intersections of Replacement, Erasure, and Disconnection in Urban Narratives"

00:16:53 - So if we go through those three categories, so, you know, violence by architecture that actively separates this idea of the past from the present and community solidarity from state driven social initiatives is really a violence by replacement. Yeah. then we have violence by state led interventions and services that have quickly been monopolized by outsiders, local gangs and illicit actors as new resources for control and clientele. So that's this violence by erasure and then violence by difference whereby, notions
00:17:35 - of the criminal underclass via physical reconfigurations of barriers located on frontier zones and simultaneously affluent neighborhoods. So that's this violence by disconnection that disjunct so hinging on that research and its conclusions. I guess it's leading me to examine the relationship between architecture, politics, and images more intensely by exploring how images carry narrative qualities to produce an idea of the city. So if we're talking about our world, which is saturated by visual information, you know, the naturalization
00:18:18 - and rapid reproduction and circulation, it really kind of requires a critical reflection and a deeper engagement with the role that images play in narrative practices. So the rapid, as we know, the rapid distribution of urban and architectural media does cause this continuous, continuous reshaping of urban narratives, but it also potentially dismantles traditional power structures and produces new political, political ideologies and geographies that are effectively built by images in a way.
00:19:00 - is now shifting toward a study of images. so this would be either a single image or a suite of images of a given city, not necessarily megin. I have recently published some work on photographs, contemporary photographs of Tarana, in Albania. but the cities themselves are not case studies. So this image study would then seek to explore, further this typological compositional or aesthetic system of tropes and how images operate across multiple registers
00:19:50 - and more diverse relations between images, architecture, and politics to really render visible other types of critical narratives on the city.

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