Coms: Sense and Site Analysis
MEDIA AND THE CITY: URBAN SENSES
COMMUNICATION STUDIES 361
Department of Art History and Communication Studies
McGill University
Christopher Gutierrez
M/W/F 11:35-12:25
Arts W-215
FALL 2014
Instructor:
Office:
Office hours:
E-mail:
Christopher Gutierrez
Arts W-285
Monday 1:00 – 3:00 christopher.gutierrez@mcgill.ca T.A.:
Office:
Office Hours:
Email:
Francois Mouillot
Arts B-22
Wednesday 12:30 – 1:30 francois.mouillot@mail.mcgill.ca OVERVIEW
This course engages with questions of urbanism and media through the specific lens of the human senses. By conceiving of the city as a space filled with ubiquitous media – including the ambient noise of passing vehicles, the scent of a busy restaurant kitchen, the flashing screens of news and weather in the metro station or the feeling of a cramped bus ride – it aims to investigate how our senses are both shaping of, and shaped by, the different bodies, forces and objects we encounter. To this end, COMS 361 will present a variety of texts on questions of embodiment, consciousness, sensation and affect theory that all touch on our experiences of being in the city. To ground these questions within specific theoretical movements, the course is divided into three sections. The first section, Feeling, will introduce students to both the myriad of forces at work in the urban environment and different theories of embodiment and sensation including, phenomenology, affect and feminist theory. The second section, Sensing, is divided into each individual sense (Sight, smell, touch, taste and sound) and will build upon questions of embodiment by considering the relationship between specific urban encounters, the senses and the psyche. Finally, the third section, Moving, closes the course by expanding our understanding of embodiment through questions of mobility and debility, locative media and circulation in the city.
REQUIRMENTS, METHOD OF EVALUATION, AND ASSIGNMENTS
Pop Quizzes
Reading
COMMUNICATION STUDIES 361
Department of Art History and Communication Studies
McGill University
Christopher Gutierrez
M/W/F 11:35-12:25
Arts W-215
FALL 2014
Instructor:
Office:
Office hours:
E-mail:
Christopher Gutierrez
Arts W-285
Monday 1:00 – 3:00 christopher.gutierrez@mcgill.ca T.A.:
Office:
Office Hours:
Email:
Francois Mouillot
Arts B-22
Wednesday 12:30 – 1:30 francois.mouillot@mail.mcgill.ca OVERVIEW
This course engages with questions of urbanism and media through the specific lens of the human senses. By conceiving of the city as a space filled with ubiquitous media – including the ambient noise of passing vehicles, the scent of a busy restaurant kitchen, the flashing screens of news and weather in the metro station or the feeling of a cramped bus ride – it aims to investigate how our senses are both shaping of, and shaped by, the different bodies, forces and objects we encounter. To this end, COMS 361 will present a variety of texts on questions of embodiment, consciousness, sensation and affect theory that all touch on our experiences of being in the city. To ground these questions within specific theoretical movements, the course is divided into three sections. The first section, Feeling, will introduce students to both the myriad of forces at work in the urban environment and different theories of embodiment and sensation including, phenomenology, affect and feminist theory. The second section, Sensing, is divided into each individual sense (Sight, smell, touch, taste and sound) and will build upon questions of embodiment by considering the relationship between specific urban encounters, the senses and the psyche. Finally, the third section, Moving, closes the course by expanding our understanding of embodiment through questions of mobility and debility, locative media and circulation in the city.
REQUIRMENTS, METHOD OF EVALUATION, AND ASSIGNMENTS
Pop Quizzes
Reading