The Urban Exploration Imaginary: Mediatization, commodification and affect

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Urban Exploration Imaginary

T2 - Mediatization, commodification and affect

AU - Klausen, Maja

PY - 2017/11/1

Y1 - 2017/11/1

N2 - Using George E. Marcus' concept of the "activist imaginary" this article focuses on the imaginary of urban exploration (UE), an alternative form of organized action. The UE imaginary is investigated through visual material, produced and shared on social media by the Copenhagen-based UE duo CphCph. Grasping UE as an assemblage, the article suggests that the imaginary undergoes a dual process of mediatization and commodification. Through a discourse analytical and aesthetic-affective approach, it is argued that CphCph strategically uses the visually mediated explorer body as an effective tool on social media to both commodify the imaginary and create "spreadability" as well as to channel followers' engagement in urban space. In keeping with Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser's approach to contemporary, neoliberal modes of resistance the UE imaginary is understood both as a commodity produced by entrepreneurial explorers and as an imagined geography sparking participation and enabling practices of urban citizenship.

AB - Using George E. Marcus' concept of the "activist imaginary" this article focuses on the imaginary of urban exploration (UE), an alternative form of organized action. The UE imaginary is investigated through visual material, produced and shared on social media by the Copenhagen-based UE duo CphCph. Grasping UE as an assemblage, the article suggests that the imaginary undergoes a dual process of mediatization and commodification. Through a discourse analytical and aesthetic-affective approach, it is argued that CphCph strategically uses the visually mediated explorer body as an effective tool on social media to both commodify the imaginary and create "spreadability" as well as to channel followers' engagement in urban space. In keeping with Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser's approach to contemporary, neoliberal modes of resistance the UE imaginary is understood both as a commodity produced by entrepreneurial explorers and as an imagined geography sparking participation and enabling practices of urban citizenship.

U2 - 10.1177/1206331217720076

DO - 10.1177/1206331217720076

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1206-3312

VL - 20

SP - 372

EP - 384

JO - Space and Culture

JF - Space and Culture

IS - 4

ER -