81935 - Aesthetics for the City

Learning outcomes

The subject of the course is the study of phenomena such as the "anesthetization of everyday life", "widespread aesthetics", the "aesthetics of goods" and of their places, the "industrial arts", and the role of the aesthetic-cultural component in urban analysis and transformation. At the end of the course the student becomes able to: practice the knowledge of the main philosophical and social elaborations on the contemporary city and on the contemporary images, cultures and urban lifeforms; pay particular attention to the contribution that the various forms of expression have provided to the formulation of the experience of places and the understanding of urban phenomena; critically read and analyze the urban landscape and complex sites within it.

Course contents

The course consists of two thematic sections. A first section focuses on conceptual frameworks for defining urban aesthetics from some exemplary theoretical and descriptive constructs of individual cities, metropolises or megacities and, in the same perspective, delves into a number of elements and categories for the experience and analysis of the city, its forms and cultures.

A second section will introduce the concepts of adventure, creativity, play/game, and gamification in relation to design and service design activities in particular.

In each lecture are foreseen extempore exercises and a final exercise at the end of the course, which will use different media, such as writing, video, photos, drawing, as appropriate.

The lectures and exercises are punctuated in ten thematic blocks, which are indicated below with the relevant bibliography:

1. Introduction to the course.

What is aesthetics? How can we define aesthetics for the city?

What do “inhabiting” and “building” mean?

- Cinema and the city: defining the theme and setting up the related exercise

Images of cities: the myth of transparency and the dysfunctionality of the hyperfunctional in Jacques Tati's Playtime.

2. Orientations for city aesthetics:

a. Georg Simmel, The Metropolises and the Life of the Mind

b. Walter Benjamin, Paris, the capital of the 19th century

c. Siegfried Kracauer, From the Window

Ex-tempore exercise

3. Elements of the city: public places, square and hyperplace-the Times Square case).

Images of the city: the cinema of the big city, Berlin. Symphony of a Great City by Walter Ruttmann and René Clair, Paris Asleep.

Images of cities: the cinema of the big city, Dziga Vertov, The man with the camera and Alberto Cavalcanti, Noting but Time.

Exercise ex-tempore

4. Elements of the city: the Portici. Uniqueness of Bologna? Heterotopia and spatial and power relations.

Images of the city: Vision, analysis and commentary by Renzo Renzi, A guide to walking in the shade.

Exercise ex-tempore

5. Porous city: W. Benjamin and A. Lacis' Naples and the operationality of the concept for understanding contemporary cities.

Images of cities: Vision, analysis and commentary of Federico Fellini, Roma and Gianfranco Rosi, Sacro GRA.

Ex-tempore exercise

6. Historic city and overtourism: the case of Venice

- G. Simmel, Venice, Florence, Rome

Images of the city: Welcome Venice by A. Segre

Images of the city and the anthropocene: The Human Epoch

Ex-tempore exercise

7. Adventure and creativity:

- G. Simmel, Philosophy of Adventure

- E. Garroni, Creativity

Philosophical premises of game theory: Schiller, Kant, Wittgenstein

Exercise ex-tempore

8. Game theories:

- J. Huzinga, Homo ludens; R. Caillois, Man, Play and Games; G. Bateson, A theory of play and imagination; C. Geertz, Deep play: notes on the balinese cockfight

Ex-tempore exercise

9. Gamification and service design - Workshop

10. Final exercise.

Readings/Bibliography

1. R. Sennett, Costruire e abitare, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2018; G. Agamben, Abitare e costruire in: https://www.quodlibet.it/giorgio-agamben-abitare-e-costruire.

2. G. Simmel, Le metropoli e la vita dello spirito (1903), Roma, Armando, 1995; W. Benjamin, Parigi, la capitale del XIX secolo (1935), in Id., I «passages» di Parigi, Torino, Einaudi, 2002; S. Kracauer, Dalla finestra, in Id., Strade a Berlino e altrove, Bologna, Pendragon, 2004, pp. 55-57.

3. M. Romano, La piazza europea, Padova, Marsilio, 2015; M. Lassault, Hyper-lieux. Les nouvelles géographies politiques de la mondialisation, Paris, Seuil, 2017, pp. 41-61.

M. Smargiassi, Between Decay and Decorum: Photographers' Awareness of the Urban Scene, https://cpcl.unibo.it/article/view/11884.

4. G. Simmel, Ponte e porta, in Id., Ponte e porta. Saggi di estetica, Bologna, Archetipo, 2011, pp. 1-6; M. Foucault, Eterotopie, in Id., Estetica dell’esistenza, etica, politica, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2020, pp. 307-316; S. Kracauer, Addio al Lindenpassage, Il sottopassaggio, in Id., Strade a Berlino e altrove, Bologna, Pendragon, 2004, pp. 32-39, 52-54;A. Somaini, Cronogrammi della metropoli. Clair, Ruttmann, Vertov, Ejzenštejn, in M. Vegetti (a cura di), Filosofie della metropoli. Spazio, potere, architettura nel pensiero del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 2009, pp. 153-182.

R. Renzi, Guida per camminare all'ombra (1954): https://patrimonio.archivioluce.com/luce-web/detail/IL3000050484/1/guida-camminare-all-ombra.html?startPage=480

5. W. Benjamin, A. Lacis, Napoli (1925), in Id., Imamgini di città, Torino, Einaudi, 2007, pp. 3-16; Porous City-From Metaphor to Urban Agenda, a cura di S. Wolfrum, Berlin et al., De Gruyter, 2018; R. Sennett, La lotta per la città, in «Micromega», 2018, pp. 121-134.

6.G. Simmel, Roma, Firenze, Venezia, a cura di A. Pinotti, Milano, Meltemi, 2017. L. Gasperoni, Anthropocene, in International Lexicon of Aesthetics online, 2022. Aesthetics of the Anthropocene I e II, in CPCL, vol. 5, No. 1 e 2, (2022, https://cpcl.unibo.it/).

7. E. Garroni, Creatività, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2010; G. Simmel, Filosofia dell'avventura, in Id., Stile moderno: Saggi di estetica sociale, a cura di B. Carnevali e A. Pinotti,Torino, Einaudi, 2020, pp. 246-261.

8. J. Huzinga, Homo ludens, Torino, Einaudi, 1973; R. Caillois, I giochi e gli uomini. La maschera e la vertigine, Milano, Bompiani, 1981; G. Bateson, Una teoria del gioco e della fantasia, in: Id., Verso un'ecologia della mente, Milano, Adelphi, 1976, pp. 216-235; C. Geertz, Il «gioco profondo»: note sul combattimento di galli a Bali, in: Id., Interpretazione di culture, Bologna, il Mulino, 1998², pp. 383-486.

9. Guida alla Gamification, https://www.projectfun.it/basi-gamification/definizione-gamification/.

10. Aesthetics and the City, ed. by Joe Blakey and Amy Barron, London, Routledge, 2025.

Teaching methods

The course aims to provide tools for deepening the discipline. The course will take place through lectures, seminars, exercises, visits.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral. The exam interview will focus on the topics discussed in classroom lessons and on the texts in the program, but it can also take the inspiration from any further study that the student will have presented orally during the lessons or in written form after the end of the course.

In detail:

- the verification of the teaching objective to acquire the main philosophical and social elaborations on the contemporary city and urban images, cultures and forms of life and the contribution the various forms of expression have provided to the experience of the places and to the understanding of urban phenomena will be implemented through presentations of texts or audiovisual materials agreed with the teacher within the course;

- the verification of the teaching objective of acquiring the tools to critically read and analyze the urban landscape and complex sites within it will be carried out through the elaboration of surveys on the ground through texts, films and creative artifacts;

- both verifications will be completed by the individual oral exam at the end of the course, which will include questions about the texts in the bibliography and on the various final works foreseen by the program.

The final grade will be determined on the basis of the following indicators:
1 - Knowledge of the subject matter covered in the lectures (from 0 to 6)
2 - Knowledge of the insights provided in the bibliography (from 0 to 6)
3 - Quality of presentation (0 to 6)
4 - Personal elaboration of the contents (from 0 to 6)
5 - Intermediate tests, exhibitions or papers (0 to 6)

Teaching tools

The bibliographies specific to the different parts of the course will be analyzed and acquired during the various lessons, starting with the tools available in the texts indicated in the program. The teaching material presented during the lessons is made available to the student in paper or electronic format via the internet, also following the access restrictions, according to the modalities that will be indicated at the beginning of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Borsari