Kirsten Wagner: “Postcapital” or What Follows the City?
The Knowledge City
Postcapital: Vortragsreihe, Workshops, Filmprogramm
Württembergischer Kunstverein, Schlossplatz 2, 70173 Stuttgart, Fon: +49 (0)711 22 33 70, info@wkv-stuttgart.de
Lecture (german)
Thursday, January 15, 2009, 7 pm
Abstract
With the advent of the so-called information age, much seemed prone to vanish: the body, the space, the city, the book along with its institution, the library. But everything returns, and not only as visual metaphors on monitor surfaces. While the physical body has proved to be an equally ineluctable and refractory factor in technical thing ensembles, megacities—notably illustrated by media geography through their radiant diagrams and maps—have asserted themselves as spatial and economic centers of a globally networked media culture. And despite an increasing digitalization that includes historical text and image inventory, libraries have been experiencing an unexpected renaissance over the past years, as attested to by a series of spectacular newly erected libraries.