URSI 100--Introduction to the City

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City of the Mind

Arts and the City

Arts and Understanding

• Reflection of the times
• Create & direct culture
• Factual data
• Conceptual frame
• Articulates experience

City as Symbol

• Heavenly city
1. LA—Angel’s Flight
2. DC—Dupont Station
• Sophisticated city
1. LA—Ahmanson Hall
2. Seattle--EMP (Exploring Music Project)
• Lively city
1. Cleveland—Music at street protest
• Earthly city
1. DC—Dupont Station
• Artificial city
1. Chicago—Miracle Mile
• Corrupt city
1. Cleveland—Riot police
• Ambivalence

City in the Electronic Media

How Cities Transform Art

• Wall murals
• Chicago--CTA
• Cleveland—Peanut Bar
• Patronage
• Cleveland—Hannah Fountain (Fountain of Eternal Life)
• Cleveland—Guardians of Traffic
• Viewing art
• Oversized
• LA—Music Center Fountain
• Cleveland—Free Stamp
• Limited angles of sight
• Cleveland—St. Clair Ave.
• Cleveland—Halle Bldg.
• Format—Billboards for Art (Cleveland)

Two Cities: Cincinnati & Detroit

The Conscience of the City

Values

• Deprivatization
• Anonymity

Ethics in the Secular City

• Impersonal relationships
• Diversity

A Philosophy for Urban Living (AK Bierman, A Philosophy of Urban Existence)

• Live “the good life”
• Requires “concinnity”
• Which implies making One from Many (“E pluribus unum”)
• Which requires “understanding”
• Justice
• Tolerance

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MSU

© 2003 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 1 January 06