Redemptive Scripts in Planning and Fiction of the New York Waterfront

I’m speaking today (23 Aug) at the closing symposium of The Changing Environment of the North research project. I’ll be a brief (15 min) presentation on the subject of redemptive scripts in the context of planning and fiction of the New York waterfront, building on my earlier work on metaphors and modes of emplotments with which to approach the waterfront. 

The closing symposium also serves as the inofficial launch of the recently published book coming out of the project: Visual Representations of the Arctic: Imagining Shimmering Worlds in Culture, Literature and Politics, edited by Markku Lehtimäki, Arja Rosenholm and Vlad Strukov (Routledge 2021). The book features a.o. my article on balloon perspectives on the Arctic: “Balloon Explorers, the Panorama, and the Making of an Arctic Nomos in Contemporary Fiction.”

Book abstract:

“Privileging the visual as the main method of communication and meaning-making, this book responds critically to the worldwide discussion about the Arctic and the North, addressing the interrelated issues of climate change, ethics and geopolitics. A multi-disciplinary, multi-modal exploration of the Arctic, it supplies an original conceptualization of the Arctic as a visual world encompassing an array of representations, imaginings, and constructions. By examining a broad range of visual forms, media and forms such as art, film, graphic novels, maps, media, and photography, the book advances current debates about visual culture. The book enriches contemporary theories of the visual taking the Arctic as a spatial entity and also as a mode of exploring contemporary and historical visual practices, including imaginary constructions of the North. Original contributions include case studies from all the countries along the Arctic shore, with Russian material occupying a large section due to the country’s impact on the region.”

 

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