In this talk I would like to introduce the concept of urban aesthetics to analyse contemporary cities and their redevelopment. I argue that aesthetics, understood as the sensorial look and feel of places, has become a key tool in urban regeneration projects across the globe Degen 2008; Ghertner 2015; Lindner & Sandoval 2021; Summers 2019). As my research over the years has revealed we can identify a deliberate management and organisation of place-experiences to appeal to specific social groups. I will argue that increasingly much of this aestheticizing work is now performed through digital technologies: from computer-generated images by architects or planners to smartphones and their apps which are now central not only in the representation of urban environments but increasingly guide and shape our everyday experiencing of cities.
In particular, I would like to focus on the differentiated ways in which urban aesthetics are mediated digitally in different processes of contemporary urban development: those which gentrify the neighbourhood; those which aim to attract tourists; and those which aim to assert the status of ‘world class city’. Thus, as I will show, this digitally mediated urban aesthetic expresses itself differently in different locations but also the sensations of a particular aesthetic engage different bodies differently. My aim is to show ultimately the different power relations that are enacted in the various configurations of this ‘new urban aesthetic’ (Degen & Rose 2022).
