This approach seeks to understand how cities are mediatized across various image-based arenas while also mediating the everyday lives of urban dwellers." 8/

I therefore propose a methodological outlook grounded in text- and field-based observation of the interplay between symbolic and physical urban traits. (continues below) 7/

Instead, I argue that visual-material criticism is increasingly vital to understanding (post)digital cities, as aesthetic considerations may often drive – rather than be driven by – political and economic choices that result in urban injustice. (continues below) 6/

However, in digital urban research, aesthetics is often treated as an outcome rather than as an active force in urban transformation and inequality. (continues below) 5/

Some of this work has engaged with the visual-material approach I developed in the 2010s to conceptualize the urban built environment as a medium of communication in its own right. (continues below) 4/

Meanwhile, the ‘smart city’ has taken center stage in both public and academic debates on urban planning. More recently, scholars have begun to focus on the aesthetic dimensions of cities’ digital infrastructures. (continues below) 3/

And here's my abstract:
"Over the past decade, the role of digital technologies in shaping cities has become prominent in urban research. Big data, social media platforms, and algorithmic logics are now all central to how urban space is both represented and materialized. (continues below) 2/

Through our analysis of this ubiquitous but overlooked visual
form, we advance understanding of what constitutes professionalism within contemporary journalism, in ways that ought to inform research on emerging uses of standardized imagery, specifically visual generative AI, in the news. 5/

Drawing on interviews with the FT, the BBC and Reach, we argue that journalists reinforce their professional authority by imbuing generic visuals with news values, drawing on 21st century notions of their audience to justify the use of generic visuals, and routinizing and standardizing their use. 4/

Because they are produced, distributed and consumed regularly and at speed in today’s news texts, it is
important to investigate whether and how they are shaping and reshaping the profession of journalism. 3/

Specifically, here we examine the role that generic visuals such as simple data visualizations and stock photos play in professional journalistic practice as an emergent “object of journalism”. 2/

If you want to know more about the AI side of style transfer and how it aligns with capitalist extraction in the creative industry, take a look at our #chi2025 paper:

arxiv.org/abs/2409.17410