Session at AISU (Palermo, 10-13 Sep 25)

Urban Images and Their Unpredictable Narratives, 1450–1950: Stakeholders, Authorities, and ‘the Others’.

Cities have long been complex sites of intersection, conflict, and negotiation. Their visual representations—whether in maps, vedute, paintings, engravings, or other media—have carefully articulated the diverse contexts, interests, and power structures that operated in the city. Far from being neutral, these representations were directly shaped by their creators’ perspectives and the environments they were part of. Within this tension, further narratives were at play.

Starting from the image, this session aims to understand how representing cities has functioned both as political instrument capable of normalizing power structures and as means of capturing the intrinsic unruly nature of urban space for a broader audience. How was power articulated in images in response to the unpredictability of (daily) urban life? How did images serve to express, reinforce, or contest authority? How do these representations generate narratives of intersection, conflict, continuity, and rupture?

This session examines how expressions of power and symbolic appropriation are encapsulated in urban imagery, focusing on ‘the actors’ and the concepts of stakeholder, ownership, and othering. We welcome papers that explore, but are not limited to, the following questions:
– ‘Who’ commissions urban representations—individuals, groups, communities, authorities, or governing bodies? ‘Who’ asserts authority through images over the creation and interpretation of urban space and its communities?
– How do these actors imagine, frame, and depict not only ‘their own’ city but also the ‘city of others’? How were identities and alterities constructed and visualized? Which narratives and counternarratives were negotiated?
– What power dynamics emerge in these visualizations, what dynamics of inclusion and exclusion?

We invite contributions that examine how cities have been represented by state, religious, imperial, or colonial powers; ruling authorities; (foreign) artists, traders, and travelers; as well as family clans, minorities, and marginalized or segregated communities. We welcome proposals that engage with a wide range of visual media, genres, and formats across different geographic and historical contexts. Our focus spans from the Early Modern period to the first half of the 20th century.

Coordinators: Davide Ferri (University of Bern / KHI Florence), Linda Stagni (ETH Zurich)
Contact: davide.ferri@khi.fi.it, linda.stagni@gta.arch.ethz.ch

Please use this link to submit your proposal by 3 May 2025:
https://aisuinternational.org/palermo-2025-proposta-di-paper-macrosessione-2/
Macrosession 2 (Cities and Powers), Session No. 2.2