The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space
McQuire, Scott. SAGE Publications, 2008. Google Books.
This book argues that spatial and temporal experiences of urban life have been fundamentally changed by the advent of digital media, and thus it is architecture and media flows that constitute the contemporary built environment. Because of the increasingly mobile nature of technology, even traditional urban forms, like streets and parks, are perceived through the distortive lens of media, and therefore no longer provide a fixed, spatio-temporal experience. McQuire also explores how the phenomenon of disembodied experience attributed to tech use alters not only human perception, but the structure of the city itself, specifically in the form of sprawl. Because people have the ability to travel great distances without bodily movement, McQuire argues that the contemporary city has lost its dense, vibrant core. This assertion raises questions about the pretense that contemporary cities are inherently peaceful settlements, and implicates mobile technology as an obstacle to inner peace, causing the widespread crisis of urban alienation.