Mediapolis Journal
@mediapolis.bsky.social
Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/
OUT NOW: “Synthetic Nights: Machine and Human Learning in 24-Hour Cities” by Jess Reia. Reia explores how the opacities and refusals of nocturnal life reveal the limits of machine learning, and argues for expanding what counts as data after dark. Read: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/09/synt...
OUT NOW: “Fictions of Frontier AI in Cities” by Miguel Valdez. Valdez turns attention from superhuman AI imaginaries to the narrowly intelligent robots already navigating city streets, and asks what it takes to make meaning with them. Read here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/09/fict...
READ: “Real-Time Is Too Late: NEOM’s Digital Air and the Pre-Emptive Synthetic City” by Mehdi Ghassemi and David Murakami Wood. The authors examine how NEOM’s “digital air” was imagined and settled in advance, and what remains now. Read here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/09/real...
OUT NOW: “Civic Urban AI” by Luke Hespanhol, Michiel de Lange and Nanna Verhoeff. The authors identify a “triple actionability gap” in urban AI and propose Civic Urban AI as a pedagogical counter-narrative. Read here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/09/civi...
READ NOW: “What If AI Systems Self-Operate Our Cities?” by Leandry Jieutsa. Drawing on interviews with Quebec city managers, Jieutsa examines a shift toward “self-operating governance,” where officials supervise algorithmic infrastructures. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/09/self...
OUT NOW: "The Synthetic City", edited by @scott-rodgers.bsky.social, @aneleh-redenetta.bsky.social, marcospdias.bsky.social, @diogo-ph22.bsky.social and saratrentham.bsky.social, examines the implications of AI for urban living. Read the full dossier here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/dossiers/dos...
#CFP: Themed Dossier “Urban Deathscapes: Media, Spaces of Death, and the Contemporary City” guest edited by Susana Viegas (@filmdeath.bsky.social) – submissions for contributions (300 words) are open until 10 September! www.mediapolisjournal.com/about-us/edi...
For Episode 9 of the "Mediapolis Now" voices series, @scott-rodgers.bsky.social speaks with Chris Lukinbeal about his recent book, "Cinematic Cartography: Scale, Analysis, Topography" (@routledgebooks.bsky.social, 2025). www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/voic...
Voices Episode 9: Chris Lukinbeal on Cinema, Cartography and the Spaces Between
In this episode of the Mediapolis Now Voices series, we speak with Chris Lukinbeal.
mediapolisjournal.com
The term 'Rust Belt' has become one of the more salient concepts in American political and cultural life – and yet remains difficult to define. In this reading & resource list, @michaelddwyer.bsky.social offers some key texts as a starting point: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/rust...
The Rust Belt
Michael D. Dwyer introduces some key texts on the "Rust Belt."
mediapolisjournal.com
Just published: In this new Mediapolis Q&A, Cortland Rankin speaks to Michael Dwyer about his book "Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt" (oxunipress.bsky.social, 2025). www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/the-...
The Mediapolis Q&A: Michael Dwyer’s Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt
Cortland Rankin speaks to Michael Dwyer about his book Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt
mediapolisjournal.com
In her reflective contribution to our "Mediapolis at Ten and Beyond", @malini.bsky.social contrasts the 2020 list-making moment with the absence of topical lists about Palestine during a current “time of neutrality.” www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/revi...
Revisiting Lists in a Time of Neutrality
Malini Guha contributes a reflective Deep Dive that revisits her previous essay about anti-racist list-making during the summer of 2020. Along with analyzing artist Cauleen Smith’s drawings of book co...
mediapolisjournal.com
Ten years on: @kredell.bsky.social juxtaposes the founding vision of #Mediapolis – to occupy a space between blog & peer-reviewed journal – with the current media environment (between social media and podcasts) reshaping notions of “middle-state publishing. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/15098/
Ten Years On: Reflecting on the Future of Mediapolis in a Dynamic Media Environment
Brendan juxtaposes Mediapolis’s founding vision—to occupy a space between blog and peer-reviewed journal—with the current media environment in which social media, single-authored newsletters, and plat...
mediapolisjournal.com
"The interdisciplinary courses that we teach are inherently challenging", writes Noelle Griffis in her contribution to the newest #Mediapolis issue, which discussed the pedagogical use and possibilities of the journal in teaching. Read here: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/medi...
Mediapolis in the Classroom
Noelle Griffis discusses pedagogical uses of Mediapolis content and proposes several enhancements of the Student Voices section and On Teaching section.
mediapolisjournal.com
Just published in our newest #Mediapolis dossier: Erica Stein traces out how multiple conceptions of scholarly “conversation” shaped the founding of the journal and remain central to the journal’s identity today. www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/publ...
Publication as Conversation
Erica Stein traces out how multiple conceptions of scholarly “conversation” shaped the founding of Mediapolis and remain central to the journal’s identity.
mediapolisjournal.com
Both a milestone and a transitional moment: The newest issue of MEDIAPOLIS: A JOURNAL OF CITIES AND CULTURE – Vol. 11 No. 1 "Mediapolis at 10 Years and Beyond" – is now online in #OpenAccess here: www.mediapolisjournal.com
Hey! I dunno if I mentioned it but I wrote a book, and the fine folks at @mediapolis.bsky.social let me sit for a Q&A (www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/the-...)
The Mediapolis Q&A: Michael Dwyer’s Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt
Cortland Rankin speaks to Michael Dwyer about his book Tinsel and Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt
mediapolisjournal.com
My latest writing in @mediapolis.bsky.social at 10, which revisits an essay I wrote in 2020 on the circulation of the anti-racist reading and films following the lynching of George Floyd: www.mediapolisjournal.com/2026/06/revi...
Revisiting Lists in a Time of Neutrality
Malini Guha contributes a reflective Deep Dive that revisits her previous essay about anti-racist list-making during the summer of 2020. Along with analyzing artist Cauleen Smith’s drawings of book co...
mediapolisjournal.com
What happens when cities become datasets for AI competitions? Sam Hind shows how machine learning’s scoreboards distance practitioners from the real-world impacts of their work.
Playing Domains: Codes, Cities, and Cultures in the Viral World of Machine Learning
What happens when cities become datasets for AI competitions? Sam Hind shows how machine learning's scoreboards distance practitioners from the real-world impacts of their work.
mediapolisjournal.com
Games and cities are shaped by protocols and procedures. Drawing on the concept of ‘Gamespace,’ Connor Cook discusses how gamic principles are applied to urban planning and how these might be playfully resisted in turn.
Gamespace Odyssey: Notes on the Procedural Transformation of Athens
Games and cities are shaped by protocols and procedures. Drawing on the concept of ‘Gamespace,’ Connor Cook discusses how gamic principles are applied to urban planning and how these might be playfull...
mediapolisjournal.com
Bringing together artistic interventions and urban acts of resistance under the umbrella of ‘sensor games,’ Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske explore playful practices that strategically engage with and expose surveillance infrastructures.
Playful Resistance: The Politics of Sensor Counter-Practices in Urban Technospheres
Bringing together artistic interventions and urban acts of resistance under the umbrella of ‘sensor games,’ Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske explore playful practices that strategically engage with...
mediapolisjournal.com
The artwork Too Rich City transforms China’s housing crisis into a virtual playground, where NFT properties and augmented reality offer young people alternative forms of urban belonging. Hsin Hsieh both embraces and critiques this artwork.
Too Rich City: A Sinofuturist Playground
The artwork Too Rich City transforms China's housing crisis into a virtual playground, where NFT properties and augmented reality offer young people alternative forms of urban belonging. Hsin Hsieh bo...
mediapolisjournal.com
Play activates our imagination, but it can also fall short in fostering real change. Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran reflect on this tension in relation to rapidly changing neighborhoods.
Defamiliarizing the City: Play, Affect, and the Activation of Imaginaries
Play activates our imagination, but it can also fall short in fostering real change. Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran reflect on this tension in relation to rapidly changing n...
mediapolisjournal.com
Are we playing … or are we being played? In this conceptual contribution, Conor Moloney maps the tensions between public and counterpublic, culture and counterculture, play and counterplay in relation to urban experience.
Beyond Nice: Mediating Urban life Through Play and Counter-play
Are we playing … or are we being played? In this conceptual contribution, Conor Moloney maps the tensions between public and counterpublic, culture and counterculture, play and counterplay in relation...
mediapolisjournal.com
Seeing and knowing a city are not necessarily the same: based on an interactive workshop with international students in London, Photini Vrikki and Giota Alevizou position photographic practices as a critical part of urban play.
Framing London: Vernacular Photography and the Playable City in Student Life
Seeing and knowing a city are not necessarily the same: based on an interactive workshop with international students in London, Photini Vrikki and Giota Alevizou position photographic practices as a c...
mediapolisjournal.com
From playable to instagrammable: Paul O’Connor, Julian Mcallister Groves, Yingxin Du and Tina Sze Nga Ho trace the ‘colorful’ history of the Choi Hung Public housing estate, and what that might mean for its future.
Colourful Play in Hong Kong’s Rainbow Estate
From playable to instagrammable: Paul O’Connor, Julian Mcallister Groves, Yingxin Du and Tina Sze Nga Ho trace the ‘colorful’ history of the Choi Hung Public housing estate, and what that might mean f...
mediapolisjournal.com
A children’s menu, a play kitchen, a coloring book: Is that what makes a space #kidsproof? Laura Vermeeren explores how Instagram’s aestheticized content increasingly shapes what family leisure in the city should look like.
Babyccinos and Reel Making: Who is Really Playing?
A children’s menu, a play kitchen, a coloring book: Is that what makes a space #kidsproof? Laura Vermeeren explores how Instagram’s aestheticized content increasingly shapes what family leisure in the...
mediapolisjournal.com
Focusing on Istanbul’s Etiler neighborhood, Aylin Kartal follows different waves of urban transformation from the 1950s onwards, connecting street play, urban planning and collective memory.
Come Out and Play: A Historical Exploration of Street Play and Urbanization in the Etiler Neighborhood in Istanbul
Focusing on Istanbul’s Etiler neighborhood, Aylin Kartal follows different waves of urban transformation from the 1950s onwards, connecting street play, urban planning and collective memory.
mediapolisjournal.com
Reflecting on her experiences of skateboarding in Cairo, New York and other cities as a form of ‘rolling ethnography’, Alia ElKattan positions ‘seeing like a skater’ as a new way to approach urban landscapes.
Seeing Like a Skater: Skateboarding as Poetic Technology
Reflecting on her experiences of skateboarding in Cairo, New York and other cities as a form of ‘rolling ethnography’, Alia ElKattan positions ‘seeing like a skater’ as a new way to approach urban lan...
mediapolisjournal.com
Contrasting the visibility of playful art installations with a decline in funding for public infrastructures, @alisonstenning.bsky.social discusses how playability of ordinary urban environments is often ignored, devalued and undermined in urban planning.
When Cities Aren’t Playable: Placing Children’s Play in Urban Environments
Contrasting the visibility of playful art installations with a decline in funding for public infrastructures, Alison Stenning discusses how playability of ordinary urban environments is often ignored,...
mediapolisjournal.com
For @mediapolis.bsky.social, I wrote a short article provoked in part by the jarring visions of play represented by art like this on the one hand and the Play Commission's All To Play For report and the everyday spaces of play that I engage with in my research on the other.
When Cities Aren’t Playable: Placing Children’s Play in Urban Environments
Contrasting the visibility of playful art installations with a decline in funding for public infrastructures, Alison Stenning discusses how playability of ordinary urban environments is often ignored,...
mediapolisjournal.com
Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · last yr.Took the opportunity to go and see the Serpentine Gallery’s “play pavilion”, opened today on #InternationalDayofPlay. It’s as underwhelming as I imagined it might be. A brightly coloured sphere with a slide attached and some Lego tables inside. And not one child anywhere near.
