媒介-空间辩证法:创意城市理论新解

本文采用思辨方法,以作者对现代城市空间的观察,以及"媒介物"和"媒介表征"在城市空间的渗透,作为出发点,探讨媒介与城市空间的辩证关系,增进有关媒介和城市及其相互作用的认识。文章指出媒介-空间辩证法的知识基础,来自于新兴交叉学科"媒介与传播地理学";然后对媒体的空间性和空间化过程及其在城市空间的具体表现和可能影响,进行了初步分析,建立了媒体与城市空间的交互分类体系;通过借用"媒介的物化"和"物的媒介化"思想,将媒体与城市空间的辩证关系,与创意城市的理论探讨相关联,指出媒介-城市空间辩证法对于创意城市的理论建构,具有重要的启发意义。

DIALECTICS OF MEDIA AND SPACE:THEORETIC THINKING ON CREATIVE CITY

Media are either regarded as tools for transmitting information or as content produced by the media industry in mass media and communication studies. However, media can also be regarded as a type of physical object with a general three-dimensional spatial nature from the perspective of geography that highlights spatial analysis and spatiality studies. In this paper, the concept of media is extended to include physical objects as well as broadcasting instruments, media technology, industrial entities, communication institutions and the represented contents for the purposes of discussing the complex and dialectic relationships between media and urban space. In this context, media space is both epistemological space and ontological space just like urban space in general. A cross-disciplinary approach covering media studies and urban studies is also applied in the discussion. The paper consists of three parts. 1) The first part introduces briefly the emergent cross-disciplinary "geographies of media and communication" as the knowledge background for the discussion on interactions between media and urban space. 2) The second part attempts to identify the concrete process of what the author calls the "spatialization of media" and their impacts and manifestations in urban space. 3) Drawing from the two concepts of "mediation of things" and "signification of media" put forwarded by Scott Lush and Celia Lury (2007)in their studies on the dynamics of global cultural industries, the third part attempts to make a connection between media-space dialectics and the popular theories on creative city. The paper as a whole concludes that the broadly defined media are now becoming a significant force for transforming urban space and creative city development through the processes of media spatialization, mediation of things and signification of media. The theoretical examination of the relationships between media and urban space can inspire a good deal of theoretical thinking on cultural and creative industries and the creative city as well as the future development of urban space and urban transformation in general.