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LAUSANNE SUMMER SCHOOL
CACS EPFL
Friday 26 July
Cities and Digital Culture
09:00 >10:30 The fringes of the Asian City
Chow Yiu Fai and Jeroen de Kloet
In this lecture we start with general theories on life in the postmetropolis. We wonder,
what does Lindner exactly mean when he writes about the blasé postmetropolitan
attitude, and can we also trace such an attitude when living in a city like
Lausanne? How does cinema help us grasp living in the city? And what about the
fringes of the city, in particular: why are rooftops playing such an important role in
movies? What do they signify? We will in particular look at rooftop scenes in three
movies from Hong Kong: Infernal Affairs, High Noon and Inner Senses.
11:00 >13:00 Digital culture in Asia
Jeroen de Kloet
The Chinese version of Twitter – Weibo – allows citizens to discuss all sorts of topics
online, often before the censors can stop them. Will the Internet facilitate political
change, or will it increase surveillance? How do new technologies change the
mediascape of Asia? Are we all becoming cultural producers with the use of new
technologies? If technology allows, in this session we will experiment live with Weibo
and communicate with Chinese Weibo users…
13:00 >14:00 Lunch
14:00 >16:00 Student presentations (third round)
16:00 >17:00 Wrap up and evaluation module III and Lausanne Summer School
Compulsory reading
Chow, Yiu Fai and de Kloet, J. (2013). “Flanerie and acrophilia in the postmetropolis: Rooftops in Hong
Kong cinema”. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 2, n° 2, pp. 139-155.
Optional reading
Abbas, A. (2000). “Cosmopolitan De-scriptions: Shanghai and Hong Kong”, Public Culture, vol. 12, n° 3,
pp. 769-86.
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