ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the ontology, aesthetics and ethics of participatory arts-based research in the city. It proposes a critical intervention in film studies, where the relation of the cinema and the city is mainly theorized in representational terms as the creation of urban views. The book then focuses on the photographic practice of Vancouver-based artist Fred Herzog as an environmental response to the emplaced, temporal and material conditions of the moment. It also reflects on the politico-aesthetic activities and urban sociality of Acervo da Laje, a self-managed museum located in a prominent outlying district, called Suburbio Ferroviario, which city’s elites and corporate media have associated with Black death and dispossession. The book discusses the Call and Response Program at the Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
