Media as a Tool to Transform the Urban Landscape Developing a Conceptual Model to Influence the Urban Landscape with No Physical Intervention

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate in Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Iran.

2 Faculty of Architecture, College of Fine Art , University of Tehran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.

Abstract

Urban landscape is a type of landscape presenting a new knowledge that has been a contemporary man’s new interpretation of space. It defines space, not as a physical entity but a phenomenon with intertwined objective-subjective aspects. According to this definition, whenever the organization of the landscape is a matter of concern, both aspects are expected to affect this relationship. Despite the effect of each aspect on one another, a review of the urban landscape literature on landscape organization - the evolution of the interactive landscape relationship - has been limited to a few actions or physical interventions which affect the objective aspect of the landscape. If the landscape is assumed to be the product of an interactive relationship between objectivity and subjectivity, theoretically speaking, this relationship might change by affecting the subjective aspect of the landscape.This research seeks to understand how the urban landscape can be transformed by a mental intervention rather than the physical one. It also attempts to provide a conceptual model that explains the mechanism of transforming the urban landscape by influencing the minds of citizens. This study seeks to develop a conceptual model using accepted concepts in the three domains; landscape knowledge, psychology, and media. This research employs logical reasoning to explain the relationship between logical propositions in these domains. Interpreting the data through the cultivation theory shows if conditioning messages are sent to change the urban landscape, and affect the feelings and behavior of the audience, it can also affect their attitude and mentality provided that they are constantly exposed to those messages. Theoretically speaking, as the result of the mentality change, one of the two interacting components of the landscape would be subject to change. Thus, some transformations are expected to occur in the urban landscape as a product of this interaction. 

Keywords


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