Vertigo in the City
Conversations between the Sciences, Arts & Humanities
Friday 29 May 2015, University of Westminster, London.
The term vertigo was often used to describe the maelstrom of the twentieth-century metropolis. What is its significance today? And how can this concept – with its inherent tension between thrill and anxiety – help us to interpret the urban experience, past and present?
Prompted by the rapid growth of cities around the world, this symposium draws on perspectives from the sciences, arts and humanities to explore vertigo in relation to the urban environment. A multidisciplinary team of researchers will present a variety of approaches to the city as a field of unstable perceptions, and will discuss how sensations of dizziness and disorientation are variously diagnosed, analysed, evoked, induced, and represented. The event will conclude with an artist’s talk by former Turner Prize nominee Catherine Yass. This initiative is funded by a Wellcome grant in the Medical Humanities.
Attendance is free but must be booked via Eventbrite