Announcements

Next seminar of "Exploring Landscape Boundaries" series is held by Weijing Wang and is titeled „Aesthetics of Digital Engagement“

Time: 25th of November at 13.00

Location: Web event in BBB virtual room

Language: English

The series of open seminars about landscapes is organized by the Chair of Landscape Architecture. Recordings of previus seminars can be watched HERE.

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BIO:
Weijing is interested in the landscape perception, big data, time and space in social practice, and human-environment interactions in the age of social media. Her current DPhil research focuses on landscape preference, digital visual culture and visual methods for research. Weijing’s current research utilises a wide range of methods, from large scale digital data analytics to semi-structured interviews.

ABOUT THE TALK:
Burgeoning social media sites characterise a highly connected cyberspace, whereby personal expressions can be easily created in rich forms – image, text, video – and are visible to a broad range of audiences. Digital screens offer a new widespread engagement with the natural environment and influences the aesthetic appreciation of green spaces. Substantial studies illustrate the great potential of social media data to explore sensory experiences of a place. It is especially valuable for Chinese cities because green space has been made central to top-down planning initiatives associated with place branding and envisioning a liveable urban life over the past decades.

This research suggests that social media, especially visual social media, is a new fashion for engaging with nature that emerges in urban spaces. The aim is to investigate landscape preferences in the context of social media, with Beijing’s parks as study sites. By exploring social media use and everyday practices related to green space, the findings demonstrate how place popularity impacts images of urban green space and uncovers the dynamic reactions to the natural environment. Images also integrates experiences, place practice and social media as a way of interacting with green spaces.