The way we perceive ‘place’, in this case the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, is influenced by the images and accompanying sounds used to define, stylise and objectify.

I have put together this short video using YouTube Editor, which aims to show how presenting the city through iconic images (in the case of Newcastle- the river, bridges, characteristic ‘Tyneside’ housing stock), and using a soundtrack more reminiscent of the way other big cityscapes are presented (so in this case I’ve chosen a jazz soundtrack, synonymous with the Manhattan skyline), removes Newcastle from the traditional ‘working class, football, heavy industry’ association or stereotype that we’re often talking about in class.

‘Imagining place’ or ‘constructing the city’, as is discussed in the literature surrounding this topic, is a way of inverting or supporting cultural expectations. In this video I have included some travelling shots, such as the view from an escalator going down in to the metro, to get a ‘big city feel’.

If you’re interested in this try these reading about place, branding, image construction, events, and the city:

Ed Aitken, S and Zonn, L (1994) Place, Power, Situation and Spectacle: A Geography of Film, Rowmann and Littelfield

Alberto Vanolo, The image of the creative city: Some reflections on urban branding in Turin, Cities, Volume 25, Issue 6, 2008, Pages 370-382, ISSN 0264-2751, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2008.08.001
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