The metropolis has held a central place in the development of modern art and architecture. By the end of the 19th century, the modern metropolis had become a primary object for aesthetic reflection, both among the artistic avant-gardes, who sought to represent its subjective effects, and among architects and urban planners,
who sought to reform its physical shape and thus represent its utopian alternative. Thus, even as the metropolis has provoked new modes of visually perceiving the architectural environment, it has also inspired new paradigms of architectural intervention. In its sheer physical form, it embodied an unprecedented scale of building and tempo of motion. In its subjective effects, it seemed to stimulate a new kind of consciousness,
internally fragmented and externally disassociated from traditional social groups. Focusing on three major media; architecture, painting and film, this course will examine the reflexive relationship between the socio-historical phenomenon of the modern metropolis and its aesthetic representations. It will examine the rise of the metropolis as already mediated by these representations. Specific movements and genres that will be covered include German expressionism, CIAM urbanism, architectural Postmodernism, Pop Art, and Hollywood science fiction.