VIRTUAL London.

Abstract

While the echoes of late 20th-century gentrification linger in our collective memory, the contemporary city is undergoing a new wave of aestheticization in its urban spaces. This transformation signifies a departure from exclusive gentrified spaces dominated by classic consumerist ideologies to a more inclusive form. Michel Foucault’s term ‘dispositif’ concerns the governmentality of a livable city, representing the transformation of aesthetic function into this inclusive form. In contemporary cities, this emerging aesthetic function of urban space defines a leisurely and creative urban life through the integration of artistic and cultural experiences into innovative architectural designs, producing individualizing urban experiences. This article discusses the aestheticization of urban space through how aesthetic function transforming in the power relations. However, the paper argues that the transformation is not confined to discussing a strategic approach involving aesthetic elements. Instead, it views the aestheticization as a process by which urban life weaves aesthetic form into the fabric of urban space. Inspired by Gilles Deleuze’s work on expanding transformative potentials in the concept of ‘dispositif’ through an operation in living, this research explores how the aestheticized urban space emerges in the relations between urban life and spatial forms. In this sense, the aestheticization of urban space represents art’s interactive dual role in creating both aesthetic form of living and the aesthetic function of the livable city. In the conclusion, this paper calls for recognizing the diversity of a livable city through exploration of the emerging relations between the spatial form and urban life.