El imaginario visual del espacio público como herramienta de controlLanzarote y Madrid, dos casos antagónicos

Zusammenfassung

The article examines the possibility of understanding the exteriority or outside space as a platform at the service of productive, economic or political control inside urban contexts, thanks to the alteration of the visual and perceptive dimensions of the public sphere. The essay describes this general framework by explaining the different kind of processes used by capital to take control of the public scene, categorized by the specific way they are manifested: physical, digital or over the general intellect. From this descriptive analysis a series of common characteristics are found, enabling different potentialities that direct ourselves towards their use in favour of the social emancipation of the public perceptive scene. In order to illustrate this alternative use of the visual public sphere, two antagonistic case studies are explored: the project of landscape planning of Lanzarote (1966) and the group of urban performances driven by the city of Madrid (2015-2019).