The course will explore the ways in which visual and spatial contexts shape political possibilities. It will weave together two different themes and modes of exploration: On the one hand, we will assign analytic readings in which scholars and practitioners examine questions of visuality and space as sites of power both at the level of the state and everyday politics. On the other hand, a second dimension of the course shifts the mode of exploration from text to case studies Cases might include the Gowanus Canal, the London Olympics, the Barclay Center, the Rockaways reconstruction. Students will be asked to examine modes of control and dissent in situ and to ask whether the process of design can shape the balance of political forces between competing positions. Throughout the course, students will be asked to consider how foregrounding the visual/spatial prompts us to rethink the political. How might visual and spatial material animate political change?