Framed, Therefore Real

Abstract

With the rise-of the post-truth era, well- known definitions of urban activism have been calling for an update. Covering different territories and media, this essay aims at suggesting new ways of thinking about architecture and its digital representation as a medium for political engagement. It is my suggestion that, the information of space, or more precisely, architecture, can be deployed to reduce the ‘uncertainty’ of a message encountered online and can therefore be used for legitimization. Starting with Times Square in New York, the context of the research expands to Central Asia and investigates the relevant debates. It looks like, actors on the global political stage such as China, India, and Pakistan have been using the built environment of another global power, the USA, to validate their claims about each other. While employing well-known urban backgrounds for legitimizing political messages is far from new, campaigns using another country’s public places and monuments to gain repute at home might be a new territory for geopolitics.