Thursday, 26 March 2015

The Digitalisation of Stratford



Russell Brand has visited the Carpenter estate in Stratford in an attempt to highlight the issue of social-housing, Brand featured the Focus E15 campaign on his youtube vlog “The Trews”. Brand is an extremely well-connected activist who has the power, through social networking and his ability to be well-connected within the network of the Media by social networks such as Twitter and Youtube.
In an article by The Guardian, Stratford is set to become “a world-leading creative and digital cluster and London’s home for making.” (The Guardian). It is ironic that they’ve used the words “London’s home for making” when the reality is, the “real” people who make up London are becoming pushed out and disregarded in the process of transforming London creatively as their areas are becoming gentrified by culture-less Multinational organisations and overseas investors.
Multinational Organisations and commercial spaces such as Westfield shopping centre are  becoming the hub for digital technology, controlling the network with advertisements and business ventures that benefit the Capital and not the Community who contribute to its success . The network is becoming biased through capitalism  as it only claims to represent “London” however it is constructed through gentrified discourses. The reality is that Large external businesses and overseas investment are moving into boroughs of London, re-scaping the landscape and moulding it into its own version of London. Thus thinking about an area such as Stratford as a virtual space online, its network shifts from a “horizontal” network where power relations do not originate from a single point into a hierarchal “centralised” structure which is manipulated and controlled by Capitalism to frame its ideologies and representation of a space physically and metaphorically.

Bibliography

the Guardian,. 'Olympic Afterlife: The Real Legacy Of The London Olympics For Stratford'. N.p., 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1156957.ece/alternates/s615/Crowds%20leave%20the%20Olympic%20Stadium%20at%20the%20Olympic%20Park%20in%20Stratford,%20east%20London,%20following%20the%20dress%20rehearsal%20for%20the%20Opening%20Ceremony%20for%20the%20London%202012%20Olympic%20Games

- Conor Griffin 


No comments:

Post a Comment