A Social Study of the Dynamism of Infrastructural Esthetics

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00250
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01080:Sociology of science, history of science and technology-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Fukushima Masato 東京大学, 大学院情報学環・学際情報学府, 教授 (10202285)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: インフラストラクチャ / 審美性 / 美学 / 科学技術社会学 / STS / 景観 / 美術史 / テクノロジー研究

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In constrast with the ongoing research on the sociological aspects of infrastructure, the dynamism of its aesthetic aspects have been poorly explored thus far. This research project has paid detailed attention to the multiple meanings of its visibility/invisibility from the perspective of STS that has only focused on its functinoality. Functionally invisible infrastructure may be physically visible, and this characteristic may give rise to aesthetic issues, especially in the context of urban landscape that is now a hot topic among landscape researchers.
This research taps into the formation of infrastructure-based urban landscape as an intriguing case of what I call infrastructural aesthetics, where artists, engineers, and the public have been intrinsically entangled, along with the rather sporadic public controversies on the issue of the aesthetic value of landscape, represented by the controversy concering with utility poles and wires in public.

Free Research Field

科学技術社会学（STS）

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

インフラの機能面への研究に比べ、その審美的側面（景観の一部を構成するという意味）に関する研究は乏しく、従来インフラ研究者と都市景観研究者ば連携が不足していた。本研究は、こうしたインフラ景観の社会学的、審美的側面の複雑さを、それが住民によって意識される多様な文脈を中心に詳細な理論的、実践的分析を行っており、こうした側面が景観研究のみならず、それに関連したアート等でも重要になってくると思われる。