Cinematic placemaking: a materialist approach on cinema spatialisation in (making) place

In contemporary cities, media façades and urban screens play a pivotal role in shaping the cityscape. However, their spatialisation is often examined through an anthropocentric lens, primarily as platforms for social interaction and human-centric perceptions of both urban and cinematic experience. This focus tends to overlook the material relationships these cinematic elements establish within the built environment. Using the concept of cinematic placemaking, this paper proposes an alternative framework centred on material performativity to examine cinema’s role in transforming urban space. By analysing the ‘Human Beeing’ (2014) and ‘The Spectre of People’ (2015) media façade projects showcased in the Helsinki Media Façade Festival, the paper explores how cinema operates within space beyond anthropocentrism, even when curated for human response. Understood as a critical framework that transcends anthropocentrism, cinematic placemaking highlights results that pivot around a posthumanist perspective, shedding light on cinema’s material presence in urban space.