2 In the past rituals, local materials and religions formed the skylines of cities. Currently it is global markets, politics, the tourism industry and even individual or institutional egos that fashion urban cardiograms. What still has not changed is a desire to be recognisable. In Cairo the old skyline of Giza has been the dominant visual impression of the urbanscape for several millennia, while in Dubai one experiences the changing city almost on an hourly basis. It is easy for me to interpret that Dubai is experiencing a sort of heart attack because of its frenetic urban cardiogram. On the other hand some of other these profiles have been shaped over centuries – Florence, for instance. Other profiles, like Dubai, have happened in less than a decade. In some cities it does not matter if you read their cardiogram from left to right, vice versa, or even upside-down. There are cities that have iconic skylines, and there are cities that are indistinguishable from each other by their profile. But maybe, most powerfully these diagrams represent the race for height and the uniqueness of cities in an age of competitive urbanism.
I wonder if there is any kind of mutual interrelation between a city’s urban cardiogram and the same city dweller’s cardiogram!
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* All urban cardiograms (skylines) were sketched during a 49-day backpacking trip around the world in early summer of 2008.
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