TOKYO VERTIGO

Book excerpt: In TOKYO VERTIGO, Stephen Barber explores the most mesmerising and precarious of all contemporary world cities: Tokyo: the megalopolis, in extremis. Barber probes the multiple ways in which Tokyo projects and hides itself, focusing upon its filmic, photographic and media cultures as well as its extraordinary urban history of destruction, unrest and reconfiguration. Dividing his analysis into three parts, the author first interrogates the disparate urban ‘zones’ of Tokyo, from the image-screen constellated districts of Shinjuku and Shibuya to the desolate peripheries where the megalopolis falls apart, then examines Tokyo’s sexual and media cultures, through which the city’s compulsive fascinations and obsessions exert their power. Finally, the book looks at the ways in which European culture collides with Tokyo’s urban formations, often generating unprecedented, hybrid images and texts.