Cities and Films

Lecture Notes

- Georg Simmel - Lecture on the role of intellectual life, effect of the role on the city

- The resistance of the individual to being levelled , swallowed up in the social technological mechanism

- How the original can exist in a space that is built by a group contribution

- Lewis Hine - City engulfing human figure, the physical and manual labour being a threat but also being dependent on this

- Lewis Sullivan - Creator of the modern skyscraper (Modernism - creates phrase form follows function) Guaranty building. Decorative in detail, influenced by arts and crafts movement. Natural influence. The inside of the building is tightly organised, with different zones.

- The skyscraper: a organised, modern environment

- Skyscrapers in american city represent america as a land of opportunity (for businesses)

- Paul Strand documentary film: objective of film is to explore the relationship between photography and film. Camera movement kept to a minimum. Idea of figure in city a small cog in a large machine.

- Charles Scheeler - photographs of city as a towering, mechanical presence

- Fordism: Idea that human body becomes part of the machine, embodied in production line, gains to earn maximum productivity with minimum action. (Gramsci) Picture of worker who is employed into repetitive work in order to be able to buy the product that they are produced. Cycle where the labourer is also the consumer

- Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times - Chaplin ends up getting his boss stuck in machinery, body being consumed by the factory

- Stock market crash of 1929 - factories close and unemployment rises, leading to the great depression. Those in manual labour effected the most

- Man with a movie camera: the role of the camera in the city, range of cinematic techniques. Looking to create a futuristic city. Celebration of industrialisation.

- Idea of flaneur, french masculine noun, which means "stroller", "lounger". A man of leisure. No place to go, except to observe other peoples actions.

- A person who walks the city to experience it, art should capture this experience. The flaneur is simultaneously apart from and a part of the crowd.

-Walter Benjamin looks at idea of flaneur, to some extent he lives this life himself. Thinks about the interaction between the body and the city, such as covered area, an area which is inside and outside at the same time. (Victoria quarter leeds). A cafe society where these observations can be made.

- Photographer as a flaneur: walking, stalking, joys of watching... the flaneur finds the world picturesque.

- Alternative to the flaneur there is a flaneuse, a female version. Modernity mainly accounts for the experiences of men. Women weren't seen on the streets alone.

- Extended idea: Susan Bucl-Morss extends this idea, to examine that we think the only women on the street are 'bad'

- Woman at a counter smoking - Arbus - An observed moment, just before or after something has happened

- Automat - Hopper - Darkness around figures head and shoulders, as if the night is clinging to her.

- Sophie Calle - Suite Venitienne - follows a man around Venice, stalking/love affair, encourages obsessive reflection

- Architecture and layout of city means Venice is a labyrinth of streets and alleyways, easy to get lost, but small so you can get back to where you began.

- Sophie Calle - The Detective - Hires a private detective to follow her, she wants photographic evidence of her existence. She follows him back. Leads him on a journey around paris, controlled by her.

- Cindy Sherman - stereotypical figure of woman in the city where she is almost lost/trapped by city, low angled view points, looming presence of skyscrapers. Nothing is revealed, not sure where she is, typical of postmodernism, have to construct the stories ourselves

- The city as a place of threat, not just explored with females, Weegee followed around emergency services and documented their activity of responding to Lower east side NY attacks. Mobile darkroom, can develop the pictures instantly and take them to the press.

- Video game L.A. Noire, based on the idea, set in LA in 1947, challenges the player to control the LA police department, steals themes from film Noire, distinct colouring style

- Fritz Lang Metreopolis - City in the future

- Body in the city, explored in Heads by Lorca di Corcia, the artist sets up spot on street where when someone walks into this area he can activate flash and photograph. Not seen by the people who he photographs. Individual in the crowd, alienated person in their own mental space. Idea of surveillance. City's anonymity. One person objected on religious grounds, argued that his privacy and rights had been violated. But the judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying that as it was on the street it was protected by the First Amendment.

- Walker Evans hides a camera in his trench coat an travels on the subway, the people who are being photographed don't know they are being photographed, private moments in public space. Idea of people being alone and separate in the city, despite being surrounded by other people.

- Postmodern city - confusing and encompassing experience on the individual that has to be unravelled in a game playing relationship between the self and the environment

- Joel Meyerowitz - Postmodern city - eye overwhelmed by sign and chaos, no sense of tradition, difficult to define a solid city. Busy environment.

- Citizen journalism: the end of the flaneur? This interaction with the city means that its impossible to be a detached observer because of events such as 9/11 or 7/7 attacks. The body is disintegrated and destroyed in a mental capacity in the city. The destruction of the twin towers is like the destruction of the american dream. Images taken by people involved in tragedy for the news and online.

- Surveillance city - coming together of photography, film and the street