Lecture 6 - Cities and Film

Modernism
Urban sociology 
City as public and private space
Post modernism
Relation of the individual  to the crowd in the city


georh Simmel 1858 - 1918


German sociologist 
Writes metrolpolis 


Dresden exhibition 1903
Write about effects of city on individual 
'Lonely metropoliton' Optimises idea of individual surrounded by people, yet alone


urban sociology
Lewis Hine 1932
The resistance of the individual to being levelled swallowed up in the social technological mechanism


Georg Simmel the metropolis and mental life 1903
Idea of city engulfing human figure
Being independent but dependant on physical and manual labour city offers


Architect Louis sullivan 1856 - 1924
Creater of the modern skyscraper
Form follows functions
An influential architect and critic of the Chicago school
Mentor to frank Lloyd


Guaranty building was built in 1894 by Adler and Sullivan 
Influenced by arts and crafts movement


Carson pririe acott store in Chigago
Skyscraper represent the upwardly mobuile city of business opportunties
Fire cleared building in Chigago on 1871


Manhatta 1921 Paul Strand and Chalres Scheeler - video
America build on immigration 
Figures walking past wall street
65 shots in a loose non narrative structure
Views of city in an abstract composition


Charles scheeler
Ford motor companys plant at river rouge, detroit 1927
Commissioned to take photographs


Forism: Mechanised labour relations
Coined by antonio gramsci in his essay "americanism and fordism"
"The eponymous manufacturing system designing to spew out standardised, low cost good and afford its workers decent enough wages to buy them"
De Grazia 2005
Self perpertuing cycle, labour also consumer, objects being made are affordable motors


Charlie chapmen - Modern times 1936
A factory worker in a line, Suffers a mental breakdown, running amock, accusation of being a communist 
Body being consumed by factory environment - his boss is trapped in machinery


Stock market crash of 1929
Factories close and unemployment goes up dramatically
leads to "the great depression"
Margaret Bourke-White


Man with a movie camera - 1929 - Silent documentary film
Explores idea and role of camera within city
Cynanamatic techniques invented within film, track shots, zooms etc
To create a futuristic city
Celebration of industrialisation


Falneur
The tem Falneur comes from the french masculin noun which has the basic meanings of stroller, lounger, loafter - which itself comes from the french


Charles Baudelaire
A person who walks the city in order to experience it
Art should capture this
Simultaneously apart from and part of the crowd
Flaneur is this character who on watches, has no place to go, to just observe people actions and interactions


Walter benjamin
Aport tool in his own writing, lives this life himself
Arcades project 1927 - 40, Benjamins final incomplete book about Parisian city life in the 19th century


Photographer as flaneur
the ohotgrapher i sthe armed version of the solitary walker, reconnoitring, stalking crusing the urban inferno the vvoyeuristic stroller who discovers the landscape


Flaneuse
Women and the literature of modernity
Janet wolff
The literatrure of modernity describing fleeting eponymous ephemeral encounters of life in the metropolis maninly accounts for the experiences of men. It ignores the concomitant separation of pulic and private spheres from the mid-nineteenth century and the increasing segregation


Susan Buck-Morss
The dialectics of seeing: Walter benjamin and the arcades
Women when seen on there own are seen as a threat, a bad woman, a prostitute


ARBUS / HOPPER
Woman at counter smoking NYC 1962
Automat 1927


Sophie calle suite venitienne 1980
Follows subject
Stalks to get photographs, almost creates a relationship
The act of follows creates an obsessive reflection`


Venice
City as a labrinth of streets and alleyways in which you can get lost but at the same time will always end up where you began
'Dont look now' 1973 Nicholas Roeg


The detective 1980
Wants to provide photographic evidence of her existence
His photos and notes on her are displayed next to her photos and notes about him, set in paris.
Hires a private photographer to follow her
'I wanted to take him to places which I love' - ultimately controlled by her, although not contracting surveillance 
Idea of truth, what is true in photographic evidence


Cindy Sherman untitled film stills 1977-80
Women almost lost and trapped by city
Film Noir
Sky scrapers behind characters in images


Weehee (arthur felig)
City a place of threat
Followed around emergency services and documenting activity
Pursues incident similar to police
Instantaneous reporting 


The naked city
1945 + 1948
Follows murder of a young model


LA noire 2011
The first video hame to be shown at the tribecca film festival
Incorporates 'motionscan' where arcors are recorded by 32 surrounding cameras to capture facial expression from every angle. The technology is central to the games interrogation mechanic as players must use the suspects reactions to questioning to judge whether they are lying or not.


Cities of the future / past Fritz lang metropolis 1929
Ridley scott bladerunner 1982/2019


Lorca di corcia heads 2001 NY
Sets up trip effect for flash lighting, if a subject walks into the area, he can choose to activate flash
Detached observer
Not seen by people he photographs
Filmic style of portraiture
Idea of surveillance
Give a sense of high and drama, unintended poses and facial expression 


Walker evans - Many are called 1938
made with use of hidden camera on subway
Moments of private interior moments in public space


Post modern city
Ed Soja - The post modern city
Outside becoming inside, inside becoming outside e.g Shell elevators 
Getting lost in architecture


Postmodern city in photography: Joel meyerowitz
Broad way and west 46th street NY 1976
PM City almost reflects mental state 


9/11 citizen journalism : The end of the flaneur?
Adam Bezer 2001
Liz wells says that phrases is first seen in an article by Stuart Allen online. She discuses the 7/7 bombings in London and the immediacy of the mobile phones images which recorded the event as commuters travel to work. These images were online within an hour of the event.
This replaced traditional idea of reporters, to record event in a professional manner. we get a different aethetic. Returns photography to its original use. A piece of evidence. No longer have seperation of city, subject and experience. It all comes together.


Survellience city
"Since the attack on the twin towers of the world trade centre in 2001, and the ensuing war on terrorism there has been an enormous ramping up of investment in machine reading technologies.