- The city in Modernism.
- The city as a public and private space.
- The possibility of an urban sociology.
- The city in Postmodernism.
- The relation of the individual in the crowd.
Georg Simmel (1858 - 1918)
German Sociologist, wrote about the effect of the city on an individual. The first to start really thinking and writing about this relationship. The resistance of the individual being swallowed by the urban. How people react and deal with these changes.
Lewis Hine (1932) photographed images of the scale of an individual compared to the scale of the city. Also looks at the relationship between the body and a city.
Buildings began to guide the way people moved through spaces. Skyscrapers represent the upwardly mobile city of business opportunity.
Manhatta (1921) Paul Strand and Charles Scheeler. <insert video clip>
Charles Scheeler, photographer who looked at the industrial and steel forms within the city.
Fordism: mechanised labour relation. Coined by Anotonio Gramsci "Americanism and Fordism". How people are working in factories and almost becoming one with the machines they work with. People worked in the factories in order to afford something they made at work such as Ford automobiles.
Modern Times (1936) Charlie Chaplin. <insert clip>
Factories close because of the stock market crash in 1929. Leading to high levels of unemployment and 'the great depression'.
Man with a Movie Camera (1929) <insert clip>
Flaneur - The term flaneur comes from the french masculine noun flaneur. Lounger, stroller. Generally was upper class in order to have the time to stroll and lounge. Another spin on this term was "a person who walks the city in order to experience it". An urban observer, someone who takes in the city and their surroundings.
Venice - City as a labyrinth of streets and alleyways in which you can get lost but will always end up back where you began. Don't look now (1973) <insert clip>
Modern examples - L.A. Noire, Metropolis, Blade Runner.
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