Various Readings

Changing Icons: The Symbols of New York City in Film
Terri Meyer Boake

- Images of icons/monuments have come to represent a city.

- City as 1: subject, 2: set and 3: star (in the 1930’s and the skyscraper boom)

- “[The] Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building quickly gave way to the World Trade Towers shortly after their completion in 1973.” p.2

- A common strategy in film is to use the actual skyline is used as key identifier of place

- “During this transitional period in film – pre CGI – many films explored the ‘noire’ or ‘dystopic’ theme, whose dark hue allowed for fairly seamless amalgamation between location, matte, set, and model views, in spite of technical deficiencies.” p.4

- The Fifth Element (1989) New York skyline characterised by high density, tall buildings and low sea levels

- 9/11 – voluntary building censorship in film!

- There was a temporary pause in the destruction of modern buildings in Hollywood post 9/11.

Defying Gravity: Space Architecture in Film Environments - An Opportunity Lost
Terri Meyer Boake

- “Film gives us the rare opportunity to completely question all that has come to be accepted in terms of the language of architecture as well as cultural and historic convention.” p.1

- “Architectural education can use these films as vehicles for critical discussion of the ethos of these environments.” p.1

- Film spaces do not have to be realistic and are not obliged to possess a conscience.

- Set design has evolved with scientific discovery and the option of adhering to or ignoring it.

- Film has “allowed increased understanding and appreciation of the realistic, three-dimensional occupation of architectural and urban spaces.” p.1 (Not only reconstructions – visionary and imaginary places too!)

- “Simply by turning relationships ‘upside down’, let alone removing the force of gravity, begs us to question the logic behind everything that we can see. This is what the medium of film frees designers to explore.” p.2

- “The creation of visionary works of art and architecture often arises at times when cultural, political or technological influences impose restrictions on creative works.” p.3

- The higher degree of scientific accuracy in films in the 60’s can be explained by the media hype surrounding the space race. Scientific credibility later receded.

- Animated sequences now make up up to 75% of set in futuristic films. p.5

- “But whether or not the concept artist has received accredited training in architectural design, this does not stop the worlds that they create from influencing both the perception and the reality of design and fashion.” p.6

- Hugh Ferris – Gotham City (Dietrich Neumann)

- Art Deco highly influential: from Metropolis to Star Wars

- “Contemporary society looks to film for entertainment, not education. The fleeting time of scientific realism in this film genre took place when there was much optimism about the ‘space race’.” p.8

Psychological Preparedness for Disaster
Pearl S. Guterman

- How can we prepare psychologically for a disaster? Only through using accurate data/information about actual behaviour to educate using facts. Films often get it wrong.

- There is a difference in reactions to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

- “Terrorist attacks are unlawful, deliberate, sociopolitical acts, carried out through force, violence, or intimidation, by an individual or group. […] Moreover, terrorists use terror as a psychological weapon. Natural disasters, however, are asocial events that are caused by the forces of nature. Such events may be exacerbated by human actions, but they are due to error rather than ill intent.” p.2

- There are three types of disasters: emergencies, disasters and catastrophes. These categories are all based on the individual experience. One person’s emergency is another one’s catastrophe.

- Disasters have five key characteristics:
1: Damage to persons/property and loss of life
2: Adverse affects on large population
3: Outside the realm of everyday experience
4: Traumatic enough to cause most people stress
5: Time limited

- Disasters can also bring feeling of national pride and unity.

- Misconceptions: Panic Flight, Disaster Shock, Evacuation Behaviour and Shelter Use. People (mostly) do not panic. They will not be dazed and disorientated because of shock, but exhaustion. People will not flee in panic and overcrowd public shelters. They generally behave logically and help each other.

-“When disaster strikes, individuals, companies, and responders should not only be logistically ready, but psychologically prepared. How well one psychologically prepares for an event can have a bearing on the success of response and recovery efforts. Therefore, it is vital that psychological preparedness be factored into emergency plans.” p.14

- Reference to Auf der Heide’s essay ‘Common misperceptions about disasters: panic, the “disaster syndrome,” and looting’

Filming the Unfilmable: Hollywood’s Attempts To Chronicle 9/11
Saki Knafo, Huffington Post

- Al Qaeda planning to blow up ‘the bridge in the Godzilla movie’. (as told by prisoner in interview)

- Film important in the planning of attacks

- Young Bin Laden allegedly liked the film Bonanza.

- Disaster films portray one man alone in a chaotic world. Al Qaeda views our world this way. They are the one, lonely man. The Western world is chaotic and must be fought.

- “Hollywood had fertilized the imaginations of the attackers.” The WTC attack was similar to a Hollywood spectacle.

- Hollywood has mostly been ignoring 9/11. Is it hard to compete since the actual footage has already been shown on screen so many times before?

- Post 9/11: rise in popularity of documentaries “interpretation, explanation and meaning”.

- “Those images were already seared in our minds. The terrorists had planned it that way.” (Knafo on the absence of footage of planes hitting buildings in films and documentaries post 9/11)

An Event Like a Movie? Hollywood and 9/11
Christina Rickli

- That 9/11 seemed like a Hollywood disaster film is a common claim.

- Hollywood films were put on hold, altered or even cancelled as a result of the attacks, attacks that were inspired by cinema, attacks with effects like cinema. Original footage of the event has now been included in Hollywood films and shown in the cinema.

- Media coverage of the event was brutal, uncensored and troublesome, especially for relatives.

- The image of the attacks looked like a Die Hard film poster, as commented by director Steve de Souza.

- 9/11 reference to film could be caused by people having nothing else to fall back on when faced by such apocalyptic scenery.

- “The use of like a movie hints at a psychological need to resort back to movie experience. Possibly, this strategy of cinematic vision enabled […] eyewitnesses to distance themselves from the events and thereby ward off part of the traumatic impact of the witnessed scenes.” p.1

- Immanuel Kant on the Sublime: “a feeling that upsurges when human beings are witness to a catastrophe from afar, without being in actual danger.” p.1

- Baudrillard – American hyperreality – influenced images/ideas about global terrorism

- “the American under attack rises up and eventually defeats the perpetrator. Catharsis is offered via a successful hunt for the terrorists and a victory of the American hero.” p.3

- Analysis/comparison of Spike Lee’s 25th Hour and Oliver Stone’s WTC.

- “For almost five years, American movie directors refrained from reenacting the events of the day of the attacks.” p.4

What Your Brain Does in an Emergency
Lucy Tobin, The Guardian

- Ed Galea

- Science and psychology: how the brain functions in disasters

- Do people behave differently in different countries/cultures? (Example of Korea where people sat still awaiting instructions from authority figures instead of escaping burning train)

- Left handed and right handed people behave differently, as do people who drive on the left versus right hand side of the road.

- Generally, a good situational awareness is important, to understand the environment you are in.

- Hollywood gets behaviour wrong a lot of the time. 99 times out of 100 people remain calm and behave rationally. People tend to help each other.

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References:

Boake, T.M. (2008) Changing Icons: The Symbols of New York City in Film. [online] Available at: http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/pdf/research_papers/empire-vs-wtc.pdf [accessed 20 June 2012]

Boake, T.M. (2008) Defying Gravity: Space Architecture in Film Environments - An Opportunity Lost. [online] Available at: http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/pdf/research_papers/gravity2008.pdf [accessed 20 June 2012]

Guterman, P.S. (2005) Psychological Preparedness for Disaster. Academia.edu. [online] Available at: http://yorku.academia.edu/PearlGuterman/Papers/169408/Psychological_preparedness_for_disaster [accessed 22 June 2012]

Knafo, S. (2011) Filming the Unfilmable: Hollywood’s Attempts To Chronicle 9/11. Huffington Post. [online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/09/911-september-11-movies_n_954149.html [accessed 22 June 2012]

Rickli, C. (2009) An Event Like a Movie? Hollywood and 9/11. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies. [online] Available at: http://copas.uni-regensburg.de/article/view/114/138 [accessed 22 June 2012]

Tobin, L. (2010) What Your Brain Does in an Emergency. The Guardian. [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/16/disaster-planning-research [accessed 22 June 2012]

Economies of Signs and Space
Scott Lash and John Urry

Chapter 11: Globalization and Localization (pp.279-313)
Notes made whilst reading the chapter. Apologies in advance for any incomprehensive trains of thought.

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Contemporary nation states are now too small for the big problems of contemporary social life and too big for the small problems. (Raymond Williams)

Thinking globally, acting locally + a global culture of nationality and locality.

Increased permeability of national boundaries.

Two main themes/questions: what happens to/what is society? Are there two parallel processes operating – globalisation AND localisation?

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Recent transformations rendering nation-state societies non-sovereign:

1. Development of transnational practices independent of nation state
2. Globalisation is advanced capitalist globalisation. North Atlantic rim countries play central role. Transnational practices depend on localised sites.
3. National governments are increasingly unable to control cross-border flows generated by transnational practices.
4. Many traditional domains of state activity must now be fulfilled through international collaboration – increased political integration
5. Putative pattern of global governance has developed. Transnational bureaucracies, international representative organisations and international agencies have been created.
6. Now socio-spatial entities are emerging. Not of the North Atlantic sort.
7. Westphalian model of democracy (world divided into sovereign states) is becoming outmoded and replaces by ‘cosmopolitan democracy’ – global world order?

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International societies are characterised by power being dispersed, but where found it is highly concentrated.

How balance local and global? (personal relationships vs. world-wide presence?)

Symbols of place and location, trust etc.

International modern style of architecture (fashion, furniture etc) causing reactions
— Resurgence of locally oriented culture and politics
— Local powers tend to be reactive, resist decisions from centres

Localities of global processes become basis for local economic/institutional and social/cultural growth.
— The local and the global intersect in various places

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1. Problem of interpretation: globalising certain sectors means local entrepreneurs must develop means of interpreting/representing this global process
2. Localities provide context for social interaction, necessary to make agreements/coalitions/build trust.
3. Places enable product and process innovation to occur in relatively decentralised systems (bottom-up approach possible) 

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Money itself involves a complex dialectic of global AND local processes.

Globalisation of finance depends on particular localisations. (City of London: The Eurodollar market exists in London because people do not believe that the British government is about to close it down. Reputation and history reason for locality.)

Credit’s role as the major basis for de-territorialising the world economy. System of credit separate from the system of production. Money no longer only as means of circulation.

Global credit system is predominantly private, its growth has generated new privatisation of world economy.

New global forms of credit are out of control of nation states, but they (credit) do exert power over them (nation states).

Spatial proximity help sustain trust. Compliance enforced by word of mouth (Eurodollar market placed in London, but consequent growth ruins original properties – properties that had London chosen in the first place!)
— Local conditions desired in a global market?

Cities expanding as result of trade. Aesthetic’ landscape/image of power’ developing.
— Canary Wharf, London and Battery City Park, New York are both vertical injections as opposed to horizontal vernacular landscapes.  
— Is the image of power vertical? (Reference to Metropolis and dystopian films. Money = Dystopia?)

With transformation of city came transformation of morals. Previously, people were judged by behaviour/honesty etc. Now people are judged by how much and what they can consume.

Personal success is more important than conformity.

Financial markets have generated three world cities: London, New York and Tokyo. Film markets are generally anchored in London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo (and Paris, Berlin, Bollywood…) What are the links? Image of power conveyed on screen?
— World cities of finance vs. world cities of film
— Increased agglomeration of central control functions within a few sites, in particular within these three (financial) cities
— Interconnectedness and sharing of culture between these cities because of being anchor points/local gestations of global trends.
— Localities/places influencing global trends rather than banks?

“It is the interactions and connections between these cities and not competition between them which suggest that a global urban system is in the making.” (p.290)

Money is an exceptionally important sign interconnecting with other signs removed from real or material processes. Money functions as a detached signifier, part of the sign-system of postmodern societies. MONEY AS SIGN AND SIGNIFIER.

Globalisation of processes affects levels of poverty, standards of health and the nature and quality of the environment.

Global and local action should complement each other, not compete against each other!

Contemporary problems (and solutions!) are global, but certain aspects of the environment are only comprehensible at local level. For many people, only local action can be envisaged and sustained.

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Society and nature previously seen as two separate spheres. Nature has been seen as a machine rather than an organism, separate from humans. It is a complex, symbiotic relationship and attitudes must change. Male science dominate female nature – again, symbiosis required!

“This domination of ‘nature’ resulted moreover not only from capitalist industrialisation but also from intense inter-state competition and the pursuit of maximum economic growth rather than environmental management.” (p.294)

Money superior to nature?

(Perception of) natural limits depend on historical and geographic determinations –

Nature should be seen as enabler, not as limits!

“What is required is the recognition that each form of social/economic life has its own specific mode and dynamic interrelation with its own specific contextual conditions, resource materials, energy sources and naturally mediated unintended consequences.” (Benton, 1989:77) (p.294)

— Many films speculate what happens when we exceed these restrictions/conditions.

Appropriation of nature. Nature is produced economically, culturally and politically. This produced nature takes revenge on human societies in the most dramatic ways.

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Tourism has redefined land as resource for leisure. Tourism one of the most important ways in which relations between humans and nature are now organised.
— Changing attitudes: LAND + TOURISM = a new way to CONSUME nature?

Reading and production of nature varied. It is learnt and taught differently in different societies, periods and social groups.

Two processes: Household/local issues AND political/social issues

Work has now been replaced by consumption
— Work pride/ethics replaced by pride in possession of consumer goods

…”the pleasure principle becomes dominant. Pleasure seeking is a duty since the consumption of goods and services becomes the structural basis of Western societies.” (p.296)

This principle extends worldwide via global media.
— Are dystopian, return-to-nature films a response to this?

Development of global consumerism has the most profound consequences for the physical environment. Nature turned into an artefact of consumer choice.

Consumerism applied to solution of environmental problems, developing environmental economics – “a sustainable future can be bought within the market place” – is this making matters good or simply ‘less bad’?

Duties and rights of consumer? Awareness! (visual consumption, clean air etc.)

Development of consumerism has helped generate critique of environmental degredation – cultural focus on nature!
— Social construction of preservation of nature. Nature cannot survive without cultural intervention.

Humans are now increasingly considered part of nature (again)
— Humans are thought to have special responsibilities for nature, because of unprecedented powers of global destruction

Reflexivity: re-examining social/cultural practices. (through future film?)
— Reflexivity leading method of Western science, to be constructed as no more legitimate than other social activities.

Science part of problem AND solution.

Nature is increasingly viewed as ‘global’ or ‘holistic’.
— Brundtland Report: Our Common Future.
— Global mass media have assisted in generating an ‘imagined community’ of all societies inhabiting ‘One Earth’. Gaia (Lovelock) – nature as superorganism.

Unborn people are considered to have extensive rights of inheritance. Quality of environment no worse than what it is today. Evolutionary, global rights?

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Three levels of environmental politics:

1. Preservation – preservation from change
2. Reform – Reform environmentally damaging social practices
3. Ecological transformation – Transformation of industrial societies/consumerism

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Think globally, act locally, 2 implications:

1. Environmental problems at local level have global origins (acid rain) and need international remedies to remedy them.
2. Large problems need localised action to be resolved. Decentralised action from large number of people (who may not benefit form change – altruistic approach needed – difficult to motivate!)

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Global system of agreement similar to banking society – name and shame

GLOBALISATION: “the intensification of worldwide social relation which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by geographically distant events and vice versa.” (Giddens 1990:64) (p.301)

Everything depends on developments elsewhere. Technologies, transportation, communication, subduing/unifying space and producing ‘small worlds’ or ‘imagined worlds’. Signs and images responsible for space-time compression.

Globalisation involves circulation of images. These images depict ‘One Earth’.

Especially attached to countryside, particularly attractive to many social groups – reflecting the anti-urbanism of environmental movement.
— Does this longing to return to nature connect to disaster film? Does something extreme need to happen to enable us to accommodate such a dramatic change?
— Countryside ‘closer to nature’, absence of machines, unplanned environment… There is, however, little unplanned about Western countryside.
— Is the countryside the sustainable option if we need to increase density in our cities to reduce environmental impact?

Different kinds of conservation and preservation. What is indigenous is not absolute – there is no absolute nature!

Reflexivity now enables the production of simulacra, replications of originals more real, or hyper-real, than the original.

The collapse of spatial barriers does not mean that the significance of space is decreasing. The specificity of place becomes more important as temporal and spatial barriers collapse.
— Globalisation generates stronger localities/local identities.

International tourism is a process by which the affluent countries, having mined their own natural environments, now consume those of other people – especially environments consistent with images of the ‘natural’ and ‘unspoilt’ (global circulation of images)
— Again, we are back to consumption! People consume more than their local resources allow and turn to less fortunate areas to keep their habits going…

GLOBAL CULTURE, international media companies, interests in numerous counties.

Global interests – create global culture – international market for products.

Mediatisation of culture by large companies. Strength of companies vs. weakness of consumer.

Does global culture necessarily call for uniformity? Not a global culture, but a number of processes which are producing the globalisation of culture.

Globalisation takes many shapes. Processes are dominant and autonomous from mere inter-state relationships.

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Global networks of communication/information crucial. Symbolic forms transmitted to extended, dispersed audiences. New kinds of social interaction. Appadurai develops this idea and identifies 5 dimensions of global flows in Modernity at Large:

1. Etnoscapes – tourists, immigration, guest workers
2. Technoscapes - technologies
3. Financescapes – currency markets, stock speculations
4. Mediascapes – electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate images
5. Ideoscapes – images linked to ideologies/states

De-territorialisation characterises these spatial landscapes.

Mediascapes are of increasing cultural significance (and overtake ideoscapes!)
— Media above state/religion/ideology?

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People are increasingly consumers of cultures as well and products. Differences between the two are dissolving. Power of consumer: lack of allegiance.

Take into account circumstances in which cultural products are made and received. Read differently in different cultures/communities/countries.

At level of audience there is no sign of ‘global culture’. Increasing contradiction between centralised production and fragmented reception.

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Role of the Cosmopolitan: Cosmopolitan involves intellectual and aesthetic stance of openness to different national cultures. Search for and enjoyment of contrasts. Does not want uniformity.
— Plays important role in production of global culture!

People are increasingly world travellers, directly or via TV. It is part of ‘being taken for a ride’ in consumed culture.

Cosmopolitanism:

1. Patterns of mobility – real and simulated, ‘right’ to travel
2. Curiosity – about all places, people and cultures
3. Openness to culture – willingness to appreciate elements of language/culture
4. Willingness to take risks – to move outside tourist bubble, get to ‘real’ culture
5. Ability to locate own society – historically/geographically/aesthetically/culturally
6. Semiotic skill – ability to interpret tourist signs

‘Consumer Citizenship’ is developing

Consumption spreading like a disease – once goods have been consumed, countries, cultures and experiences come next. Do we have ‘rights’ to consume ‘other’ cultures?

National cultures are particular, timebound, expressive, eclecticism heavily constrained. Sense of continuity between generations, shared memories of specific events, sense of common destiny.

Global culture: no collective memories, no generational succession, no sacred landscapes, no Golden Age, Importance of images – construction of ethnicity/nationality/invented traditions? Change feelings about national identity.

Is Hollywood creating new, more desirable identities?

Traditional societal institutions less important. New kinds of social identities/sites/institutions emerging.

Women have more global interests – female heroes?

Social identity in imagined community?

Societies no longer obviously govern themselves, and rights, duties and commitments are not simply owed to nation-states.

Mobile objects, reflexive subjects – disorganised capitalism.

Global-local relationships are changing.

New spheres of social activity emerging.

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Lash, S. & Urry, J. (1994) Economies of Signs and Space. London: Sage

The Tourist Gaze
John Urry
Sage, 2002

Chapter 8
Globalizing the Gaze

As a result of technological developments, people have now been brought closer to each other than ever before. A kind of time-space compression has occurred through the use of mobile phones, television and the Internet, creating an ‘omnivorous production and consumption’ of space through remote images and sounds. Virtual travel is easier than ever before. Our imagination is easily assister (or restrained?) by images wired from the other side of the planet accompanied by unfamiliar voices and strange sounds. This virtual travel also stimulates physical, corporeal, mobility. We want to see and experience things directly. We want to see, though, smell taste the actual thing ourselves.

John Urry discusses this virtual/physical distinction, as well as the implications of virtual/physical tourism in his book ‘The Tourist Gaze’. Chapter 8 in this book, entitled ‘Globalizing the Gaze’, explores how tourism has become a globalised phenomenon and how cultures become commercialised, created and re-created in producing the convincing image of the ‘Other’.  

There exists a dominant ideology of sight in contemporary Western culture. Western ideals have developed through a culture of image, including film, photography and other media. There is a sense of ‘what you see is what you get’, although looks can, of course, be deceiving. The significance of vision, hence also the gaze, has originated from the scientific method. A priori knowledge (reasoning) has gradually become considered inferior to posteriori knowledge (observation). 
Constance Classen writes the following on the subject of sight in Western culture in her 1998 book ‘The Colour of Angels’:

“Modern Western culture is a culture of the eye. We are constantly bombarded, seduced, and shaped by visual models and representations, from maps and graphs to pictures and texts. This rule of sight carries with it a powerful aura of rationality and objectivity, even though many of its contemporary manifestations, such as advertising. seem designed to manipulate the emotions more than to exercise reason. The photographic nature of much of twentieth-century representation helps maintain this aura of objectivity by appearing to provide the viewer with direct access to reality, rather than only mediating reality.” (p.1)

Being part of a culture often necessitates corporeal travel. In order to see sacred sites, read sacred texts, gaze upon sacred objects or take part in sacred rituals rather than looking at their representations in photographs or videos, bodies have to physically move through space.

Corporeal travel, the physical movement of bodies in space, has become a core component of modern life. Whether it is the daily commute to work or holidays in South East Asia, we often assume mobility to be one of our rights. Urry identifies a ‘nomadic quality’ of contemporary social life, embodied for example in the Sony Walkman - a device designed for listening to music whilst on the move. This device was, of course, soon followed by advanced mobile phones, mp3 players, laptops, iPads, Kindles etc. Most everyday facilities are today designed to be carried around on the body. Expectations are to eventually carry them within our bodies.

The modern corporeal travel has produced a number of bi-products. Architecturally significant are the so-called ‘non-places’; train stations, air ports, ferry terminals and the like. These spaces are not seen as destinations, but represent the ‘pause’ before the tourist moves on. Of course, these locations are more than non-places to certain people. For example, employees at these hubs experience close relationships to them.

Further bi-products include the vast production of images, icons and the mediatising and circulation of them. As Urry explains, tourist experiences are primarily visual. Our gaze orders and regulates what is presented to us. It defines and identifies the ‘Other’. Sight sacralisation, the way an object is turned into a ‘sacred site of tourism’ occurs through a series of stages. Mechanical reproduction of souvenirs and images is one of the most important. Repeatedly seeing images of the Eiffel Tower makes the icon seem more important and it turns into a destination.

Urry does acknowledge the importance of other senses in ‘The Tourist Gaze’, but maintains that vision is the most important one. Visual consumption has become an everyday commodity in the society of spectacle where we travel to and pay to enter through the gates at sites of visual stimulus. The creation of the ‘hyper-real’ is the physical manifestation of vision’s triumph over the remaining senses. In these simulated places with exaggerated visible features, fake objects appear more real than the original.   

The interconnectedness between tourism and culture is strong in today’s mobile world. Not only tourists (or worshippers) travel, but so do objects, cultures and images. Tourists travel to cultural sites to witness the ‘Other’ culture and reinforce their own identity. The culture of film can necessitate corporeal travel in order to experience sites through the ‘mediatised gaze’. This gaze occurs at sites where scenes or aspects of a mediated event can be relived, ‘seen with one’s own eyes’. Such sites include Hollywood, Disneyland and the Bradbury Building.

Urry also touches on the development of so called ‘dark tourism’ (thanatourism), the travelling to former war zones, concentration camps and areas hit by natural disasters or nuclear fallout, or as the Institute of Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) at the University of Central Lancashire puts it: ‘Dark tourism is travel to sites of death, disaster, or the seemingly macabre’. Urry refers to a couple of books on the topic, including ‘Dark Tourism’ by John Lennon and Malcom Foley (London: Continuum, 2000). 

Dark tourism is an aspect of Urry’s book that ties in closely with my thesis work. Although gaining in popularity, it is not strictly a modern phenomenon. Professor Tony Seaton cites a number of attractions including graves, prisons, and public executions and, in particular, the battlefield of Waterloo to which tourists flocked from 1816 onwards in his 1996 article ‘Guided by the Dark: from thanatopsis to thanatourism’.

Why are we attracted to scenes of death and disaster? Is it way for us to come to terms with our own end? Is it because we only truly appreciate beauty once it has been destroyed? Is it a morbid kind of satisfaction, ‘better them than me’? Does it all originate from jealousy? Or are we simply adrenaline junkies looking for another high?

Urry indirectly offers one explanation  of what disaster films (and dark tourism) attempts to do. He explains how public perception of nature gradually changed over an extended period of time. As a familiarity with nature developed through expeditions and adventure trips, descriptions of nature changed from ‘a wild, frightening beast’ to ‘alluring, picturesque scenery’. Is this what disaster films try to achieve? By allowing the audience to visit dark, frightening places (in the comfort of our own home and the pause button within reach) can we familiarise ourselves with these places and make them appear less frightening? 

Maybe it is just another way of identifying the ‘Other’ in order to reinforce our own identity. We have not been hit by  an alien invasion/hyper resistant virus/environmental disaster. Yet. 

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Classen, C. (1998) The Colour of Angels. London: Routledge

Seaton, A.V. (1996) ‘Guided by the Dark: from thanatopsis to thanatourism.’ Journal of Heritage Studies. Vol 2(4) pp. 234-244.

Urry, J. (2002) The Tourist Gaze. 2 ed., London: Sage

All Over the Map
Michael Sorkin
Verso, 2011

Michael Sorkin was born 1948, in Washington, D.C. He is a Distinguished Professor of Architecture and has taught at numerous schools including the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Architectural Association, Yale and Harvard. He is currently Director of the Graduate Urban Design Program at the City College of New York, but still lectures around the world and has written several hundred articles in a wide range of both professional and general publications. Sorkin is also the Chair of the New York Institute for Urban Design, a non-profit organization that provides a forum for debate about contemporary urban planning, development and design. Moreover, he runs his own practice Michael Sorkin Studio.

Sorkin’s latest publication ‘All Over the Map’ is a chronological collection of 76 medium length articles written between 2000 and 2009. The majority of articles were originally published either in Architectural Record, Sorkin’s 2003 book ‘Starting from Zero’ or Harvard Design Magazine. Most chapters take the form of essays, but there are a few exceptions. One chapter provides a diagrammatical analysis of the Pritzker prize winners and juries. Another is a 62 point instruction on how to enter a building, Sorkin’s satirical commentary on increased building security. There are hardly any images, and the few times Sorkin presents his own work it is always in the form of a drawing. The book presents no photographs of any finished projects.

Sorkin’s style of writing is frank and to the point. He is strongly opinionated and things are either black or white. People are good or bad. He either hates or loves them, and he is not scared of making his opinion known. As he writes in his own introduction; ‘I’ve bitten quite a few hands, many of which, it turned out, might otherwise have been feeding me. Nevertheless, architectural flesh always proved tasty to me, and the urge to chomp has continued.’ A consequence of this subjective style of writing is the blurring of boundaries between objective fact and subjective opinion, demanding a  critical approach to his work.

Although the content of the 76 chapters is very diverse, some overarching themes are identifiable. These include the importance of public realm and the social implications of architecture, mainly in relation to Ground Zero, security and the right to freely assemble, his dislike of Philip Johnson and Rem Koolhaas (who seems to be nothing but his arch enemy) and his love for Jane Jacobs.

Sorkin dedicates the majority of his writing to the controversies surrounding 9/11 and the Ground Zero design process. Since he lives and works near Ground Zero, he was personally affected by the attacks and tells stories about how he took long detours around imagined threats. The chronological articles provide a constantly developing account of the design competitions. Controversies surrounding the decision makers are carefully analysed, leading Sorkin to ask who truly decides what is to be built; the competition jury, the general public or Larry Silverstein. 

Sorkin analyses a number of proposals for Ground Zero, but spends little time debating the actual designs of the buildings. Instead, he questions the very idea that new buildings must replace the lost ones. Furthermore, he observes a problematic lack of suitable space dedicated to assembly in New York and emphasises that the situation has worsened after the 9/11 attacks. His own proposal for Ground Zero, Liberty Square, is therefore simply an open public space encouraging peaceable assembly.

Philip Johnson is portrayed as an anti-hero, a committed Nazi sympathiser and cynical player of power games. The chapter entitled ‘My Last Philipic’ compares the life of Johnson with that of porn film maker Russ Meyer, claiming that both made ‘enduring, seminal contributions to the ironic, vaguely pornographic, and deeply kitsch sensibility that has become one of the major markers of our contemporary creativity’. Johnson’s contribution to American architecture is never acknowledged.

Sorkin goes on to include Johnson in an imaginary story prompted by Philip Roth’s novel ‘The Plot Against America’. Roth describes how Charles Lindbergh becomes a pro-Nazi president in 1940, and Sorkin subsequently imagines Johnson embracing the regime. In a plot including Henry Ford and Walt Disney, Johnson designs Disneyfied, remote identical towns for Jews and black people, all mass-produced on Ford’s famous assembly line. This particular essay was originally published in Emmanuel Petit’s 2009 book ‘Philip Johnson: The Constancy of Change’, considered the first in-depth study to follow Johnson’s death. This publication potentially makes Sorkin’s essay an ironic tribute to Johnson, rather than an offensive critique.

If Philip Johnson is Sorkin’s villain, Jane Jacob’s is his hero. He argues that her success originated from knowing both what she was attacking and what she was defending. Jacobs’ ability to understand and describe the interaction of the social and physical components vital for rich community life has deeply influenced Sorkin’s writings. He references her book ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ on a regular basis, especially in connection with the redevelopment of Ground Zero. He demonstrates how numerous redevelopment projects evoke Jane Jacobs’ principles; the importance of the street and its life, the advantages of short blocks, the need for density and a mix of uses. He describes how her principles are crudely simplified and distorted to suit the developers’ own needs. The more genuine spirit of Jane Jacobs, he argues, is therefore found in the opposition to these projects.

The last chapter, entitled ‘Eutopia Now!’ was originally published in Harvard Design Magazine. It examines the development of utopia in city planning from Plato to contemporary Science Fiction via Joseph Stalin and Karl Mannheim. The latter describes planning as the “rational mastery of the irrational”, a description Sorkin believes also applies to psychoanalysis. Dreams, therefore, are similar to cities in that they are constructed from the concrete, but the familiar is constantly changing from our interaction with it.

Jane Jacobs’ version of utopia is introduced to this chapter through Patrick Gedde’s urbanisation of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s theory of evolution. Social heritage, Gedde claims, could be passed down through generations; envisioning the future cannot be done without accounting for its past-in-present. Jacob’s utopianism, builds on Gedde’s theory. She bases her argument on two components. The first component implies that the good city must be a self-organising system. The second, morphological, component is her prescriptive utopia of form, with origins from Greenwich Village. Sorkin does not consider this pre-existing element of Jacob’s utopian model as a problem, despite previous objections to realisation of utopian ideas. Instead, he says, her nostalgia is a kind of utopia in itself.

Concluding the chapter is Sorkin’s own manifesto, a 12 point guide listing the qualities of Eutopian Cities. Heavily influenced by Jacobs and Ebenezer Howard, he argues for equitable, body-based, diverse cities where social interaction, accessibility and sustainability are in focus. Sorkin makes the important distinction between U-topia (ideal place) and EU-topia (better place) arguably due to the tainted history of utopian architectural ideas previously discussed in the chapter. The ethos of his manifesto is present throughout the entire book and ties its diverse content together to an organised whole.

Fantasy Cinema: Impossible Worlds on Screen
David Butler

David Butler’s Fantasy Cinema forms part of the Wallflower Short Cuts series, which provides introductions to a wide spectrum of film studies. His last chapter, ‘Interpreting Fantasy: Functions and Beliefs’, applies the concept of fantasy to real life. Butler challenges the idea that fantasy is mere escapism, that all fantasy offers is a ‘carefree wishspace’ that has nothing to do with reality. Surely fantasy can, and is, used in this way.

Tolkien claimed that escapism can just as well be regarded an act of resistance. We shouldn’t condemn people for trying to imagine a different (better!) world. Butler uses the example of Martin Luther. Can we now dismiss his ideas of racial equality and civil rights as escapist delusions? (One must, however, of course take care to not get caught in a fantasy world and keep in touch with reality!) Returning to Tolkien, he believed that the best fantasy could offer a receptive audience was recovery, escape and consolation.

But, as Butler asks, ‘what happens when we contrast a fantasy world with our own?’ and quotes Jack Zipes on this issue:

‘By moving to the past or another world, the fairy tale enables readers to regain a clear view of their situations’ (p.100)

So, by looking at our own world through the filter of a fantasy film (or written story), we can examine it from a more objective point of view. It is easier to understand, critique or applaud society if you are not directly involved in it.

Finally, Butler mentions in ‘Fantasy Cinema’ Christopher Booker’s five stages of story structure (adding to the previous theories I have written about by Vladimir Propp and Susan Sontag). They seem to apply remarkably well to many dystopian films and will be worth keeping in mind for future reference.

The five stages are:
- Anticipation
- Dream
- Frustration
- Nightmare
- Miraculous escape

More Books to Read

Bordwell, D. (2006) The Way Hollywood Tells it: Story and Style on Modern Movies. Berkeley, California: London: University of California Press

Butler, D. (2009) Fantasy Cinema: Impossible Worlds on Screen. London: Wallflower

Clarke, D. B. (1997) The Cinematic City. London: Routledge

Davies, M. (2002) Dead Cities. New York: The New Press.

Dick, P. K. (1999) A Scanner Darkly. London: Millenium

Dix, A. (2008) Beginning Film Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press

Fitzmaurice, T. & Shiel, M. (2001) Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context. Oxford: Blackwell

Redmond, S. (2004) Liquid Metal. London: Wallflower Press.

Spinney, L. (1996) Return to Paradise. New Scientist. Issue 2039, pp. 26-31.

A Number of Books to Explore

From Mariano Paz’s 2010 thesis Ideology and Dystopia: Political Discourse in Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema I have compiled to following list of literature. Hopefully, some of them will prove useful!

—-

Baccolini, Raffaella (2004), “The Persistence of Hope in Dystopian Science Fiction” in PMLA, Vol. 119 No. 3 (May 2004), pp. 518-521.

Baccolini, Raffaella and Moylan, Tom (editors) (2003), Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge.

Beck, Bernard (2008), “Reaping the Whirlwind: The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Liberation and After in the Movies” in Multicultural Perspectives, 10: 1, pp. 24-26.

Bould, Mark (2002), “The Dreadful Credibility of Absurd Things: A Tendency in Fantasy Theory” in Historical Materialism, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 51-88.

Bull, Malcolm (2001), “You Can’t Build a New Society with a Stanley Knife” in London Review of Books, Vol. 23 No. 19, 4 October 2001, pp. 3-7.

Butler, David (2009), Fantasy Cinema: Impossible Worlds on Screen. London: Wallflower.

Cornea, Christine (2007), Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Donawerth, Jane (2003), “Genre Blending and the Critical Dystopia” in Baccolini, Raffaella and Moylan, Tom (editors) (2003), Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 29-46.

Fitting, Peter (2003), “Unmasking the Real? Critique and Utopia in Recent SF Films” in Baccolini, Raffaella and Moylan, Tom (editors), Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 155-166.

Freedman, Carl (1998), “Kubrick’s 2001 and the Possibility of a Science-Fiction Cinema” in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 25 No. 2 (July 1998), pp. 300-318.

Freedman, Carl (2000), “Science Fiction and Utopia: A Historico-Philosophical Overview” In Parrinder, Patrick (editor), Learning From Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition, and the Politics of Science Fiction and Utopia. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 72-97.

Hunter, I.Q. (editor) (1999), British Science Fiction Cinema. London and New York: Routledge.

Jameson, Fredric (2005), Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Jameson, Fredric (2007), Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London and New York: Verso.

Ketterer, David (1973), “Utopian Fantasy as Millennial Motive and Science-Fictional Motif” Studies in the Literary Imagination, Vol. 6, Issue 2 (Fall 1973), pp. 61-78.

Kuhn, Annette (editor) (1990), Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. London: Verso.

Kuhn, Annette (editor) (1999), Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science Fiction Cinema. London and New York: Verso.

Moylan, Tom (1986), Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination. London: Methuen.

Moylan, Tom (2000), Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia. Boulder: Westview Press.

Moylan, Tom and Baccolini, Raffaella (editors) (2007), Utopia, Method, Vision: The Use Value of Social Dreaming. New York: Peter Lang.

Romney, Jonathan (2007), “Green and Pleasant Land” in Film Comment, Jan-Feb 2007, pp. 32-35.

Sargent, Lyman Tower (1994), “The Three Faces of Utopianism” in Utopian Studies, Vol. 5 No 1, pp. 1-37.

Schäfer, Martin (1979), “The Rise and Fall of Antiutopia: Utopia, Gothic Romance, Dystopia” in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 6 No. 3 (Nov., 1979), pp. 287-295. 

Sobchack, Vivian (1999), Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Sontag, Susan (1967), “The Imagination of Disaster” in Sontag, Susan, Against Interpretation and other Essays. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, pp. 209-225.

Suvin, Darko (1973), “Defining the Literary Genre of Utopia: Some Historical Semantics, Some Genology, a Proposal, and a Plea” in Studies in the Literary Imagination, Vol. 6 Issue 2 (Fall 1973), pp. 121-145.

Suvin, Darko (1979), Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Suvin, Darko (2003), “Theses on Dystopia 2001,” in Moylan, Tom and Baccolini, Raffaella (editors),  Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 187-201.

Telotte, J. P. (1995), Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Telotte, J. P. (2001), Science Fiction Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, Raymond (1978), “Utopia and Science Fiction” in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 5 Part 3 (November 1978), pp. 203-214.

Žižek, Slavoj (1997), The Plague of Fantasies. London and New York: Verso.

Žižek, Slavoj (2008c), On Violence. London: Profile Books.

—-

And these need to be added:

Brawley, L. (2008) The Desire Called Dystopia. Criticism. Volume 50, Issue 1. pp.153-159

Brayton, S. (2011) The Racial Politics of Disaster and Dystopia in I am Legend. The Velvet Light Trap. Issue 67, Spring 2011, pp.66-76

O’Toole, J. (1979) Dystopia: The Irresponsible Society. Management Review. Volume 68, Issue 10, pp.8-15

Schell, H. (2001) Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia (review). MFS Modern Fiction Studies. Volume 47, Issue 4. pp.1074-1075 

Lists

I am a great fan of lists. This post lists films, novels, academic writings and other things which may (or may not) be relevant to my thesis project. Most of them have been found in readings or been recommended to me. They will be continually edited to keep an up to date record of my research.

I have to point out that I have not seen all films and TV series listed. Yet.

 - - - (Last updated 2012-03-15)

Academic literature:

AlSayyad, N. (2006) Cinematic urbanism: a history of the modern from reel to real. London: Routledge.

Baccolini, R. (2004) ‘The Persistence of Hope in Dystopian Science Fiction.’ PMLA, 119 (3) pp. 518-521.

Baccolini, R. and Moylan, T. (eds.) (2003), Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge.

Baccolini, R. and Moylan, T. (eds.) (2007) Utopia, Method, Vision: The Use Value of Social Dreaming. New York: Peter Lang.

Beck, B. (2008) ‘Reaping the Whirlwind: The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Liberation and After in the Movies’ Multicultural Perspectives, 10(1) pp. 24-26.

Boake, T.M. (2005/2006) Architecture and Film: Experiential Realities and Dystopic Futures. [online] Available at: http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/pdf/boake_arch_film_colour.pdf [accessed 15 March 2012]

Boeri, S. and Secchi, B. (1990) The Abandoned Areas. Bologna: C.I.P.I.A.

Bordwell, D. (2006) The Way Hollywood Tells it: Story and Style on Modern Movies. Berkeley, California: London: University of California Press.

Bould, M. (2002) ‘The Dreadful Credibility of Absurd Things: A Tendency in Fantasy Theory.’ Historical Materialism, 10(4) pp. 51-88.

Bull, M. (2001) ‘You Can’t Build a New Society with a Stanley Knife.’ London Review of Books, 23(19) pp. 3-7.

Butler, D. (2009) Fantasy Cinema: Impossible Worlds on Screen. London: Wallflower.

Calvino, I. (1974) Invisible cities. London: Secker and Warburg.

Clarke, D. B. (1997) The Cinematic City. London: Routledge.

Clarke, L. (2006) Worst cases: terror and catastrophe in the popular imagination. London: The University of Chicago Press.

Cornea, Christine (2007) Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Davis, M. (1992) City of quartz: excavating the future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books.

Davis, M. (2000) Ecology of fear: Los Angeles and the imagination of disaster. London: Picador.

Davies, M. (2002) Dead Cities. New York: The New Press.

Dick, P. K. (1999) A Scanner Darkly. London: Millenium.

Dix, A. (2008) Beginning Film Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Donawerth, J. (2003) ‘Genre Blending and the Critical Dystopia.’ In Baccolini, R. and Moylan, T. (eds.) Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 29-46.

Duncombe, S. (2007) Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.  New York: The New Press.

Fitting, P. (2003) ‘Unmasking the Real? Critique and Utopia in Recent SF Films.’ In Baccolini, R. and Moylan, T. (eds.) Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 155-166.

Fitzmaurice, T. & Shiel, M. (2001) Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context. Oxford: Blackwell.

Freedman, C. (2000) ‘Science Fiction and Utopia: A Historic-Philosophical Overview.’ In Parrinder, P. (ed.) Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition, and the Politics of Science Fiction and Utopia. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 72-97.

Hunter, I.Q. (ed.) (1999), British Science Fiction Cinema. London and New York: Routledge.

Jameson, F. (2007) Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London: New York: Verso.

Ketterer, D. (1973) ‘Utopian Fantasy as Millennial Motive and Science-Fictional Motif.’ Studies in the Literary Imagination. 6(2) pp. 61-78.

Kuhn, A. (ed.) (1990) Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. London: Verso.

Kuhn, A. (ed.) (1999) Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science Fiction Cinema. London and New York: Verso.

Manaugh, G. (2009) ‘Cities Gone Wild.’ Architectural Design, 79(5) pp. 56-61.

Miles, M. (2003) Urban futures: critical commentaries on shaping the city. London: Routledge.

Moylan, T. (1986) Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination. London: Methuen.

Moylan, T. (2000) Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia. Boulder: Westview Press.

Neumann, D. (1999) Film architecture: set designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner. London: Prestel.

Norton, R. (2003) ‘Feral cities - the new strategic environment.’ Naval War College Review. [online] Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JIW/is_4_56/ai_110458726/ [accessed 30 January 2012]

Pallasmaa, J. (2001) The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema. Helsinki : Rakennustieto.

Redmond, S. (2004) Liquid Metal. London: Wallflower Press.

Sanders, S. (2008) The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film. London: Eurospan.

Sargent, L. T. (1994) ‘The Three Faces of Utopianism.’ Utopian Studies,5(1) pp. 1-37.

Schäfer, M. (1979) ‘The Rise and Fall of Antiutopia: Utopia, Gothic Romance, Dystopia.’ Science Fiction Studies, 6(3) pp. 287-295.

Shonfield, K. (2001) Walls Have Feelings: Architecture, Film and the City. London: Routledge.

Sontag, S. (2004) ‘The Imagination of Disaster’ In Redmond, S. (2004) Liquid Metal. London: Wallflower Press. pp. 40-47.

Scott, F.D.E (2007) Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics After Modernism. London: MIT University Press.

Sorkin, M. (2011) All Over the Map. London: Verso.

Spinney, L. (1996) ‘Return to Paradise.’ New Scientist. Issue 2039, pp. 26-31.

Suvin, D. (2003) ‘Theses on Dystopia 2001.’ In Baccolini, R. and Moylan, T. (eds.) Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 187-201.

Telotte, J. P. (2001) Science Fiction Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, R. (1978) ‘Utopia and Science Fiction.’ Science Fiction Studies, 5(3) pp. 203-214.

Žižek, S. (1997) The Plague of Fantasies. London and New York: Verso.

Žižek, S. (2008) On Violence. London: Profile Books.

Films:

28 Days Later (2002)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Alphaville (1965)

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005 and 1976)

Banlieu 13 (2004)

Banlieu 13 - Ultimatum (2009)

Blade Runner (1982)

Brazil (1985)

Children of Men (2006)

City of God (2003)

Code 46 (2003)

Delicatessen (1991)

District 9 (2009)

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Escape from New York (1981)

I am Legend (2007)

In Time (2011)

Inception (2010)

Intolerance (1916) Babylon section

La Jetée (1962) 

Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Metropolis (1927)

No Blade of Grass (1970)

Nostalgia (1983)

Robots of  Brixton (2011)

Short Cuts (1993)

Stalker (1979)

Strange Days (1995)

The Belly of an Architect (1987)

The Colour of Pomegranates (1968)

The Cloud Atlas (late 2012)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 and 2008)

The Devils (1971)

The Matrix (1999)

The Trial (1962)

Timecode (2000)

Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)

Twelve Monkeys (1995)

Upside Down (mid 2012)

TV Series:

Survivors (1975-1977)

Survivors (2008-2010)

The Day of the Triffids (2009)

The Day of the Triffids (1981)

The Tripods (1984-1985)

Novels:

Ballard, J.G., Crash (1973), Millennium People (2003) and Kingdom Come (2006)

McCarthy, C., The Road (2007)

Mitchell, D., The Cloud Atlas (2004)

Yurick, S., The Warriors (2003)

Games:

Doom

Warhammer 40K