Aims:
- The city in modernism
- The beginnings of an urban society
- They city as public and private spaces
- The city in postmodernism
- The relation of the individual to the crowd in the city
Georg Simmel (1858-1918)
The first person in which we looked at today was Georg Simmel and his book Metropolis and Mental Life (1903). Simmel was a German sociologist who completed this book as part of the Dresden Exhibition in 1903 in which he spoke about the effects of the city but on the individual living there, instead of the other speakers who merely spoke about the city itself.
In which it is stated that 'the city might swallow up individuals from the new buildings and technological mechanisms.'
Form Follows Function
We then looked at the form follows function rule, in which in most designing it is said that the function of the thing being made should be more important that the design or look of it. This term derives from modernism and states forms of art and design should be practical over decorative.
A good example of this is the Guaranty Building in New York, which was designed by Louis Sullivan (1956-1924) who was The Creator of Modern Skyscraper. This building used the form follows function principle well as it was designed to be built in four different zones. The basement, located underground, was the mechanical and utility area as it was not on the surface of the building and was hidden from the public. Next was the ground floor zone, the public area with street facing shops and lobbies. Next was the office floors all clustered around a central elevator and finally was the top zone which consisted of equipment, utilities and a further few offices. What was nice about this building is while it still had this function first the outside, made of terracotta, was still beautifully designed but only after they thought about it all first and these new skyscrapers that were being built represented the rise to power.
The Great Depression (1929)
After the stock market crash of 1929, so began the era of the great depression in America and around this time there were also many photographers willing to get out there and take some fantastic shots of this. During this time, Margaret Bourke-White got some great photographs of people who had to stand in line to get food rations, but where, ironically, stood in front of a massive billboard advertising The American Dream with the happiest people in the world on it, while in fact most people where starving at this time. Its stated that during this period America has the 'Worlds highest standard of living' but this picture clearly tells otherwise.
Photographing the Flanuer
Charles Baudelaire poses that the flanuer is a stroller who walks the city and observes it, by simultaneously being part of a crowd but at the same time not being part of a crowd. This interesting theory sparked a number of different ones to appear around the same time, during the early 20th century and all using the same theory but adapting a very noire look to there different photographs.
Daido Moriyama(1970s) created a series of photographs entitled Shinjuku district of Tokyo. This was a black and white experience of the city, taken almost by a sense of drunken flanuery as he seems to be stumbling down the road taking photographs, by which he got some of his inspiration from William Klein's work.
Could we have a flanuse?
So we have looked upon the subject of a male flanuer, obviously he would be male as flanuer derives from the French male stroller, but could be have a flanuse, a female stroller? The odds seem unlikely due to the fact that at the beginning of the 1900s women would never go anywhere unless accompanied by a man, they wouldn't even go outside alone. Susan Buck-Morss had her own theory that it suggests that women on the street alone are either bag ladies or a prostitute, and this was seen after she spent much time on the street herself observing people, so maybe that does prove that there is such a thing as a flanuse.
So another example of a flanuse could be Sophie Calle, with her pieces entitled Suite Venitienne (1980). In which she would follow strangers around and take photos of them. All of the men she followed would be strangers and this process would entail following someone for a long time until they left and then forget about them and follow someone else, she even followed a man to Venice, after actually meeting him and learning about his trip. Venice is a very symbolic place in this sense as it is said to be a place where you can get lost but not be lost at all and end up where you started. A good example of this is the film Don't Look Now (1973) which involved a couple who went there to get over the death of their child but ended up being followed constantly by a figure in a red cape. Sophie Calle also at one point hired a private detective to follow her and photograph while she followed him and did the same.
L.A Noire
Going back to the subject of noir in which many films, photographs and now even games are based around. L.A Noire (2011) is a game set in 1947 in which you play as a detective in Los Angeles and have to solve a range of cases across five departments. The game used Motion Scan, wherby the actors portraying the games characters where recorded by 32 surround cameras to capture facial expressions from every angle. This is used in the game to be help during interrogations, which are carried out after investigating crime scenes, looking for clues and following up leads. During the interrogation, the questions asked to suspects will provoke reactions so that the player can judge whether or not they are lying, which will then help to ask more questions on the subject or leave it if they are telling the truth.
The game follows the very simple noir style in which it uses plots and aesthetic qualities from film noir and films made in the 1940s and 50s which share very similar visuals and themes. The game uses a very distinctive colour palette that also has the option to play the game in black and white, but during gameplay whether you play in colour or not, all of the cut scenes are in black and white anyway and fade to provide the colour when your in gameplay which is a lovely feature.
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