SteveSuggestsThesisOutlieMania

Steve here with a read through of the thesis outline.

Thesis Outline

“In short, spaces have multiplied, been broken up and have diversified. There are spaces today of every kind and every size, for every use and every function. To live is to pass from one space to another, while doing your best not to bump yourself. “ Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces

Perhaps we take these spaces we move through every day for granted. But maybe we can learn to look at them differently; then nothing will stop us from imagining these spaces anew, imagining other uses, other functions, other possible ways of navigating between them. I believe the first step to do this is to pay attention. I want to reflect on how we perceive urban spaces and reimagine these narratives, by working on a magazine for observing and engaging with a city in a new way.

1. How do tools shape what we see?

I'm interested in how even the simplest tools, which impose certain limitations, can open us up to unexpected opportunities. How can a tool with instructions or a script affect seeing our surroundings in a new way?

In Techniques of the Observer, Johanathan Crary argues that the way we "observe" things didn't just evolve naturally but has always been shaped by new technologies, scientific discoveries, and social changes. Before photography and cinema, people’s understanding and experience of sight were very different.

I am reminded of the artist, educator, and nun Sister Corita Kent, who, using such a simple tool as a cut-out frame in a piece of paper, encouraged her students to observe our surroundings with attention and curiosity. During a zine festival in Groningen, someone told me about her, saying that the paper tool in my project (part of the Scripts to Read the City project) reminded them of what Sister Corita called "the finder".

[<<good that you (a) start with Crary, (b) take an example from history and (c) relate it to your own methods, which make technologies for seeing things in a new way (a parallax view, of sorts). I think this three sided approach will be very productive method throughout the text: (a) an example from a text (b) a physical example (a finder, a camera obscura, a camera lucida, a psychogeographical map, and (c) an example from your own "tool box" of objects (from your sketches, workshops or Fragments magazine)

2. Methods for spontaneous encounters - Situationists approach and the art of chance

This shift in how people saw things described by Crary was foundational for what we now call the "society of the spectacle," where we are heavily influenced by images and visual media. The term "society of the spectacle”, introduced by French theorist Guy Debord in his book The Society of the Spectacle, describes a society influenced and dominated by images, advertising, and media, where appearances are more important than authentic experience. Following this thought I would like to dive into "Report on the Construction of Situations" by Guy Debord (1957). In this manifesto, Debord explains the concept of "constructed situations" encouraging interventions in urban spaces that provoke new ways of seeing and interacting with the city.

I see this chapter as particularly important because it could serve as a testing ground for the magazine I'm working on.

3. What it means to be an expert observer? Attentiveness and paying attention

I’m inspired by observational cinema, or cinéma vérité, that aims to present life as it happens. Filmmaker acting more as an observer than a director, avoiding artificial staging is allowing situations to unfold naturally. I am inspired by how people who work in film view their surroundings, and through the process of editing and cutting footage, extract fragments, scenes, and direct our attention. How do they get to know a place through a camera? This tool makes them curious, makes them to talk to others, learn more, investigate, and film, then cut the footage, and rearrange fragments in a new order to show us how they see the world. The act of cutting footage into fragments and rearranging is something that inspire me in terms of what the narrative in the magazine could be.

Dziga Vertov – Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - This documentary film captures a day in the life of a Soviet city through the eyes of a "movie camera man.” There is no one plot, the film maker is experimenting with montage techniques. Vertov’s approach presents the city as a dynamic, interconnected system.

Agnes Varda – Daguerreotypes (1976) - In this film Varda focuses on her own neighborhood in Paris, capturing the lives of local shopkeepers and residents on Rue Daguerre. Althogh Varda's style is not purely observational, as she includes poetic and personal comments, her work encourages a more intimate observation of the city tangled with human stories.

Frederick Wiseman – In Jackson Heights (2015)- Wiseman’s observational, non-interventionist style invites viewers to engage with life as it unfolds. This documentary dives into the diverse neighborhood in Queens, New York, portraying the lives of its multicultural residents and examining issues of immigration, identity, and community.

What documentaries taught me? Deriving from observational cinema

In this context, the book Why I Make Documentaries by director Soda Kazuhiro is especially important to me. In it, he discusses observational filmmaking, speaking about rejecting the idea of preparing a script before shooting and instead creating a story based on discoveries that happen during the process. He also talks about the unexpected discoveries, encounters, and unintentional adventures that the observational filmmaking approach brings. I agree with not strictly adhering to a script, as it’s so easy to cut out even the most interesting scenes simply because they don’t fit a narrowly defined topic. On the other hand, I believe that a script that remains open to interpretation can actually enhance imagination and open up new ways of exploring public space. I believe that scripts and unpredictable encounters can complement each other, and I’m curious how I could explore this further.

If this research document is meant to open me up to knowledge, and discoveries, how can I then share these insights with others? Research isn’t conducted to stay in a drawer but to be shared and engaged with. Since I’m investigating urban intervetion, and the power of materiality to encourage readers to see urban spaces in a new ways, I imagine telling the story and my findings in a very visual way, almost writing with images. Can I present argumentation in a purely visual form in one chapter? I'm not yet sure how exactly I will formulate my final final research question. Therefore I still dont have a very clear idea how I want to share this research, but I would like it to serve as a testing ground for the magazine.

References:

Johanathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer

Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces

Guy Debord, Report on the Construction of Situations(1957)

The Situationist International (SI) - Situationist maps, like The Naked City (1957), fragment Paris into emotional zones, challenging the conventional ways cities are navigated and understood.

Soda Kazhiro, Why I make documentaries, on observational filmmaking

Kevin Lynch, The image of the city

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Rebecca Solnit, Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas (2010)

Jane Jacobs , The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) - Jacobs emphasized the importance of "eyes on the street" and mixed-use urban areas, critiquing large-scale modernist urban planning in favor of organic, community-oriented design.

Dziga Vertov – Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Agnes Varda – Daguerreotypes (1976)

Frederick Wiseman – In Jackson Heights (2015)