User:Mania/Thesis - working document
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".
This chapter allows me to reference texts that help situate my methods within a cultural context. By analyzing specific physical examples such as the camera obscura or camera lucida, I can reflect on how they influence my explorations and experiments in seeing and relating to space in new ways.
Linking to my practice, this chapter explores how a magazine through its format, collaborative approach, and being equipped with various tools, becomes an interface for specific actions and experiences, rather than just a container. I want to delve into how a magazine can be considered shared resource that help us observe, see differently, and encourage us to question reality.
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. Drawing from The Society of the Spectacle as the central text here provides me with a foundation to reflect on the value of authentic experiences in a space. I would like to juxtapose specific examples from the Situationists with conversations with experienced friends from urban studies. This chapter is a space for critical reflection on how I can activate the magazine in public spaces.
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. Here I will focus on the subjective side of exploring the city.
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.
Drawing from these examples I will reflect on my practice, which incorporates image-making. This summer, I had the opportunity to work on a short film that involved interventions in public spaces, and it completely captivated me. Filming is wonderful—I started noticing so many beautiful things around me. This experience allowed me to feel how the camera made me braver, as I had to ask people to film them and conduct interviews. Through this tool, I got to know the place better. I still record and photograph a lot, but then I use this footage to translate it into a collage and a publication. The act of cutting footage into fragments and rearranging them inspires me in terms of what the narrative in the magazine could become.
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.
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 would like this thesis to serve as a testing ground for the magazine. Therefore, I see the thesis and the magazine directly linked.
References:
Johanathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer
Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison Objectivity, MIT, (2007)
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)