CULS 5409 City Imaginaries and Cinema Poetics

CULS 5409 City Imaginaries and Cinema Poetics Kal Ng Description A critical reading of city image and urban experiences, with self directed film essay as thinking tool. This course is an intersection of urban and cinematic experience, it will examine and investigate the branding images of cities, their implications to our future life, and encourages students to record and decipher their own experience and imagine their living cities with self produced short films essay as counteract to the emerging global phenomenon. Learning Outcome and Activities Course activities involve researching, observing with photography and mapping, critical and independent thinking with essay / digital journal and producing meaningful reflections and commentary through film. Through active production of images, students learn through the logistic of production to move away from passive consumer of images to creative producer of visions, taking hold of making meanings in lifestyle directions within the urban environment and communicate such ideas to others. Theories: For Deleuze, filmmakers are thinkers, and great filmmakers are philosophers, they work in the logic of the image. This logic of creating a certain images reveals the working out of a certain life problem. The story and its representation through moving images indicate how the filmmaker sees the world and how a certain problems are confronted. There may not be solution or resolutions presented, but the image carries a reflection on the situation and hints at possible outcome. The filmmaker, in working out how to shoot a certain subject or story, utilizes certain strategies to construct the image, whether it is due to production limitations or constraining circumstances, the logic of the image represents a viewpoint of the filmmaker on the state of things. The viewpoint takes on a philosophical position and result of thought processes, it ultimately reflects the filmmaker s world view. Instructor: Kal Ng Contact: ngkalung@gmail.com

Course Schedule Number 1 Date Jan 8 Title Readings Exercise/Assignments Imaginary Cities/City Imaginary REQUIRED READING FROM: Simmel, G. (1950). The metropolis and mental life (1903). In K. H. Wolff (Ed. & Trans.), The sociology of Georg Simmel (pp.409-424). New York: Free Press. 2 3 Krause, L., & Petro, P. (2003). Global Cities: cinema, Architecture, and Urbanism in a Digital Age. New Brunswick, NJ; London: Rutgers University Press. AlSayyad, N. (2006). Cinematic urbanism: A history of the modern from reel to real. New York; London: Routledge. Lefebvre, Henri (1996), Writings on Cities. tr. Eleonore Kofman and Elizabeth Lebas. Oxford: Blackwell. Jan 15 Cinema Poetics REQUIRED READING FROM: Abbas, Ackbar (1992), Cinema 1, the Movement- Image, Cinema 2, the Time- Image in Discourse, 14.3, (Summer), pp.185-186. Deleuze, Gilles (1986), Cinema 1, the Movement- Image. tr. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Deleuze, Gilles (1989), Cinema 2, the Time- Image. tr. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Gelata. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Jan 22 Mapping and Perception REQUIRED READING FROM: Crary, Jonathan. Modernity and the Problem of the Observer. Techniques of the Observer: On vision and modernity in the 19th Century. London, England: The MIT Press. (pp. 1-24) Baudrillard, Jean (1984), The Evil Demon of Images. Annan- dalc, Australia: Power Institute. Bruno, Giuliana. Atlas of Emotion : Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film. New York: Verso, 2002. Print. Berger, John. Uses of Photography. About Looking. England London: Bloomsbury, 2009. Print. (pp. 52-67) Assignment 1 : Digital Journal Research: Your City Imaginary

4 Jan 29 European Imagination: Paris REQUIRED READING FROM: Benjamin, W.(1986). "Paris, capital of the nineteenth century." In P.Demetz(Ed.), Reflections: Essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings. New York: Schoken. Assignment 1 DUE De Certeau, Michel (1984). Walking in the city. In The practice of everyday life (S. Rendall, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Lynch, Kevin (1960), Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press. 5 Feb 5 American Reality: New York REQUIRED READING FROM: Koolhaas, R. (1994). Delirious New York: A retroactive manifesto for Manhattan. New York: Monacelli Press. Baudrillard, Jean (1998), America. tr. Chris Turner. London: Verso. Framptom, Kenneth (1980), Modern Architecture: A Critical History. New York: Thames & Hudson. 6 Feb 12 Asian Development: Hong Kong, Shanghai Kerouac, Jack (1957), On the Road. New York City: Viking Press. REQUIRED READING FROM: Donald, Stephanie H. (2000)., The Idea of Hong Kong, in Urban Space and Cityscape. NY: Routledge, pp. 63-72. Braester, Y., & Tweedie, J. (2010). Technology and (Chinese) Ethnicity. In Cinema at the city s edge:film and urban networks in East Asia. HK:Hong Kong University Press, pp.137-150 Assignment 2 : Digital Journal Input: Your Personal Guide Map 7 Feb 26 The South: Mexico City Abbas, Ackbar, Ways of seeing the city and Photographing Disappearance. Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance, University of Minnesota Press, 1 Mar, 1997. (pp76-79, 91-93, 96-99, 102-103, 106-107, 110) REQUIRED READING FROM: Koch, Peter O. (2009). Imaginary City of Gold: The Spanish quest for treasure in North America. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Assignment 2 DUE Camacho, Alicia Schmidt. (2008). Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the U.S.- Mexico Borderlands. New York: NYU Press. Jameson, Fredric (1990), Signatures of the Visible. New York: Routledge.

8 Mar 5 Film Essay and Digital Journal: Creating the Memory Box Jameson. Fredric (1992), The Geopolitical Aesthetic: cinema and space in the world system. Indiana: Indiana University Press. REQUIRED READING FROM: Clark, D.B. (1997). The Cinematic City. London: Routledge. Tarkovsky, Andrei. Sculpting in Time. Assignment 3 : Digital Journal Input: Film Essay Idea and Proposal [Storyboard] Eisenstein, Sergei M. Montage and Architecture. Assemblage No.10, MIT Press, 1989 9 Mar 12 City as Brand: Los Angeles Colomina, Beatriz. Media as Modern Architecture. EXIT 37, architectura II/architecture II, (2010): pp. 128-139 REQUIRED READING FROM: Banham, Reyner (1971) Architecture II: Fantastic In Los Angeles: the architecture of four ecologies Jameson, Fredric (1991), Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso. 10 Neumann, Dietrich (1999). Before and after Metropolis: Film and Architecture in Search of the Modern City In Neumann Dietrich (ed.) Film Architecture: set designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner, pp.33-38 Mar 19 City as Memories: Rome REQUIRED READING FROM: Vidler, Anthony (1933). The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary, Assemblage, No.21 (Aug.), pp.44-59. Rossi, Aldo (1984). The Architecture of the City. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Calvino, Italo (1972). Invisible Cities. Tr. William Weaver. San Diego, NY, London: Harcourt Brace & Co. Assignment 3 DUE 11 Mar 26 City as Simulation: Tokyo De Chirico, Giorgio (1994). Memoirs of Giorgio de Chirico. New York City: Da Capo Press. REQUIRED READING FROM: Boyer, M.Christine The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities. In Assemblage 18 Beigl, M., G. Flachbart, et al. (2005), Disappearing architecture: from real to virtual to quantum. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Gibson, William. My Own Private Tokyo. Wired 9.09, Conde Nast, 2001 Koolhaas, Rem (1995). Generic City In Koolhaas, R., Mau, B., Sigler, J., Werlemann, H., & Office for Metropolitan Architecture. (1995). Small, medium, large, extra- large: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, rem Koolhaas, and Bruce Mau. New York, N.Y: Monacelli Press, pp.1238-1269. Generic City 12 Apr 2 City as Projections: Dubai Film Clip: Yann Arthus- Bertrand s HOME Tourists and Travelers Zizek, Slovoj (2005). Interrogating the Real. London: Continuum. REQUIRED READING FROM: Plate, Liedeke, and Smelik, Anneke. Tourists of History: Souvenirs, Architecture, and the Kitschification of Memory. Technologies of Memory in the Arts. Houuills,Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. (pp. 18-35) Koolhaas, Rem. Junk Space. Content. Taschen, 2004 13 Apr 9 Apr 30 Screening: 10-12 student works De Botton, Alain. (2003) The Art of Travel. London: Penguin. Film Presentation Film Essay Final HAND IN Digital Journal HAND IN Workload: The bulk of the course consists of making a personal Film Essay no longer than 5 minutes long [40%]. Students can use smartphones and DSLR, or video camera from the department to plan, shoot and edit their films. The film is a personal reflections and memories about the experience of living in the city, it can be poetic and non- narrative, composed of arty photography, voice over monologue and selected music. The second assignment is the Research Exercises [25%} which consists of 3 research essays no longer than 700 words. These essays are titled My Home Town Imaginary, My City Imaginary and My Hong Kong Imaginary, they are preliminary exercises in critical thinking and reflections about the lecture, readings and students own experience. The third assignment is a personal Map [15%] created by student to reflect their experience in the city of Hong Kong. It is a collection of photographic survey and diagrams indicating a personal journey through the city as oppose to the official tourist guide. The fourth assignment is a Digital Journal [15%], collecting the working process of the film essay, such as planning, timeline, storyboarding, references, and all the assignments together as a summary report of the work in a semester. It requires the student to present their work in a designed manner and well composed layout for final review. The remaining [5%] of the grade is made up by Attendance.

Assessment Tasks Weighting RESEARCH EXERCISES [3 x 500-700 words essays] 25% MAP 15% SHORT FILM 40% DIGITAL JOURNAL 15% Attendance 5% Total: 100% Activities Number of hours s 13 39 Film Essay Production 40 Research Essay 10 Map Making 6 Digital Journal 25 Total: 120

Learning Resources: Film Clips Examples, hands on at Media Lab with Software tools: Photoshop, imovie, Window Movie Maker, Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects. Using Smartphone, DSLR and HD Video as camera. Suggested Further Readings Barthes, Roland. Image, Music, Text. Ed. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. Print Bordwell, D. and K. Thompson (1993), Film art: an introduction. New York, McGraw- Hill. Bruno, Giuliana. Atlas of Emotion : Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film. New York: Verso, 2002. Print.González, Jennifer A. Subject to Display : Reframing Race in Contemporary Installation Art. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2008. Bruno, Giuliana. Streetwalking on a Ruined Map : Cultural Theory and the City Films of Elvira Notari. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. Print. Manovich, L. (2001), The language of new media. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Architecture of Image : Existential Space in Cinema. Helsinki: Rakennustieto, 2001. Print. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Embodied Image : Imagination and Imagery in Architecture. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2011. Print. (Architecture) Rodowick, D. N. (1997), Gilles Deleuze's time machine. Durham, NC, Duke University Press. Taylor, Diana. The Archive and the Repertoire : Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. Print. Thomas, M. and F. Penz (2003), Architectures of illusion: from motion pictures to navigable interactive environments. Bristol, Intellect. On Narrative. Ed. W. J. Thomas Mitchell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Print. Releasing the Image : From Literature to New Media. Eds. Jacques Khalip and Robert Mitchell. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2011. Print.

Honesty in Academic Work: A Guide for Students and Teachers The Chinese University of Hong Kong places very high importance on honesty in academic work submitted by students, and adopts a policy of zero tolerance on cheating and plagiarism. Any related offence will lead to disciplinary action including termination of studies at the University. All student assignments in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes should be submitted via VeriGuide with effect from September 2008: https://veriguide2.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/cuhk/ Although cases of cheating or plagiarism are rare at the University, everyone should make himself/herself familiar with the content of this website and thereby help avoid any practice that would not be acceptable. Section 1 What is plagiarism http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p01.htm Section 2 Proper use of source material http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p02.htm Section 3 Citation styles http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p03.htm Section 4 Plagiarism and copyright violation http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p04.htm Section 5 CUHK regulations on honesty in academic work http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p05.htm Section 6 CUHK disciplinary guidelines and procedures http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p06.htm Section 7 Guide for teachers and departments http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p07.htm Section 8 Recommended material to be included in course outlines http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p08.htm Section 9 Electronic submission of assignments via VeriGuide http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p09.htm Section 10 Declaration to be included in assignments http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p10.htm