George Lucas hates cities. At least that’s what I gather from decades of watching and rewatching the original Star Wars movies.
The Star Wars movies are famous for hewing to archetypal stories—hero sets out to save galaxy from evil warlords, hero confronts his (familial) past, hero grapples with his role as a savior. And the movies’ portrayal of urban agglomerations is similarly archetypal, drawing on a long tradition of damning the city while praising the countryside.
Check out these works of art created by graphic artist Cayla Ferari and engineer John Breznicky. What started out as a clever way to jazz up the walls of their NY apartment turned into a full fledged entrepreneurial endeavor.
The first version was a minimalist take of the NY subway system. Today Lineposters.com has versions representing transit systems from all over the world.
Photo credit: BBC News
Happy Earth Week! I thought I would share this neat story covered by BBC News. Manila, one of the most polluted cities in the world, is employing artists to paint murals on a massive scale. The goal? To eat up that grimy nitrogen oxide and clean the air with catalytic paint. Currently, the capital city suffers from high rates of asthma and bronchitis due to the excessive smog.
A discussion between Gary Hustwitt, James Corner and Ricky Burdett on the movie URBANIZED, a documentary film by Gary Hustwit
http://vimeo.com/40471466
Urbanized is a feature-length documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. On April 12, PennDesign Dean Marilyn Jordan Taylor joined filmmaker Gary Hustwit in conversation with two of the film's participants, James Corner, Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at PennDesign and Principal, James Corner Field Operations and Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies and Director, LSE Cities and Urban Age/Global Distinguished Professor, New York University, following a screening of the film.
I meant to post this a while ago. Here is a special issue of the Lo Squaderno journal (open access) on urban knowledge.
The above is the cover that includes one of the photos used throughout the issue. My article on popular culture and urban knowledge is the closing piece. I tried to reflect a little on how popular culture makes place, and what type of vision of place it produces.
