Whether the city is exorbitant or generic is under debate. The truth is, cities nowadays are always altering or evolving, their images shifting with development, with their complexities exceeding that of the photographic aspects of cities.
The lines between an exorbitant city and a generic one become blurred as we change our perspective: In a global context, cities might become hard to be differentiated as they run on similar systems, thus becoming generic somewhat; it is not until one takes a deeper dive that other elements of cites can be examined. Without a ‘character’, a city would become generic. Such a character could be something to do with history, local culture and so on. Yet, deliberate efforts to infuse character into cities might in an unexpected turn make them lose their exorbitance. Sound-bites and crafty logos might at times do more harm than good.
Then again, being generic is not necessarily bad for the cities as it could imply a new beginning, a liberation that comes with shrugging off the fixed identities, which might be adding more complexity to cities.
Tom Tam
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