Two roles were proposed in the three subjected films in this week’s tutorial. Voyeur plays a character that gain pleasure over observing others in an invisible manner, whereas Flaneur is nevertheless the pedestrian, an observer with no other purpose than to be examine the contemporary life.
As the world move on to the industrialise modern era, the concept of privacy fades along with the innovation of technology. A new degree of voyeurism is introduce to the public, the surveillance cameras that had been pre-installed in both private and public space. Especially to the luxurious high-rise modern looking building that gives a vigorous feeling of perfectly sealed security and amenity, over those “vintage” residential packed with all sorted of vividly element such as clear street view, the human view from other small building. The contrast brought out the idea of how architecture changes the old peeping out the window to observe neighbours through the exposed living room to a much silence monitoring through different cameras.
In that sense, it draws an attention to me where a new layer of function of is equipped to the camera. Regardless of it still possess the function of presenting the city to the audience, such as when it is used as an eye to convey messages of films or documentaries. But at the meantime, a new feature of invisible control is also silently sculpting our everyday behavior and our social role.
One more thing interesting (maybe a bit off topic but it intrigues me a lot when combined with the topic of last week lecture) is when comparing Voyeur and Flaneur, the increase of Voyeur is almost correlated to the decrease of Flaneur. Through the improvement of technology, faces of a city or neighbourhond can be show on a square screen effortlessly. As the time of a modern society accelerate over time, many detail of the contemporary architecture was overlooked. We rarely pay much attention to the petty parts like how do the alley of a public estate look like and what is like to be living in Tokyo city. But when we do, the place immediate become a IG-able landmark which is quite humorous to say we are progressing city architecture by not paying attention to it.
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Enjoyed your summary and your reflection, especially when you relate the readings to real life phenomena. But do remember to keep your commentary concise next time.