METROPOLITAN VISIONS

The modern metropolis - as an abstract idea and as an actual place - is not only the site of the most radical experiments of modernism but is itself an active subject in the imagination and actions of the avant-gardes. Beginning with an examination of the historical and theoretical formation of the modern metropolis as a twentieth century phenomenon, this interdisciplinary comparative study examines how the intersection of architectural design, planning, technology, media and politics transformed the landscape of the city. Looking backwards from the global networked cities of the twenty-first century to the fin-de-siècle cities of the of nineteenth century that underwent the first onslaught of major metropolitan development such as Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, New York, colonial New Delhi and concessionary Shanghai, the metropolis will be studied through various disciplinary lenses including art, architecture, planning, sociology, history, literature and critical theory, with a focus on film. This course offers a cross-cultural perspective on the development and deployment of architectural and urban visions and how they aligned social relations, how they produce and reproduce the image of the city, their effect on the everyday work of building the cities an how they impact everyday life. The course will investigate the architecture, spaces, islands, cities and worlds - built or un-built - envisioned by individuals or groups as responses to the bombardment of the metropolitan experience.

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Come review and celebrate together 100 final movies by HKU students.! Following students presentation, we there be a guest screening showing a short movie "Disconnected" , a short listed short film for HK Fresh Wave

100 Hong Kongs - Video Screening and Presentation. xxx Gallery at 1500 - 2000 Address : B/F, 353-363 Des Voeux Road West, Sai Wan, Hong Kong)  1500-1730 - students presentation 1730-1800 - guest screen

See you there!

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Quiz 4 <Reflections on a type of public space in Hong Kong>

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Selected Reading Responses (2): The Automobile City

'More than anyplace else, California became the symbol of the postwar suburban culture. It pioneered the booms in sports cars, foreign cars, vans and motor homes... The result has been a new type of centerless city, best exemplified by once sleepy and out-of-the-way Orange County.'

p.265, “The Drive-in Culture of Contemporary America.” In Crabgrass frontier: The suburbanization of the United States, JACKSON, Kenneth, New York: Oxford University Press, 1985

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Selected Reading Responses (1): The Skyscraper City

' ..New York, having built too many skycrapers too small ... They no longer know what to do with their city, their streets, their destroyed circulation.' P.58, “The Skyscrapers of New York are too Small!”, in When the cathedrals were white: a journey to the country of the timid people, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, French tr. 1937. 

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Lecture 4 film clip

Jia Zhangke dir. A Touch of Sin (2013)

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Lecture 4 film clip

Jia Zhangke dir. A Touch of Sin (2013)

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 <Occupy: Reflections on the Metropolis and Public Space> Public spaces in the city is an inseparable part of our city. Activities performed in these spaces are exposed to other individuals in the city and hence they are 'public' by default. Take the current protest and the subsequent occupation of streets as an example, it opens up discussions on Hong Kong's infrastructure, pedestrian experiences, transportation system, economic and financial system, public art and performance, etc. in an unprecedented dimension that involves the majority of the population, as well as expatriates and visitors. As this course aims at investigating these facets and to understand their interactions with the architecture of the city, the current event offers the opportunity for a productive and meaningful discussion. Please leave a comment under this thread. Share your thoughts and present your arguments, using the vocabulary and logic that you have learned throughout the course. This is a moment to reflect and to calibrate what you have learned so far in the context of metropolitan Hong Kong.

image source

(up): Protesters erecting barricade with bamboo scaffoldings on 13th OCT 2014, 《852郵報》(Post 852). Retrieved from http://www.post852.com/

(down): Admiralty protest site on 5th OCT 2014, 《852郵報》(Post 852). Retrieved from http://www.post852.com/

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Lecture 5 film clip

David Cronenberg dir. Cosmopolis (2012)

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Lecture 5 film clip

David Cronenberg dir. Cosmopolis (2012)

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Lecture 5 film clip

David Cronenberg dir. Cosmopolis (2012)

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Lecture 3 film clip

Peter Jackson dir. King Kong (2005)

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Lecture 3 film clip

Peter Jackson dir. King Kong (2005)

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Lecture 1 class exercises

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Lecture 1 film clip

Fritz Lang dir. Metropolis (1927)

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Lecture 1 film clip

Fritz Lang dir. Metropolis (1927)

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Lecture 1 film clip

Fritz Lang dir. Metropolis (1927)

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Lecture 1 flim clip

Wong Kar-Wai dir., 2046 (2004)