City, Its People and Its Buildings

Headline: Man with a Movie Camera

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In "Man with a Movie Camera" Dziga Vertov uses wonderfully original and creative cinematic techniques that had not previously been utilized, and for that reason this film has been lauded as one of the best silent films ever produced. From a basic point-of-view it is a futuristic documentary on city life in the Soviet cities of Kiev, Moscow and Odessa. From a more flexible, liberal point-of-view, what Vertov was doing was to create images that represent a city of the future, and to make people think about what they are seeing. The images of industrialization, of transportation (trolleys on many tracks crisscrossing city streets), of workers putting strong efforts into their jobs, of a woman getting dressed, and of a man making movies -- all these images relate to the city.

Video links with a News Source: What was missing in the movie -- or at least was understated -- was public art and design. Perhaps there wasn't very much public art in 1929 in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, in the October 27 issue of Atlanta Magazine, the writer talks about the public art that is on display in the Krog Tunnel in Atlanta. A private party was given -- a masked ball, presumably linked to Halloween -- in the tunnel and people paid $100 per person to attend (Burns, 2014). There were loud objections to this private affair, including protests from street artists who contended that public art shouldn't be "co-opted for a private event" (Burns, p. 1).

Global Issue: Public Art / Public Design: Burns was no uninterested bystander during the protest process that went on, because she was part of the Neighborhood Planning Unit in Atlanta that objected to the city giving a permit. The protests were not just about collecting money from people who attended a private showing of public art (and who gets the money collected from tickets), but the protest was also about "tying up a key artery" in the city and how that blockage of a main thoroughfare inconveniences "hundreds of households" (Burns, p. 2).

How do these articles relate to design? How do they link to other disciplines? All this fuss took place because street art ("public art") in Atlanta is an "exciting" emerging movement; "murals and installations enliven our city and make it more engaging" even though it draws tourists who contribute to traffic snarls (Burns, p. 2). However, when one organization seeks to profit and benefit from public art that should be "free," Burns does a slow burn in her article, and makes her point that while Atlanta is home to an emerging art scene some tighter restrictions should be place on private groups profiting at the expense of the public.

Meanwhile there is also controversy in New York City over the One World Trade Center, which is now complete and is positioned in the spot that the twin towers of the World Trade Center occupied until they were ruined on September 11, 2001. The writer, Zachary M. Seward, claims that what emerged in Manhattan was "never going to be an architectural masterpiece" and that it would be hard to imagine "…anyone getting worked up over this design" (Seward, 2014).

Part of the disappointment that Seward expresses is due to the fact that the only real purpose in building a replacement for the World Trade Center is that "When it was finished, the world would know that New York had rebuilt." In other words, no matter how bland or undistinguished the final version of this New York landmark would be, it would symbolize that New York has bounced back from that terrible morning in 2001. Seward points out how often the design idea changed as the project worked its way through the planning process.