Locative Media & The City

Two little thoughts on the Vertov film. One has to do with those early shots of the city in the morning. The city is almost empty; there’s only one car passing through an intersection, or a lonely passer-by cutting through the corner of the frame. And my first thought was: Why not entirely empty? I guess the answer has to do with the idea of the city as an organism, as opposed to a mere architectural structure (social constructivism vs. spatial determinism?). I mean, imagine shots of an entirely empty city: that would just be an architectural arrangement, something inanimate, a monument. Here, on the other hand, we see the city as a sleeping, living organism; it’s almost as if the city was breathing in its sleep through these sporadic, solitary crossings. (And then of course the idea of the city as an organism is developed throughout the film in a much more explicit form: see for instance that later cut form the woman washing her face to the streets being washed, etc.). The other thing I wanted to mention (somehow in relation to this ‘organic’ view of the city) is that I really don’t see how some people can read all that class struggle thing into the film. I even read a critique which suggested that Vertov was trying to stress a contrast between “the active and busy cameraman and the late-rising woman”, him a healthy member of the early-rising working classes, her the prototype of the corrupt bourgeoisie. On the contrary, it seems to me that in this joyous, over-optimistic view of work and technology there’s even space for the late-risers. The organism seems to be so healthy and harmonic that almost any trace of conflict disappears form it. And of course I’m aware that to read the film in this way is slightly sinister, because on some level this reading implicitly sanctions the view of those soviet cadres who ended up condemning the film for not being “revolutionary” enough. Now, I’m not saying that I endorse that revolutionary agenda (nor that I don’t, incidentally: I’m just not saying anything about it), but certainly I can see how, from the point of view of someone who does, the film wouldn’t look like the best tool of propaganda.