Naomi Litman-Zelle-an interesting perspective of the city

http://vodpod.com/watch/4021861-u-b-u-w-e-b-film-video-hilary-harris-organism-1975

We've been talking quite a bit about the city in terms of space and place in class. This video was shown to me by my dad a few years ago, and I thought it tied in well with these ides. The film by Hilary Harris is perhaps one of the most unique ways I've seen the city depicted. Harris, in the film titled "Organism" shows clips of the different cellular organisms followed by clips featuring different urban settings captured in a time-lapse so everything is sped up. The juxtaposition of these clips brings to light the  many similarities between the two, as if to say that the city is its own living entity. This idea ties nicely to the ideas we've been discussing regarding space as a practiced place. It also speaks to the idea that the power of the city is ambient. If the city is its own organism, brought to life in Harris's film by people moving about it, then the concept of power being manifested in the city's ambient qualities, at least to me, becomes a bit more realistic. The video is long, but it's worth watching at least a few minutes of it to get the idea Harris is trying to convey, and it definitely made me think about how we physically build cities and populate them in a way that almost nearly replicates a life form.