GUEST ESSAY: California Dreaming in Concrete Forests of Hong Kong in "The Chungking Express"

by Ruohao Yan

Chungking Express, a 1994 movie about romantic and urban life in Hong Kong, depicts the glamour of the metropolitan life and social issues in Hong Kong. The film director, Wong Kar-Wai, describes two love stories between ordinary citizens. In the first romantic story, a police officer, went by the number “223” broke up with his girlfriend on April fool's day, but he was trying to salvage his relationship with her. A month later, he found that his girlfriend had a new love, so chose to give up and went to a bar to forget. He met a female drug dealer in the bar who was betrayed by her boyfriend. The two spent the night together. However, their relationship did not work out. In the second story, a police officer, went by the number “663”, had been in a depression for a long time due to his breakup with his girlfriend. The film not only highlights the beauty of Hong Kong, but also touches upon the dark side of society

Editorial, Essay, Column, 2019, Foreign Film, Independent Film, GUEST EDITORIAL, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 10, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: The Beginning of ("Her")

By Patrick Marcel Donte Winston

An in-depth analysis of Spike Jonze's 2013 film Her, and its relation to progressing artificial intelligence and architecture. Specifically, I question the need of tech in our society and whether it is a benefit or danger to our societal norms. We see technology quickly becoming more advanced in the past 10 years, but will it become God-like? We see advanced technology as our main source of communication, transportation, living, and more. While being so connected to this tech-driven lifestyle, what if we lost control of technology and can't communicate with it?

Editorial, Essay, Column, Independent Film, Home Media, GUEST EDITORIAL, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 10, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: The Pursuit in Deconstructing the Dream

By Ezekiel Nelson

In a setting where the ideal suburban life has manifested into its full form, far separate from urban pressures, individual lifestyles and attitudes begin to morph into something distinctively different than that of city living. Settling into a home and life vacant of shops, plazas, markets, and all other services and opportunities the urban fabric has to offer rids one of everyday meaningful experiences. The small section of the suburban world one occupies condenses and poorly simplifies life through a narrow view frame. In such a sterile setting, common distractions are sanitized and eradicated, along with environmental sensory stimulation. This may be beneficial for short periods of time, but environmental stimulation is also necessary for human existence and sense of identity.

2019, Column, Editorial, EssayDon ShanahanDecember 8, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: A Fantastic City of Chocolate

By Asucena Alvarado

In the world, people are producing many films that make our lives more enjoyable, and with each film, we can learn, dream, see the impossible, and believe that anything is possible in life. Even though we know there are some things that are just fantasy, but movies help us to think that everything could happen. A good example of a fantasy story is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where we can see that be humble and kind can give you a reward, but in the real world, we know this is not always true. Here, I want to make a deep research about the film and how the capitalization, the utopian vs dystopian and the past vs present are reflected in this movie, and how it is related to architecture.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanDecember 7, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: The Architecture of Hope and Desolation in "Children of Men"

By Jessica Ishizaka

Children of Men poses a future where infertility threatens the human race with extinction. With the death of the youngest person in the world, many extreme groups have risen in order to gain control and take matters into their own hands. Laws are put in place to detain and deport immigrants and to control the citizens of London. The director of the film, Alfonso Cuarón, creates a political atmosphere that is particularly ruthless as he paints the world in a shade of dread and grime. The world and everything in it have been worn down and abused for 20 years, and no one has the ambition to replace or renovate anything since the extinction of the human race is near.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 7, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: The impact of modern society and the urban environment on anxiety

by Sheng Chen

In the industrial society of the late 20th century, there was consumerism, nihilism, and end-of-life sentiment in the capital world. By analyzing David Fincher's Fight Club, this article will explore the impact of modern society and the urban environment on people's anxiety.

Column, Editorial, Essay, GUEST EDITORIAL, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 6, 2019 Comments

GUEST ESSAY: The Banal and the Sublime

By Cheuk Yiu Chan

The meaning of the sublime according to Edward Hirsch refers to use of language and description that excites thoughts and emotions beyond ordinary experience. Though often associated with scale and grandeur, the sublime may also refer to the grotesque or other extraordinary experiences that take us beyond ourselves. The qualities of the sublime are captured visually and viscerally in the awe inspiring renditions seen in the romantic style of painting and poetry in the 19th century. Romanticism speaks of nature and revels in its uncontrollable, incalculable forces, and at the root of this mode of expression is a deep interest in the human emotional state, and the state of being. There is a case however, such with the film Still Walking, where ideas of the sublime are not expressed through scale and ferocity, but rather paradoxically, through the banal and dormant aspects of everyday life. This paper will attempt to explore the ways in which elements of the banal and the ordinary were used to express the sublime qualities of the non-physical; death, memory, and time.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 6, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: Is Architecture Evolving?

By Hojun Wiitanen

What is architecture? The conceptual misinterpretation of architecture is an “object”. Architecture is not an object and not only a building because buildings are mainly stuff. In my opinion, Architecture is an active connection and a system that initiates a relationship between material spaces and people. Also, it structures that relationship, and it structures what we call the relation between space and organized society. The architecture cannot evolve when people use spaces for the sole use of shelter rather than connecting material spaces and people; therefore, to evolve the architectural value of connecting material space and people, basic human needs should be satisfied. 

2019, Column, Essay, Editorial, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 6, 2019 Comment

GUEST ESSAY: Architecture is Only Temporary

By Nick Tarver

Produced by Pixar Animation Studios, the movie Up highlights the life of Carl Fredricksen, an elderly, recently widowed man. Along the way, Fredricksen meets two unlikely companions that would accompany him during his journey to fulfill his promise that he made to his late wife, Ellie. Aside from the feel-good storyline, the film offers an architectural aspect that explores the human connection to the built environment. Fredricksen has a hard time coming to terms with the death of his wife and it seems like everything he is surrounded by reminds him of her. Fredricksen, with the help of his two new friends, Russell and Dug, decides the only way he would fulfill his and his wife’s dream of seeing the ins-and-outs of South America would be to take his house, which ultimately symbolizes Ellie, with him. UP demonstrates the idea of place and how the built environment has the ability to emotionally and spiritually resonate with an individual, ultimately resulting in equally positive and negative impacts on both a personal and societal level.

2019, Column, Essay, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 6, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: The Red and Blue Pill within Capitalism: Exploring Control and Consumerism in “The Matrix”

By Yousreng He

The future that The Matrix predicts is dystopian because the people in the film generally pretend to ignore their thoughts and desire, indeed their humanity, because they believe what they do not know cannot hurt them. The influence that makes people choose ignorance has come from the power of capitalism, which is very capable of controlling people physically and mentally. The power of capitalism is enormous in the film, kind of like a big engine that genetically engineers slave labor. It is very telling that most people go to work not because they like what they do, but because they want to put food on their tables and money in their pockets. That dependence on the capital goods that people have come to expect is how capitalism controls people in the Matrix.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanDecember 2, 2019 Comments

GUEST ESSAY: Existentialism and Mental Dilemma in the Spaces of "Birdman"

By Prem Jongdeenarn

The film depicts the behavior of the egotism of the main character, Riggan Thomson, who lacks public attention leading to an existential crisis, thus affecting his mental dilemma. Moreover, he always repeats himself with disappointments from society’s ignorance, and desires to overwhelm all the negative experiences by returning to be famous in society. Therefore, the philosophy of existentialism is related to Birdman through the description of the freedom, action, prestige, and the yearning for existence in society of the main character through architectural elements. In addition, the concept of realism in cinematography known as a long take is used to clarify the central character’s crisis, which will be discussed in the next paragraphs from an architectural viewpoint.

Essay, SPECIAL, GUEST EDITORIAL, Editorial, ColumnDon ShanahanDecember 1, 2019 Comments