While Spike Jonze's new movie. "Her" provides a chilling outlook on our relationship with technology, it also paints a frightening image of our future cities. It is suggested that Theodore, the movie's main character, lives in Los Angeles, however, in image, this future Los Angeles is composed quite literally of pieces from two different cities across the globe from each other: L.A. and Shanghai. The pieces themselves are not images we would immediately associate with either city, and so the effect is a city that we as humans can at once all relate to, but are unable to pinpoint to a specific place. To reinforce this idea, the composition of the general public is a happy mixture of all sexes, cultures, and races-lending to its familiarity and lack of "there-ness." The suggestion is, perhaps, that we are standardizing ourselves into a corner.
With the ability of technology to collapse time and space comes an ability to standardize on a global scale and the lack of uniqueness that our cities are facing. Think of the ubiquity of Starbucks, bike share programs, and infrastructure turned parks in cities around the world. Even the elements that try to set cities apart are quickly copied by cities everywhere in a hope to reap the same benefits. The Highline in New York is a poster child for this idea. While the base infrastructure of the Highline park is unique to New York, the idea of an elevated park on an old train line was quickly reproduced in cities across the world, hoping to capture the same economic, cultural and social benefits.
To say something about the movie's main message, Jonze captured the essence of technology's ability to change how we interact (or don't) with the world as well as how we interact (or don't) with each other. TV shows like Catfish, on MTV, and the love stories featured in the New York Time's Modern Love column show a growing trend among us to live further apart but use technology to bring us emotionally, if not physically, together. In this there is an irony-with a growing urban population word-wide, we are living closer to others than ever before. So, why do we need technology to close the time/space gap and feel intimate with other humans when there are humans all around us? In "Her," Theodore is constantly surrounded by other people-on the street, in the office, at the beach, and yet he feels completely alone. This feeling seems to be spurred on by the lack of "uniqueness," of being a small fish in a big pond, and an inability to see any impact that he has on the world around him. Perhaps, we humans and our cities face the same crisis: an identity crisis occurring on drastically different scales.
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| A scene from the movie, Her, supposedly set in Los Angeles. Source: whatdidnatthinkofit.com. |
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| The Lujiazui skyline in Pudong, Shanghai. Look familiar? Source: wikipedia.org |
With the ability of technology to collapse time and space comes an ability to standardize on a global scale and the lack of uniqueness that our cities are facing. Think of the ubiquity of Starbucks, bike share programs, and infrastructure turned parks in cities around the world. Even the elements that try to set cities apart are quickly copied by cities everywhere in a hope to reap the same benefits. The Highline in New York is a poster child for this idea. While the base infrastructure of the Highline park is unique to New York, the idea of an elevated park on an old train line was quickly reproduced in cities across the world, hoping to capture the same economic, cultural and social benefits.
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| The public in "Her" is a heterogeneous mix of people from across backgrounds. Source: screenrant.com |
To say something about the movie's main message, Jonze captured the essence of technology's ability to change how we interact (or don't) with the world as well as how we interact (or don't) with each other. TV shows like Catfish, on MTV, and the love stories featured in the New York Time's Modern Love column show a growing trend among us to live further apart but use technology to bring us emotionally, if not physically, together. In this there is an irony-with a growing urban population word-wide, we are living closer to others than ever before. So, why do we need technology to close the time/space gap and feel intimate with other humans when there are humans all around us? In "Her," Theodore is constantly surrounded by other people-on the street, in the office, at the beach, and yet he feels completely alone. This feeling seems to be spurred on by the lack of "uniqueness," of being a small fish in a big pond, and an inability to see any impact that he has on the world around him. Perhaps, we humans and our cities face the same crisis: an identity crisis occurring on drastically different scales.
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