The perception of the city through television series: Athens in tv series 2007-2009
Zervou Angeliki, master's thesis, 2009-2010
The development of visual media in the 20th century made photography, cinema and television the most important means of framing urban space. The material landscape itself –buildings, parks, streets, markets- has become the city’s most important visual representation. Ever since the movie camera reproduced an urban space over 100 years ago, the relationship between cinema and city has been constant and the different visual media developed thereafter always provide important references, views and ideas on the urban lifestyles, landscapes and culture.
Man with a movie camera(D.Vertov 1929), Il desserto rosso(M.Antonioni 1964), Manhattan(W.Allen 1979)
Television has strong connotations of modern urbanity (Buonanno, 2008:23), and tends to be rich in urban content and imagery because most broadcasting companies are city-based and so direct their attention towards civic affairs and happenings (Clark, 2003: 125). Viewers are exposed to pictures of cities as places, and the activities and dialogue about the lifestyles and patterns of behavior which take place within them. Urban living is promoted by films and broadcasts, urban fashions are popularized and the relationships which underpin urban communities are explored.
"Wild Kids", "I saw you", "Wonderful Creatures", stills from tv series
The art of storytelling has always been present since the very beginning of mankind and its position is central for the formation of every society and the social relations within it. The structuring of narratives, of stories, is an essential tool for giving order and meaning to the circulation and continuity of events and thus for reconstructing a comprehensible representation of collective experiences of the world around us. Television has materialized and expressed itself as the central narrative system in the second half of the twentieth century (Buonanno, 2008:71, 78). Stories narrated by television have important cultural significance, however unoriginal, banal and repetitive they may seem, since they provide their audience with an up-to-date reflection of daily life situations within the urban environment. Weekly broadcasted tv series often include layers of city reportage and audience interaction, which brings them even closer to the reality of the city and makes it easier for the people to relate to them.
Starting around 1950 in the United States, the broader category of television series has undergone a lot of changes in format and in approaching its subject and has also evolved many sub-divisions and genres. From the first “unrealistic”, posh American soap operas like Dallas and Dynasty, and the British Social Realism “kitchen-sink” – working class dramas, the genre has now moved to city/lifestyle-consuming, identity-fashioning tv series.
Taking the city of Athens as a case study for this research, the research looked into the way developments and changes in the built environment, the social and political sphere of the city have appeared in early Greek cinema and television, from the first broadcasting period until the city’s preparation for the Olympic Games of 2004.During the last 15 years Athens is trying to trace its Olympic-cultural-international face. The city wants to change its image, its appearance, its scale and to form a new urban identity in order to establish a place in the international metropolitan map.
Through powerful images on television, newspapers, magazines and exhibitions, issues of urban planning, developments and transformations of the urban space are transferred from the level of scientific debates to the broad audience in a lifestyle sense. Until 2000, the urbanization of the city was based on private reconstruction and interests. Starting from the Olympic Games period, the results of the previous urbanization phase are now being reconsidered, from a point of view related to image and spectacle. In this sense, the transition here does not refer to something new but to a different approach of the existing situation that changes everything . Here, the urbanization process is re-established through a detachment between user/citizen and environment/city and an active handling of their reconnection in different terms. The effect of spectacle in the current period of Athens’ urban development creates the conditions of a peculiar completion leading to an ultimate fulfillment of urban planning through its conclusive cancellation .
"Wonderful Creatures", "I saw you", "Wild kids", series logos
The main focus of the thesis was the analysis of three chosen tv series broadcasted between 2007 and 2009[“Wonderful Creatures” , “I saw you” , “Wild Kids”]. Each one of the chosen series has a different approach and deals with different aspects of Athens, adding points of interest and contributing in approaching the thesis questions from more than one point of view.
series' areas of action within Athens
The methodological tools used for this analysis included mapping each series’ area(s) of “action” and interest within the city, identifying the types of spaces they chose to show and pointing out the reasons for these choices, as well as interviewing people involved in the making of each one of the three series (directors, script writers, production companies) and the free-press newspaper connected with two of them.
The last and most important tool was making connections between the series and the on-going discussion about the city and analyzing the questions and matters rising from them.
These questions refer to:
• The formation of a new identity for Athens and its people and
• the contribution of television and other media within the city context such as the free-press newspaper Athens Voice
• The televisual composition of a hybrid “urban condition” comprised by the elements that form the urban reality of the Greek contemporary city
• Changes related to the city’s built environment such as:
• The importance and re-inhabitation of the centre of Athens
• the processes of gentrification starting to take place in certain areas
• The formation of a habitation model and its changing fashions
"Wonderful Creatures", episode stills
"I saw you", episode stills
"Wild Kids", episode stills
It seems that now audience and creators no longer want to escape from Athens. By stating their creative presence within the city, they seek to convert the aspects that until recently were considered as disadvantages into advantages, and through a positive/humoristic attitude to designate them as substantial characteristics that constitute the metropolitan culture of Athens. This tendency of re-approaching, re-understanding and re-loving the city for what it really is, away from past stereotypes and myths can be seen in a number of creative activities during the last decade, from the city’s emerging music scene, Athens-based newspapers and magazines, television and cinema production to the 1st Athens Biennale held in 2007 entitled “Destroy Athens- Destroy the myths of Athens” .
download full text in pdf
Man with a movie camera(D.Vertov 1929), Il desserto rosso(M.Antonioni 1964), Manhattan(W.Allen 1979)
Television has strong connotations of modern urbanity (Buonanno, 2008:23), and tends to be rich in urban content and imagery because most broadcasting companies are city-based and so direct their attention towards civic affairs and happenings (Clark, 2003: 125). Viewers are exposed to pictures of cities as places, and the activities and dialogue about the lifestyles and patterns of behavior which take place within them. Urban living is promoted by films and broadcasts, urban fashions are popularized and the relationships which underpin urban communities are explored.
"Wild Kids", "I saw you", "Wonderful Creatures", stills from tv series
The art of storytelling has always been present since the very beginning of mankind and its position is central for the formation of every society and the social relations within it. The structuring of narratives, of stories, is an essential tool for giving order and meaning to the circulation and continuity of events and thus for reconstructing a comprehensible representation of collective experiences of the world around us. Television has materialized and expressed itself as the central narrative system in the second half of the twentieth century (Buonanno, 2008:71, 78). Stories narrated by television have important cultural significance, however unoriginal, banal and repetitive they may seem, since they provide their audience with an up-to-date reflection of daily life situations within the urban environment. Weekly broadcasted tv series often include layers of city reportage and audience interaction, which brings them even closer to the reality of the city and makes it easier for the people to relate to them.
Starting around 1950 in the United States, the broader category of television series has undergone a lot of changes in format and in approaching its subject and has also evolved many sub-divisions and genres. From the first “unrealistic”, posh American soap operas like Dallas and Dynasty, and the British Social Realism “kitchen-sink” – working class dramas, the genre has now moved to city/lifestyle-consuming, identity-fashioning tv series.
Taking the city of Athens as a case study for this research, the research looked into the way developments and changes in the built environment, the social and political sphere of the city have appeared in early Greek cinema and television, from the first broadcasting period until the city’s preparation for the Olympic Games of 2004.During the last 15 years Athens is trying to trace its Olympic-cultural-international face. The city wants to change its image, its appearance, its scale and to form a new urban identity in order to establish a place in the international metropolitan map.
Through powerful images on television, newspapers, magazines and exhibitions, issues of urban planning, developments and transformations of the urban space are transferred from the level of scientific debates to the broad audience in a lifestyle sense. Until 2000, the urbanization of the city was based on private reconstruction and interests. Starting from the Olympic Games period, the results of the previous urbanization phase are now being reconsidered, from a point of view related to image and spectacle. In this sense, the transition here does not refer to something new but to a different approach of the existing situation that changes everything . Here, the urbanization process is re-established through a detachment between user/citizen and environment/city and an active handling of their reconnection in different terms. The effect of spectacle in the current period of Athens’ urban development creates the conditions of a peculiar completion leading to an ultimate fulfillment of urban planning through its conclusive cancellation .
"Wonderful Creatures", "I saw you", "Wild kids", series logos
The main focus of the thesis was the analysis of three chosen tv series broadcasted between 2007 and 2009[“Wonderful Creatures” , “I saw you” , “Wild Kids”]. Each one of the chosen series has a different approach and deals with different aspects of Athens, adding points of interest and contributing in approaching the thesis questions from more than one point of view.
series' areas of action within AthensThe methodological tools used for this analysis included mapping each series’ area(s) of “action” and interest within the city, identifying the types of spaces they chose to show and pointing out the reasons for these choices, as well as interviewing people involved in the making of each one of the three series (directors, script writers, production companies) and the free-press newspaper connected with two of them.
The last and most important tool was making connections between the series and the on-going discussion about the city and analyzing the questions and matters rising from them.
These questions refer to:
• The formation of a new identity for Athens and its people and
• the contribution of television and other media within the city context such as the free-press newspaper Athens Voice
• The televisual composition of a hybrid “urban condition” comprised by the elements that form the urban reality of the Greek contemporary city
• Changes related to the city’s built environment such as:
• The importance and re-inhabitation of the centre of Athens
• the processes of gentrification starting to take place in certain areas
• The formation of a habitation model and its changing fashions
"Wonderful Creatures", episode stills
"I saw you", episode stills
"Wild Kids", episode stills
It seems that now audience and creators no longer want to escape from Athens. By stating their creative presence within the city, they seek to convert the aspects that until recently were considered as disadvantages into advantages, and through a positive/humoristic attitude to designate them as substantial characteristics that constitute the metropolitan culture of Athens. This tendency of re-approaching, re-understanding and re-loving the city for what it really is, away from past stereotypes and myths can be seen in a number of creative activities during the last decade, from the city’s emerging music scene, Athens-based newspapers and magazines, television and cinema production to the 1st Athens Biennale held in 2007 entitled “Destroy Athens- Destroy the myths of Athens” .
download full text in pdf
