Beyond the Panoptic View
“The 1370-foot-tower that serves as a prow for Manhattan continues to construct the fiction that creates readers, makes the complexity of the city readable and immobilizes its opaque mobility in a transparent text”
- Michael de Certaeu, The Practice of Everyday Life pp. 112
As suggested by De Certaeu’s commentary, humanity has historically strived to obtain the ‘all-seeing power’ of separating oneself from daily behaviors found ‘down below’ and simplifying the complexities of life into understandable units. It has symbolically tried to categorically organize the city, labeling certain places as “mystical,” “exotic,” or “politically repressed” as if to conglomerate the messiness of individual experiences into understandable stories and easy-to-process realities. After all, labeling a city as one cohesive entity makes it easier to market touristically, study historically and interact with intuitively. However, the ease of viewing the city from a lofty removed vantage point comes at the cost of critically engaging with the area one observes. It has practically resulted in schisms between understanding the ‘urban fact’ of every day life and portraying the idyllic ‘concept’ of the city.
Moscow, despite its reputation for political control and repression, has made recent strides to elevate freedom of individual speech. Istanbul, although stereotyped to be a mystical and Oriental city, is in the process of discovering its ideal identity. Mumbai, although colorful and culturally inviting, is not the advertised vacation hub it is marketed to be—it is unabashedly aware of its identity and its people. Cities are meant to be explored, lived and engaged with, not read passively and categorized uncritically. It is only by examining the idiosyncrasies of those who traverse the city and the daily realities which locals face can one authentically approach urban studies. By critically studying the city through an anthropologically sensitive lens, one that values an individual’s voice in juxtaposition to label prescribed to his or her area, one can experience the most powerful city narrative of all.