Identity

For my event I watched two movies from The Charm City Cinema Series. This series was meant to celebrate Baltimore by showing films that have to do with the city and/or city spaces. The two films that I watched this week were William H. Whyte’s The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1988) and Little Castles, directed by Skizz Cyzyk (1988). Each film highlights a certain aspect of the city; The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces focuses on open city spaces such as plazas and squares, while Little Castles features the Formstone façade of many buildings in Baltimore. Both of these films have helped contribute to an overall understanding of a city’s identity.
Identity also plays a major role in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. The characters are switching identities, and playing different roles that almost make them lose sight of who they really are. Viola takes on the persona of a eunuch servant named Cesario and fully becomes this new person. She even makes regular visits to Olivia’s home where Olivia tries to woe her into marriage. As the deception continues, she digs herself further and further into a hole when Sir Andrew wants to fight her. But eventually her true identity is revealed when her look-alike brother, Sebastian shows up. When her whole trick is exposed in front of the entire cast of the play, we learn that what defines her, as a person is the clothes she wears. Orsino refuses to call her Viola until she has changed into women’s clothing and continues to call her Cesario, even after he knows the truth. Similar to the way Viola’s clothes define her in Twelfth Night, there are certain elements that define a city which are explored throughout the two films.
The main question proposed in William H. Whyte’s The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces is: “Why do some urban spaces attract people, and others don’t?” This is a really difficult question to tackle, but the movie wonderfully analyzed the different variables that might affect the number of people who are attracted to a certain city plaza. The movie highlighted the main characteristics that distinguish certain plazas from others. Some of the features the film focused on were the amount of places to sit, location with respect to the street, amount of sunlight, incorporation of water, number of trees, and triangulation.
After extreme observation of many open spaces, scholars were able to make many conclusions about what attracts people to one place and not another. For example, they discovered that “people tend to sit where there are places to sit.” After watching the behavior of people as they pass through the squares, researchers observed that people don’t tend to stop and talk in the center of large spaces; instead, they hang around the edges, or where there is a place to sit. Therefore, spaces with a lot of available seating are more likely to attract a larger crowd. Furthermore, if a park is at street level, people are more inclined to walk into it and stay there. If it located above or below street level, people will just observe others for a while and not participate, then walk away. The action happens at street level, not above or below it. Another interesting characteristic of a functional city space is water. The sound of flowing water drowns out the noise of traffic and other people’s conversations, making those passing by likely to stop and stay a while. Also, trees tend to be a deciding factor in whether or not people will aggregate in certain parks or not. Trees form a canopy of protection and shade, while still remaining out in open air, which allows people to feel as though they are not restricted, yet it still protects them from the sun. The last deciding factor of what causes people to populate a certain area is triangulation, or the ability to bring people together. Plazas attract more attention if there is an entertainment attraction, or sculpture for people to look at. After these discoveries of what attracts people to open city spaces, the zoning regulations of New York City were re-done and they encouraged the livening up of existing plazas that are underused.
Similar to the way New York City plazas were restored after the study of city spaces, Baltimore received a facelift when Formstone facades were invented. Little Castles is a short film that highlights “America’s number one beauty treatment: Formstone.” The people interviewed in the film were all from Baltimore, and claimed that the city was the Formstone capital of the world. Before Formstone was invented in 1938, the facades of most buildings were Baltimore brick, which is painted onto the walls. The only problem with Baltimore brick was that it had to be repainted every few years, so when Formstone was invented, it quickly became popular since it removed the problem of maintenance. It was affordable, and looked decent at the time. Now, people claim that it “looks phony, like a false set” from a movie, which it essentially is. As new people move into the old neighborhoods of Baltimore, they are tearing down the Formstone facades. This stirs up the argument of whether or not Formstone, which has been a part of these neighborhoods for over fifty years, should be preserved as a part of the Baltimore historic preservation. But despite the fact that Formstone is slowly disappearing these days, it has become a symbol of the city, much like the Orioles, painted screens, crabs, and white marble steps.
After watching these two films while reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, I began to wonder what it is that defines my hometown, Hillsborough, New Jersey and me as a person. I would like to think I am defined by the activities I partake in and the attitude I have towards life. But then I wonder if that’s truly a good account of who I am. I don’t think clothing can really determine a person’s personality like Shakespeare claims in Twelfth Night. It is only an exterior element and shows no insight towards the inner person. However, cities tend to be defined by their exterior elements, such as the Formstone that defines Baltimore.
It is interesting to think about what makes people choose to populate a certain area, and what defines that area. When I think about my town, I realize that it is probably defined by its farmland. Even though Hillsborough is highly populated and developed, a lot of farmland still remains, which is rare these days. But then when I think about what makes people choose to reside there, I can’t quite think of a reason. Perhaps it is a number of things, much like there are various reasons for people hanging out in a specific city plaza. It could be anything from the type of houses, the school system, the surrounding cities, or the shopping centers. Whatever it is that attracts people also contributes to what defines the town. This makes me realize that it is important to preserve these characteristics. Therefore, I think it is essential that Formstone be preserved on the facades of the buildings in Baltimore. We cannot let something that has come to be known as a symbol of the city just disappear.