Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
landscapes and vistas), “atlases” (visual archives and spatiovisual as-
semblies), and “aerial views” (“god's-eye” or bird's-eye perspectives from
planes or hot-air balloons) define a cinematic topography in which the
mapping impulse is a central cognitive element. Drawing atention to
the broad and complex theoretical terrain within which mapping and
cartographic practices are embedded, Castro notes that “mapping can
therefore refer to a multitude of processes, from the cognitive opera-
tions implied in the structuring of spatial knowledge to the discursive
implications of a particular visual regime.”
21
Finally, the last category in Roberts's suggested five-point typol-
ogy of cinematic cartographies is what the artist and filmmaker Patrick
Keiller has dubbed “film as spatial critique.”
22
To date, the most produc-
tive resource for research in this area has been archival film materials
from the early days of film (1890s-1910s) and the postwar period (1950s-
1970s). In the case of the later, archival research into Liverpool on ilm
illustrates ways in which a spatial reading of films of postwar urban land-
scapes exposes and articulates some of the contested or contradictory
spatialities emerging during this period as a result of large-scale and
controversial modernist urban planning, which left its destructive stamp
on many cities during the 1960s and 1970s.
23
In contrast to the emphasis on feature films in all the above ap-
proaches, the University of Liverpool's City in Film project is the first at-
tempt to comprehensively map the wide range of genres and production
practices that have contributed to how the local and regional has been
perceived and projected in moving image media.
24
Focusing on factual
productions, over 1,700 items have been cataloged, ranging from actu-
alities, travelogues, newsreel footage, amateur and independent produc-
tions, promotional material, and campaign videos and enabling in-depth
analysis and the development of a socially and spatially embedded read-
ing of what Roberts has termed “the archive city.”
25
As well as cataloging
the films using conventional data such as title, producer, date, duration,
format, and so on, wherever possible the films have been viewed and
cataloged according to the buildings and locations depicted and their
spatial function and use. This has enabled us to study in some depth the
dynamic ways in which moving images are invested in the everyday pro-
duction of locality, space, and subjective identities and how particular
