Urban Jungle
Definition
Urban Jungle is a dangerous, bewilderingly complex, or fast-paced urban environment; an urban area characterized by ruthless competition, struggle, or exploitation.
Research and Interpretation
The phrase Urban Jungle is recorded to have been in use since the Mid-19th century; earliest use found in The Times.
Or; a modern city or urban area filled with large buildings and regarded especially as a harshly competitive, unwelcoming, or dangerous place.
In essence, it is the city life, especially the unpleasant parts of it.
Key words: Traffic noise, pollution, huge concrete buildings
The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.
No games in the concrete jungle streets, be fully focused on cars, pedestrians and dodging piles of dog poo.
- Video Sequence – Urban: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP9oikFvTdU
- This video sequence shows the busy streets and urban cities.
- Video Sequence – Jungle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARykUyT2x8c
- This video sequence portrays the majestic beauty of Mother Nature, backed by calming yet dramatic sound track.
I would also like to reference a poem we studied at secondary school; ‘Quo Vadis’ by Ruzar Briffa. Although poetry never struck me, I feel that this really fits the cause. The poem is written from the view of nature, a carob tree to be precise, and reflects on people passing by, impatient without stopping, or having a break.
The extract roughly translates as follows;
[What hurry are they in?
Where are they heading,
Forever impatient,
From the cradle to the grave.
Is this the life of humans?]
[Why no rest,
For them there isn’t]
(Extracted and translated from Quo Vadis by Ruzar briffa)
Themes:
Nature taking over man-made structures, Comparison between Nature and Urban structures, Crazy built up areas, busy streets, dangerous streets, urban cultures, hectic streets, densely built cities
Concept & Ideas
Further to the analysis of my chosen theme, I will focus on extracting elements which are visually similar from the ‘Urban’ and ‘Jungle’ aspects, and create multiple diptych compositions having a model as subject in each set, and combining similar elements from both the urban and jungle theme.
The following are examples of similar scenes as a concept:
Through further research on the above idea, I found similarly themed projects which use black and white in contrast, creating the Urban vs Jungle comparison I was looking for.
Man vs Nature by Sara Cate
Footprint by William Martin