Cinema inhabits urban culture and can represent and narrate urban space through visual multi-dimensionality. This paper argues that the notion of the ‘Everyday’ connects cinema, urbanity, and Wellbeing. As a holistic parameter of health that captures both psychological, (‘feeling good’- hedonic) and physiological, (‘functioning well’ – eudemonic) aspects, wellbeing can be understood as an everyday construct. An individual’s wellbeing can be influenced by circumstantial factors, activities, and practices, and the paper asserts that these can be supported or inhibited by the built environment. However, it is indicated that understanding Wellbeing presents a challenge due to its multi-dimensionality. The argument that ‘everydayness’ links Wellbeing and cinema is used to suggest films as a potential medium to understand Wellbeing as it is related to urban space. The paper traverses the psychogeography of cinema and its ability to produce semantic knowledge; (the spectator’s interpretation), and cinematic intelligence; (a further interpretation of the spectator’s interpretation), to derive comprehensions of Wellbeing as it is represented in the cinematic urban space. This reveals a set of cannons for the observer to apply in cinematic wellbeing analysis, positing a specific form of cinematic intelligence to comprehend the reality of Wellbeing in cities. Thus, the paper delves into the ability of cinema to direct the voyageur’s gaze meaningfully to comprehend Wellbeing as a cinematic representation of reality. The exploration of the selected film; ‘Motorbicycle’, where the representative city is Colombo, Sri Lanka, reveals the usefulness of cinema in deducing how the built environment supports or inhibits Wellbeing.

Authors:
Kalpanee Jayatilake, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Koen Steemers, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
François Penz, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

About the Presenter(s)
Kalpanee Jayatilake is currently a lecturer (probationary) in architecture at the Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule

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