Bruce Hoffman, Sociology

Contact bhoffman@u.washington.edu 202 Savery Hall, Box 353340 (Dept. of Sociology)

Seattle: Architecture, Ecology, & 'Truth Spots'

This project is broadly intended to be a short (10-15 minute)
cinematic treatment of material culture and ecological boundaries found
within the city of Seattle.  Preliminary topics to be explored include (a)
the ways in which neighborhoods attempt to commodify and market themselves
on particular identities, as well as the ways in which all neighborhoods
remain heterotopic, containing diverse and contradictory places; and (b)
the ways in which architecture has been adapted to support new ideas and
functions, as well as the ways in which the durability of geography and
architecture shape both individuals and what they take to be "truth."

This project is intended to provide basic experience into film directing,
video production, and non-linear editing which will be applied to two more
substantive documentary projects, to be initiated in spring 2001: one, a
study of criminal justice processes; the other, a study of medicine and
"science in action."