Appropriating Locations
Call me a late bloomer because I’m finally sitting down to watch NBC’s short-lived series, Kings. I have an easy time getting into any television show, especially when an amazing actor like Ian McShane is present. With biblical metaphors and a ridiculously virtuous (and cute) protagonist, I’m constantly rolling my eyes at the writing and character development because I’m a Negative Nancy. The most hypnotizing thing—beyond Ian’s awesome performance—is how Kings utilizes the city of New York as a backdrop for a fictitious setting.
Two stills from Kings: one of King Silas standing outside the capital building, declaring Shiloh (New York City) as the new capital city of Gilboa, and the other of an aerial view of the capital building.
With help from some digital manipulation, the beautiful Brooklyn Museum of Art was cast as the shining star.
To lay it all out, I love the use of actual, iconic cultural landmarks to tell the fictional story. If I had a hat on, I’d tip it. The use of clever camera work and digital graphics turned New York City into the Kingdom of Gilboa—an industrial metropolis fusing classical architecture with twenty-first century detail.
All important political conversation and paper signing goes on in this glass hall at the capital building.
While it might be by a park as is suggested by the aerial view, this hall is also a main spot for jazz music. It’s The Allen Room of the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. There’s a Whole Foods in the basement!
The first question that pops into my head is: is it distracting? I can only guess that 95% of the small audience that tuned into the series had no worries. Some of the city landmarks are quite highbrow and even restricted to public access, so even the average New Yorker may not recognize them—I just happen to know these.
The oh-so-kind Queen Rose presenting the first artistic performance at the new capital. I thought it was cool that she reserves the first three rows of ‘First Night’ to common people like you and me. Oh royalty.
Thank god that newspapers still exist because ‘First Night’ was filmed at The New York Times Building’s auditorium. Through the glass windows of the auditorium, you can see through to a courtyard and then to the main lobby. I’ve been in the lobby which is gorgeous, and it has an electronic art installation that captures real-time comments from the paper’s online presence.
I wonder about that 5% of people who recognize the locations. I wonder about people who recognize any location in a television show or movie. Does the familiarity take you out of the story? Telling me to believe that the Brooklyn Museum of Art is now the capital building of Gilboa is fine by me but maybe not convincing enough for someone else.
I’ve thought about appropriating actual locations in much of my photography. I’ve used actual locations in the past and I plan on continuing the process. After watching Kings, I’m more aware of what I am asking from the viewer: shake off what you know and imagine with me that the reality in the artwork is slightly different. And again, it’s only if the viewer recognizes the location.
Exterior (as seen through my hero’s night vision goggles) and interior (detail from emerge) shots of a mad scientist’s laboratory.
The mad scientist’s laboratory is actually two separate buildings on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. The exterior shot is Margaret Morrison Hall and the interior shot is the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery. The artwork was ultimately displayed in the Miller Gallery, so emerge also became a site-specific photographic series.
I’ve still got a few more episodes of Kings to watch. So far I’m loving it, but I’m super bummed that there won’t be another season. I just hope this recognition wasn’t the downfall of the show. But maybe it wasn’t specific landmarks as much as it was the entire city of New York being controlled by a king. America just <3’s democracy!
