Constructivist Heterotopia or Taylorist Dystopia? Layers of Cinematic Space in Chaplin’s “Modern Times”

In a metaphorical reading, the industrialized modern city of Modern Times is a gigantic factory designed to produce the modern man. It tries to regulate the movements of the body, actions, and mind through modernist spatial layouts of institutions such as factories, hospitals, and prisons. In this respect, the film can be seen as a criticism of modern architecture and feedback for architects about the consequences of the modernist approach. On the other hand, it would not be right to look for the spatial approaches of the modern age only in the cinematic space of the film. The film studio where the film was produced is also the product of modernism. In Chaplin's silent cinema; the film set is not only background for the actions of the actors, but also a part and catalyst of their creative and spontaneous performance. Therefore, ironically, the criticism of the mechanizing effect of modern architecture on the body was produced through the constructivist modern stages of the silent film studios. This study examines these two different aspects of modern architecture: the modernist disciplinary approach and the constructivist avant-garde approach, through the cinematic space and production space of the film Modern Times. By using Foucault's concepts of disciplinary society and heterotopia, and based on Chaplin's memoirs as a witness of the modern era, the study aims to analyze different layers of modern architecture.

Keywords: Adaptive space, biopolitics, cinematic space, constructivist architecture, disciplinary society, foucault, fordism, heterotopia, industrial architecture, industrialized city, modern city, modernist architecture, mechanization of the body, panopticon, silent movie, studio, set design, taylorism, theatrical space.