The erasing of borders has redefined the nature of the city that no longer exists with a geographic centre due to the developments in transportation and communications technology that has increased mobility and urban sprawl. There no longer exists a ceremonial gate to the city, nor ritual processions. Virillo states that airports have become the new gates to the city, “the place of necessary regulation of exchange and communication”. The city no longer occupies a geographical centre or defined ground. Boundaries of the city have become an osmotic membrane, lacking of any windows or doors, marked with ruptures and infinite openings.
Virillo argues that this phenomena, due to the increased importance of the computer and communication technologies on social proceedings and exchanges, more than ever before, has upset the social structure of the city such that increased mobility of capital and people leaves the structure of the city on the edge of being obsolete or irrelevent. Its structure becomes less a solid physically demarcated geographic entity and more the loose framework/platform for an increasingly ephemeral existence.
This has affected the practice of architecture that is subject to ‘tectonic drifts’ and confusion of position such that the notion of distance has all but been erased or frozen on the computer screen.
Over exposure is evident in the erasing of the gap between near and far, micro and macro (by the computer interface), the overlapping of habitation and circulation. Materials used in architectural studies are now transparent (i.e. trace paper, plexiglass, plastic films). Night and day have been confused with the 24 hour clock in service based companies and constant artificial lighting.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Arjun Appadurai-Disjuncture and difference in the global economy
Argument against the cliché that an increasingly global economy is having a homogenizing effect on cultural and political identities:
The division between Nation and State is demarcated through differing flows of information (‘scapes’) that are becoming more distant from each other.
The forces of commoditization become indigenized once introduced into a community (evident with the subspeciating of McDonald’s chains that cater to ethnic preferences in food items).
“The new global cultural economy needs to be understood as a complex, overlapping, disjunctive order”:
What does this mean? Traditional models of the ‘balance of trade’ no longer apply to the new model of ‘disorganized capitalism’.
We owe this complexity to the disjuncture between culture, economy and politics present in the 5 dimensions of global cultural flow including ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financscapes, and ideoscapes. These scapes are perspectival in that they are subject to different linguistic, political and cultural situations of nations states, multi-nationals, communities and movements.
These are the building blocks that make up the imagined worlds of different groups that can ‘subvert the imagined world of the ‘official mind’ (authority).
Unprecedented mobilities of people, capital, technology and information provide an unpredictable landscape that is subject to its own constraints.
Imagined worlds of the ‘other’:
In an image centered world, the proliferation of strips of visual ‘reality’ into different sub-groups and nation-states promote the production of ‘imagined worlds’, the imagined lives of other peoples living in other lands. This contributes to the construction of fantasy and desire, which become the catalyst for human mobility and acquisition.
This contributes to the phenomenon of deterritorialization and displacement, evident in the rise of separatist movements at the state level and trans-national companies that seek out cheap labor and expatriates that move to seek out employment in different countries.
The division between Nation and State is demarcated through differing flows of information (‘scapes’) that are becoming more distant from each other.
The forces of commoditization become indigenized once introduced into a community (evident with the subspeciating of McDonald’s chains that cater to ethnic preferences in food items).
“The new global cultural economy needs to be understood as a complex, overlapping, disjunctive order”:
What does this mean? Traditional models of the ‘balance of trade’ no longer apply to the new model of ‘disorganized capitalism’.
We owe this complexity to the disjuncture between culture, economy and politics present in the 5 dimensions of global cultural flow including ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financscapes, and ideoscapes. These scapes are perspectival in that they are subject to different linguistic, political and cultural situations of nations states, multi-nationals, communities and movements.
These are the building blocks that make up the imagined worlds of different groups that can ‘subvert the imagined world of the ‘official mind’ (authority).
Unprecedented mobilities of people, capital, technology and information provide an unpredictable landscape that is subject to its own constraints.
Imagined worlds of the ‘other’:
In an image centered world, the proliferation of strips of visual ‘reality’ into different sub-groups and nation-states promote the production of ‘imagined worlds’, the imagined lives of other peoples living in other lands. This contributes to the construction of fantasy and desire, which become the catalyst for human mobility and acquisition.
This contributes to the phenomenon of deterritorialization and displacement, evident in the rise of separatist movements at the state level and trans-national companies that seek out cheap labor and expatriates that move to seek out employment in different countries.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The Ecxtasy of Communication
The emergence of television gave people many conveniences, we just turn on the TV and could know what happened in the world, could get the information you need. So people more and more depend on it, from choosing the information you need to accepting information passively. It seems that we know everything, in fact, we just know what the television told us. Whoever or whatever that is important or not, if it occupies the television, it becomes important and focus of our world. We are controlled by the television, surrounded by the screen.
We are filled with information and communication, and controled by them. We seems know more things than before, but we do not know the essence of them. We have more and more information but we do not know the meaning of them. The media dissolve the meaning of objects. When we do not have meaning but information, the information and communication are useless.
Automobile shortens the distance of us. But with the speed culminating, people began to pursue the optimalization of other functions. The automobile is like a capsule, then the desire to be the master of the speed weakened. From this perspective, the psychological dimension disappears. But I think psychological dimension does not disappear, but transforms into a frantic state that the automobile becomes the collection of the functions.
We are filled with information and communication, and controled by them. We seems know more things than before, but we do not know the essence of them. We have more and more information but we do not know the meaning of them. The media dissolve the meaning of objects. When we do not have meaning but information, the information and communication are useless.
Automobile shortens the distance of us. But with the speed culminating, people began to pursue the optimalization of other functions. The automobile is like a capsule, then the desire to be the master of the speed weakened. From this perspective, the psychological dimension disappears. But I think psychological dimension does not disappear, but transforms into a frantic state that the automobile becomes the collection of the functions.
reading notes---overexposed city
Contemporary science and technology are producing new forms of experience, new modes of perception and representation. Virilio suggested that the city is decentered in relation to the rise of suburbs and then telecommunications and new sites of work and interaction in a post-industrial society. Virilio's "overexposed city" is penetrated by media and advertising, information technology. In Virilio's vision, the urban wall and gateways have given way to the openings to media channels, information and communication networks, and diverse new technologies. With the interface of monitors and control screens (computers, television, teleconferencing), “elsewhere” begins here and vice versa. Not long ago, the opening of the city’s gates was still determined by the alternating of day and night. Today, since we not only open the shutters but also the television, daylight itself has been changed. A false electronic day, whose only calendar is based on “commutations” of information bearing no relationship whatsoever to real time, is now added to the solar day of astronomy, electric light and the dubious “ daylight” of candles.
Technology is a window to the outside world. It obliterates urban boundaries and spaces to the geopolitical channels of the global world and the world of cyberspace. Exposed to global culture and communication, the city loses its specificity. City life gives way to technological cyber-life, a heterogeneous and fractured space, and a world-time that enables individuals to experience events simultaneously from every time zone in the world..
Technology is a window to the outside world. It obliterates urban boundaries and spaces to the geopolitical channels of the global world and the world of cyberspace. Exposed to global culture and communication, the city loses its specificity. City life gives way to technological cyber-life, a heterogeneous and fractured space, and a world-time that enables individuals to experience events simultaneously from every time zone in the world..
Encoding and Decoding
People process codes automatically in their head, this can be a positive thing or a negative thing since the full meaning is never totally understood, this causing a lot of misunderstanding. Not only does this happen locally but globally as well. There are universal codes and local codes but it is impossible for everything to be understood by everyone.
In Hall's article he writes this misunderstanding or miscommunication and has come up with this own methods of decoding messages they are;
1) dominant-hegemonic position: everything is understood, assumes the responsibility of carefully constructing 'perfect transparent communication' where the viewer ideally takes the encoded meaning and decodes the message using the reference code from which it was constructed
2)negotiated code: global is understood(small local codes are not), still acknowledged the dominate code, operates on its own, more locally situated logic
3)oppositional position:global not understood, smaller local codes are understood, where the viewer takes the coded message and deliberately reads it using opposing framework of understanding to deconstruct the constructed meaning in order to get closer to the truth behind the message being conveyed
The four stages of communication are production,circulation,use and reproduction.
All of this is important in understanding the hidden meaning is things but it is not fool proof it has it problems. Knowing when it use coded meaning or not is the question. But no matter what you do everything is open to interpretation, people will get what they get out of it know matter how you send you message.
In Hall's article he writes this misunderstanding or miscommunication and has come up with this own methods of decoding messages they are;
1) dominant-hegemonic position: everything is understood, assumes the responsibility of carefully constructing 'perfect transparent communication' where the viewer ideally takes the encoded meaning and decodes the message using the reference code from which it was constructed
2)negotiated code: global is understood(small local codes are not), still acknowledged the dominate code, operates on its own, more locally situated logic
3)oppositional position:global not understood, smaller local codes are understood, where the viewer takes the coded message and deliberately reads it using opposing framework of understanding to deconstruct the constructed meaning in order to get closer to the truth behind the message being conveyed
The four stages of communication are production,circulation,use and reproduction.
All of this is important in understanding the hidden meaning is things but it is not fool proof it has it problems. Knowing when it use coded meaning or not is the question. But no matter what you do everything is open to interpretation, people will get what they get out of it know matter how you send you message.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy
The idea of the world removing the separation between local and Global is truly a Utopian idea. Globalization is happening but not to the extent that is wanted by the global powers of the world. But globalization does forget about the little people.
Arjun Appadurai has proposed that a framework of exploring such disjuncture is to look at the relationship between 5 dimensions of global cultural flow. These are ethnoscape, mediascape, technoscape, finanscape and ideoscape.
These terms are used to show how the world is becoming very globalized but this is just a small part of the world. It doesn't cover everything and it doesn't think of the little people that it hurts. Everything is not corporate. There are little things that make or keep the world local.
It is very Utopian to think we can become one world.
Arjun Appadurai has proposed that a framework of exploring such disjuncture is to look at the relationship between 5 dimensions of global cultural flow. These are ethnoscape, mediascape, technoscape, finanscape and ideoscape.
These terms are used to show how the world is becoming very globalized but this is just a small part of the world. It doesn't cover everything and it doesn't think of the little people that it hurts. Everything is not corporate. There are little things that make or keep the world local.
It is very Utopian to think we can become one world.
The Overexposed City
What has become of our cities? You can't tell where one starts and the others end. The cities have expanded so much that cities have merged into one. What happened to the dramatic entrances of cities with the gates and arches telling you have entered the city. Now your lucky if there is a sign to welcome you. Some technologies have changed how we move about cities, you can tour a city without even going to it. The city never sleeps. There is no longer restrictions to when you can go to a city. With electricity there is no real difference between night and day.
Some technologies are making what was once a big city die. Moving people to where the work is. Creating Ghost towns within cities.
And What has happened to Architecture? Is there a possibility for new architecture? Technologies have changes the way we use our cities without boundaries and limits, in time and space do we design for that and create new architecture within the virtual realm or in reality. or both? Will this change our city? Do we want our cities to change or do we continue to overexpose our city?
Some technologies are making what was once a big city die. Moving people to where the work is. Creating Ghost towns within cities.
And What has happened to Architecture? Is there a possibility for new architecture? Technologies have changes the way we use our cities without boundaries and limits, in time and space do we design for that and create new architecture within the virtual realm or in reality. or both? Will this change our city? Do we want our cities to change or do we continue to overexpose our city?
the Ecstasy of Communication
Face to face personal contact has changed over time. The television changed the way things were seen, moved to a scene that can be seen only in a box. The interaction is gone. The personal and private spaces have not gone away they just changed.
Speed of communication had change the way we are. You no longer have the same type of communication. An email as replaced the letter from snail mail. Instant messages have replaced phone calls. you have whole conversations on msn and never hear the persons voices.
The scene , the emotions and the personal touches all replaced by a screen. Is this the way communication is going? Is this how we want it to stay? I miss personal contact.
Speed of communication had change the way we are. You no longer have the same type of communication. An email as replaced the letter from snail mail. Instant messages have replaced phone calls. you have whole conversations on msn and never hear the persons voices.
The scene , the emotions and the personal touches all replaced by a screen. Is this the way communication is going? Is this how we want it to stay? I miss personal contact.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Idea for Deleuze Film Review
Hey guys!
I think I came up with a good idea for our review film!
It's set within a court trial that is trying to get to the bottom of a corporate crime committed within a covert office setting. The crime is the 'event' and the court trial is the platform for the discussion of the event leading to the crime (were they real or just staged? pure event or event?). Within the trial a key witness is called to the stand to implicate the defendant with the crime (is the defendent just a subject, therefore wothout value to the event, or is he the active person involved in the event?)
This sort of script can bring up all of the notions described in the book as they pertain to the Real vs. the Actual, subject vs. Individual(participant), pure-event vs. event, etc. The reason I thought of this is because I noticed that throughout the book the author makes references to analogies of detectives getting to the bottom of a crime scene to explain the philosophies. I found this helps me to understand and makes for an engaging way to explain the theories without making something too artsy and wierd. What do you all think?
let me know? And keep your eye out for these references while you're reading!
Later.
I think I came up with a good idea for our review film!
It's set within a court trial that is trying to get to the bottom of a corporate crime committed within a covert office setting. The crime is the 'event' and the court trial is the platform for the discussion of the event leading to the crime (were they real or just staged? pure event or event?). Within the trial a key witness is called to the stand to implicate the defendant with the crime (is the defendent just a subject, therefore wothout value to the event, or is he the active person involved in the event?)
This sort of script can bring up all of the notions described in the book as they pertain to the Real vs. the Actual, subject vs. Individual(participant), pure-event vs. event, etc. The reason I thought of this is because I noticed that throughout the book the author makes references to analogies of detectives getting to the bottom of a crime scene to explain the philosophies. I found this helps me to understand and makes for an engaging way to explain the theories without making something too artsy and wierd. What do you all think?
let me know? And keep your eye out for these references while you're reading!
Later.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Inspiration is a butterfly
It's singular beauty is almost always appreciated from afar, but when it lands on you it's presence is painfully brief.
I found this particular theory class to be rather inspirational. In particular the last bit of the discussion that started with how we are to guard the variability of our localized environments within a globalized, homogenizing super-structure and ended with the paradigm shift towards looking for opportunites within the negative to propagate hope.
Just wanted to make a note to a concept from Deleuze that was brought up in class today for those us us who didn't catch it (as I'm sure I'll have forgotten by Monday). Jae explained the notion of 'pure-event vs. event' using the metaphor of a hockey game. Each player exists as part of the matrix within the realm of the 'pure-event' but that the player who has the puck is the only one with any value at that moment as he owns 'the event'. This is not to negate the importance of the other players as they (the pure-event) contain the potential to own the event as it shifts from player to player. The event is not the puck nor the player who owns the puck, in of themselves. The event is the hybrid of the player who controls the puck. That's a good way of looking at it as a synthesis between the field of the pure-event and the material coagulations operating within it.
Comments or add-ons, anyone?
I found this particular theory class to be rather inspirational. In particular the last bit of the discussion that started with how we are to guard the variability of our localized environments within a globalized, homogenizing super-structure and ended with the paradigm shift towards looking for opportunites within the negative to propagate hope.
Just wanted to make a note to a concept from Deleuze that was brought up in class today for those us us who didn't catch it (as I'm sure I'll have forgotten by Monday). Jae explained the notion of 'pure-event vs. event' using the metaphor of a hockey game. Each player exists as part of the matrix within the realm of the 'pure-event' but that the player who has the puck is the only one with any value at that moment as he owns 'the event'. This is not to negate the importance of the other players as they (the pure-event) contain the potential to own the event as it shifts from player to player. The event is not the puck nor the player who owns the puck, in of themselves. The event is the hybrid of the player who controls the puck. That's a good way of looking at it as a synthesis between the field of the pure-event and the material coagulations operating within it.
Comments or add-ons, anyone?
Notes on Deleuze
Okay this might expose me as a little thick but I need to regurgitate something in my head that applies to Deleuze's assumption towards the concept of 'immanence' and it's relationship to transcending Being through repetition:
In trying to relate the notion of immanence to the philosophy of trancending being through repetition, what makes sense to me is that within an existence where everything that is (and ever will be) is already present and accessible to us, the only way to inititiate change within this existence is to constantly repeat the current state of being until we learn to see it in a new way, rather than looking elsewhere for something new. So okay, I get that. But when I think back to the explanation of the realm of Being vs. the realm of Becoming; my understanding is that 'the realm of Being' is a 'coagulation within the realm of Becoming'; this implies that the realm of Becoming embodies a larger space than that of Being, that there is more beyond the realm of Being, that there is an 'other space' beyond the material coagulation of space.
SO: rewind back to the initial statement that explains the fundamental ssumption of Immanence; does this mean that everything that exists exists within the material realm of 'Being', assuming that that is all we humans are able to perceive, the realm in which we exist? Or is he suggesting that the immaterial realm of becoming is within our grasp, that we can transcend the realm of 'Being' by reaching out and pulling the outer realm into our own (thereby expanding the coagulation)? The problem with this take is how this is to be done through repetition which implies (in my understanding) a circular, introverted method, which in my view doesn't equate to my understanding of the differentiation between the space of being and becoming....hope someone gets it! (Or at the very least I hope I didn't spread the confusion!)
Wow...after re-reading this I'd be amazed if anyone understands what I just asked!
In trying to relate the notion of immanence to the philosophy of trancending being through repetition, what makes sense to me is that within an existence where everything that is (and ever will be) is already present and accessible to us, the only way to inititiate change within this existence is to constantly repeat the current state of being until we learn to see it in a new way, rather than looking elsewhere for something new. So okay, I get that. But when I think back to the explanation of the realm of Being vs. the realm of Becoming; my understanding is that 'the realm of Being' is a 'coagulation within the realm of Becoming'; this implies that the realm of Becoming embodies a larger space than that of Being, that there is more beyond the realm of Being, that there is an 'other space' beyond the material coagulation of space.
SO: rewind back to the initial statement that explains the fundamental ssumption of Immanence; does this mean that everything that exists exists within the material realm of 'Being', assuming that that is all we humans are able to perceive, the realm in which we exist? Or is he suggesting that the immaterial realm of becoming is within our grasp, that we can transcend the realm of 'Being' by reaching out and pulling the outer realm into our own (thereby expanding the coagulation)? The problem with this take is how this is to be done through repetition which implies (in my understanding) a circular, introverted method, which in my view doesn't equate to my understanding of the differentiation between the space of being and becoming....hope someone gets it! (Or at the very least I hope I didn't spread the confusion!)
Wow...after re-reading this I'd be amazed if anyone understands what I just asked!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Disjuncture and Difference
The article talks about how we should not believe in ideas of globalization, it claims we should let go of separations between local and global. Rather we have moved into "scape's" which, like air currents, flow and sweep ceaselessly throughout the globe. These "scape's" are mutable and constantly change to fit our changing technologies. These "scape's" replace typical nodes and arteries usually associated with the movement of information. Is this just a way to get around negative globalization ideas? The basic framework of these new movements of communication can be described by the relationship between five dimensions of global cultural flow: (i) ethnoscapes which is the landscape of persons who constitute the shifting world; tourists, immigrants, exiles, etc. (ii) mediascapes, which disperse information through the media; magazines, television, films, newspaper within a landscape of images. (iii) technoscapes conduct global configuration, technology. (iv) finanscapes are the scapes of currency, financial movement, the stock exchange, etc. and finally (v) idoescapes which are the concatenations of images often political, terms and images, freedom, welfare, rights, etc. All these scapes run across borders and boundaries spreading information. This is all fine and dandy but really, if you can't see these scapes and they are all just speculation it seems like this is just a way of trying to get around succumbing to dreaded globalization.
In the Place of the Public
The airport, the shopping center, the eatery. The experience is so different from what you expect. You are rushed through check in, you are herded through security, branded or ignored. You spend most of the time in a secure area where you are being watched the whole time. Sure they try to distract you with shopping and food, bars even and TVs to watch but they are watching you. The distraction is good for some since you have to be there for so long. you are lucky if you can actually see a plane that off. It doesn't surprise me that the idea of a mall can be converted into a small city with Hotels and everything you need to survive. They are not location specific, you could be anywhere and they all look the same. What is the difference from the mall and the airport?
If you are luck the air plane is the same thing, full of distractions and food so that you don't realize that your life is in the hand of the person flying the plane and not in your control. Most of the time you are herded in put in your place and told to listen to directions. Does this make you want to fly, or would you rather be in control and see the world for its true differences?
If you are luck the air plane is the same thing, full of distractions and food so that you don't realize that your life is in the hand of the person flying the plane and not in your control. Most of the time you are herded in put in your place and told to listen to directions. Does this make you want to fly, or would you rather be in control and see the world for its true differences?
Monday, March 12, 2007
In the Place of the Public
"Space is produced by the relations of productions, mapping political economy onto the physical world." The dictation of how space is used is directly connected to how the space can make the most profit, even if this isn't the most efficient or environmentally friendly use of space. "The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people mediated by images." Image is a factor that controls social engagement, it can dictate how we act and what we think that we want. We find speed comforting, reassuring but why do we find slow unsettling? Do we stop to think and don't know what to think about, or is there just too much to contemplate ignoring is easier? When we have no time, moving at the speed of sound we don't have to think, lament, regret. Maybe that is why travelling is now about speed, how fast you can get to a space then actually appreciating the way you get there. Presently instant stimulation is a necessity.
Flight and airports mimic the feelings of replacability and homogeneity. These places are not made especially for someone but for a function; filtering the public in and out of the facility. Airports are impersonal, replaceable and non- regional. Quick stimulation spaces encourage unconscious filtering, and encourage society to be comfortable with this cattle- type approaches to travel. These spaces create a wasteland of the area they occupy; geometry conquers diversity and nature. Can we change the way we travel or are we doomed to move through spaces unconsciously?
Flight and airports mimic the feelings of replacability and homogeneity. These places are not made especially for someone but for a function; filtering the public in and out of the facility. Airports are impersonal, replaceable and non- regional. Quick stimulation spaces encourage unconscious filtering, and encourage society to be comfortable with this cattle- type approaches to travel. These spaces create a wasteland of the area they occupy; geometry conquers diversity and nature. Can we change the way we travel or are we doomed to move through spaces unconsciously?
Monday, March 5, 2007
reading notes: Times Square Dead or Alive
Time Square is Alive if you really look at the facts of the place. It has changed with the times. It keeps getting better. It was a media center, a distasteful center and now sure it is an advertisement/ commercial center but it is still there. Thousands of people go to Time Square everyday, be it as commuters or tourists. It almost seems that the history of the square is not important but it is the experience of the place. New York has a lot of places that make it New York, time square can be one of them. It still has the energy it had back in the day, it has just changed. They have cleaned Time Square up, it is regulated by private corporation, but it's it better than having the strip clubs, gang wars and the prostitutes that it once had. Some times change is good and right now the change is more advertisement and commercial. Next time it changes maybe it will give you a different feeling and be more unique, but right now it is what it is and as long as the people still keep going to see it, it is alive.
reading notes: Homebodies on Vacation
Sit back and relax and you will start your vacation, what a thought? Take a vacation without leaving your home. This may be low-cost but really you are riping yourself off of life experience. Nothing will ever compare to the experience of actually travelling to the place and seeing it with your own eyes.
Travel has become very commercial, go see the London Bridge in Arizona. Visit a movie see it's better than the real thing. The Parthenon in Nashville, exactly the same except you don't have the dramatic climb to the top. These places may look the same, but they are artificial. True you might not know the difference but your riping yourself off.
The travel to get there is just as important as the destination in some cases. Air travel has become convenient but it does take something way from the experience. My grandmother goes on a piligramage every year and the trip there is just as important in the experience. You would miss out on all the great stops that have to be made on the way there. Somethins are better taken slowly then rushed through.
When was the last time anyone really had a vacation without all the commercial aspects. Lets look to the past before we take our next vacation. Drive there if you can? Stop whenever you think there is something to experience and take the picture if you have to but only after the experience.
Travel has become very commercial, go see the London Bridge in Arizona. Visit a movie see it's better than the real thing. The Parthenon in Nashville, exactly the same except you don't have the dramatic climb to the top. These places may look the same, but they are artificial. True you might not know the difference but your riping yourself off.
The travel to get there is just as important as the destination in some cases. Air travel has become convenient but it does take something way from the experience. My grandmother goes on a piligramage every year and the trip there is just as important in the experience. You would miss out on all the great stops that have to be made on the way there. Somethins are better taken slowly then rushed through.
When was the last time anyone really had a vacation without all the commercial aspects. Lets look to the past before we take our next vacation. Drive there if you can? Stop whenever you think there is something to experience and take the picture if you have to but only after the experience.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Globalization, The Process of Identity and Social Hope
Richard Rorty calls for the return of philosophy to the cause of social change and support of a global utopia. He addresses his concern that current philosophy has lost sight of this aim which, until recently, has dominated the thought of past philosophers such as Marx, Dewey and Hobbes. These philosophers hinged their dialectics on historical narratives constructing "taxonomies of social phenomena" that dared to criticize current dominant social institutions. Today however, Rorty criticizes current philosophy as being submissive to the dominant social agenda, that it is now being used to create 'redescriptions of social phenomena' to reiterate and reinforce it, rather than to reveal its blind spots. This turn away from constructing narratives on social progress reveals a sense of despair to Rorty who believes that philosophy has become politically sterile.
However, Rorty highlights ways in which current philosphy can regain momentum on this subject, suggesting that the philosophies behind Derrida, Habermas and Lacan are supplementary to previous descriptions of Utopia such that they have revealed blindspots within the previous structures of thought and threfore have laid further tracks to the continuation of this aim.
What is intersting is that Rorty seems to negate the discourse surrounding the concepts of 'subject' and 'difference', common to current philosophy that is hinged upon the structure of language, saying that it holds no relevence to the aim of social change and political liberation. instead he maintains that a return to the old pragmatic notions of 'truth' and rationality will better serve political change in the long run; these notions that have been lost in the wave of postmodernism. So within this dialogue Rorty seems very apt to call for a paradigm shift out of the constructs of postmodernist thought into the return of a more universal ideal that trancends difference and pluralism, embraces the notion of the 'death of the subject' and that places identity of self back within the overriding construct of democracy. Within our dominant global construct that embraces difference and pluralism, Rorty calls for the ressurection of the United Nations, the democratic watchdog that has been all but abandonned as the unwavering stoic in the fight against the evils of a renegade society that no longer answers to the state.
However, Rorty highlights ways in which current philosphy can regain momentum on this subject, suggesting that the philosophies behind Derrida, Habermas and Lacan are supplementary to previous descriptions of Utopia such that they have revealed blindspots within the previous structures of thought and threfore have laid further tracks to the continuation of this aim.
What is intersting is that Rorty seems to negate the discourse surrounding the concepts of 'subject' and 'difference', common to current philosophy that is hinged upon the structure of language, saying that it holds no relevence to the aim of social change and political liberation. instead he maintains that a return to the old pragmatic notions of 'truth' and rationality will better serve political change in the long run; these notions that have been lost in the wave of postmodernism. So within this dialogue Rorty seems very apt to call for a paradigm shift out of the constructs of postmodernist thought into the return of a more universal ideal that trancends difference and pluralism, embraces the notion of the 'death of the subject' and that places identity of self back within the overriding construct of democracy. Within our dominant global construct that embraces difference and pluralism, Rorty calls for the ressurection of the United Nations, the democratic watchdog that has been all but abandonned as the unwavering stoic in the fight against the evils of a renegade society that no longer answers to the state.
Review--In the Place of the Public
Airport is a unique place which is isolated from the world we live in everyday. Once you enter an airport, you may begin to feel helpless because your activities are more or less under the control of others. Terminal and airplane is much like a prison in which the travellers lose the right of doing some activities.
Some terminals and airlines are trying to reduce the stress of travel and create a better experience for passengers. In the air, as on the ground, airlines are taking steps to reduce the stress of travel. Some airlines begin to provide previously unheard of services such as in-flight massages, beauty treatments and stand-up bar onboard. These are all successful attempts to create a unique experience.
Vancouver terminal is one of the successful-designed airports in the world. Travellers' experience is designed to allow views of the local mountains while walking through various indigenous art installations. Upon arriving in Vancouver, Air Canada's 'Elite' and 'Super Elite class of travellers can take a shower, have their suit steamed, shirt ironed and shoes shone in preparation for the working day ahead.
The airport design is undergoing a significant change of focus. Architects and designers are looking for new ways to enhance the experience of air travel. Greater emphasis is being placed on quality of furnishing, interesting spaces, natural lighting and all-important retailing. The old-style airports which were airline-centred are being replaced by something more resembling a shopping mall. Many airports now look to parking, retail, commercial, hotels, meeting facilities and food and beverage uses for a large percent of their revenues. It suggests that travellers have altered their expectations of airports considerably.
Koolhaas considered the idea of airports replacing the city and becoming both hyper-global and hyper-local. They are global in the sense that they are increasingly filled with the same multi-national retailers and brands which are available everywhere, but also hyper-local in that they frequently display museum-like representations of local culture. Koolhaas described the contemporary airport as "like a drastic perfume demonstration, photomurals, vegetation, local costumes give a first concentrated blast of the local identity (sometimes it is also the last)".
Some terminals and airlines are trying to reduce the stress of travel and create a better experience for passengers. In the air, as on the ground, airlines are taking steps to reduce the stress of travel. Some airlines begin to provide previously unheard of services such as in-flight massages, beauty treatments and stand-up bar onboard. These are all successful attempts to create a unique experience.
Vancouver terminal is one of the successful-designed airports in the world. Travellers' experience is designed to allow views of the local mountains while walking through various indigenous art installations. Upon arriving in Vancouver, Air Canada's 'Elite' and 'Super Elite class of travellers can take a shower, have their suit steamed, shirt ironed and shoes shone in preparation for the working day ahead.
The airport design is undergoing a significant change of focus. Architects and designers are looking for new ways to enhance the experience of air travel. Greater emphasis is being placed on quality of furnishing, interesting spaces, natural lighting and all-important retailing. The old-style airports which were airline-centred are being replaced by something more resembling a shopping mall. Many airports now look to parking, retail, commercial, hotels, meeting facilities and food and beverage uses for a large percent of their revenues. It suggests that travellers have altered their expectations of airports considerably.
Koolhaas considered the idea of airports replacing the city and becoming both hyper-global and hyper-local. They are global in the sense that they are increasingly filled with the same multi-national retailers and brands which are available everywhere, but also hyper-local in that they frequently display museum-like representations of local culture. Koolhaas described the contemporary airport as "like a drastic perfume demonstration, photomurals, vegetation, local costumes give a first concentrated blast of the local identity (sometimes it is also the last)".
The Overexposed City; The Ghostly Landscape
Barriers and boundaries within cities now define them. Screen interfacing is now 'visibility without confrontation', a depth of field now exists erasing the face to face city scape, mutes the conversation within the city and takes it further from reality.
Cities run into cities and nothing is far away anymore, everything becomes overexposed. We no longer enter a city through a 'ceremonial gate' or 'triumphal arch' but through 'technological space- time' where all time is warped; day is night and nigh is when there is no longer communication, so does it ever come?
So how do we organize our cities? Where is the place of urban architecture? What becomes the function of it, can we still design for cities while we are absorbed within this sub- reality, this technological space- time? Does architecture still have a place in our society or is it fizzling out? Will it still contain a purity of line, the complexity of being made with two hands and the authenticity of being created with pencil and ink? Have we abandon our cities and left only a 'ghostly landscape'? The 'fossil of past societies'? Or better yet, have we abandoned our architecture, have we sold it for flashy 3D models and computer graphics? Can we fix this or are we destined to destroy our cities for the existence of this sub- reality?
Cities run into cities and nothing is far away anymore, everything becomes overexposed. We no longer enter a city through a 'ceremonial gate' or 'triumphal arch' but through 'technological space- time' where all time is warped; day is night and nigh is when there is no longer communication, so does it ever come?
So how do we organize our cities? Where is the place of urban architecture? What becomes the function of it, can we still design for cities while we are absorbed within this sub- reality, this technological space- time? Does architecture still have a place in our society or is it fizzling out? Will it still contain a purity of line, the complexity of being made with two hands and the authenticity of being created with pencil and ink? Have we abandon our cities and left only a 'ghostly landscape'? The 'fossil of past societies'? Or better yet, have we abandoned our architecture, have we sold it for flashy 3D models and computer graphics? Can we fix this or are we destined to destroy our cities for the existence of this sub- reality?
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
In the Place of the Public...
Airports are set apart from every other form of mass transport terminals in that it severs the actual experience of its space while providing another form of experience altogether. In the airport and the aircraft an individual is emotionally detached from his or her environment. The experience of air travel, much like being within a virtual reality chamber, is completely devoid of any active engagement with the space. Here, the analogy of the flight simulator programs used by pilots becomes relevent. It is because the implications and the reality behind air travel is extremely complicated and involves such great risk that it is necessary to mask this through the simplification of environmental cues and diversions from the actual event, hence, a simulated experience for pilots and for the passengers.
On the pilots’ end, the usefulness of flight simulator programs (veritable video games) becomes relevant when you think of just how much responsibility is in hands of the pilot. So in order to eliminate the possibility of human error through emotional anxiety, pilots are desensitized from the actual event of flying. They are placed in a simulated environment, a tiny pod completely shielded from the rest of the plane (just the pilot, an array of controls and the sky), much like the environment they experienced while using the flight simulator.
On the passenger’s end, people are strapped into a confined space, like canned sardines, supplied with diversions simulating the habitual comforts of being at home (constant catering from attendants, in-flight movies), one quickly forgets that they are leaving their lives in the hands of strangers and impersonal machinery (that is subject to human and mechanical error).
Privatization of public terminals:
The experience of the airport terminal provides a different kind of experience, one that arises out of purely operational intentions.
The airport is a multi-functional, multi-dimensional system whose overriding concern is operational. Everything about the airport seems to connote a completely stripped down, separation from the actual experience of ‘flying’. Unlike other modes of mass transport (i.e train and ship travel) airplanes are kept hidden from public view, the traditional grandiose entrance of entering onto a great vessel is withheld from the passenger as they are fed through impersonal, sensory deprivation hallways that seem to deny the entrance onto a different plane of existence (did we even leave the ground? The airport terminal?). From the point of entry into the terminal to the time of landing, the passenger is shielded from the reality of this form of travel, led to believe that they are not actually in the air flying. Like watching a program on T.V. that experience is always kept as a secondary experience to the constructed diversions put in place.
On the pilots’ end, the usefulness of flight simulator programs (veritable video games) becomes relevant when you think of just how much responsibility is in hands of the pilot. So in order to eliminate the possibility of human error through emotional anxiety, pilots are desensitized from the actual event of flying. They are placed in a simulated environment, a tiny pod completely shielded from the rest of the plane (just the pilot, an array of controls and the sky), much like the environment they experienced while using the flight simulator.
On the passenger’s end, people are strapped into a confined space, like canned sardines, supplied with diversions simulating the habitual comforts of being at home (constant catering from attendants, in-flight movies), one quickly forgets that they are leaving their lives in the hands of strangers and impersonal machinery (that is subject to human and mechanical error).
Privatization of public terminals:
The experience of the airport terminal provides a different kind of experience, one that arises out of purely operational intentions.
The airport is a multi-functional, multi-dimensional system whose overriding concern is operational. Everything about the airport seems to connote a completely stripped down, separation from the actual experience of ‘flying’. Unlike other modes of mass transport (i.e train and ship travel) airplanes are kept hidden from public view, the traditional grandiose entrance of entering onto a great vessel is withheld from the passenger as they are fed through impersonal, sensory deprivation hallways that seem to deny the entrance onto a different plane of existence (did we even leave the ground? The airport terminal?). From the point of entry into the terminal to the time of landing, the passenger is shielded from the reality of this form of travel, led to believe that they are not actually in the air flying. Like watching a program on T.V. that experience is always kept as a secondary experience to the constructed diversions put in place.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Ecstasy of Communication
Baudrillard comments on the increasing personification of objects within our daily lives. An object is no longer just an object but a 'partner'. This changes our relationship with our environment and how we connect to it, how we live through it. Object mutations come from three things, Baudrillard says; functionalization, controlling your surroundings not with your body but by electronic commands and minimization of processes. We no longer are active in our surroundings, we control by communicating through inanimate objects. They become a vital part of our environments and therefore we personify them. We are addicted to instantaneous action and the speed of communication through electronic means. These instants of communication have miniaturized all exchanges into a succession of instants, instant messaging, instant email, we control our surroundings and all exchanges from our computer. These messages lack thought, authenticity and a sense of importance. So we clutch to these electronic devises that make our lives easier for fear we won't remember how to communicate without them. Should we try to change this path we are heading down or is it inevitable to allow our bodies to disintegrate along with our method of communication?
Organs without Bodies
I seems to me that, yes, you have to abandon the coded language to achieve truth, but is it possible to do that. He seems to make parallels to bodies, you can have an organ without a body but you cannot have a body without organs, does this work the same way for the spirit and the letter? I'm finding the beginnings of the work vague, but as I get further into it I'm starting to figure out some of the earlier stuff, I'll get back to you guys about more this evening.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Organs Without Bodies: Let's start a working dialog
Hey guys: this is a call out to all of you to try as much as possible to voice your struggles with the text so that we can help eachother come to a better understanding of the framework of the text. If something in the text stands out to you or you can't figure out what tmessage the author is trying to convey, someone else might.
So here's what I don't get so far: In the last passage on page 12, the discussion has moved past the subject of being and becoming (the pure event) into the discussion of 'spirit and letter'. This is where I get lost.
The passage reads "the key to this paradox (that the new can only emerge out of repetition) is what Deleuze designates as the difference between the REAL and the ACTUAL (and which one can also determine as the difference between Spirit and the Letter)....later it is revealed that "one has to betray the letter to remain faithful to the spirit" (of thought)...
Does this mean that spirit is the virtual and the letter the actual?? that in order to gain access to the 'truth' one must betray the coded language that defines it?
I dunno....could use another point of view here...Thanks!
Crystal
So here's what I don't get so far: In the last passage on page 12, the discussion has moved past the subject of being and becoming (the pure event) into the discussion of 'spirit and letter'. This is where I get lost.
The passage reads "the key to this paradox (that the new can only emerge out of repetition) is what Deleuze designates as the difference between the REAL and the ACTUAL (and which one can also determine as the difference between Spirit and the Letter)....later it is revealed that "one has to betray the letter to remain faithful to the spirit" (of thought)...
Does this mean that spirit is the virtual and the letter the actual?? that in order to gain access to the 'truth' one must betray the coded language that defines it?
I dunno....could use another point of view here...Thanks!
Crystal
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Review----Encoding and Decoding
Hall suggests a four-stage theory of communication: production, circulation, use (which here he calls distribution or consumption) and reproduction.
There is no necessary correspondence between encoding and decoding, the former can attempt to ‘pre-fer’ but cannot prescribe or guarantee the latter, which has its own conditions of existence.
Denotation --- natural sign, produced without the intervention of a code.
Connotation---associative meaning, depend on the intervention of codes. In actual discourse most signs will combine both the denotative and the connotative aspects. ---sign is open to new accentuations and enters fully into the struggle over meanings. The connotative levels of signifiers have a close communication with culture, knowledge, history, and it is through them, so to speak, that the environmental world invades the linguistic and semantic system.
Three hypothetical positions of decoding:
1. Dominant-hegemonic position: everything is understood
Dominant definitions connect events, implicitly or explicitly, to grand totalisations, to the great syntagmatic views of the world—large view of issues.
2. Negotiated code: Global is understood
Smaller (local) codes are not
It accords the privileged position to the dominant definitions of events while reserving the right to make a more negotiated application to ‘local conditions’, to its own more corporate positions. Decoding within the negotiated version contains a mixture of adaptive and oppositional elements: it acknowledges the legitimacy of the hegemonic definitions to make the grand significations (abstract), while, at a more restricted, situational (situated) level, it makes its own ground rules.
3. Oppositional code: Local (smaller) codes are understood
Global is not understood
Architecture is a language which speaks to fellow architects and to the general public. An oversized door, for example, informs the public of a "main entrance to an important building'. At the same time, it can speak to fellow-architects who have moved beyond functionalism and can enjoy quotations, references, literary allusions, witticisms and arcane meanings.
Some architects use lots of architectural language in their design. Through these languages, they try to express their concept and understanding of architecture. However, the architecture he created often cannot be understood or misunderstood by the general public. How should the architect design a building? Should he/she make the design as an representation of his/her own understanding of architecture without thinking about the general publics’ appreciation, or totally according with the publics’ appreciation, or find a balance between?
There is no necessary correspondence between encoding and decoding, the former can attempt to ‘pre-fer’ but cannot prescribe or guarantee the latter, which has its own conditions of existence.
Denotation --- natural sign, produced without the intervention of a code.
Connotation---associative meaning, depend on the intervention of codes. In actual discourse most signs will combine both the denotative and the connotative aspects. ---sign is open to new accentuations and enters fully into the struggle over meanings. The connotative levels of signifiers have a close communication with culture, knowledge, history, and it is through them, so to speak, that the environmental world invades the linguistic and semantic system.
Three hypothetical positions of decoding:
1. Dominant-hegemonic position: everything is understood
Dominant definitions connect events, implicitly or explicitly, to grand totalisations, to the great syntagmatic views of the world—large view of issues.
2. Negotiated code: Global is understood
Smaller (local) codes are not
It accords the privileged position to the dominant definitions of events while reserving the right to make a more negotiated application to ‘local conditions’, to its own more corporate positions. Decoding within the negotiated version contains a mixture of adaptive and oppositional elements: it acknowledges the legitimacy of the hegemonic definitions to make the grand significations (abstract), while, at a more restricted, situational (situated) level, it makes its own ground rules.
3. Oppositional code: Local (smaller) codes are understood
Global is not understood
Architecture is a language which speaks to fellow architects and to the general public. An oversized door, for example, informs the public of a "main entrance to an important building'. At the same time, it can speak to fellow-architects who have moved beyond functionalism and can enjoy quotations, references, literary allusions, witticisms and arcane meanings.
Some architects use lots of architectural language in their design. Through these languages, they try to express their concept and understanding of architecture. However, the architecture he created often cannot be understood or misunderstood by the general public. How should the architect design a building? Should he/she make the design as an representation of his/her own understanding of architecture without thinking about the general publics’ appreciation, or totally according with the publics’ appreciation, or find a balance between?
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Encoding and Decoding-Article Review
Hall defines the process of communication as a ‘complex structure of dominance’ involving power struggles at the production and consumption ends of the communication circuit. The production side entails encoded messages that are produced within the dominant social structure. These messages are framed by the universal structures of understanding, by social and economic relations that permit them to be disseminated into the public consciousness. Hall is careful to discern that these hegemonical ‘codes’ within discourse, while they ‘prefer’ certain modes of decoding, do not pre-determine how they are decoded on the consumption end. The processes of encoding and decoding operate autonomously from one another which often can result in misunderstandings or miscommunications. Just like the word ‘cow’ is an abstract reference to the actual cow, there is no such thing as ‘pure language’ or ‘transparent communication’. Coded messages are polysemic, such that their decoding is dependent on the cultural sub-group on the receiving end. Often there exists a disjuncture between the intended message and received message which is a result of ‘class struggles within language’, where the already coded signs intersect with the culturally rooted semantic codes of the subgroup.
Hall defines three principle methods of decoding messages, with respect to televised discourse: the first, called the dominant-hegemonic position is the universally accepted code of discourse, the one that assumes the responsibility of carefully constructing ‘perfectly transparent communication’ where the viewer ideally takes the encoded meaning and decodes the message using the reference code from which it was constructed. The second, called the ‘negotiated code’, while still acknowledging the dominant code, operates on its own agenda abstracting the message based on its own, more locally situated logic. The third, called the ‘oppositional position’, where the viewer takes the coded message and deliberately reads it using opposing frameworks of understanding to deconstruct the constructed meaning in order to get closer to the truth behind the message being conveyed.
Hall defines three principle methods of decoding messages, with respect to televised discourse: the first, called the dominant-hegemonic position is the universally accepted code of discourse, the one that assumes the responsibility of carefully constructing ‘perfectly transparent communication’ where the viewer ideally takes the encoded meaning and decodes the message using the reference code from which it was constructed. The second, called the ‘negotiated code’, while still acknowledging the dominant code, operates on its own agenda abstracting the message based on its own, more locally situated logic. The third, called the ‘oppositional position’, where the viewer takes the coded message and deliberately reads it using opposing frameworks of understanding to deconstruct the constructed meaning in order to get closer to the truth behind the message being conveyed.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Review-Is Times Square Dead or Alive?
Now, we have the new Times Square. In some ways, the Square has never looked better than today, with the diagonal sloping lines of the Reuters Building, the curving Deco zipper, even the giant mock dinosaur in the Toys R Us. Corporations have made America strong; I don't see anything wrong with corporations coming into Times Square. There are, of course, people who miss the old Times Square, its picturesque squalor and violence and misery and exploitation. Those who pointed at the old Times Square as an instance of everything that capitalism can do wrong now point to the new Times Square as an instance of everything that capitalism can do worse. Where once Times Square was hot, it is now cold, where once varied, now uniform, where once alive, now dead.
This is an ever-changing world. Nothing should stop progressing at any certain time. The old Times Square and the current one are both only a point of its progressing. Our dressing style is always changing; our lifestyle is quite different from the past; we are using emails instead of traditional letters, then, why the Times Square should stop changing? The Times Square also has the right to change his “clothes” and “lifestyle” to adapt to the new world. The contemporary Times Square will also be gone one day and become part of its history. The current generation like us may miss our Times Square one day as well, but we should always look forward to a new Times Square rather than cry for the old one. It is not sensible respect the past in sacrificing the future. Times Square has changed much. However, it's always been bright and exciting, and it still packs the same energy.
This is an ever-changing world. Nothing should stop progressing at any certain time. The old Times Square and the current one are both only a point of its progressing. Our dressing style is always changing; our lifestyle is quite different from the past; we are using emails instead of traditional letters, then, why the Times Square should stop changing? The Times Square also has the right to change his “clothes” and “lifestyle” to adapt to the new world. The contemporary Times Square will also be gone one day and become part of its history. The current generation like us may miss our Times Square one day as well, but we should always look forward to a new Times Square rather than cry for the old one. It is not sensible respect the past in sacrificing the future. Times Square has changed much. However, it's always been bright and exciting, and it still packs the same energy.
Hey Guys
What did everyone think of the lecture on Wednesday? These are some of the things I got from it:
If we start talking about real / fake and authentic and inauthentic I think we need to define these terms or else we will be running around in circles, also having definitions stops the excuse of subjectivity becoming an answer or the reason for a lack of an answer.
If authenticity has been set up culturally as being good, then we have to be able to define it because we created its parameters. This then creates a point of reference that we are speaking from.
Authentic is not inherently good, so why do we prefer authentic over inauthentic?
Do we look to history to create identity or do we look to what is going on right now. Exterior and interior influences/ conditions all act on identity and how we form identity.
What do you guys think about identity? Can identity change? or is it something that continues the same through life?
If we start talking about real / fake and authentic and inauthentic I think we need to define these terms or else we will be running around in circles, also having definitions stops the excuse of subjectivity becoming an answer or the reason for a lack of an answer.
If authenticity has been set up culturally as being good, then we have to be able to define it because we created its parameters. This then creates a point of reference that we are speaking from.
Authentic is not inherently good, so why do we prefer authentic over inauthentic?
Do we look to history to create identity or do we look to what is going on right now. Exterior and interior influences/ conditions all act on identity and how we form identity.
What do you guys think about identity? Can identity change? or is it something that continues the same through life?
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Temporary Contracts- article review
The Post-industrial landscape has been shaped by the effects of temporary contracts. Our flexible capitol-based economic arena characterized buy the ease of mobility of investments flowing from one company to the next has driven the value of location down in the aim to accumulate short-term capitol. Bigtime businesses are no longer controlled by a single owner who has a vested interest in the long term growth of a company, but many individual investors who's sole interest in the company is if it is profitable right now. This low-commitment attitude is described in the article as having a direct impact on the life-span of commercial buildings which are now becoming too old at 'thirty years'. Big box discount businesses like Wal-Mart operate on a 'flexible accumulation' strategy that allow them to pick up and leave a location at the drop of a dime undermine the economies of their host communities. Companies such as this target regional market groups, providing discount prices on goods that would otherwise be profitting the community-based businesses. This fierce competition stamps out small businesses and changes the consumption patterns of the community who becomes dependent on the WalMart for their daily items so that when the store vacates a location the community is left in an economic lurch.
The post-industrial landscape is shaped by the mobility of information which allowed businesses to move out of the premium lots of the downtown core to the edge of the city where lots are cheap. This has drastically created the shape of the urban environment and, subsequentially, social transactions. The formation of the 'edge city' is emblematic of the post-industrial landscape, the configuration of which favoring the private realm over the public realm. The result of this change in urban condition is described by Arendt when she criticized early on the encroachment of commerce into the public realm. The privatization of the public realm has turned the public arena into a place where the only social transactions occur out of necessity and consumer interest. The edge city is a prime example of this phenomenon, its social arena further compromised by it's autocentric infrastructure. This has left the edge-city completely void of any public social transactions outside of the commercial realm.
The post-industrial landscape is shaped by the mobility of information which allowed businesses to move out of the premium lots of the downtown core to the edge of the city where lots are cheap. This has drastically created the shape of the urban environment and, subsequentially, social transactions. The formation of the 'edge city' is emblematic of the post-industrial landscape, the configuration of which favoring the private realm over the public realm. The result of this change in urban condition is described by Arendt when she criticized early on the encroachment of commerce into the public realm. The privatization of the public realm has turned the public arena into a place where the only social transactions occur out of necessity and consumer interest. The edge city is a prime example of this phenomenon, its social arena further compromised by it's autocentric infrastructure. This has left the edge-city completely void of any public social transactions outside of the commercial realm.
Is Times Square Dead?
The Commodification of place:
Times Square possesses historical linkages that have been cast in shadow by the influx of flashing lights and media advertisements over the past 15 odd years. The article calls into question the authenticity of experience and validity of place offered to the public by the structured imposition of a 'mediascape' within the previously historically emblematic Times' Square. The issue lies in the re-'place'ment of the gritty 'real' experience of the old Times Square (emblematic of the exchange of industrial capitol)with a pre-fabricated, plasticized model of experience (emblematic of the new age of information). Many loathe the new Times Square for its complete detachment from any historical reference it held previously, and for its apparent function as a masking mechanism serving to create the 'illusion of place' while behind the mask the 'real' Times Square is dying.
What is brought into question is the notion of what in fact is the 'authentic' Times Square? Is it the 'old version', emblematic of historical phenomena that took place within its confines? Or is the new version, emblematic of the current age of commodification and information explosion that holds more authenticity to the current value system? Is not the ephemeral, media dominated social arena of the new Times Square not the product of the dominant social arena of our time? Does this not in fact make the new Times Square more authentic than the older version that bespoke of a bygone age that no longer holds cultural currency today?
Times Square possesses historical linkages that have been cast in shadow by the influx of flashing lights and media advertisements over the past 15 odd years. The article calls into question the authenticity of experience and validity of place offered to the public by the structured imposition of a 'mediascape' within the previously historically emblematic Times' Square. The issue lies in the re-'place'ment of the gritty 'real' experience of the old Times Square (emblematic of the exchange of industrial capitol)with a pre-fabricated, plasticized model of experience (emblematic of the new age of information). Many loathe the new Times Square for its complete detachment from any historical reference it held previously, and for its apparent function as a masking mechanism serving to create the 'illusion of place' while behind the mask the 'real' Times Square is dying.
What is brought into question is the notion of what in fact is the 'authentic' Times Square? Is it the 'old version', emblematic of historical phenomena that took place within its confines? Or is the new version, emblematic of the current age of commodification and information explosion that holds more authenticity to the current value system? Is not the ephemeral, media dominated social arena of the new Times Square not the product of the dominant social arena of our time? Does this not in fact make the new Times Square more authentic than the older version that bespoke of a bygone age that no longer holds cultural currency today?
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Week4-Homebodies on Vacation
Today, most people focus more on the destination of travelling and what can be seen in the destination. Flight saves lots of time that we spent on the travelling from one place to another before. But are we really happy about it? Someone said that: Life is like travelling, you don’t have to care about where is the destination, what you see and experience and the mood you get from them during the travelling are more important than the destination. I don’t like to travel by flying because it shortens the most important part of a trip.
There was a Chinese idiom which can be translated to “Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles” or “reading lots of books doesn’t beat travelling to all places”. Ancient Chinese saw travelling as a way of learning or an extension of reading books. During a travel, you can not only see the beautiful landscape but also learn by meeting all kinds of people and things.
Travel can be a way of escaping from the pressure of daily life temporarily. People may get energetic again about life after travelling. It is a good way of getting relaxed. Movement is one of the most important things of travel. I agree that if video travel offers infinite destinations without the expenditure of movement-the paradox of going without leaving-then tourism reverses the logic. Video travel has many advantages such as: elastic, low cost and time-saving. However, it cannot take place of traditional travel because people always seek authentic things. Video travel may stimulate people’s desire of going to the place rather than reduce it.
There was a Chinese idiom which can be translated to “Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles” or “reading lots of books doesn’t beat travelling to all places”. Ancient Chinese saw travelling as a way of learning or an extension of reading books. During a travel, you can not only see the beautiful landscape but also learn by meeting all kinds of people and things.
Travel can be a way of escaping from the pressure of daily life temporarily. People may get energetic again about life after travelling. It is a good way of getting relaxed. Movement is one of the most important things of travel. I agree that if video travel offers infinite destinations without the expenditure of movement-the paradox of going without leaving-then tourism reverses the logic. Video travel has many advantages such as: elastic, low cost and time-saving. However, it cannot take place of traditional travel because people always seek authentic things. Video travel may stimulate people’s desire of going to the place rather than reduce it.
Homebodies on vacation-Review
The article analyzes the characteristics of modern travel that have evolved out of the modern technological arena. The modern traveler seeks escape from the fictitious, digital environment to places that connect them to the past and the natural (the real). However, the traveler cannot fully escape the throes of technology and globalization. As the article points out, commodification of vision and experience has permeated the realm of travel. The mechanics of travel have drastically changed since the Renaissance. Where the Renaissance traveler sought out active discourse within their new environments, the modern traveler has evolved into the role of the ‘passive voyeur’, of consumer of their new environments.
Technology and the commodification of vision have permeated our existential behavior to the point where we seek out mediated environments, even when trying to escape them. Travel is in many ways ‘a construction of authenticity’ designed to meet the desires of the traveler seeking out ‘the real’ to escape their otherwise fabricated existence in western society. Within this construct the traveler follows delineated ‘scenic routes’ (those optically engineered postcard views that displace the ‘unsightly views’) seeking out photo-ops as souvenirs, proof of the accountability of their experience. These postcard views then become commodified through tourist consumption which turns the sight into a symbolic representation of its natural state while engineers struggle to maintain the view to meet its ‘expected image’.
Every ‘sight’ a tourist visits is a representation of its own original state mediated through artificial fields of vision (through the car windshield, camera lens, and corded off viewing posts) that objectify the natural world into a ‘possessable artifact’ ready for consumption. From the official sights engineered to reconstruct the historic past to the picture window views from within the ‘vacation home’, the commodification of vision through mediating frameworks has become an industry to meet the desire of a growing leisure oriented society where each person desires to possess a piece of the natural world. The tourist’s consumption of the ‘pre-packaged authentic’ is destroying the very thing they seek to possess.
Technology and the commodification of vision have permeated our existential behavior to the point where we seek out mediated environments, even when trying to escape them. Travel is in many ways ‘a construction of authenticity’ designed to meet the desires of the traveler seeking out ‘the real’ to escape their otherwise fabricated existence in western society. Within this construct the traveler follows delineated ‘scenic routes’ (those optically engineered postcard views that displace the ‘unsightly views’) seeking out photo-ops as souvenirs, proof of the accountability of their experience. These postcard views then become commodified through tourist consumption which turns the sight into a symbolic representation of its natural state while engineers struggle to maintain the view to meet its ‘expected image’.
Every ‘sight’ a tourist visits is a representation of its own original state mediated through artificial fields of vision (through the car windshield, camera lens, and corded off viewing posts) that objectify the natural world into a ‘possessable artifact’ ready for consumption. From the official sights engineered to reconstruct the historic past to the picture window views from within the ‘vacation home’, the commodification of vision through mediating frameworks has become an industry to meet the desire of a growing leisure oriented society where each person desires to possess a piece of the natural world. The tourist’s consumption of the ‘pre-packaged authentic’ is destroying the very thing they seek to possess.
Is Time Square Dead?
In the article Time Square: Dead or Alive we can see the progression of Time Square from a place that represented New York to a place that represents the large advertisement and entertainment companies of the States. Is not enough credit given to the public to be interested in a Times Square that represents a deeper history of the city. Will the public eventually get tired of superficial "razzle dazzle" and pass on Times Square for the bigger Las Vegas? Will the lack of history force Times Square to lose its sense of place? Big bill boards and flashing lights can be found around the world from Tokyo to London, what makes Times Square unique to New York? I think eventually the spark will fade and people will pass on going to see something that they could see anywhere. A sense of place is very important to tourism and without it Times Square becomes pastiche, a second rate Vegas. We can't let these large electronic imaging companies take away or erase the sense of 'original' artist or creator. If we reuse and edit images over and over we lose a sense of creator and if we lose this then we lose a sense of place, time and identity. Time Square can be brought back to life, with it's own history it will create its own identity.
Monday, February 5, 2007
I Think I'd like a home away from home!!
Isn't being at home the best feeling ever? Even a vacation can't replicate that emotion, but being at home we are reminded of all our daily responsibilities. The laundry has to be done and the kitchen has to be cleaned, the dog needs a walk and I have to remember to pay the water bill. I love to be home, but if I could get that same feeling away from home, I'm gone. I think this explains the sudden popularity of summer homes and cabins, a place to get away without really getting away, a space that will focus our sight on magnificent views and scenic drives. These vacations at home fit perfectly into our lives valuing commodity and convenience. Sightseeing can be done in our own countries with the help of a sign to tell us there is something to see. This illustrates how our society is so used to placing frames around things that should be noticed, without them we would just drive on by. We use a frame of reference constantly, from our car windshield to home windows, we consider views very important to our quality of life and society has kept up to speed with placing signs on every natural view we should want to look at. Travelling becomes more about the tourism then the adventure of finding something new on your own. Guided tours tell you exactly where to go and what to look at. It has become so commercialized that I think it has lost some of the mystery and adventure to waking up in a new place and having no idea what you will find. People now want convenience and maybe having a memory of a place is really more important then actually going there but I think we are cheating ourselves out of life if we believe that. We should not be trying to make a world where in we don't go anywhere, we work at home, we vacation at home, the same city, the same thing over and over again, sometimes you just got to get the hell out!!!
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Hey Everyone
How's everybody? What did you guys think of the last articles? I agreed with the fact that we need to change or we will destroy our cities. Here are my notes, feel free to comment on any of my questions.
Temporary Contracts
Are architects the only ones worrying about this? I think this is a way larger problem that, yes, we can do something about but we cannot fix it until our whole society realizes that something is wrong with having temporary everything.
Companies no longer care about the people they impact, they only care for themselves and the quickest way to make a buck. They do not care about sustaining a well respected business attitude with repeat customers, and customers don’t seem to mind this. The facts and statistics listed in the article are repulsive and widely unknown, these are impacts we will be feeling in twenty years and then we will ask ourselves “why weren’t we told we were doing this to ourselves?” Why didn’t the government step in and predict our downfall? If consumption doesn’t change, eventually we all will know it is a problem – when everything is gone.
We can write and talk about these things but the bottom line is that if every one doesn’t start believing that how they are living is not sustainable, we don’t have a chance to change our fate. In a world where one person cannot make a difference people just plain don’t care.
Temporary Contracts
Are architects the only ones worrying about this? I think this is a way larger problem that, yes, we can do something about but we cannot fix it until our whole society realizes that something is wrong with having temporary everything.
Companies no longer care about the people they impact, they only care for themselves and the quickest way to make a buck. They do not care about sustaining a well respected business attitude with repeat customers, and customers don’t seem to mind this. The facts and statistics listed in the article are repulsive and widely unknown, these are impacts we will be feeling in twenty years and then we will ask ourselves “why weren’t we told we were doing this to ourselves?” Why didn’t the government step in and predict our downfall? If consumption doesn’t change, eventually we all will know it is a problem – when everything is gone.
We can write and talk about these things but the bottom line is that if every one doesn’t start believing that how they are living is not sustainable, we don’t have a chance to change our fate. In a world where one person cannot make a difference people just plain don’t care.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
week 3-Notes-On the Economy of the Post-industrial Landscape.
Post-industrialism can be defined as the covergence of the "Information Age" and the "Service Economy" A post-industrial economy is often marked by: 1. A declining manufacturing sector, resulting in de-industrialization, 2. A large service sector, 3. An increase in the amount of information technology, often leading to an "information age". Information, knowledge and creativity are the new raw materials of such an economy. 4. The industry aspect of a post-industrial economy is sent into less developed nations which manufacture what is needed at lower costs.
Today, we live in an era of globalization.Most people see globalization as a beneficial thing. Is this a truth? Globalization is seen as cutting edge to "go global". Many people feel that globalization is a great force bringing the world closer together. There are even new phrases like global village which make us feel good about globalization bringing us all closer together. But when we think about what globalization really is - when we look beyond this - we can see the true meaning of the word. The real agents of globalization are the multinational corporations. Globalization is nothing more than the product of the multinational corporation search for profit. So, rather than being driven by positive things like a wish to bring the world closer together, globalization is driven by corporations seeking to maximize profits, and part of that search for profits involves the search for cheaper labor. Many companies move into less developed countries to take advantage of the lack of organization of labor there which allows these companies to pay low wages.Rather than making the world a more friendly place, globalization is leading to things such as "Export Processing Zones" - places where millions of people make products which are then shipped into the more developed countries and sold for a huge profit. These zones are integral to what globalization is and does. As the United States experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, many poor countries experienced declining living standards.
Today, we live in an era of globalization.Most people see globalization as a beneficial thing. Is this a truth? Globalization is seen as cutting edge to "go global". Many people feel that globalization is a great force bringing the world closer together. There are even new phrases like global village which make us feel good about globalization bringing us all closer together. But when we think about what globalization really is - when we look beyond this - we can see the true meaning of the word. The real agents of globalization are the multinational corporations. Globalization is nothing more than the product of the multinational corporation search for profit. So, rather than being driven by positive things like a wish to bring the world closer together, globalization is driven by corporations seeking to maximize profits, and part of that search for profits involves the search for cheaper labor. Many companies move into less developed countries to take advantage of the lack of organization of labor there which allows these companies to pay low wages.Rather than making the world a more friendly place, globalization is leading to things such as "Export Processing Zones" - places where millions of people make products which are then shipped into the more developed countries and sold for a huge profit. These zones are integral to what globalization is and does. As the United States experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, many poor countries experienced declining living standards.
Notes-Fashion and Commodity Form
Baudrillard defines symbolic exchange as:In symbolic exchange, of which the gift is our most proximate illustration, the object is not an object:it is inseparable from the concrete relation in which it is exchanged, the transferational pact it seals between two persons. Baudrillard's took the wedding ring as an example of symbolic object.One does not wear several, nor think of substituting one for another. This is because the ring is intended to be as unsubstitutable and permanent as the relationship itself. The commodity is different because the exchange of commodity can only take place on the basis of exchange value. Therefore, the exchange relation hardly allows for symbolic investment.
Fashion can be understood as a mode of consumption. It is a commodity whose form is at one and the sametime its content, a commodity that is doubly abstract toth as exchange value and as use value. Fashion is no longer limited to designing and shaping human body.It is now the overriding stylistic code that is configuring our whole environment and mannerisms of habitation. Fashion has been likened to language.It is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life.It's a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live. Fashion is about change which is necessary to keep life interesting. It shouldn't be taken too seriously or you lose the fun of it. Whatever is fashionable now will quickly become unfashionable. New trends keep coming to replace the old.
Fashion can be understood as a mode of consumption. It is a commodity whose form is at one and the sametime its content, a commodity that is doubly abstract toth as exchange value and as use value. Fashion is no longer limited to designing and shaping human body.It is now the overriding stylistic code that is configuring our whole environment and mannerisms of habitation. Fashion has been likened to language.It is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life.It's a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live. Fashion is about change which is necessary to keep life interesting. It shouldn't be taken too seriously or you lose the fun of it. Whatever is fashionable now will quickly become unfashionable. New trends keep coming to replace the old.
reading notes
Obsolescence and Desire: Fashion and the Commodity Form
By Gail Faurschou
Fashion is an ever changing world. It appears to be the most superfluous, transitory and especially trivial. It looks at the past, present and future. It gets it meaning from who we got it from or the circumstances on which we acquired it. The wedding ring proves the importance that some fashion has. It means the permanence of the relationship, you wear only on and you never substitute it for something else.
Fashion is fickle that way. It can recycle any or every object that was once endowed with cultural value, reintroducing it as a stylized simulation of itself. Fashion can be natural, unnatural or instinctual. The fashion industry can utilize the media to make a desire for the product.
Fashion also is an ever changing industry; its products can become obsolete overnight. Not many produces have this same situation. Fashion companies seem to take advantage of this as well. Brand power is a big part of fashion as well. People seem to seek out the little label that says this was very expensive. The polo symbol for Ralph Lauren or the swoosh by Nike. It means quality and cost.
You can learn a lot from the fashion industry.
By Gail Faurschou
Fashion is an ever changing world. It appears to be the most superfluous, transitory and especially trivial. It looks at the past, present and future. It gets it meaning from who we got it from or the circumstances on which we acquired it. The wedding ring proves the importance that some fashion has. It means the permanence of the relationship, you wear only on and you never substitute it for something else.
Fashion is fickle that way. It can recycle any or every object that was once endowed with cultural value, reintroducing it as a stylized simulation of itself. Fashion can be natural, unnatural or instinctual. The fashion industry can utilize the media to make a desire for the product.
Fashion also is an ever changing industry; its products can become obsolete overnight. Not many produces have this same situation. Fashion companies seem to take advantage of this as well. Brand power is a big part of fashion as well. People seem to seek out the little label that says this was very expensive. The polo symbol for Ralph Lauren or the swoosh by Nike. It means quality and cost.
You can learn a lot from the fashion industry.
reading notes
Temporary Contracts: On the economy of the post-industrial landscape
By Ellen Dunham-Jones
Corporate America is ruled increasingly by the concept of temporary contracts. Flexible accumulation, you don’t need to buy for the long run, everything seems temporary. People no longer buy cars they lease them. This way once they don’t like their car anymore they just exchange it for another one. This works with condos and apartments, you have temporary housing that is only under lease from year to year. Even marriage seems to be temporary, with a divorce rate of 60% and only 40% make it long term. What ever happened to now and forever?
Buildings and architecture have taken this toll as well. You see it with the expand of the box stores for sure, look at Winnipeg’s Kenasten Blvd. It was a waste land only six years ago. There was nothing there. Now within the last six years and with the start of a Wal-mart, we have a Safeway, Home Depot, Rona and a Sobey’s, as well as a bunch of other department stores. I can see why there is less and less happening in our downtown area. The landscape has become flat and who wants to work downtown.
“The landscape of the post-industrial economy surrounds us. It presents us with new challenges. We need to wrestle with the question of how architecture- traditionally conceived of as an enduring cultural artifact- might better respond to the culture of the temporary contract?”
What can architecture do to change or make the temporary less damaging and more adaptable?
By Ellen Dunham-Jones
Corporate America is ruled increasingly by the concept of temporary contracts. Flexible accumulation, you don’t need to buy for the long run, everything seems temporary. People no longer buy cars they lease them. This way once they don’t like their car anymore they just exchange it for another one. This works with condos and apartments, you have temporary housing that is only under lease from year to year. Even marriage seems to be temporary, with a divorce rate of 60% and only 40% make it long term. What ever happened to now and forever?
Buildings and architecture have taken this toll as well. You see it with the expand of the box stores for sure, look at Winnipeg’s Kenasten Blvd. It was a waste land only six years ago. There was nothing there. Now within the last six years and with the start of a Wal-mart, we have a Safeway, Home Depot, Rona and a Sobey’s, as well as a bunch of other department stores. I can see why there is less and less happening in our downtown area. The landscape has become flat and who wants to work downtown.
“The landscape of the post-industrial economy surrounds us. It presents us with new challenges. We need to wrestle with the question of how architecture- traditionally conceived of as an enduring cultural artifact- might better respond to the culture of the temporary contract?”
What can architecture do to change or make the temporary less damaging and more adaptable?
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Read This: Important!!
Hey Everyone,
I have to send Jae our link to this blog with a list of our group members, can everyone email me with thier last names and student numbers so that I can email it to Jae tonight, Thanks
I have to send Jae our link to this blog with a list of our group members, can everyone email me with thier last names and student numbers so that I can email it to Jae tonight, Thanks
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Article Review: Post Modernism and Consumer Society- Fredric Jameson
Jameson tries to lay the frame work for gaining a deeper understanding of postmodernism and it’s implications in architecture…
The specifics of post modernism and their implications:
1) Reaction against the established forms of high modernism:
-in the 1960’s referenced the moment when modernism became official academia, thereby losing face with a whole new arena of artists.
2)‘Kitsch’:the erosion of traditional distinctions between high culture and mass culture.
-Implicated within the latter is that it poses a threat to the establishment, to academia which have a vested interest in the preservation of the elite and high culture. (Or maybe it poses a threat to the public by further disenfranchising the lower classes by appropriating mass culture, repackaging it and selling it back to the public for a high price as ‘high culture’?)
3) The dissolution of professional philosophy and theory
-is there such a thing as ‘post-modernist theory’ or does the very nature of the movement as a fragmented re-appropriation of the past make theoretical discourse futile and irrelevant to architectural practice?
-earlier theoretical discourse weas distinguishable between academic disciplines, where now theory “can be anything and everything at once or nothing at all”.
4) A periodizing concept that correlates new formal features in culture with a new type of socio-economic ordering (late capitalism)
5) The rise of ‘pastiche’ and ‘schizophrenia’
-not to be confused with parody, pastiche involves the mimicry and imitation of other styles without seizing on their idiosyncrasies or making any sort of comment on the original (missing the point completely): “speech in a dead language”; pastiche a ‘blank parody’.
-Resulting from a schizophrenic consumer capitalist social arena where collectively we have begun to lose our sense of history; we are in perpetual motion and have lost all points of reference.
6) Death of the ‘subject or the end of individualism
-global awareness, demographic explosion and the age of corporate capitalism where the individual subject becomes subservient to the collective, ‘face-less’ subject competing for capital, resources and space.
-Artists and writers work is no longer of relevance to society: Is this actually the case? I think not. They are here to push societal awareness past their own noses.
-Jameson states rather apocalyptically, that everything has been invented and only a limited amount of potentialities exist…Can this be proved? I hardly think that this is the case. As long as there is a necessity for change, invention will exist.
The imperative of new architecture
-to extend new organs and expand our senses to (as yet) unimaginable dimensions (hyperspace).
Example: the Bonaventure hotel (John Portman) aspires to become a total space (hyper-locality) to accommodate the new collective (hyper-crowd).
-busyness of space, repression of depth cues immerses the individual eliminating distance to repress perspective or perception of volume… Is this the future of architectural practice?
Jameson tries to lay the frame work for gaining a deeper understanding of postmodernism and it’s implications in architecture…
The specifics of post modernism and their implications:
1) Reaction against the established forms of high modernism:
-in the 1960’s referenced the moment when modernism became official academia, thereby losing face with a whole new arena of artists.
2)‘Kitsch’:the erosion of traditional distinctions between high culture and mass culture.
-Implicated within the latter is that it poses a threat to the establishment, to academia which have a vested interest in the preservation of the elite and high culture. (Or maybe it poses a threat to the public by further disenfranchising the lower classes by appropriating mass culture, repackaging it and selling it back to the public for a high price as ‘high culture’?)
3) The dissolution of professional philosophy and theory
-is there such a thing as ‘post-modernist theory’ or does the very nature of the movement as a fragmented re-appropriation of the past make theoretical discourse futile and irrelevant to architectural practice?
-earlier theoretical discourse weas distinguishable between academic disciplines, where now theory “can be anything and everything at once or nothing at all”.
4) A periodizing concept that correlates new formal features in culture with a new type of socio-economic ordering (late capitalism)
5) The rise of ‘pastiche’ and ‘schizophrenia’
-not to be confused with parody, pastiche involves the mimicry and imitation of other styles without seizing on their idiosyncrasies or making any sort of comment on the original (missing the point completely): “speech in a dead language”; pastiche a ‘blank parody’.
-Resulting from a schizophrenic consumer capitalist social arena where collectively we have begun to lose our sense of history; we are in perpetual motion and have lost all points of reference.
6) Death of the ‘subject or the end of individualism
-global awareness, demographic explosion and the age of corporate capitalism where the individual subject becomes subservient to the collective, ‘face-less’ subject competing for capital, resources and space.
-Artists and writers work is no longer of relevance to society: Is this actually the case? I think not. They are here to push societal awareness past their own noses.
-Jameson states rather apocalyptically, that everything has been invented and only a limited amount of potentialities exist…Can this be proved? I hardly think that this is the case. As long as there is a necessity for change, invention will exist.
The imperative of new architecture
-to extend new organs and expand our senses to (as yet) unimaginable dimensions (hyperspace).
Example: the Bonaventure hotel (John Portman) aspires to become a total space (hyper-locality) to accommodate the new collective (hyper-crowd).
-busyness of space, repression of depth cues immerses the individual eliminating distance to repress perspective or perception of volume… Is this the future of architectural practice?
reading notes 2
Fredric Jameson, ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Society’
Postmodernism is not very easily understood that could be why it is not accepted today. Postmodernism is represented in a lots of areas of the art field this making it more complex and harder to understand. “Postmodernism is a reaction against the established forms of high modernism.”(164) “Postmodernism is effacement in it of some key boundaries or separations, most notably the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and the so-called mass or popular culture.”(165) Postmodernism is not just another word to describe a particular style. It is more of a grouping of concepts, new way of thinking and designing more of an inner truth. It has a deeper meaning in the consumer or multinational capitalism and social system. You get a sense of history in postmodernism that you don’t get from another movement. I really don’t understand it myself. I need to do this again.
Postmodernism is not very easily understood that could be why it is not accepted today. Postmodernism is represented in a lots of areas of the art field this making it more complex and harder to understand. “Postmodernism is a reaction against the established forms of high modernism.”(164) “Postmodernism is effacement in it of some key boundaries or separations, most notably the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and the so-called mass or popular culture.”(165) Postmodernism is not just another word to describe a particular style. It is more of a grouping of concepts, new way of thinking and designing more of an inner truth. It has a deeper meaning in the consumer or multinational capitalism and social system. You get a sense of history in postmodernism that you don’t get from another movement. I really don’t understand it myself. I need to do this again.
Reading notes
Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture
David Harvey, from The Condition of Postmodernity. An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
This is an interesting article that looks at Postmodernity as a historic condition. Aesthetic and cultural practices are subject to change with the times. How does one even keep up? There are things in history that can explain movement that you just have to watch out for. What happens in science and religion and political and cultural realms are present everywhere it has influence on everything. Economics show how things look good in one perspective if not good in another’s, it’s a false imagery. (Fictitious capitalism and disempowerment).
Aesthetic movements in architecture have been based on Fads of the different times. But fads come and go. Just like get rich quick schemes. You can make lots of money overnight on one thing and lose your shirt the next night on a new scheme. So the question is do you follow the things you like now or do you risk it to stand the test of time. Follow Classicism or create your own movement.
David Harvey, from The Condition of Postmodernity. An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
This is an interesting article that looks at Postmodernity as a historic condition. Aesthetic and cultural practices are subject to change with the times. How does one even keep up? There are things in history that can explain movement that you just have to watch out for. What happens in science and religion and political and cultural realms are present everywhere it has influence on everything. Economics show how things look good in one perspective if not good in another’s, it’s a false imagery. (Fictitious capitalism and disempowerment).
Aesthetic movements in architecture have been based on Fads of the different times. But fads come and go. Just like get rich quick schemes. You can make lots of money overnight on one thing and lose your shirt the next night on a new scheme. So the question is do you follow the things you like now or do you risk it to stand the test of time. Follow Classicism or create your own movement.
questions
1.Is postmodernism a style?
2.Is the emergence of postmodernism related to the emergence of late, comsumer or multinational capitalism? How?
3.What is the aim of postmodernism in architecture? Is it a mood of nostalgia or trying to address the failures of modernism and repelling it?
4.Is it necessary to respect or look back the past? Why?
2.Is the emergence of postmodernism related to the emergence of late, comsumer or multinational capitalism? How?
3.What is the aim of postmodernism in architecture? Is it a mood of nostalgia or trying to address the failures of modernism and repelling it?
4.Is it necessary to respect or look back the past? Why?
Questions for Jae-Part 2
Questions (Harvey: Popular Capitalism and Popular culture)
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
Questions for Jae-Part 2
Questions (Harvey: Popular Capitalism and Popular culture)
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
1)Is postmodernism currently on a decline or just undergoing an evolution? What are the current conditions that give evidence of your opinion?
2)Based on Harvey’s analysis that defines the beginning of major aesthetic movements as occurring during moments of overwhelming space-time compression: is the ‘post-postmdernist’ movement valid? Is this a new moment of space-time compression or What are the societal conditions that have spurred this movement?
3)Can we predict the future through the conditions of the present? (the present is a matrix for the culmination of the future)
4)Harvey highlights some theorists’ predictions on the culmination of the next aesthetic movement: What sort of aesthetic movement would you like to see or think will happen? Is it nostalgic or evolutionary?
Questions (Jameson: Post-moderism and Consumer Society)
1)Can post-modern theory be called theory at all (in the traditional concept)? Or is theory inapplicable to postmodernist design?
2)Does the future of architecture lie within the complete departure from the fundamental notion of framing physical space?
3)Is psychological spatiality (experience of being immersed in space) taking precedence over the traditional concept of physical space (experience of space from a certain distance)?
4)What does the notion of ‘post-modern hyperspace’ mean for architecture? How does it change the tectonic?
5)Can the postmodern movement move beyond perpetual motion and replication towards the notion of creating and end for end’s sake? Is this a desirable goal?
Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture
Article Review: "Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture" -David Harvey
Harvey analyzes the rise postmodern condition through an historical, ‘post-marxist’ standpoint:
-The dimensions of space and time are compressed due to the pressure created by the over-accumulation and persistent circulation of capital, which began in the nineteenth century.
-Effect on aesthetic and cultural practices subject to the ‘flow of human experience’ within space and time.
-Space-time compression sparks confusion and uncertainty as society struggles within the overwhelming density of the moment, intitiating strong aesthetic movements.
Deconstruction and the fragmentation of society:
Harvey weaves together the threads that have spurred societal change into a tapestry of the postmodern condition.
-The mediatization of politics: powerful positions carefully shaped by image. underlying fascist regime glossed over with the image of warm and well-meaning politics.
-Deindustrialization and the shift to service industry causing widespread unemployment widened the gap between the haves and have nots rendering much of the population vulnerable.
Rise of the credit industry and fictitious capital:
- Asset inflation replaces commodity inflation
- dependency on fictitious/symbolic capital: image of affluence increases the perceived needs of the disenfranchised.
- Detachment from reality: an increasingly image based society is indifferent to the modes of production and economy
- Detachment and disassociation triggers the notion of ‘the other’ prevalent in aesthetic movements
Postmodernism is undergoing a subtle evolution:
-Deconstructionism is being put under fire for its past sympathies for the fascist/Nazi regime (Heidegger, Paul De Man)
-East/west economic and ideological gaps are closing in.
-Economic mergers: movement away from the fragmentary
-New emphasis on ‘becoming’, rather than ‘being’
-Seeking out unity within difference.
Harvey analyzes the rise postmodern condition through an historical, ‘post-marxist’ standpoint:
-The dimensions of space and time are compressed due to the pressure created by the over-accumulation and persistent circulation of capital, which began in the nineteenth century.
-Effect on aesthetic and cultural practices subject to the ‘flow of human experience’ within space and time.
-Space-time compression sparks confusion and uncertainty as society struggles within the overwhelming density of the moment, intitiating strong aesthetic movements.
Deconstruction and the fragmentation of society:
Harvey weaves together the threads that have spurred societal change into a tapestry of the postmodern condition.
-The mediatization of politics: powerful positions carefully shaped by image. underlying fascist regime glossed over with the image of warm and well-meaning politics.
-Deindustrialization and the shift to service industry causing widespread unemployment widened the gap between the haves and have nots rendering much of the population vulnerable.
Rise of the credit industry and fictitious capital:
- Asset inflation replaces commodity inflation
- dependency on fictitious/symbolic capital: image of affluence increases the perceived needs of the disenfranchised.
- Detachment from reality: an increasingly image based society is indifferent to the modes of production and economy
- Detachment and disassociation triggers the notion of ‘the other’ prevalent in aesthetic movements
Postmodernism is undergoing a subtle evolution:
-Deconstructionism is being put under fire for its past sympathies for the fascist/Nazi regime (Heidegger, Paul De Man)
-East/west economic and ideological gaps are closing in.
-Economic mergers: movement away from the fragmentary
-New emphasis on ‘becoming’, rather than ‘being’
-Seeking out unity within difference.
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
Postmodernism and Consumer Society" , Jameson explores the concept of "postmodernist space," which he refers to as a "mutation in built space itself" -- where humans become physically disoriented because they have not developed the "perceptual equipment to match this new hyperspace" .In " This hyperspace, which emerges out of postmodernism, is directly linked to the concept of late capitalism. Jameson refers to this mode of capitalism as a "postindustrial society" whose "multinational capitalism" and new pervasive forms of media and technology replace the pre-World War II society.
Jameson focuses his analysis of postmodernist space on John Portman's Bonaventure Hotel. The Bonaventure Hotel is a landmark in downtown Los Angeles. Its futuristic structure is composed of three mirrored-glass towers. Jameson claims that postmodern buildings such as the Bonaventure Hotel do not seek to "insert a different, a distinct, or an elevated language into the tawdry and commercial sign-system of the surrounding city," but, instead, seek "to speak that very language, using commercialism's lexicon and syntax." These buildings, Jameson contends, "aspire to be a total space, a complete world, a kind of miniature city," not wanting "to be a part of the city, but rather its equivalent and its replacement or substitute" . He explains that unlike the great modernist buildings that sought to invoke a dramatic distinction from the surrounding "fallen city fabric," the Bonaventure Hotel seeks no such distinction with its mirrored-glass siding. The hotel itself is hiden with the mirrored-siding. when you look at the building, all that can be seen are the distorted images of everything that surrounds the building. The important element here is Jameson's portrayal of the Bonaventure as composed in the lexicon and form of commercialism, and, hence, late capitalism. The building is, therefore, a physical manifestation of the late capitalistic society -- a mini-city within the city itself. Jameson states that he desires for Portman's building to be distinguished from the "leisure-specialized" space found in places like Disneyland. Disneyland is a "deterrence machine". It presents an imaginary space/world in order to make us believe that the rest of the world is real. The Bonaventure Hotel is a normal element of the whole because of its economic function within the city. It is designed to fit into the physical and economic landscape of the city. It constructs its own "new" world when you enter it. However,this new world is not intended to contrast with the outside city as Disneyland; instead,it is designed to replace it -- to become the outside world.
Jameson focuses his analysis of postmodernist space on John Portman's Bonaventure Hotel. The Bonaventure Hotel is a landmark in downtown Los Angeles. Its futuristic structure is composed of three mirrored-glass towers. Jameson claims that postmodern buildings such as the Bonaventure Hotel do not seek to "insert a different, a distinct, or an elevated language into the tawdry and commercial sign-system of the surrounding city," but, instead, seek "to speak that very language, using commercialism's lexicon and syntax." These buildings, Jameson contends, "aspire to be a total space, a complete world, a kind of miniature city," not wanting "to be a part of the city, but rather its equivalent and its replacement or substitute" . He explains that unlike the great modernist buildings that sought to invoke a dramatic distinction from the surrounding "fallen city fabric," the Bonaventure Hotel seeks no such distinction with its mirrored-glass siding. The hotel itself is hiden with the mirrored-siding. when you look at the building, all that can be seen are the distorted images of everything that surrounds the building. The important element here is Jameson's portrayal of the Bonaventure as composed in the lexicon and form of commercialism, and, hence, late capitalism. The building is, therefore, a physical manifestation of the late capitalistic society -- a mini-city within the city itself. Jameson states that he desires for Portman's building to be distinguished from the "leisure-specialized" space found in places like Disneyland. Disneyland is a "deterrence machine". It presents an imaginary space/world in order to make us believe that the rest of the world is real. The Bonaventure Hotel is a normal element of the whole because of its economic function within the city. It is designed to fit into the physical and economic landscape of the city. It constructs its own "new" world when you enter it. However,this new world is not intended to contrast with the outside city as Disneyland; instead,it is designed to replace it -- to become the outside world.
Questions for Jae
Hey guys, these are the six questions I've come up with for the two articles:
Questions for Week 2 Articles:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society:
1. Postmodernism signaled the end of individualism by signaling the end of high modernism, if this is so, why is postmodernism considered to be creative freedom for the arts?
2. Nostalgia has become an important tool in developments like Florida’s Celebration neighborhood; why do we feel the need to create a past? We create history for the present; we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
3. Is architecture considered as a way to create and manipulate memories and the past?
An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change
1. The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay. What examples are there of this?
2. Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image. Are these the political games we should be playing?
3. Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed. Are these the illusions of postmodernism?
Questions for Week 2 Articles:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society:
1. Postmodernism signaled the end of individualism by signaling the end of high modernism, if this is so, why is postmodernism considered to be creative freedom for the arts?
2. Nostalgia has become an important tool in developments like Florida’s Celebration neighborhood; why do we feel the need to create a past? We create history for the present; we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
3. Is architecture considered as a way to create and manipulate memories and the past?
An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change
1. The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay. What examples are there of this?
2. Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image. Are these the political games we should be playing?
3. Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed. Are these the illusions of postmodernism?
Review Notes for Week 2
Hey Everyone,
I hope you all can get on to our new blog. Here are my review notes for the articles "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" and "An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change", I sent them by email earlier but here they are:
Review Notes for Week Two:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
Postmodernism: a reaction to what was going on in art and architecture in the 1960’s; in other words a reaction to high modernism.
“Pastiche is blank Parody”??
- Parody is mimicry; the wearing of a stylistic mask; making fun, exaggeration; a sense of joviality.
- Pastiche lacks in amusement; it is plain mimicry; a serious parody.
The end of individualism
- modernism as private, unique style, individualist
- Postmodernism as collective pastiche; borrowing from history. A weight has been lifted; pressure of creating a unique stylized private world is dead. Did this occur as a type of copout? We just ran out of ideas?
- As it is defined right now postmodernism is not a style, it is anything that doesn’t reflect the private unique style of high modernism. So then, what is it? What “style” are we in right now? Do we need to be in a style? Why do we need to constantly define the boundaries of what is happening?
- We are left with the imitation of dead styles
Nostalgia
- This desire for something past is consistent with postmodernism.
- What is the difference between the nostalgia film or pastiche and the films of history or the historical novel? We create history for the present, we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
Historical Amnesia
- Society now lacks our own history; perhaps that is why these fake histories and nostalgic inclinations are so prevalent today; architecture as a way to create and manipulate memory and the past.
Postmodernism = our reality as constructed image and time only exists in the present.
An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
Postmodernism is an historical- geographical condition, but what kind of a condition?
The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay.
Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image.
Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed.
So, for today at 12:00 we have to sent Jae 7 points (questions and opinions) for each of the articles. If we can each come up with 3 points per article and put them up on the blog we can sift through them at 11:00 and then come up with our 14 Points to email to Jae. What does everyone think of this?
I hope you all can get on to our new blog. Here are my review notes for the articles "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" and "An Enquiry in to the Origins of Social Change", I sent them by email earlier but here they are:
Review Notes for Week Two:
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
Postmodernism: a reaction to what was going on in art and architecture in the 1960’s; in other words a reaction to high modernism.
“Pastiche is blank Parody”??
- Parody is mimicry; the wearing of a stylistic mask; making fun, exaggeration; a sense of joviality.
- Pastiche lacks in amusement; it is plain mimicry; a serious parody.
The end of individualism
- modernism as private, unique style, individualist
- Postmodernism as collective pastiche; borrowing from history. A weight has been lifted; pressure of creating a unique stylized private world is dead. Did this occur as a type of copout? We just ran out of ideas?
- As it is defined right now postmodernism is not a style, it is anything that doesn’t reflect the private unique style of high modernism. So then, what is it? What “style” are we in right now? Do we need to be in a style? Why do we need to constantly define the boundaries of what is happening?
- We are left with the imitation of dead styles
Nostalgia
- This desire for something past is consistent with postmodernism.
- What is the difference between the nostalgia film or pastiche and the films of history or the historical novel? We create history for the present, we no longer use history for its intrinsic value.
Historical Amnesia
- Society now lacks our own history; perhaps that is why these fake histories and nostalgic inclinations are so prevalent today; architecture as a way to create and manipulate memory and the past.
Postmodernism = our reality as constructed image and time only exists in the present.
An Enquiry into the Origins of Social Change
Postmodernism is an historical- geographical condition, but what kind of a condition?
The image of everything being okay is more important or prevalent then the reality of everything not being okay.
Image is everything; we live under the constant bombardment of social and political image.
Beneath the illusion of stability is chaos that expands and goes unnoticed.
So, for today at 12:00 we have to sent Jae 7 points (questions and opinions) for each of the articles. If we can each come up with 3 points per article and put them up on the blog we can sift through them at 11:00 and then come up with our 14 Points to email to Jae. What does everyone think of this?
Monday, January 22, 2007
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