"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?
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RE: Instant stimulation and fleeting imagery:
It's funny, I was watching TV a few days ago and tuned into an older movie from the early 80's. It was a detective type flick, the type of movie genre that we usually accociate with action and adventure...the type that we would expect to jump from one scene to the next within seconds to keep up the suspense. In this particular movie there was this rather unsettling scene where the protagonist had entered a vacant room and proceeded to look around. Only there was this extended silence and lack of movement for what seemed to be minutes (how gruelling!) while the protagonist waited patiently for something or someone to emerge. I immediately took note of this unsettled feeling it gave me...it was like I didn't know what to do, what to look at...I was confused...funny that we are so conditioned to the highspeed racing of images that we no longer can readily cope with silence and stillness.
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