I read Migropolis a few weeks after returning from Singapore. Smacked right underneath the atrium of the ultra modern shopping mall in the downtown were the iconic Venetian canal and gondolas, albeit more streamlined to complement the sleek modern interior. The mall is part of the brand new Marina Bay Sands “integrated resort” aka casino developed by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which also owns the Venetian in Las Vegas and the Venetian Macao in the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, among other casinos. The malleability of spaces and meanings, besides the fluid mobility of goods, capital, information and human beings across porous national boundaries in an age of globalization render a sense of familiarity yet alienation for me when confronted with the replica of the shallow canal and empty gondolas in an hermetically sealed interior environment in Singapore. Scheppe’s work in Migropolis therefore calls to our urgent attention with clarity and force what the perceptive among us sense and recognize with great disconcert as we live our lives in this milieu.
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