THE CITY
The city is fluid and natural. The city is constantly transforming and evolving. It is akin to a living organism. However, contradictions and conflicts are often ignored in the process of conceptualizing the city. The consequence of this reflected in the manner, which those vested with the power conceive of and plan the city. Regulations, codes and standards are established while artificial boundaries created in and around the city. The complexity and diversity of lives are ignored. We lost all sense of wonder and mystery. The city no longer becomes a place of discovery where the unknown and the unexpected are possible. It becomes standardized and regularized.
How can we recover the element of uncertainty, ambiguity and play in the city? How do we interpret and give form to the ‘instabilized’ condition of our modern existence and the city? Central to this sense of instability is the condition of movement and noise. We have no refuge from the incessant intrusion of noise in our everyday lives and have come to accept it as part of us. Movement is embodied at all levels in the city and sometimes, can turn violent as witnessed in the Sichuan earthquake. Is there another form of order and structure underlying these unstable and dynamic conditions, one that acknowledges a different conception of time? What are these new levels of harmonies?
Perhaps we may never fully understand the chaotic, complexities of the city, despite what planners and architects may like us to think otherwise. The contemporary city is heterogeneous and unpredictable. Elements drift along various levels, sometimes colliding to create events and accidents. The city exists simultaneously at the level of personal space and time in a rush hour train as well as the abstract, ubiquitous flow of capital through global economies. It accepts the inter-penetration of individual and collective boundaries, dreams, memories and desires. Sometimes it feels like the “nowhereness” of an airport transit lounge or the quiet humming of a high-speed elevator. In other moments, the deafening, rhythmic noise of the jackhammer striking a concrete sidewalk.
Fall 1997
Bloomfield Hills
Michigan
The city is fluid and natural. The city is constantly transforming and evolving. It is akin to a living organism. However, contradictions and conflicts are often ignored in the process of conceptualizing the city. The consequence of this reflected in the manner, which those vested with the power conceive of and plan the city. Regulations, codes and standards are established while artificial boundaries created in and around the city. The complexity and diversity of lives are ignored. We lost all sense of wonder and mystery. The city no longer becomes a place of discovery where the unknown and the unexpected are possible. It becomes standardized and regularized.
How can we recover the element of uncertainty, ambiguity and play in the city? How do we interpret and give form to the ‘instabilized’ condition of our modern existence and the city? Central to this sense of instability is the condition of movement and noise. We have no refuge from the incessant intrusion of noise in our everyday lives and have come to accept it as part of us. Movement is embodied at all levels in the city and sometimes, can turn violent as witnessed in the Sichuan earthquake. Is there another form of order and structure underlying these unstable and dynamic conditions, one that acknowledges a different conception of time? What are these new levels of harmonies?
Perhaps we may never fully understand the chaotic, complexities of the city, despite what planners and architects may like us to think otherwise. The contemporary city is heterogeneous and unpredictable. Elements drift along various levels, sometimes colliding to create events and accidents. The city exists simultaneously at the level of personal space and time in a rush hour train as well as the abstract, ubiquitous flow of capital through global economies. It accepts the inter-penetration of individual and collective boundaries, dreams, memories and desires. Sometimes it feels like the “nowhereness” of an airport transit lounge or the quiet humming of a high-speed elevator. In other moments, the deafening, rhythmic noise of the jackhammer striking a concrete sidewalk.
Fall 1997
Bloomfield Hills
Michigan