Media and Urban Space : Understanding, Investigating and Approaching Mediacity 9783865969217, 9783865961426

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Frank Eckardt is professor for sociology at the BauhausUniversity of Weimar, Germany. He holds a PhD in Political Science. His main field of research is urban studies. Since 2004, he ist the coordinator of the research project “Mediacity”.

Media and Urban Space

New information and communication techniques have significant influences on urban life. In this book, international and interdisciplinary research, projects and considerations about the emerging “Mediacity” are presented. Contributions from scientists, artists, and architects from 14 different countries are analyzing, researching and creatively approaching the cultural, social, political, and economical phenomena of the encounter between media and urban space.

Media and Urban Space Understanding, Investigating and Approaching Mediacity

Eckardt (ed.)

Frank Eckardt (ed.)

ISBN 978-3-86596-142-6

9 783865 961426

EUR 39,80

MTKD-CT-2004-517121

Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

Frank Eckardt (ed.) Media and Urban Space

Frank Eckardt (ed.)

Media and Urban Space Understanding, Investigating and Approaching Mediacity

Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

ISBN 978-3-86596-142-6 © Frank & Timme GmbH Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Berlin 2008. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk einschließlich aller Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlags unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Herstellung durch das atelier eilenberger, Leipzig. Printed in Germany. Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier. This publication has been realised by the financial support of the European Commission MTKD-CT-2004-517121. www.frank-timme.de

Content F RANK E CKARDT Media and Urban Space ...................................................................................................7

G ILDA B ERRUTI Urban Public Spaces in the Augmented City..................................................................9

G UNTHER L AUX Transformation − City Morphing .................................................................................23

B EATA S IROWY Understanding the Information Society: The Potentials of Phenomenological Approach ........................................................................................45

VALÉRIE C OLOMB The Public Building as a Media − Towards a Method..................................................65

J ESSE L E C AVALIER Wal-Martians: Wal-Mart’s Servo-Organism .................................................................83

M ONIKA G RUBBAUER Images of office architecture in the media – the paradigm of urban competitiveness and global interconnectivity .................................................105

S OFIA M ORGADO Lisbon: towards suprametropolis ................................................................................133

M ATJAZ U RSIC The Problem of “Expert Interpretative Vacuum” in Media Discourses – Discourse Analysis of Texts on Ljubljana Urbanism ..................................................145

A NNA K ARWIŃSKA The role of contemporary media in creating an identity for a post-socialist city district: The case of Nowa Huta ............................................167

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G RAHAM E LLARD AND S TEPHEN J OHNSTONE Motion Path ..................................................................................................................181

R IITTA O ITTINEN In Hoc Signo Vinces. Eurosigns in the City Scenery of Brussels ...............................201

D EANE S IMPSON RV Urbanism ................................................................................................................233

JARKKO R ÄSÄNEN Real-Time Sonic Texture – an interior design concept ..............................................259

M AURO C ECONELLO Virtual Models for City Design....................................................................................267

E LIZABETH S IKIARIDI AND F RANS VOGELAAR Hybrid Space / Soft Urbanism .....................................................................................275

O LIVER S CHÜRER /A NDREAS RUMPFHUBER /G ERNOT T SCHERTEU Medial Architecture, or a Battle-Rap on reality-production by means of electronic media facades ..............................................................................................305

O SNAT R OSEN -K REMER Let’s Build a Wall… and Create a Monster! Using the Media in Representing Urban Image...............................................................................................327

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F RANK E CKARDT

Media and Urban Space Understanding, Investigating and Approaching Mediacity

The omnipresence of the “urban” and the “media” might be the visual surface of the societies of the 21st century. According to different estimations, the majority of mankind already lives or will soon be living in a city. In many countries of the Western world, especially in Europe, it is already wellestablished that the majority of citizens are living in urban conurbations. The growth of the urban population has been succeeding without much disturbance and has therefore lost the attraction in many European debates. Particularly for Asian cities the opposite is true. Asian cities are experiencing a rapid urbanization which in speed, scope and intensity is stronger than the boom of the industrial city in 19th century Europe. Apparently, the vastness of change is even more impressive when the development and distribution of new information and communication technologies is considered. Nobody could have predicted the immense dimension of the innovations that have been appearing in the last decades. Moreover we are still observing the next revolutions in the field of the media development. After the overstretched expectations of the first years, observers are nowadays more careful in their analysis of different new perspectives on the electronic communication industries. Nevertheless, the end of high-flying dreams does not mean that the acceptance of information, knowledge and communication as cornerstones of the economical, societal, and cultural dimensions has been questioned. While combining these two general observations, it might be clear that any kind of activity is mainly urban and media related. Being urban and communicative are pre-dominant features of contemporary and future societies. Apparently, there is no “outside” from cities and from connectivity anymore. In everyday life, these pre-conditions of our existence have become so natural that a distinctive non-urban and non-mediated life appears to be exotic, unthinkable, or is romantically mourned for. The self-evidence of media and

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urbanity enables to operate within the given situation without much reflection on the basics of its functioning. This “hands-on” approach allows further growth of the developments connected to the information society. Concerning research on applicable solutions for particular and partial problems, the assumption of a highly, if not totally mediated and urbanized society needs no further discussion. However, for a reflection on the very basis of the urbanization and communication processes, there is need to shed some light on the very principles of the “Mediacity”. Thus, insights might be produced which are not immediately for practical use although they are helping us to distinguish the relationship between the urban and media world as they merge together in a broader and deeper perspective. By doing so, alternative perspectives for analyzing, interpreting, planning and shaping the spaces – virtual and urban – are offered for further consideration and debate. In this book, approaches to rethink the frames of the recent developments in cities and media will be presented. It presents a selection of contributions to an international and interdisciplinary conference which has taken place at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in November 2006. The conference is part of a wider research project called “Mediacity” which aims at questions related to the general trends in urban and media studies. With the support of the European Commission, the projects’ overall objective is to create a knowledge basis for the professional education of young academics. Related to the tradition of the Bauhaus, the main idea of “Mediacity” is the integration of different approaches to understand, investigate and react on aspects of urban life and media development. In the line of this tradition, the cross-over between art, architecture, social and political science is fostered in this project and reflected in the variety of papers included in this book.

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G ILDA B ERRUTI

Urban Public Spaces in the Augmented City

As a matter of fact, electronic media are taking possession of private and public urban spaces, transforming the contemporary city into a mediacity. However, by merging different social spheres and changing the relationship between spaces and social context, they are not simply eroding places but they are creating – beyond places – a new “sense of place” (Meyrowitz 1985). Hence, electronic media succeeded in modifying urban public spaces, but not in destroying them. I disagree with the theories about the presumed death of public space in the contemporary city, often related to the influence of electronic media, which are claimed of getting a simplified and not varying experience of urban life, in which public space is replaced by a collection of “variations on a theme-park” (Sorkin 1992). Public space as a substance of experience and an object of erosion is, in my opinion, composed of space, images and time, and it became an “augmented space” with the influence of electronic media (Mitchell 1996, 1999; Andriello 2002) and of infrastructure networks (Graham/Marvin, 2001). The contemporary city, in fact, with its exposure to electronic media, can be considered an augmented city, if “augmented space is the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information” (Manovich 2002 revised 2004), in a definition which aims at re-conceptualizing augmentation as an idea and cultural and aesthetic practice rather than as technology. Focusing on the experience of human subjects in urban spaces, augmented city is, therefore, the city in which people can experience spaces and dynamic data at the same time, because information is added as a content to the experience of physical spaces. Actually, physical spaces and information have always lived together in cities; the latest developments nevertheless produced some changes especially in the interactive power of electronic media, so that the impact of electronic

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media is perceived not only in “real” places but also in some “virtual” spaces which are overlaying real ones. That’s why the interactive power of electronic media increases the desire to escape to “other places”, which is increasingly becoming a part of the experience of present. New public spaces arise from the fight between concentration and dispersion, which is typical of a “splintering urbanism” (Graham/Marvin, 2001). In this paper I try to focus the issues about the relationship between media and urban spaces, and to show how the influence of electronic media in three different public spaces, also if it threatens to be unpredictable or destructive, can succeed in increasing their liveliness1.

From pilgrims to consumers The need to escape from reality, to an unknown but reassuring “other place” is made even more urgent by the overload of images and information. This search for travel, derived from different impulses, from religion to tourism, is of course not new. For instance, in medieval times people moved for religious or commerce reasons. According to Julian Beinart (2001: 11), “the essential components of pilgrimage were not only travel but also praesentia − beeing in the presence of the holy − and touching something venerated as a relic. Together these constituted the transfer of the sacred, for which procedure a relic was indispensable”. As far as relics, the importance of “place” to reach the sacred falls: holy power is in the relic, relics are movable and “place” reduces its sense. While pilgrims and traders travelled long distances, nevertheless today it is possible to reach an “other place” without moving. To begin with some places visited only by your eyes, the “watched on TV” spaces, that become familiar as they were directly lived. To end with those spaces in which things can travel, goods are sent or carried, and you are a spectator of their arrival, for instance shopping malls, which “provide a filtered version of the experience of cities, a simulation of urbanity” (Boddy 1992: 124), related to the experience of media in social context. To emphasize the repeatable and the expected more than ............................................ 1 This paper develops some themes from my PhD thesis “the form of public spaces in the contemporary city”, about good places in public space. The thesis was discussed in January 2005, while the action-research in Naples, London and Siena has been carried out from 2002 to 2004.

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novelty, in fact, is a typical TV mechanism, according to which “the spectator’s pleasure arises partly from knowing what will happen next” (Boyer 1992: 189). This unmoving travel of the consumer opens the way to a simultaneous “other place” in which there is nevertheless a difference with the past, i.e. the victory of reassurance − which is far from being casual, owing to the request for security coming from urban fear − and the dissipation of adventure. As a matter of fact, the detachment from “place” involves the loss of unpredictable events, chance encounters, diversity. About the question if e-commerce is competing with these new spaces, I don’t think e-commerce will have the better of it. Sometimes “just looking” is not enough, and there’s something which is lost buying trough world wide web: direct contact with goods, with the vendor, with people you could meet, with place. It’s a matter of “economy of presence” to cite Mitchell (1999): it’s not possible to deny the necessity of face to face encounters in some cases.

Image construction of urban spaces As it was in premodern cities in order to attract pilgrims (Beinart 2001: 8-12), today image construction of urban spaces is even more an issue. According to Vale and Bass Warner (2001: xv) places no longer simply have images; they are continually being imaged. At the same time, there is a problematic relationship between collecting local images and “imaging” some new ones. City imaging is “the process of constructing visually based narratives about the potential of places…a process of brokering the best metaphor, in ways that will shift or consolidate public sensibilities and invent the possibility for new kinds of place attachments” (ibidem). Media-enriched image building is not only “the new selling point” (Boyer 1992: 193) in the competitive marketing of cities which reduces the city to a map of tourist attractions, but it sometimes reflects or interprets in a different way local identities and cultures. It can be promotion-oriented, it can invent or simulate the past. It can even be together an escape from reality and a simulation, as it is in the contradictory relationship between cyber spaces and real ones. What is important in media-enriched imageability is that “outsider image”, at which the city aims, is the result of an “insider image” (Dematteis 1995: 92; Beinart 2001: 4), which represents local identity. Only if there is an

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intersubjective agreement between experiential meaning and promotional meaning, in fact, is the meaning of a city truly shared. Moreover, there is a mutual relation between the form of the city and its narrative content: the form of a city can shape the stories that unfold there; at the same time, stories can be used to shape urban form.

Places in public space Looking at public space in order to understand its composition is to consider at the same time urban spaces and the way in which they are experienced by people (thus becoming “places”). The meaning of place and space often merges in our knowledge of urban life, but people are acquainted with places. This issue requires to introduce the concept of place as a space with some adjectives adhering to: space becomes place when people organize it and attach a meaning to it (Tuan 1977). Places are spaces marked by the life of people, which adhere to them in time. When people experience a place they perceive social and material space, images and time together. Public space is therefore a hybrid of places2, not only material and perceptible, from which the influence of images and the sense of time can not be kept apart. Three types can be identified: • “proper place”, material and social space which is publicly lived; • “place over place”, immaterial space of images which overlay public spaces, leaving traces on them; • “temporary place”, a particular length of public time which is lived in space.

............................................ 2 The division of public space in three places is clearly the outcome of an analytical reflection, useful to understand similarities and differences among urban spaces and to investigate their constituent features. Beyond doubt, there are not fixed edges between different places and the question “what place is this space” (paraphrasing Kevin Lynch 1972) has not an only answer, as well as in each place there are some traces of the others. However, I think that this analytical construction is a helpful instrument to study the complexity of urban space, aiming to understand what is the role played by each place compared with the others in contemporary cities.

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Via Toledo in Naples, the shopping mall Bluewater near London and Siena’s Palio are the selected examples to investigate the influence of (electronic) media on urban places, the resulting space-time relations and the role of distinctive characters of places.

The redesign of via Toledo as a wasted imaging effort Via Toledo’s always been the Neapolitan main road, always swarming with a mass of people walking, driving, or doing shopping. The separate world of “Quartieri Spagnoli” marks the boundary on the west side, as perceptible edges: atmosphere changes, just turning the corner of via Toledo. Since 1998, after some negotiations between the shopkeepers and the Town Council, via Toledo is a pedestrian street.

Fig. 1: Toledo

The recent redesign of the street, with 12 metres sidewalks and the central lane closed to cars, is an attempt to restore decorum and rules, totally ignoring content and information peculiar to via Toledo. What impresses most is the sharp contrast between the idea of the redesign and the image perceived walking along via Toledo. As a matter of fact, if we pay attention to the accounts of travelers’ experiences we can understand the meaning of this street, a really swarm and noisy place.

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In 1787, J. W. Goethe, visiting Naples during the grand tour, is surprised by the “unbelievable sights” of street life in which each day there was something new and peculiar. German traveler C. A. Mayer, in 1840, describes via Toledo as: “the tip point of swarm in the streets. Foreigners are stunned by an incredible noise, the vendors’ scream, the call of the mass, the beggars’ claims”. Unfortunately, recent process of construction of narratives about the potential of via Toledo has forgotten the character of that place and the vibrant street life, strictly aiming at restoring order. The result of the lack of fit between promotional meaning and the experience of place is that the life of the street wiped out the new image imposed and nowadays via Toledo is the Neapolitan version of a present-day suk, with its noise and its swarm, together with some contemporary characters. In fact, via Toledo has resumed its “inner” image. Actually, it is an unplanned melting pot market. There’s a great care of display of goods, especially on sidewalks which become temporary “horizontal windows”, not of minor importance than shop windows: cardboard boxes and umbrellas often placed on a trolley, or sheets laid on the ground are the trails of this open-air market. As you can find everywhere but, at the same time, as it is peculiar to Naples, thus confirming the value of “ethnoscapes” (Appadurai 1996). There are “found places” everywhere. People watching is the main activity; there are several places from which to see and to be seen. Sidewalks are places where chance encounters occur, and where “phoneurs” (Luke 2005) wander. On the other hand, still Dumas in the Corricolo (1841-43) indicated the role of via Toledo as forerunner: “via Toledo is a neutral ground where you can observe the remains of the old world which is fading and the irruption of the new world which is coming”.

Bluewater as a simultaneous elsewhere Bluewater, the well-known shopping mall near London, located in northwest Kent, is a triangular mall, featuring three big department stores, one at each corner. It brings people in contact with “other places” through images, food, brands, cineplex and video games. The desire to get away and escape is as common in society now as then with things always so hectic. In shopping-malls as well as in Bluewater it is the knowledge that people are always ready to escape for short periods of time that

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is used in deciding what attractions to include. The concept is to put under one roof all the places where people like to go to. So that they could go everywhere in one day. Interior and external spaces are really different, not only for spatial form with its “tricks -limited entrances, escalators placed only at the end of corridors, fountains and benches carefully positioned to entice shoppers into stores” (Crawford 1992: 13) − but also for rules and behaviours. In interior spaces there’s a mix of retail and entertainment, along a “domesticated street” (Jackson 1998) where it is possible practise “window shopping” (Friedberg 2003) thoughtlessly, without feeling worried about bad encounters or unpleasant events. Although inside Bluewater the map of the mall is everywhere, it’s really easy to get lost and to change early programmes. Each destination buyer, after a short time, becomes an impulse buyer; all consumers will be afflicted with “Gruen transfer”3. Only outside the mall it is possible to find some relief from interior artificial environment (music climate lights and homologation). And also some rest from interior rules which fix who can enter and who is excluded.

Fig. 2: Bluewater

............................................ 3 The Gruen transfer, named after mall architect Victor Gruen, is “immediately visible in the shift of consumers from a determined stride to an erratic and meandering gait” (Crawford 1992: 14).

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Even so, not everything is artificial at Bluewater. Shopping malls are consumer-oriented spaces, but lots of people going there, also if under the influence of media, can meet other people, socialize and have fun. Although the immersion in a typical “non-place” (Augé 1992, 1997 and 2003) where human beings should disidentify, there are no monadic consumers as well as social relations are not excluded. Interaction can vary from a mediate and maybe passive form (as if between you and the world there is a veil through which you can see but not touch) to an active and involved form. Unpredictable is not left out of shopping malls, although the excess of regulation. That’s why, in my opinion, e-commerce cannot completely replace window shopping: what really counts in order to decide how to buy is the consumer’s choice according to circumstances. After some time in Bluewater it may happen to feel disoriented, anxious and apathetic. These are all symptoms of “mal de mall” (William Kowinski in Crawford 1992: 14; Underhill 2004: 201), a perceptual paradox brought on by simultaneous stimulation and sedation, whose effect is shoppers’ paralysis. The remedy for “mal de mall” is planned inside Bluewater: the “quiet room”, where you can forget the artificial world of the mall. You must do some ritual gestures to come in this small room; unlike the other interiors the threshold is stressed, and there is no music inside. In the quiet place you will find a wash room for ritual washing, a listening space, a chaplaincy, and silence. But also a disturbing atmosphere. Actually, the quiet room, instead of a quiet place, is an overcontrolled space in which rules are everywhere, and make difficult to remain there. The only thing to do is to go out of isolation, falling again into the “pleasure dome”. It’s not easy escaping from the escape. This place doesn’t succeed in producing the refuge it is designed for. The only escape from Bluewater is outside its alienation effect, in the way back home.

The Palio as a roundtrip journey The famous horse race4 among the “contradas” taking place in Piazza del Campo in Siena twice a year in summer is not simply a temporary occasion but ............................................ 4 The race lasts three circuits of the square which starts at the fall of a rope: 90 seconds of suspended

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transforms into a distinctive place in Siena’s public life. It is not a permanent space: it transitorily colonizes public urban space, overlapping and somehow replacing it. This “temporary place” is an escape from reality, which, at the same time, reflects and interprets local identities and cultures in a process of constant city imaging. The Palio can be considered as a sort of journey which has its preparatory period, a departure date, a return to ordinary life and a subsequent period of nostalgia. In the seventeen contradas5 of Siena the preparations for the Palio take a whole year. Preparations for this “Palio journey” include special costumes, partisan songs, rituals, predictable scuffles between opposing contradas, popular beliefs and superstitions. The involvement of the city and the community is total. In the Campo, the yellow volcanic surface, the fence which marks the inner edge of the racecourse, the temporary stands placed on its edges, the mattresses placed on the dangerous corner of S. Martino, all transform the everyday urban space. The rhythm of the piazza’s daily life also transforms. The continual crowding and emptying of the space, the shouts and the silence, the tolling of the Sunto (the Mangia Tower’s bell) provide temporal reference points.

.......................................................................................... time. At the end of the race a cannon is fired and the Palio, which is, in fact, a banner with the image of the Virgin, is presented as the prize to the winning horse. 5 Each contrada is a territorial and popular unity with its own rules and flags. Only ten of them participate in each of the two races which take place in Piazza del Campo at dusk on 2nd July and 16th August.

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Fig. 3: Palio

But the Palio is also an inward journey. The new space is a deeply acute psychological space for the people of Siena. Measures of elsewhere are not only in material and immaterial space but also in the mixture of times which the Palio merges. There is the common time of the inhabitants of Siena and the time of the members of each contrada. There is the “inner time” which is increasingly in tune with the “public time” (Lynch 1972: 125). Then, there is a sort of hybridised historical time, where a mixture of Siena’s past epochs are re-enacted over the course of the event. Although this journey through the time, the horse race takes place nowadays and the new media take part in the event. Siena disguises herself for the Palio, but also for television shooting. As far as representation of the Palio and its relationship with tourists, the event is reported by mass media but not created for them. Even if the tourist gratifies local pride, she or he is nevertheless considered an intruder on the territory of Siena. To adopt Schuster’s term (2001: 376), the Palio is an example of “signature ephemera”6 in which a local ............................................ 6 Mark Schuster (2001) points out that signature ephemera are different from “media events”. They are temporary urban events that are indicative of and native to a particular place. They are shaped by citizens and passed along by local practices, customs and word of mouth. In those events tourist is a tolerated by-product of the celebration. Through “signature events” it is possible “to recognize authenticity in the midst of imaging”, and to live a truly authentic experience, such as being together in a large public space with other people.

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self-made image is repeatedly constructed and performed. This local image is an expression of the city’s community life and local people’s identification with urban space. Actually, the relationship between Siena and the image of the Palio reproduced by media has changed over time. In 1947 a group of journalists and writers from Siena promoted the Comitato Amici del Palio in order to encourage the protection of the tradition and its improvement. From the very beginning the Comitato established close relations with the local press and attempted to draw the attention of television and tourists to the event, not only for economic reasons but also as a matter of local pride. The first broadcast of the Palio dates back to 1954. In recent years Siena has been “on the defensive” against the media, which is seen to misrepresent the event (by over-focusing on the violence and the possible death of horses), and because it draws in too many tourists (Savelli/ Vigni, 2004). For these reasons in 1980 the seventeen contradas of Siena constituted the Consorzio per la Tutela del Palio di Siena, a cooperative whose aim is to contain the exposure to media of the event. Since then, the use of coats, flags, costumes, colours, and their reproduction on objects or publications must be authorized by the Consorzio. There are various levels of control regarding the management of the image of the Palio. These range from attempts to preserve the “true” image of the event (thus rejecting media’s search for sensational news) to the control of all commercial rights concerning the public ceremony. The Palio is not simply a mythologized representation of the past, but a tradition that responds to internal psychological needs. Media can succeed in reinforcing the sense of place, if they stake on the character of this “temporary place”.

Conclusion: public spaces augmented by media Media may augment vibrant public spaces, especially if place-awareness is respected while adopting media. There are no recipes promising simple steps to get good public spaces in which media play a leading role. Impact of (electronic) media on public spaces, indeed, vary according to the differences among places. However, we can identify some themes that suggest important lessons for urban public spaces in the augmented city.

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First, in a “proper place” – as we can see in via Toledo – city transformations by media must take into account the sense of place; if they ignore it, this place might take its revenge, modifying recent setting and transforming into a messy place. Second, in a “place over place”, the great satisfaction in escaping to elsewhere has a tipping point in an overcontrolled environment. It is clear that if we feel overcontrolled we look for less artificial places. Sometimes, if the remedy for artificiality is already planned inside a “place over place”, as it is for the “quiet room” at Bluewater, to seek safety in flight is all that we can do. Third, exposure to media is effective for augmentation also in case of “signature ephemera” which can produce “temporary places”. As well as a “temporary place” is constructed when a media event succeeds in “making place”. The experience of Siena’s Palio, as a matter of fact, shows that media play a role in the representation of the event and, therefore, in the consecration of a space into place. Hence, as far as urban public spaces, the value of place is unreplaceable (even) in the augmented city.

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SAVELLI A., VIGNI L. (2004) (ed.), Uomini e contrade di Siena. Memorie e vita di una tradizione cittadina, Archivio Storico del Comune di Siena SCHUSTER M., (2001), Ephemera, Temporary Urbanism, and Imaging, in Vale L. J., Bass Warner S., (2001) SORKIN M., (1992) (ed.), Variations on a Theme Park: the new American City and the end of Public Space, Hill & Wang, New York TUAN Y. F., (1977), Space and Place. The Perspective of Experience, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis London UNDERHILL P., (2004), The call of the Mall, Simon & Schuster, New York VALE L. J., BASS WARNER S., (ed.) (2001), Imaging the City. Continuing Struggles and New Directions, Center for Urban Policy Research Press, Newark

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G UNTHER L AUX

Transformation − City Morphing

“... there is also the equal and opposite temptation to look at the world as though it were an extension of the imaginary, this, too, has sometimes happened to A., but he is loathe to accept it as a valid solution, like everyone else, he craves a meaning, like everyone else, his life is so fragmented that each time he sees a connection between two fragments he is tempted to look for a meaning in that connection, the connection exists, but to give it a meaning, to look beyond the bare fact of its existence, would be to build an imaginary world inside the real world, and he knows it would not stand, at his bravest moments, he embraces meaninglessness as the first principle, and then he understands that his obligation is to see what is in front of him (even though it is also inside him) and to say what he sees. ...” (Paul Auster. The Invention of Solitude. 1988)

Fig. 1: Michael Heizer. Munich Depression. 1969

Intro The city of today is not finished. The city is not a hermetic, closed structure, urbanism is not a hermetic discipline, it is an overlay of different aspects and positions. The cities change: they shrink and grow, continuously, always and since ever. Therefore, the transformation of the city is not a new phenomenon, © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

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it is an ongoing process. It is one of the fundamental conditions that qualifies an urban context as a city. This process does not only represent the transition itself, it is the result of the correlation between man and space, an interdependency between society and city, articulated by different needs, requirements, claims and forms of living. How does the society influence the city?

Fig. 2: Society and the city: Roy Lichtenstein. This must be the Place. 1965 / M-Maybe. 1965

Changes During the last decades in Europe an absence of the earlier belief in the possibility of rational (city-)planning is recognisable. Is the Charta d’Athènes a failure, which proposed to implant order into the chaos of irregular development of the industrial city? No wonder, the lack of orientation is reflected in the realised architecture of the cities: The side-by-side proximity of unlike functional buildings of modernism, colourful renovated streets of the middle age and the glamorous headquarters of banks, hotels and insurance-companies. Considering the present structure and reflecting on some statements of contemporary urbanistic positions, a wide range of irregular city images are actually coming up: a return to the traditional Baukunst, Koolhaas’ Generic City interpretation, as well as the discussion about global and local identity, “The World is Flat” (Thomas Friedmann 2005) versus “The World is Spiky” (Richard Florida 2005).

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As single principles of solution seem to be questionable and problematic, but is understandable as a reaction to the multifarious society, the change from a producing society to an informal informative information society. To understand the current development as a complex process of transformation of the image of the city it seems to be necessary to draw up some simply summarised historical highlights, exemplary stations, to contextualise the development with the determining and changing main factors.

Fig. 3: City images: Nürnberg. 16th cent. / Karlsruhe. 17th cent. / London. Gustave Doré. 1872 / La Ville Radieuse. Le Corbusier

STATION 1. The Middle Age. The beginning of urban contexts is the city of the middle age. While the classical city of antiquity presented the principle of organisation of public life, during the middle age the ownership of land became the base of the government and the principle of organisation of a feudal society. This new organisation and the innovations of new agricultural technologies effected an enormous revolution of the agrarian economy and a successive population explosion. Therefore, cities arose from this surplus, the nutritive substance of processing division of labour, economic production and trade, wealth produced autonomy, personal individuality, equality and legality. This civil liberty and authoritarian power defined the city. This discrepancy evoked the unity of the city. Homogeneity. Identity culminated in the development of humanism, renaissance, reformation, nature philosophy, science and the early capitalistic monopolies of trade became the transfer from the middle age to the modern times. STATION 2. The Residence City. The transformation of the working condi-

tions, proto-industrialisation, hardly reacted to the formation of the city. Craftproduction changed into manufacturing. The city became a condensation of © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

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political power of the government of princes and earls. The consolidation of their territorial power led to an expansion of the cities and modern defensive constructions were arranged. Along the territorial boundaries, the residences and the Palaces moved from the edge into the centre of the city and were arranged through the organisation of axis, diagonals and perspectives. The chaotic structure of the decentralised quarters of the middle age were radically and rationally re-ordered, an obtrusion of timeless aestheticism: The scenery of the renaissance, the excessiveness of the baroque. The city reflected the changed, new expression of values, the modem order of working conditions, as well as the centres of organisation of production, distribution and the capitalist bourgeoisie. These preconditions as well as new possibilities of production promoted the rise of a new society: The working class, released from the feudal system, united in organisations. Primarily, England achieved these frame-conditions. The nobility invested in the agricultural food-production, mining and infrastructure to open up the marketing potential in America and elsewhere. Therefore, in the eighteenth century, there started the immense dynamic process of the industrial revolution. The characteristic of the process of industrialisation is the secular process of concentration of capital, parallel to the industrial innovations ran the process of expansion of modern transport and communication systems. The society became mobile and classified, an expression of a modern polity. STATION 3. The Industrial City. The negative conditions of the urban

agglomerations are known. Settlements of the working class were formed, by the process of industrialisation: Glasgow, Paris, Berlin and the new industrial settlements of the Ruhrgebiet. This beginning of the modern city was not only stamped by misery, increasing, industrialisation, new political and social systems, but also at the beginning of the nineteenth century, by the end of the ‘Great Styles’, the end of limitation and regulation of the city, degraded to a speculative space by the new organisation of labour. The figural encirclement, the density, the continuity, the coherence and the power of identification of the city was lost or became a new functional interpretation, a space of complex artificial systems. The result was the process of displacement and an enormous expansion and dispersion of the city. The increasing 'slumming' of certain areas to expel the proletariat from the centre into the suburbs to render possible the creation of processing sites for the economy and infrastructure, possi-

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ble because of the increasing electrification, canalisation and mobilisation of the city. The drift of big factories into the suburbs and outskirts, the constant migration movement, the development of the garden city idea, the working class estates, the privileged villa settlements in the countryside and the increasing number of modem low-cost-housing estates created an explosion of the cities, the expansion of surrounding belts, the beginning of the existence of nonstructured periphery and sprawl. Without a doubt it is in response owing to the Charta d’Athènes 1928, to try to find an architectonic solution to the social question of the nineteenth century. It changed the earlier formal revolutionary image: the central criterion of planning is not any more the uniform system of the city, the accentuation of public architecture, but the institutionalisation of housing conditions, a necessary transformation of the image of the city. Another important fact of transformation and change was the exponential multiplication of the upcoming information sector, increasing from less than 10% at the beginning of this century to actually above 50% in the USA. In this fact were the modern theories of the post-industrial society based: Technology of information and the city. STATION 4. The City of Today: Society of Media. During the last decades a further epoch of development of the city is recognisable, which will intervene in a completely different way in the structure than the earlier techniques of communication did: Space as a material base. Space could get lost. The crises of the city, the lack of local identity also means the lack of the significance of local space. Modern techniques do not need the psychic-physical dialogue any more, there is no necessity and dependence on physical transport of communication. The communicative system city loses significance and importance and could become superfluous. Therefore, the formation of the contemporary city is an expression of social, economic, political and especially technical reality. The development of informative technique will increasingly influence the city to occupy marketing centres and investment societies of the information industry. The new function of mediation of telecommunication will invade the city and working space, a re-organisation and installation of a new city-structure. The centre of the city will become the control-headquarters to supervise the returns of goods and services, the international transfer of finances, the

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production of information and the labour market. The city will not be connected or related to the centre any more. the city will be an autonomous place, elsewhere. The environments, the belts around the city will be a wide heterogeneous area, stamped by peripheral character, an agglomerative area, a territory of speculation, devastation and desolation including social and economic differentials. The periphery is organised by individuality instead of identity. The railroad is replaced by motorways because of the non-profitability of passenger transfer, the enormous need of leisure-time activity and individual democratic transport systems. The city has already integrated and invaded the communities of the periphery, in a determined process of sub-urbanisation or urbanisation of the countryside, the sprawl. The ideology of the modernity transformed the aesthetic model of the city. Until today, this ideal seems to be relevant, city planning is still defined by function and reduction. Is our society still the same like 50 years ago? − Obviously not. But why did not the understanding of city transform like the society did? Where is the impact of modern media?

Fig. 4: Society and individual: Category Confusion. Bruce Mau. 2000 / UN Studio. Hybridisation. 1999

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The Way Things Go The sociological aspect to associate with modem technologies of information and communication is always influenced by the question of the interdependencies between space, behaviour and the connection between environment and the coherence of life. Therefore, the actual issue is the design and the development of those dependencies, the kind of mediation between the different sectors of life of the individual or the social community. The present formation of our society is an inter-connected network of individuals and communities, the different segments of life overlay each other and define in their totality the context of life. The different connections of the individual's life always change. During the last decades the speed of perception multiplied itself by the separation of different parts of life, housing, working, education, recreation, ..., and defines their conscious anchorage and reflection. The result is the reduction of the sociological and psychological dimension of space. Space and its infrastructural equipment changes to a restricting and selecting function influencing the formation of the environment and directs the behaviour of the users, as an empirical and reduced practice of social organisation of space. The psychological perception, use and definition of space create the phenomenon of behaviour setting, the structural uniformity of milieu and behaviour. The following question will be, if and how the influence of the modem technologies of information and communication effect the formation of space. What is the present result? What could happen in the future? Why and how is the society transforming these days?

Fig. 5: Transformation of the city: Andreas Gursky. Paris. 2001 / Jeff Wall

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The flashbacks to the history were showing, that, since ever, society has been the starting point of any urban transformation, in combination with economy, policy and technology. In other words, the transformation of the society should become visible by the appearance of the actual city image. We are living in an urbanised world, in Europe for example, more than 60% of the population are living in cities and urban regions, with an increasing tendency. The Russian economist Nikolaj Kondratiev, the founder of the Institute of Conjuncture in Moscow 1920, proposed the Kondratiev Waves or so called Supercycles. He published his thesis in his book "The Major Economic Cycles" (Kondratiev 1925) and other works and essays, written in the same decade. Kondratiev's theory is based on the idea that western capitalist economies have long term 50 to 60 years cycles of boom, followed by a deep depression. The cycle's turningpoints were around 1825, 1873, 1913 und 1966.

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From today's point of view, it seems amazing, how precise Nicolaj Kondratiev did formulate his cycles, he defined transformation processes of social developments according parallel rhythms. The parameters were basic needs, networks, applications, technology and synergies. The first cycle is the industrial revolution. The basic need is manpower, the network is commercial, new application is the invention of the machine, the technology is steam, the synergy application is mass-production, technology and synergy are mechanics. Following the other cycles: The age of steam and railways, the age of steel, electricity and heavy engineering, the age of oil, the automobile and mass production. In this continuation Leo Nefiodov defined a fifth phase of Kondratiev's Cycles: The age of information, multimedia and telecommunications, with technologies like multimedia, high-technology and information, as well as applications like immateriality, environment and ecology. According to this theory, we are currently at the turning point of the 5th Kondratiev Cycle. These cycles document the transforming process of the dematerialisation tendency, although they did not react to the acceleration effect within the cycles, because, additionally maximize these cycles in quality and quantity. An enormous accelerating dynamic is appearing and we are wondering, where this is leading to.

Media According to this cycle theory by Kondratiev and Nefiodov, our last technical invention is the development of contemporary media. The concentration on information and communication media is the focus on general phenomena, representing the media's impact and the effects on our actual society and the architectural space. Media are formats and tools for producing and presenting information and communication. How is the influence on the society, is the society mutating, how is the society influencing the usage of media, how is the spatial reaction of the city? What is media city?

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“What is further suggested (...) is that the semiotic surface of architecture, understood as a displacement of the older, volumetric, type form, is entirely adequate to – entirely conforms to – the new terms of media. Henceforth the social system will be inconceivable without a concept of media and its two constituents − electronic, consumer technology and heterogeneous communication − as, right up to our own time, media becomes the spontaneous solution to architecture's representational problem.” (K. Michael Hays. Cities in Transition. Rotterdam 2001)

Fig. 6: Technisation and tools: Jenny Holzer. Firenze. 1996 / Cable-connected body / Bodyextension.

We are all using digital equipment: phones, television, internet, global positioning system navigation, bluetooth, fax, email, etc. This technical equipment already became part of our daily life: Smart outfits, that also expands our facilities, intelligent tools, artificial protheses, that improve our perception, help us to reduce spatial distances and accelerate time. Therefore, a number of fallouts become more and more remarkable. The first effect of media is the expansion of communication and the exchange of information. A second effect is the digitalization. Information and communication become more and more intangible and abstract, that represents the development from the analogue to a digital environment. And very close connected to this, the third phenomenon is the ubiquity. Information is reachable always and everywhere. In nearly any place of the civilized world, one can check his emails, order a bank transfer or call his mother.

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For this phenomenon the ubiquitous availability of technique plays the most important role, because the global space is getting smaller and smaller.

Fig. 7: Communication. Digitalization. Ubiquity.

On the other hand, the impact and reaction of the society on these effects are multifarious. One aspect of the wide range is mobility. We become more and more independent, autarchic and autonomic of space. The early researches on mobility prognosticated a reduction of the volume of traffic, but against all expectations, this the increasing use of information and communication media induced traffic with an inflationary trend. The result is the expansion of one’s personal radius of action, the loss of centralism and the expansion of settlements at the global metropolis. A second reaction is related to the individual behaviour. If information and communication is available anytime and anywhere, one has to decide himself when the information has to encounter. Therefore, the challenge and subject is more to fetch, to select, to estimate and to evaluate the information, than to get the access to it. And a third obvious impact is the worldwide discussion on spatial identity. In the complex environment of a global network structure, the desire to local identities becomes more and more significant. Any kind of spatial, architectural or regional branding, shape the local identity towards the global context. Globalisation and localisation become closer connected antipodes than ever before.

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Fig. 8: Mobility. Behaviour. Identity: Unterwegs. Hans Hemmert. 1999 / Parasit 3. Anton Markus Pasing. 1999

Thesis But what are these phenomena effecting spatially? The question is, whether the rapid developments in technique, information, globalisation, mobility and virtualisation will change the visible structure of our cities, like increasing or depopulation, growing or shrinking cities, and, as a second question, is there another phase of ‘industrial’ revolution starting, with unforeseen risks for the society and the environs. Thereby, a lost of the urbane will be forecasted again and again, however, does the development rather offer the unique opportunity, to handle this crisis, while disputing progressively with realistic strategies, to change the city positively? Today, the conventional structure of the city, like centre, outskirts of the city, periphery and region, has almost been invalid. There is no definitive definition about urban space. The clear demarcation of living, working and leisure time, the model of the partial organized society becomes vague. All definitions for this are indicated attempts, as sprawl, extended area, agglomeration, townscape, metropolitan area, spread city, urbane village, edge city, etc. This debate about the change of the city image is embedded in constant theoretical discussions about the relationship between town and country: Ebenezer Howard’s “Garden City of Tomorrow” (1902), Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Broadacre City” (1934), Constant’s “New Babylon” (1960), “Continuous Monument” (Superstudio 1969), “Das Städtische als Ästhetik” (Dieter Hoffmann-Axthelm, © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

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1992), until the creation of “Urban Landscapes” (Ignasi de Solà-Morales Rubio 2001) and Périphériques “Freaks Towers” (2004), …

Fig. 9: Relation between city and landscape, expansion, sprawl, urban landscape, …: Istanbul. Jörg Koopmann. Ruhrtal. Andreas Gursky

“We should not, however, fall into the trap of regarding the landscape as being identical with nature. The landscape has always been 'constructed' since the term refers not to untouched, unspoiled nature but to situations resulting from human perception and experience. Whereas, for example, it was the dramatic element that prevailed in the landscapes of the romantic era, in the industrial age the greatest importance is ascribed to the landscape's potential usefulness. Today, the landscape must be understood as a cultivated area, as a constantly changing structure of more or less nature-friendly or nature-alienated elements of which housing areas and infrastructures for traffic and energy are just as much a part as mountain peaks or secluded moorland. Seen from this angle, it becomes clear that it is not possible to destroy the landscape, but only to change it. This process of change does, of course, pose a threat to ‘unspoiled nature’. This threat used to consist of the breaking up and diminution of natural habitats and of their enclosure in alien ecological contexts. In the future, unspoiled nature will be threatened by a different set of circumstances: in order to safeguard the continued existence of natural habitats, it will be necessary to preserve − or even create − them artificially. It will no longer be a case of driving nature back but of replacing it by a kind of synthetic ‘test-tube’ nature, regardless of whether this takes the form of marshy biotopes or renaturalised polluted areas.

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A new, ‘second’ nature of this kind is a natural part of urban scenarios which range from locally limited interventions to large-scale environmental arrangements. Nature has become one of many planning parameters. It assumes a number of different forms and functions, winds its way through valleys and irrigated plains, intersperses and aerates densely constructed urban areas, determines the form of production plantations and covers – in its natural state – whole mountain chains. In a nutshell, it has become a part of the territorial and urban infrastructure.” (Ernst Hubeli. City Landscape.1992) The mixture of urban and rural functions and ways of living did not happen abrupt from yesterday to today, however, unplanned and step by step, with irregular character, but with such high rapidity, that it has been impossible until now, finding general terms for this contemporary city-type. Obviously, there is a shift of public and private space taking place. Public space is getting more and more privatised, whereas public media more and more perforates private space. Examples are the public space, that is used for privacy, or turning the inside out, private cells exposed in the public, or privacy is not located at all, the home can be anywhere, like lounge-furnished public space, … This shift of social behaviour is one of the main reasons of the spatial transformation. We are still fixed in the idea of stability, progress, as well as longterm-planning-methods. According to Kondratiev, the technical and social structures developed much faster, than the spatial reactions did.

Fig. 10: Shift between publicity and privacy and public and private space usage

As vision eras always fear and preach, the continuity of development shows, that a future urban development has not led or will not lead to visualisation

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and therefore to explosion of the city. As general aim in fact a more likely contrary reaction is beginning to show, which will be characterised on the hand of the three following thesis: FIRST: A first aspect is characterized by the changing of the social and economic structure function of the city and is affecting as well as the social and regional schemes of organisation. By this way the development is dissolving knowledge-based economical and social structures, organisation principles of the previous characteristically industrial society of the city. The existing city seems to be no more or not yet grown with the new requirements with its categorical function arrangements. Therefore, the principles of their regional organisation need a basic revision. SECOND: A further point of view is fastened to the increasing complexity of

processes of city developments. A qualified accomplishment in a classic and planning sense, can no longer be granted under the issued developments, the more as the development of the city has to integrate the material and nonmaterial complex of the regional, economical, culture, social and infrastructure transformation. As a result an innovative reaction is asking for an internal, multi-dimensional and discursive frames of a modern shaped culture of planning. THIRD: The last aspect is discussing the growing process of material and non-material structure of the city. While the urban land use planning is still resting in rigid samples of classification, the city will be labelled by individualisation and flexibility, still be understood as socially and economical successive changing transformed process. The consideration of exemplary, historical phases of the middle age, city of residence, industrialisation, modern times, is pointing out, that it is not about a modern phenomena, but about a process of continuity. These ones are characterising the results of the society, of the city morphology by the influence of the technological progress as well as the illustration of the possibilities and limits.

In this sense modern media play an important role in the perception and mediation of urban space.

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But changing situations force a new orientation. Instead of conforming them to existing strategies, more over the strategy has to be measured to the orientation. Where are the contemporary methods? What are the tools? The whole urban planning needs to amended, we already experienced, that the classical instruments fail − new methods, we need, are adjustable strategies, instead of masterplans. Instruments need to be structured more simply, flexible, adaptive and variable. They need to moderate a process instead of fixing a certain status, the tools are stamped by, neutrality, dynamic simultaneity and flexibility, versus category, hierarchy and stability.

Open System At the beginning of the 90s Cedric Price exemplified the transformation process in comparison with an egg. The early image of the european city represents a compact unit, that lost more and more its clear shape and was transforming into a ‘fried egg’, with an obvious nucleus that is readable. Finally, the ‘modern’ type figured the city as ‘scrambled egg’, because of the lost of its compactness, density and its spread into the surrounding periphery. And if we would follow the idea of Cedric Price, the city of today had to look more and more like a ‘Kaiserchmarrn’, a scrambled and cutted dow, with nuts and raisins inside.

Fig. 11: The city as an egg. Cedric Price / Structure of city expansion as fractale geometry

This fractale geometry of the city structure is the effect of the actual city expansions, within the result of the increasing linkage of settlement and lands-

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cape. Therefore, the city transformed into an urban structure, an urban text, where the outline is getting longer, however the capacity of the area is getting less and less and the city loses its density. To react on the need of flexible urban planning methods, I was developing a contemporary method in my research project “Transformation − Research on potential effects of information and communication technology on typological and morphological structures” (Gunther Laux 2002). The thesis is based on the coherence of technological development and society, business economy and formation of the city. In this context the research project explores the actual influence of media technology to European cities and the transformation of urban space. Besides the consideration of the current situation and planning regularities, the thesis focuses on the investigation of an alternative city planning strategy. This “morphological and process-oriented planning strategy” is examined at the city of Munich as an example. Thereby, the strategy defines a new interpretation of the relation between publicity and planning, perception and space. The model is orientated towards all different kinds of urban transformation, it is processual adjustable, for shrinking and growing environments. The aim of the project is the purification of the aspect: Media technology determines the development of city. The argumentation follows in three steps. FIRST: Technological innovation effects industrial and economic develop-

ment. SECOND: Society is reacting straight to changing regional economy struc-

tures. THIRD: The coherence of social structure and cityscape is leading to the

conclusion that any technological progress, will appear in the formation of city and space. However, watching the latest technological developments of media, like information and communication, no spatial significance is appearing in this phase.

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The strategy, is an alternative to the existing planning hierarchy, it is applicable for all kinds of urban transformation processes, in shrinking as well as in expanding environments. The strategy is not supplementing the existing planning model, it is replacing it. The conception is based on three scale levels:

Fig. 12: Level 1: Matrix

Level one is called matrix, a superior strategy for structuring the complete urban region. The general difference opposite to a masterplan is, that the matrix is not mapping any kind of land uses, but spaces and its density, because no single static use structure is permanent and durable. The different colours represent the degree of spatial density. The diagram is rather comparable with a meteorological map, than an urban land-use plan. It is documenting situations and prognosticating actual developments. The open system, the second level is focusing on partial spaces. It is a complete reversion of the general understanding of planning, because not the built spaces were defined, but a system of he untilled, the open spaces. This open system is articulating three different categories of scapes: 1, 2, 3.

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Fig. 13: Open System: Open space network 1, 2, 3

The first category shows the superior morphological context, obvious and spatially conspicuous green connections, like topographies, forest, agricultural use, rivers, etc. The second category contains large-sized contexts, which are significant for the urban district, like parks, parking areas, green connections, sports fields, open spaces, etc. And the third category, mainly linear connections like main tracks, railways, streets, etc. The stability of this framework articulates at first the possible fillings. These fillings could be built or not. According the notation of the matrix, the existing and the planned fillings were classified by morphological criteria, instead of functional definition: S, M, L, XL and Special for the building, a minimum or maximum height of the building, the fixed number of storeys, the type of building coverage, open or closed, as well as the definition of a coefficient for emission.

Fig. 14: Open Sytem: Filling structure S, M, L, XL, SP. / Overlay with Expansion potential

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The principle of haziness is leaving a margin for transforming processes. In this context city planning implies the initiation of responsibilities and moderation of its sequences. Therefore, this strategic model does not create any kind of new Leitbild or a new typology of city, the method is rather presenting a model that is capable to react flexible on social phenomena. The essential of my research on city and media is, that we are not going to live in virtual spaces or inhospitable city sprawls. But the main cognition or architectural output is, the necessity of thinking in process and morphology. Many european cities already started to define conceptions, including prospective instead of reactive strategies of city development. More and more, our generation has to deal with structures that behave like organisms, rather than rigid patterns. We are not going to give up the traditional European city image, but the image is definitely transforming, to a wider range of aspects, the compact city and the network model, historical identity and modern function, an increasing social complexity, that is taking place in the urban context, and therefore this is including the future of the Mediacity.

Fig. 15: Gimme an A. Bruce Mau. 2000

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References GRAAAFLAND, ARIE, Cities in Transition, Rotterdam 2001 INSTITUTE WITHOUT B OUNDARIES AND BRUCE MAU, Massive Change, New York 2004 KONDRATIEV, NICOLAJI, The Major Economic Cycles, Moscow 1925 LAUX, GUNTHER , Die Stadt als Prozess, in: Wolkenkuckucksheim. Cottbus 2003 LAUX, GUNTHER , Stadtumbau, in: Heinz Nagler et al (eds.): Der öffentliche Raum in Zeiten der Schrumpfung, Berlin 2004 LAUX, GUNTHER , Transformation, Munich 2003 LAUX, GUNTHER , Open System, in: Garten + Landschaft 09/2002 MAU, BRUCE, Life Style, London 2000

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B EATA S IROWY

Understanding the Information Society: The Potentials of Phenomenological Approach

Introduction The ways of addressing the issue of ICT development and its influences on the built environment and thus on our lives, could be very diverse. The main aim of this paper is to present phenomenological hermeneutics as one of possible ways of conceptualizing the transformations of built environment related to the rapid development of information and communication technologies and point at the potentials of this theoretical framework. More specifically, my intention is not to approach the question “How can modern means of communication influence built environment and our social lives?” from a phenomenological perspective and provide a set of concrete answers, but rather – to attempt to address a more general issue – the relevance of phenomenological hermeneutics in such a context. I will start my debate with a brief introduction concerning the globalization debate. After that I will proceed to phenomenology. As the next step, I will introduce (referring mostly to “Truth and Method”) some basic assumptions of phenomenological hermeneutics. In my opinion Gadamer’s view has an immense potential to address the issue of human interactions with the built environment – also the most recent phenomena, such as ICT development and its implications. However, it also seems to me that its importance has been somehow underestimated in the field of the built-environment research, where linguistic paradigms have gained a dominating position. In the last part of this paper, in order to emphasize the distinctiveness of the phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, I will contrast it with a very influential, yet in many aspects opposite standpoint represented by poststructuralists. More specifically, I will focus on Lyotard’s paper “Domus and Megalopolis” (1997). In the case of phenomenology we could speak about an element of thoughtful distance towards the rapid changes the contemporary

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society is undergoing (a distance which is to a large extent a result of seeing events in a broader temporal perspective). Lyotard’s position could consequently be defined as a pure affirmation of the “present” – globalization processes and fragmentation of culture.

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A brief introduction to the globalization debate

As the main task of this paper is to examine the relevance of phenomenology in the context of transformations initiated by the development of new technologies, it would be worthwhile, at this point, to briefly introduce some concepts of the globalization debate. Information society, one of the key issues in this debate, can be defined as the society in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is a central economic and cultural activity. Although there is no consensus regarding the definition of globalization, scholars within the domain of social science mostly agree that at its core there is a fundamental change in spatial and temporal framework of social existence. As a consequence of a dramatic acceleration in the temporal structure of the main forms of human activity, the meaning of space has undergone a significant transformation. A considerable reduction in time required to connect distinct geographical locations resulted in a compression or even “annihilation” of space. Theorists of globalization generally agree that these alterations in a way of perceiving space and time have transformed the meaning and importance of local boundaries in many areas of human activity. The allusions to the phenomenon of space-time compression can be traced back to the advent of industrial capitalism, mostly in relation to the development of high-speed forms of transportation, such as rail and automobile and new means of communication, e.g. telegraph and telephone. According to Harvey the reduction of space to a contingent category is implied in the notion of progress itself. “Progress entails the conquest of space, the tearing down of all spatial barriers, and the ultimate annihilation of space through time.” (Harvey 1989, 205) Since the 1950s the rapid development of information and communication technologies has been the main source of references regarding the annihilation of distance. For instance Marshall McLuhan – introducing the term “global village” – defines it as a technologically based phenomenon, related to social

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acceleration at all levels of human organization (McLuhan 1964, 103 in: Scheuerman 2006). Since the 1980s social theorists have extended the concept of globalization beyond the phenomenon of space-time compression. The following aspects of globalization have drawn the majority of attention (Scheuerman 2006): • Deterritorialization refers to the diminishing role of territory (a geographically identifiable location) in the constitution of social space. An increasing variety of social activities takes place irrespective of the geographical location of participants. Deterritorialization can be observed in many different spheres – e.g. business (e-commerce), academic activities (video conferencing), entertainment, etc. • Interconnectedness refers to social connections being built across existing geographical and political boundaries. Although this phenomenon is closely linked to deterritorialization, the main focus in the case of interconnectedness relates to the way in which distant events and forces influence local and regional processes. • The acceleration of social activity is a result of the emergence of new, high-speed information, communication and transportation technologies enabling relatively fast flows and movements of people, information and capital. The phenomena of deterritorialization and interconnectedness are closely tied to the increasing speed of social activity. • Most theoreticians agree that globalization should be conceived as a long-term process, an essential feature of the modern world, captured already by nineteenth-century thinkers reflecting on the consequences of the development of new transportation and communication possibilities (Harvey 1989). • Globalization is also conceived as a multi-pronged process since its aspects (deterritorialization, interconnectedness and acceleration of social activity) are observable in many different spheres of human activity (economic, political and cultural). Each manifestation of globalization generates different set of problems. The multi-dimensional impact of globalization on human existence generates many philosophical questions and normative challenges. As William Scheuerman remarks, “At a minimum, globalization suggests that academic

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philosophers in the rich countries of the West should pay closer attention to the neglected voices and intellectual traditions of peoples with whom our fate is intertwined in ever more intimate ways” (Schuerman 2006). However, such considerations are beyond the scope of this essay. In the following part of the paper I will proceed to the challenges posed by the development of new technologies to architectural theory.

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New challenges for architecture

New technologies have altered the understanding of place in a very significant way. As Rowan Wilken argues, nowadays we face a shift from a traditional understanding of place as stable and fixed (stabilitas loci) to place formed in and through mobility (mobilitas loci) (Wilken 2004). Manuel Castells describes this transformation in terms of a transition from a “space of places” to the “space of flows”: “Localities become disembodied from their cultural, historical, geographic meaning, and reintegrated into functional networks, or into image collages, inducing a space of flows that substitutes for the space of places” (Castells 1996, 375). According to Castells, although the “space of places” continues to be the predominant space of experience, the logic of the “space of flows” is underlying its organization, inducing such phenomena as marginalization of people and places. The dilemma architects and planners are facing today is whether to “mirror” these changes in their design decisions, or rather to resist some processes and try to propose alternative values/solutions. In any case, an attempt should be made to conceptualize the existing situation in a possibly comprehensive way. My intention is to demonstrate that a chosen (consciously or unconsciously) mode of conceptualization of a given phenomenon determines much of its outcomes. Thus, it is worthwhile not to leave the way we approach the problems as self-evident, but rather examine it carefully and uncover its presumptions. In the following part of the text I will introduce phenomenological hermeneutics as a possible way of conceptualizing the problem of new technologies and their influence on the built environment.

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Phenomenology and phenomenological hermeneutics

Phenomenological hermeneutic is one of the approaches within phenomenology; therefore it would be relevant to start our debate with a more general introduction to phenomenology. Although phenomenology is a philosophical current with a considerable tradition, it still proves its pertinence being in the center of interests of many contemporary thinkers. The influence of phenomenology has not been as widespread as post-structural thought, but what is important – phenomenological hermeneutics is currently seen as one of possible conceptual directions after postmodernism (Madison 1997 & Capurro 2003). Phenomenology was launched Edmund Husserl in his Logical Investigations (1900-1901). In his later work, Ideas I (1913) Husserl modifies the earlier theory. Since then, different phenomenological schools, styles and emphases have emerged. Common for most of them is the opinion, that the ultimate goal of phenomenology is “a rigorous description of human life as it is lived and reflected upon all of its first-person concreteness, urgency, and ambiguity” (Pollio 1997 in: Seamon 2000). Literally, phenomenology can be defined as the study of “phenomena”, the way things appear in a conscious experience. Although in recent philosophy of mind the term “phenomenology” tends to be limited to the characterization of sensory qualities of experiences, normally experience in phenomenological tradition is understood in a much wider scope, embracing the meaning and significance of objects, events, tools in our “life-world” (Smith 2003). The following definition of phenomenology given by Maurice MerleauPonty, one of the most prominent representants of this approach, in the introduction to his Phenomenology of Perception deserves to be quoted here at some length: “Phenomenology is the study of essences; and according to it, all problems amount to finding definition of essences: the essence of perception, or the essence of consciousness, for example. But phenomenology is also a philosophy which puts essences back into existence, and does not expect to arrive at an understanding of man and the world from any starting point other than of their “facticity”. It is a transcendental philosophy which places in abeyance the assertions arising out of the natural attitude, the

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better to understand them; but it is also a philosophy for which the world is always “already there” before reflection begins – as an inalienable presence; and all its efforts are concentrated upon re-achieving a direct and primitive contact with the world, and endowing that contact with a philosophical status. It is the search for a philosophy which shall be a “rigorous science”, but it also offers an account of space, time and the world as we “live” them. It tries to give a direct description of our experience as it is” (Merleau-Ponty 1970 [1962],vii). Furthermore Merleau-Ponty emphasizes that although phenomenology arrived at complete awareness of itself as philosophy at the beginning of the twentieth century, it can be identified as a manner or style of thinking that existed a long time before that. (Merleau-Ponty 1970 [1962],viii) The Encyclopedia of Phenomenology (Kluwer Academic Publishers 1997) distinguishing seven types of phenomenology gives an overview of the diversity of phenomenological approaches. In this essay I will concentrate on the perspective of so called phenomenological hermeneutics which focuses on the interpretive structures of experience, i.e. how we understand and engage in our human world. The key thinkers herein are Heidegger and Gadamer. As a more systematic introduction to the conceptual attainments of both thinkers is clearly beyond the scope of this essay, I will point in the following section at selected ideas of Heidegger and Gadamer – ideas especially relevant in the context of globalization and proliferation of new technologies. It is worth mentioning that on the 1997 “After Postmodernism Conference” organized by University of Chicago the phenomenological approach was wellrepresented. The Conference posed the following question: “If we absorb postmodernism, if we recognize the variety and ungroundedness of grounds, but do not want to stop in arbitrariness, relativism, or aphoria, what comes after postmodernism?” (http://www.focusing.org/apm.htm#Online%20Papers). What makes phenomenological hermeneutics a still valid approach in contemporary conditions? According to G.B. Madison the two main features making this position relevant today are: “(1) that it is as ¨postmodern¨ as any other form of postmodern thought, but (2) unlike other forms of postmodernism (“poststructuralism”, “neopragmatism”), it does not lead into the dead-end of relativism and nihilism” (Madison 1997).

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In which respect is phenomenological hermeneutics a postmodern way of thinking? According to Madison it seeks to rethink many of the traditional concepts of philosophy (e.g. reason, value, truth) in strictly experiential terms, more specifically – in terms of communicative praxis. “For this reason, like other forms of postmodernism, it eschews all forms of essentialist and foundational thinking, and thus involves, to a significant extent, a work of ‘deconstruction’ ” (Madison 1997). Phenomenological hermeneutic embraces the postmodern critique of metaphysical tradition (“metaphysics of presence”), but at the same time – what makes this approach different from other postmodern critiques – it aims to rearticulate the core values of the Enlightenment tradition in such a way “as to avoid both metaphysical essentialism and foundationalism and intellectual arbitrariness and cultural relativism” (Madison 1997). Even though we can no longer speak about metaphysically groundable values, it does not imply that the value discourse is pointless. Some values are rationally justifiable – i.e. “universalizable”. As Madison remarks, “One of the core tasks of phenomenological hermeneutics … is the articulation of fullfledged theory of communicative rationality in all the domains of social life and endeavor and, along with this, a non-dogmatic notion of transcultural universality” (Madison 1997). A similar line of thinking represents Gianni Vattimo. In The End of Modernity (1988) he points at the relevance of hermeneutics in the context of postmodernity. Heterogeneity and fragmentation of our experience of world is seen as a hermeneutical problem to be solved by developing a sense of continuity of meaning and by seeing events in a broader temporal perspective. Phenomenological hermeneutics originates from the method set forth in Heidegger's Sein und Zeit (1927), according to which human existence is interpretative. The first manifestation of this approach is Hans-Georg Gadamer's Platons dialektische Ethic (1931). The issues addressed here reemerged in his later work – Wahrheit und Methode (1960). Gadamer’s understanding of hermeneutics needs to be distinguished from the earlier perceptions (such as Schleiermacher’s or Dilthey’s) – his intention was not to provide a “method of interpretation” fitting into the scheme of modern human sciences, but rather a reflection on what happens “over and above” our understanding (Gadamer 2004, xxvi). In the foreword to the second German edition of Truth and Method Gadamer states: “If there is any practical consequence of the present investigation, it certainly has nothing to do with an unscientific ‘commitment’; instead, it is concerned with

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the ‘scientific’ integrity of acknowledging the commitment involved in all understanding” (Gadamer 2004, xxv). Gadamer follows here Heidegger’s line of thinking, where all understanding is ultimately a self-understanding, “a person who understands, understands himself (sich versteht), projecting himself upon his possibilities” (Gadamer 2004, 25). Understanding is therefore not separable from the historical and temporal horizon of Dasein – our situatedness in the world is the condition for understanding. “What first seemed simply a barrier, according to the traditional concept of science and method, or a subjective condition of access to historical knowledge, now becomes the center of a fundamental inquiry. ‘Belonging’ is a condition of the original meaning of historical interest… because belonging to traditions belongs just as originally and essentially to the historical finitude of Dasein as does its projectedness toward future possibilities of itself. … Thus there is no understanding or interpretation in which the totality of this existential structure does not function, even if the intention of the knower is simply to read ‘what is there’ and to discover from his sources ‘how it really was’ ” (Gadamer 2004, 252). According to Gadamer, the Enlightenment’s ideal of overcoming all prejudices in understanding itself proves to be a prejudice. Furthermore, the fact that we are situated within traditions does not mean that we are limited in our freedom. On the contrary traditions rather than limiting us, open us up to what is to be understood. They are irreducible element of the structure of understanding. “The horizon of the present can not be formed without the past. There is no more an isolated horizon of the present itself than there are historical horizons which have to be acquired. Rather, understanding is always the fusion of these horizons supposedly existing by themselves” (Gadamer 2004, 305). Apart from Heidegger’s early works, a strong connection with Greek thought (Plato, Aristotle) was also determinative of the philosophical direction of Gadamer’s thinking. The concept of phronesis (“practical wisdom”) that appears in Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics (Book VI) plays an important role in Gadamer’s theory, where an emphasis is rather put on the “practicality” of our “being in the world” than on a theoretical, disengaged apprehension. “What man needs is not just the persistent posing of ultimate questions, but the sense of what is feasible, what is possible, what is correct, here and now” (Gadamer 2004, xxxiv). Gadamer emphasizes that understanding is not a task

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in itself, but should constantly involve applying the meaning understood in a specific context (Gadamer 200, 328).

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Phenomenology in architectural research

One of the first proponents of phenomenology in architecture was Christian Norberg-Schulz with his book Existence, Space, Architecture (1971). More recent attempts include amongst others Karsten Harries, Dalibor Vesely and Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Dalibor Vesely has been very influential in establishing the role of hermeneutics and phenomenology as a part of the discourse of architecture. In his Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation (2004) the discussion is centered at two distinct approaches to architecture – a vision of architecture as a phenomenon embodying and founding culture, enhancing our ability to participate in the phenomenal reality (participatory approach) and – a currently dominating view, where architecture is treated as an instrument or as a commodity and is separated from the original communicative context (emancipatory approach). A common argument among advocates of emancipatory vision of architecture is the danger of losing one’s creativity when too many constraints are present. Thus, a break with tradition, history, and other, similar “burdens” tends to be advised. However, according to Vesely, in the case of emancipatory representation we should rather speak about production, not about a creative act, as “creativity is always situated within a particular communicative context from which it grows and in which the creative results participate. This circular process is not only the essence of creativity but also the essential moment in the disclosure and in the construction of the human world.” (Vesely 2005, 19). Production, on the contrary, lacks a communicative relation with its cultural settings. Products are typically being designed regardless of specific place, people, culture. Purpose and meaning are defined here mostly by object’s internal logic. According to Vesely, hermeneutic – phenomenological approach has a great potential of restoring the communicative role of architecture and thus restoring its role as the topological and corporeal foundation of culture.

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“The limited range of emancipated representations can be challenged only by different attitudes toward culture, sustained by a different kind of knowledge that is based on the principles of dialogue. Among the many attempts to open such a dialogue, the contributions made by phenomenology, and more recently by hermeneutics, appear to be by far the most convincing in their consistency and continuity. Most relevant here was the discovery of the primacy of the natural world as a ground and framework within which the achievements of modern science and technology could be reconciled with the concrete conditions of the natural world and everyday human life.” (Vesely 2004, 4). Supplementary Vesely states: “The elevation of technology as a universal metaphysical foundation for a new era of culture was the final step in a process that reduced all that is worth knowing about the making of architecture to transparent productive knowledge. It did not seem to occur to those who believed in such a possibility that technology itself has no particular content: it is only a method of inventive production, and it therefore cannot be a source of order of any kind. Order is always constituted in the communicative space of a particular culture as a whole.” (Vesely 2004, 16). As we shall see in the next chapter, Vesely shares Heidegger’s position regarding the consequences of the dominance of technological mode of thinking.

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Phenomenological approach to information technology

Martin Heidegger is arguably one of the first philosophers to explicitly discuss the implications of technology for human existence. In his essay “The Thing” (1950) Heidegger describing the “abolition of distance” as an essential feature of contemporary human condition and elaborating on the growing possibilities of instantaneousness and simultaneity in human experience, anticipates the globalization debate: “All distances in time and space are shrinking. Man now reaches overnight … places which formerly took weeks and months of travel … Distant sites

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of the most ancient cultures are shown on film as if they stood this very moment amidst today’s street traffic … The peak of this abolition of every possibility of remoteness is reached by television, which will soon pervade and dominate the whole machinery of communication.” (Heidegger 1971 [1950], 165). According to Heidegger, the “abolition of distance” instead of opening new, richer possibilities of interaction with the environment, tended to generate a certain indifference, an experience where “everything is equally far or equally near”; a feeling in which distinct objects became a part of a homogenous mass. The blurring boundaries between “nearness” and “distance” rendered human experience monotonous and one-dimensional. “The Question Concerning Technology”, one of Heidegger’s most celebrated and well-known essays, contains perhaps his most explicit critique of modern technology. It was presented on November 18, 1955 in the context of a series of lectures organized by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts on the theme of “The Arts in the Technological Age”. The essay is primarily concerned with the essence (Wesen) of technology. One could define technology as a means to an end. However, in Heidegger’s view, the essence of technology lays not in technology itself, but in the human understanding of being which makes technology possible. Such a specific way of understanding of being Heidegger calls das Gestell, (enframing). Gestell is characterized as a way of revealing (disclosing, uncovering, bringing out of concealment) of what is (das Seiende) as Bestand (standing-reserve). It is an instrumental, efficiency-oriented approach to the surrounding world. For instance, through technology we approach nature solely as a source of profit that we can develop or extract for ourselves. The essence of technology, according to Heidegger, poses a serious problem for human existence. “Enframing does not simply endanger man in his relationship to himself and to everything that is. As a destining, it banishes man into that kind of revealing which is an ordering. This ordering holds sway, it drives out every other possibility of revealing. Above all, Enframing conceals that revealing which, in the sense of poiesis [truth], lets what presences come forth into appearance.” (Heidegger 1977 [1955], 27).

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Enframing prevents us from having a proper understanding of our own being, because it seeks to exclude other ways of looking at the world, for instance, those involved in creating and engaging with works of art. Technology – a way of understanding of the world as being apprehendable – conceals what was our past, multi-dimensional understanding and creates a new world. This new environment is the one where our surroundings are noticed in terms of orderable categories, distinguished by their relation to us as either usable or unusable. What is especially disturbing, such an attitude regards not only nature, but also other human beings. Pointing at ancient Greek culture, where humans did not orient themselves towards the world in a technological way, Heidegger argues that the horizon – in which we find ourselves – tends to dispose us in specific ways. For instance, in a pre-technological epoch human relation to making and shaping was primarily directed by a certain openness, a reciprocal intimacy and care. Important was not the challenging and ordering, but rather “letting be”; letting the world to show itself in its own forms. Albert Borgmann shares Heidegger’s point of view conceiving modern technology as a phenomenon shaping our relation with world in a one-dimensional, disengaged manner. The things and ultimately the other people are perceived in terms of available resources or “devices”. As a consequence, the original, rich contextuality of world is hidden. In his Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (1984) Borgmann addresses a question of the possibility of a relation with modern technology in which everything is not yet “framed”. In this context he points at the importance of “focal practices” based on full and engaging presence – e.g. preparing and sharing meals with family and friends as opposed to eating alone in a fastfood bar. According to Borgmann, the prevailing, technological paradigm in which we find ourselves does not imply that we are doomed to relate to our surroundings in a disengaged manner. As Lucas Introna remarks, “Borgmann’s analysis does point to the possibility of the emergence of a device mood – as we increasingly depend on devices – and our moral obligation not to settle mindlessly into the convenience that devices may offer us. Otherwise we might … become the devices of our devices” (Introna 2005). Summing up, the primary concern of the phenomenological approach with regard to new technologies is not an analysis of certain technological artifacts.

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Instead, the main focus is the conditions which made these artifacts seem necessary and obvious in everyday life. The very interest of phenomenological thinkers is also on the ways in which specific technologies “frame” us as we use them. Here the social and ethical implications of information technology can be most fully observed also with regard to the built environment.

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Poststructuralist perspective

The aim of this part of the paper is to provide the reader with a sense of distinctiveness of phenomenological approach by outlining in many aspects opposite, yet very influential position represented among others by J.-F. Lyotard. Jean-Francois Lyotard introduced the term “postmodern” with his publication The Postmodern Condition: A report on Knowledge (1984) [1979]. According to Lyotard, the main characteristics of the postmodern era is “incredulity towards metanarratives” (Lyotard 1984,xxiii). The compartmentalization, fragmentation of knowledge and the dissolution of epistemic coherence are the consequences. Narrative elements disintegrate into “clouds” of linguistic combinations and language games. As a result, new, hybrid disciplines emerge independently from old epistemic traditions such as philosophy or natural sciences. Furthermore, the loss of continuous, coherent meta-narrative breaks the unity of the subject into “heterogenous moments of subjectivity that do not cohere into an identity” (Aylesworth 2005). Unlike hermeneutics, poststructuralist thinking does not seek to arrive at a consensus as to the meaning of a text by developing a sense of continuity between the present and the past. On the contrary, the loss of meaning is conceived rather as a productive mechanism than as a negation of identity. In his essay “Domus and Megalopolis” (1997) Lyotard strongly criticizes the notion of “domesticity” (i.e. “dwelling”, “place” as sources of identity). According to Lyotard “domus” is a regretful myth, a pointless yearning for what can only be a mirage, especially in a metropolis. Consequently, any form of reference to the local, well-known tradition is criticized. For Lyotard the notion of place, the emphasis on the local, are only nostalgic responses to the conditions of late capitalism – its homogenized space and placelessnes of contemporary society. Today “place” is nothing more than a product of the market, a com-

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modity to be promoted and successfully sold. The traditional realm of the “domus” – the countryside – is perceived in terms of tourism and leisure. The home – once a stable point of origin and important source of identity – is now seen primarily as a property with a specific market value. There is no escape from the global capitalism – even what is seen as a “difference”, an alternative, is in fact not resistant to it, but also spawned by its forces. “In a world dominated by all – consuming capitalism ‘difference’ itself can be seen as to be a product of the market” (Lyotard 1997, 95). According to Lyotard globalization effected – in a fundamental shift – the ways in which we relate to the world. Such concepts as dwelling and place do not retain any longer much authority and in today’s conditions are not relevant as sources of identification. Identity is today constituted only to a minor extent by a stable system of references (such as a place of origin), and increasingly through such transitory phenomena as jobs, interests, possessions (Lyotard 1997, 95). The development of new technologies is a driving force of these transformations. But should we in any respect attempt to distance ourselves from these phenomena or resist at least some of them? Lyotard’s position may be seen as a far-reaching affirmation of the contemporary processes. In the following excerpt he clearly disagrees with Heidegger’s critical view on modern technology: “Indeed, technology far from being the necessary source of alienation, as Heidegger had supposed, may itself offer mechanisms of symbolic identification. For what thinkers such as Heidegger overlook is the fundamental capacity of human beings to accommodate and adapt to new conditions. This chameleon-like tendency ensures that human beings eventually absorb technology as part of their symbolic background, to the point where they may grow attached to and identify with technological objects.” (Lyotard 1997, 95). One could argue that the Lyotard’s polemic against Heidegger’s view of technology is only touching the surface, for Heidegger criticized not so much technology itself, but the way of understanding the world which made technology possible. Heidegger does not deny a possibility of human adaptation to new, technology-initiated conditions. On the opposite – he remarks that we have become too attached to technology and gone to far in appropriating a

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technological mode of thinking, while at the same time losing an important aspect of our existence. Paradoxically, poststructuralists share with Heidegger the point of departure – in both cases the Western metaphysical tradition is being criticized. However, for poststructuralists the very foundational concepts of our culture are nothing more than strategies that enable us to act as if the world was intelligible. In fact, by the means of metaphysics the West has concealed its own fictive character, the lack of permanent transcendental “reality” to be known. The aim of architecture herein is to deconstruct “naive” assumptions about building and reality, to escape the realm of reality-as-convention by becoming in a sense free. Heidegger also points at the need of displacing the illusions of the past, but at the same time he emphasizes a possibility of establishing a genuine belonging with the world given to us rather than an ironic or alienated relationship. Rem Koolhas’ understanding of a contemporary city as a “generic city” follows Lyotard’s line of thinking. Moreover, “generic city”, is mentioned by Castells in “The Rise of the Network Society” as a possible architectural expression of the “space of flows” in the information age (Castells 1996, 421). The term “generic” is used to emphasize the lack of particularly distinctive qualities – the “generic city” is an expression of general urbanization. As Bo Grönlund remarks, “Koolhaas' 'generic city' is a displacement to the urban periphery, a territory that can no longer be called suburbia, distorted and stretched beyond precedent, big enough for all, and with a remarkable ingenuity in avoiding urbanistic rules. Density is on the decrease, moments spaced far apart, the calmer, the more 'pure' − in a way a voluntary house arrest. The skyscraper is the definitive typology, as towers can exist everywhere, spaced so not to interact. The generic city is the city without history, without layers, superficial like a film studio, in a process of never ending self-destruction and renewal. This city is liberated from the captivity of the centre and of identity. ... The generic city is also multiracial and multi-cultural, flexible diversity, aesthetic 'free style', and lots of mirrors. It may have mass tourism, but the streets are dead and the public realm has been evacuated in the favor of cars, highways and speed. In-transit condition has become universal. ...This city is everywhere. In America,

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Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa the city has come to the country. The 'generic city' is what is left over after large sections of urban life crossed over into cyberspace.” (Grönlund 1999). In the interview for “Wired” magazine (1996/1997) Koolhas does not agree with the suggestion that a “generic” approach to design seems likely to produce a less hospitable environment. Further he adds: “We all complain that we are confronted by urban environments that are completely similar. We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living.” (Wired 1996/7). According to Koolhas, the best architects can do is to get rid of a nostalgic view of the city and follow the direction indicated by the development of new technologies. “I think we are stuck with this idea of the street and the plaza as public domain, but the public domain is radically changing ... with television and the media and a whole series of other inventions, you could say that the public domain is lost. But you could also say, that it's now so pervasive it does not need physical articulation any more. I think the truth is somewhere in between. But we as architects still look at it in terms of a nostalgic model, and in an incredibly moralistic sense, refuse signs of its being reinvented in other populist or more commercial terms.... you can go to these cities and bemoan the absence of a public realm, but as architects it is better for us to bemoan the utter incompetence of the buildings.” (Koolhaas “Conversations with students” 1996, 45 in: Grönlund 1999). Koolhas’ view on the city is an example of a perspective grounded entirely in the “present”. Such an understanding, as we already learnt from Gadamer, is incomplete – a horizon of the past, a thorough reflection on the phenomena that led us to the contemporary situation, is missing.

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Approaching “medialized” space

The influence of new technologies on the built environment is currently an important focus of interest within architectural and urban theory. The main

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questions of the 2006 “Mediacity Conference” organized at the Bauhaus University can give the reader an idea of the most debated issues within this domain: What is medialized space? How do media influence space and the perception of space? How can modern means of communication influence space, cities and our social lives? These questions can be approached in multiple ways. According to Kate Nesbitt, an editor of a compendious anthology of architectural theory, postmodern period in architecture is in general marked by proliferation of ideological frameworks imported from other disciplines. The architectural debates are structured by primary paradigms such as phenomenology, aesthetics, linguistics theory (semiotics, structuralism, poststructuralism, and deconstruction), Marxism and feminism (Nesbitt 1996, 28). Each of these ways of conceptualization and interpretation enables one to see the problems differently and arrive at different diagnoses of the situation in question. However, in any case it is important to make explicit what “stands behind” a certain mode of understanding and interpretation. Phenomenological hermeneutics presented in this paper is a conceptual framework, which attempts to grasp the information technology/society/built environment interrelationships in a possibly comprehensive way. Phenomenology does not consider the current transformations of the built environment only as a restricted, rootless contemporary problem. On the contrary, it aims to encompass in its view both the path which led us to such a state of events and try to project its future implications. As Merleau-Ponty remarks, “When an event is considered at close quarters, at the moment when it is lived through, everything seems subject to chance: one man’s ambition, some lucky encounter, some local circumstance or other appears to have been decisive. But chance happenings offset each other, and facts in their multiplicity coalesce and show up a certain way of taking a stand in relation to the human situation, reveal in fact an event which has its definite outline and about which we can talk. Should the starting-point for the understanding of history be ideology, or politics, or religion, or economics? Should we try to understand a doctrine from its overt content, or from the psychological make-up and the biography of its author? We

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must seek an understanding from all these angles simultaneously, everything has meaning, and we shall find this same structure of being underlying all relationships. All these views are true provided that they are not isolated, that we delve deeply into history and reach the unique core of existential meaning which emerges in each perspective.” (Merleau-Ponty 1970 [1962], xviii-xix). In the phenomenological – hermeneutic perspective the main challenge for contemporary architectural theory is to find a balance between technology and the sphere of non-instrumental human needs, i.e. between these levels of reality that can be directly manipulated and those that resist such manipulation. “The task and dilemma we are facing is how to reconcile the inventions and achievements of modern technology, which have already established their autonomy, with the conditions of human life, our inherited culture and the natural world. We will find no answer in a naive belief that the difficulty can be resolved by subordinating all knowledge and different ways of making to instrumental rationality and technology. Whole areas of reality are not amendable to such treatment, and perpetuating the belief that they are merely deepens the dilemma.” (Vesely 2004, 7). The main focus of the “Mediacity Conference” can be – on a more general level seen – as a question regarding the role of technology in urban social and cultural life. In this regard, as I attempted to argue in the present paper, phenomenological hermeneutics can provide us with a multi-dimensional, nonreductive conceptual framework.

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References AYELSWORTH, G. (2005): Postmodernism. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism B ORGMANN, A. (1984): Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Chicago University Press, Chicago. CAPURRO, R. (2003): On Hermeneutics, Angeletics, and Information Technology. Questions and Tentative Answers. http://www.capurro.de/tsukuba.html CASTELLS, M. (1989): The Informational City. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA. CASTELLS, M. (1996): The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA. The Encyclopedia of Phenomenology (1997): Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dodrecht and Boston. GADAMER , H.-G. (2004): Truth and Method. Continuum, London and New York. GRÖNLUND, B. (1999): Rem Koolhas’ Generic City. www.hjem.get2net.dk/gronlund/koolhas.html HARRIES, K. (1997): The Ethical Function of Architecture, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA. HARVEY, D. (1989): The Condition of Postmodernity. Blackwell, Oxford and Cambridge, MA. HEIDEGGER , M. (1971): The Thing. In: Poetry, Language, Thought. Harper & Row, New York. HEIDEGGER , M. (1977): The Question Concerning Technology. In: The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Harper Torchbooks, New York. HERON, K. (1996): “From Bauhaus to Koolhas”, an interview with Rem Koolhas. Wired, 4.07, www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.07/koolhas.html INTRONA, L. (2005): Phenomenological Approaches to Ethics and Information Technology. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-it-phenomenology/ LYOTARD, J.-F. (1984), Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. LYOTARD, J.-F. (1997): Domus and Megalopolis. In: N. Leach (ed.): Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory. Routledge, London & New York. MADISON, G. B. (1990): The Hermeneutics of Postmodernity: Figures and Themes. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis. MADISON, G. B. (1997): The Hermeneutics of Postmodernity and After. http://www.focusing.org/apm_papers/madison.html MCLUHAN, M. (1964): Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw Hill, New York. MERLEAU–PONTY, M. (1970): Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge & Kegan, London. NESBITT, K. (ed.) (1996): Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: an anthology of architectural theory. Princeton Architectural Press, New York. NORBERG – SCHULZ, CH. (1971): Existence, Space, Architecture. Studio Vista, London.

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PÉREZ-GÓMEZ, A. (2006): Built upon Love. Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics. The MIT Press, London and Cambridge, MA. SCHEUERMAN, W. (2006): Globalization. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/ SEAMON, D. (2000): A Way of Seeing People and Place: Phenomenology in EnvironmentBehavior Research. In: S. Wapner, J. Demick, T. Yamamoto & H. Minami (Eds.): Theoretical Perspectives in Environment-Behavior Research. Plenum, New York. SMITH, D. W. (2003): Phenomenology. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ VESELY, D. (2004): Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation. The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. WILKEN, R. (2004): From Stabilitas Loci to Mobilitas Loci: Networked Mobility and the Transformation of Place. www.journal.fiberculture.org/issue6/issue6_wilken.html

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VALÉRIE C OLOMB

The Public Building as a Media − Towards a Method

This work comes within the scope of the responsibility which one assigns to architecture in our urban society, especially concerning the role of public buildings and medias as analysers of urban phenomena. On the basis of public buildings, political-partners work out a rhetoric on space and thereby participate in architectural reflection. The medias also take part in the symbolic construction of an architectural object in the city. The initial observation is that architecture is both a communication PROCESS in itself and an media coverage OBJECT. The objective of this work is to apprehend this double nature, the differences in terms of logics, the interferences and the difficulties generated with interdisciplinary approaches (information and communication sciences, political sciences, town planning, architecture, sociology). This process occurs in France today, in a decisional context marked by both decentralisation and opinion democracy under the medias’ eye. The problem is how does public architecture implement a political declaration in space and what is media coverage’s role? This is articulated between: a. Architecture’s capacity of declaring: the declaration BY architecture (topos) ¬ A Science and Society Museum project in Lyon or Musée des Confluences1 ¬ State schools, Law Courts (comparison)

............................................ 1 July 2000: decision to build a museum, February 2001 : choice of Coop Himmel(b)lau, Autumn 2006: operational starstup.

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b. Media coverage supported by the museum project: the declaration ON architecture (logos) ¬ Press declarations/ media representation2 ¬ Proponents’ declarations /conceptual expertise3 This preliminary work allows to pinpoint criteria; an architectural analysis method as a media is under consideration in the long term. Secondly, the analysis should be supplemented by other media (television, radio...), other criteria such as images, official declarations concerning the project, other public buildings (universities, prisons, hospitals, train stations...) and propositions of international comparisons. Thirdly, it will be a question of how a “shape” – in the sense of a constructed configuration produced by an institution or company, takes part in complex communication by this same institution or company.

1

Method

Why the public building? The public building marks out space as a structuring point stating our community’s values. A collective expression location par excellence, offices for institutional and cultural operating, public authorities and services, a citizens’ expression location, the public building is at the service of the community and the institution which it symbolises, it provides information on a certain joint destiny. As early as the 70s, the French State took an interest in the public building’s role and introduced the concept "public buildings’ exemplary character” (Lengereau 2001). They “reveal community sharing, and belong-to values adopted by the territory’s inhabitants …They create and constitute the district or the town’s identity and found their renown” (Lamizet 1999). All projects make declarations, a political and intentions rhetoric that the building, by its physical structure, will have to express. The call for tender order offers politicians a mode of expression, an assertion of a vision of society. The building contractor must query the image, the symbolic load which he wants to convey to his future project (MIQCP 1999). This has not always been the case, for example: the economic-metric approach of Reconstruction after ............................................ 2 276 articles (October 1986 at February 2004), 42 titles 3 15 interviews

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1945. This meaning sought after by public works contracting through declarations and the choice of a shape is what interests us in this work, and not the significance that the location users and citizens will attribute to him at a given period. The method is to reconstitute a “projecting odyssey” (Bonfantini 2003) at multiple conceptual and decisional levels which imprint directions on the shape, while capturing the evolution of representations that the national, local, specialised, and daily press supply. The discursive development of proponents around the project participates in constructing the project’s representation, but this does not presuppose that they carry the project’s truth by a praxis. But pinpointing antagonistic declarations, arguments and discrepancy measures in the press must be understood as a possibility of questioning media representations of the project. The designers’ time is when political intentions are formulated concerning the project and the arguments which establish decisions’ legitimacy and their implementation by proponents’ logics. This is also the time when the medias construe the project’s representation, even before it has been performed and where the symbolic construction of an architectural object in the city is performed, with its various linguistic structures. Furthermore, the architectural conception postulates the synthesis of reflection on the programme, on a site and construction. To imagine one without the other would be to amputate an essential part of the project’s identity. It is a reflection on an indivisible whole. Historically, these dynamic relations operate dialectically and sometimes hierarchically to influence the architectural shape.

The Musée des Confluences proposes to question sciences in their social dimension and this objective shall no longer be at the heart of the device, but declarations with the treatment of problems; the project’s ambition makes it an

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urban driving force where the choice of site and shape operate dynamically. Proponents’ declarations have highlighted three logics in the choices:

On the basis of these considerations, a structure had to be built for this family tree. Subsequently, thematic entries are being considered. postulate: the architecture of the public building is the synthesis of reflection between a programme, a site and a shape CHAPTER

PROGRAMME

METAPHORE

What to write? Which paper to write Who chooses the author? on?

Which language? towards writing Choice of the author

TIME

Lengthy Short project time in time history

Lengthy Short project time in time history

Lengthy Short project time in time history

CONTENTS

Constitution of museum concept

• History • Choice of the of the location location

• Evolu- • Choice of tion of architecture the lan- • The project guage architectural-code, standard, model, visibility

DECLARATION

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SITE

• Political carrier • Development of the museum programme

Proponents

medias

SHAPE

Proponents

medias

Proponents

medias

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1.1

Public building visibility

Constitution of the concept of State schools, Law Courts, museums If one considers a building’s shape concerning its capacity of SAYING something, then its must be visible in public space. Historically, it is the emergence of a public building’s specific shape which needs to be grasped. Between ostentation − which allows to assert the institution − and vulgarisation – which integrates it in collective life in a non-hierarchical manner – the building represents the institution and makes it visible in space by providing long-lasting classification. To understand how a public building is visible in space, the French state school appeared an interesting example; indeed, a powerful political and republican will is at the origin of this programme which was formalised in the 19th century. It is a question of defining the evolutions of the visibility implementation of a public building programme according to several entries: a. political declarations and arguments related to the public building under study (contents and container), b. programmes (contents): programme’s evolution and formal consequences, c. constructed shapes (container): architectural design which it is part of, which refers back to use of a „language”, d. visibility implementation expectations and methods: ¬ specificity of constructed shape ¬ symbolism, standard, copy, specimen referring back to a signalling stability and therefore a possible reading. Within the framework of this analysis a morpho-typological study is required. With marked typology and powerful symbolism, Law Courts enable to determine other visibility implementation criteria for a public building in space. French state schools: shape regularity and repetition The case of French state schools was used as a test to detail criteria on the basis of morpho-typological studies (Paulin Duprat 1991) and as a social-political analysis. The State’s political intention in the 19th century was to mould national identity. It implemented a device to have an aesthetic standard emerge

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with plan models resulting in the shapes’ regularity (resemblance) and repetition (great quantity). The following summary is an example of the results:

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Law Courts: urban and symbolic differentiation As from the French Revolution in 1789 and until the 19th century, the cult of law defines the architectural assignment as having to inspire fear and necessary respect of social law and order, therefore the legal institution must be an isolated place, closed in the manner of churches, distinct from the surrounding city: “Everything which claims prestige and authority requires a certain ceremony: we feel we are subjected to a mighty law, and architecture contributes the required element for compliance with res judicata” (Leniaud 1996). Spatially, the architectural treatment, distinct from its environment, reinforces the moral message to be passed on to citizens. Similarly to schools, due to architectural regularity Law Courts refer back to the ideas of: • equal treatment before the institution in its assigned role concerning citizens, • territorial standardisation and State presence. The Conseil des Bâtiments Civils played an essential role in defining a programme, a functionality and a powerful symbolic image of Law with research on differentiation in comparison to the ordinary city. The Greek temple figure represents the political attention attached to the universal character of justice. This 19th century model represents almost half of all French Law Courts (Leniaud 1996). In 1995, the recent Lyon Law Courts, anonymous amongst the Part-Dieu office buildings, are symptomatic of a tendency to render the image of Law commonplace in the city.

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The museum: differentiation by formal innovation Research for invariants, shape regularities or categorisation – apart from coming up against a lack of studies on French museums’ typologies − indicates the difficulty of formatting this place: abounding in its installations, programming and architectural offerings. A place of culture, in tune with society’s reflection and evolution, it is a place of formal experimentation, a location of political stakes due to the significance conveyed on its contents and architecture. It is essentially protean. Codifications and standardisations have not been very operative. Curiosity collections and exhibition rooms (15th century in France), museums’ ancestors, were born in monumental palaces. The framework of this birth and the contractors’ architectural culture − princes and kings − accustomed to building sumptuously, have undoubtedly deeply marked museums’ architectural shapes. The contents’ preciousness called for pageant architecture. This proximity between the shape and the contents crystallizes; the Beaux Arts museum with monumental and ancient treatment, will become an international model (the Louvre in a former palace) without necessarily evoking a copy. However, for a long time, this is generally a genuine architectural camouflage: the museum slides into existing locations. Quantitatively, this reduces the number of “tailor-made” museums where political intentions can fully express themselves (these are limited to programming, location choice and refitting). Over the last decades, new constructions, generally providing formal and technical innovations are transformed into architectural experiment laboratories with a rich and spectacular kaleidoscope of proposals. Currently, the Guggemheim museum in Bilbao is used as a model for the promotional and events posture of its shape. A Museum is a prestigious facility essentially connected to city centrality. It is only at the end of the 20th century that “eco-museums” arrive in small villages, in rural or former industrial territories. Neither regularity in shape, nor the existence of a code seems to characterise the visibility of approximately two thousand French museums. From a purely quantitative point of view, the museum is not very widespread as compared to schools, thereby reducing the political project’s power of expression. In 1982, the Inspectorate of Provincial Museums estimated that the 1000 museums studied are found: 1/4 in religious buildings, 1/5 in private

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mansions, 1/5 in palaces and chateaux, and less than one 1/10 in new buildings during the 19th century and 1/4 during the 20th century (Sallois 1995). But on the basis of a reduced number of buildings, Town Councillors choose extremely visible shapes in space, a communicational proclamation of political and territorial ambitions (Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Louvre in Lens...).

1.2

The programme

Musée des Confluences: political provider, message designers Political negotiations enabled definition of who would transmit a message through a Science Museum: local authorities (region, department, city) all developed museum projects. But on the same territory, only one can exist financially: this will be the department. The models mobilised concerning the contents and the container by association (Guggenheim from Bilbao for territorial visibility) or dissociation (affirm cultural difference from the Paris City of Sciences...) provide a framework to the argumentation in which the museum must define its programme and its originality (Breton 1995). The selected programme model will be Quebecois and new in Europe (search for singularity). Programme development Through these political compromises, expectations concerning the museum evolve. The programme compiles many museums’ past experiments and backs up two declarations of public expectations, relayed by the proponents and the press:

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1.3

The site

All architecture has a singular relationship with its location: it is prepared for, in and through this location. The long history of the link between location and architecture recalls that the shape is also conditioned by two categories of factors: • cultural or determining factors • modifying or adaptive factors such as the climate (Rappoport 1972). But this hierarchy between culture and nature tends to be reversed when the constructions’ environmental impact is taken into account (Krampen 1994). For the Museum of Lyon, the selected site is the junction between the Saone and Rhone rivers. Two typical arguments are presented as antinomic for the site choice by the proponents and the press: • the Museum will be in relation with a physical reality where it plays a determining role in urban composition; it is a catalyst (endogenous and urban process)

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• initially the Museum will be a signal for the city on an isolated site which, by induced effect, may, in time, stimulate a district; it has a leverage effect (exogenous and communication process). Media coverage participates in modifying the territory’s image. This will be the principal argument.

The choice of the Museum’s name – Musée des Confluences – also participates in the construction of declaration around the symbolism and the site’s physical reality. The act of denomination is not neutral, the feeling of the location is also constructed discursively (Mondada 2000).

1.4

The shape

Through history, the architectural language queries: • the relation between shape/function/site which organizes an implementation of the message’s visibility through the shape, • “the arbitrary character of the signal” (Saussure 1916) liable to create language.

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Also, to create architectural language, shapes which are already codified in a network of signals must be used. Classical architecture has organised relationships and combinations between acknowledged and invariant elements. All new creations can be deciphered if the structures between the elements and the signals evolve slowly; which was not the case in modern architecture and all architecture schools at the end of the 20th century. The research for regularity is no longer a political constraint. The singularity of the architectural shape with a refusal to reflect on standard, code, model, the repression of imitation and the lack of shared doctrines, particularly mark museum projects. Part of both time and space, architecture is part of symbolism and reality, it is much closer to a language to be interpreted in a culture and in a staging of social space “To date, there is nothing strange, insofar as this is required for all types of cultural texts, and not only for architecture. The strangest thing is the difficulty in finding a stable communicating "status" or a stable code in architecture” (Muntanola Thornberg 1996). Without speaking about perception: a programme should correspond to a fixed shape and a given significance. This margin of vagueness in reading space is one of the factors in the difficult encounter between architecture and language. Spectacular shape for the Musée des Confluences The selected architects claim they belong to the deconstructivist movement. Their expressionism seeks to express our society’s violence and evacuates the concept of user-friendliness (Coop Himmelb(l)au1993). This declaration should be put into perspective with the stakes of the Musée des Confluences – reduction of the cultural and social split − and with the user-friendliness claimed by the political contractor. Thus, two discursive systems cohabit in parallel, meeting two different communication logics, with two proclamations, one aesthetic, the other political. Press and proponents never confront these with one another. The study of information circulation time periods turned out to be interesting as it presents an evolution of political declarations. The text programme supplied to architects is the finalised written formulation of the Museum’s political project. The contractor defines expectations concerning the Museum and therefore the judgment criteria for shape selection. Criteria at the time of

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political posting are no longer the same upon implementation (choice of architecture) and media coverage, with a notable difference between the national and local press. In this way, the different declarations concerning political expectations for the Museum cohabit. DEFINITION TEXT PROGRAMME

CHOICE OF THE PROJEC CONTEST

MEDIATISATION

Support: text programme/ formulation of political objectives carried by the Museum

Support: examination projects’ report/arguments during debates

Support: press articles/ press declaration and reported declarations

Not hierarchical arguments

Hierarchical arguments and inoperative arguments

Hierarchical arguments and inoperative arguments

HEQ approach Functionality Image Relation site/shape

1st functionality 2nd image

National press 1st) image Local press 1st) functionality 2nd) image Among the projects with a strong image, optimal functionality is selected

Political posting

Implementation

Among the projects with a strong image, optimal functionality is selected.

Representation

Furthermore, proponents and the press class the political action on the basis of the characteristics of the building’s shape: • innovating architecture for political audacity, • fashionable or unfashionable architecture for political “follow-myleader” or "provincial" action. This establishes the political stakes of the architectural choice. This grouping of political declarations and shape marks the convergence between topos and logos which should be studied on the basis of public buildings with less prestige than museums.

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2

Some elements of conclusion

The public building’s visibility is ensured by declarations (logos) in space symbolism and by spaces (topos)

2.1

Logos

Media visibility The cultural, social and institutional debate on public building design processes is established under the medias’eyes. The press presents the project’s temporality in public space and organises representations of the object to be built. At each entry − programme, site and shape – press declarations are confronted with the proponents’ declarations. Filtering political and public declarations, performed by the medias, reveals a double difficulty: • making declarations on an "object to be built", a virtual object, • making political ideas follow their course concerning a complex process, particularly through media coverage. • This media coverage fulfils three functions (Breton 1995): • transmitting the message by selection and hierarchical organisation, • staging the message, • commenting with an "educational" requirement to give meaning to the message. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that implementing visibility in the medias also passes through controversy (Mouillaud, Tétu 1989). Political identity is based on confrontation: debate is the project’s opportunity to acquire this political identity. The work of comparing proponents’ and press declarations, describes this media coverage filtering which informs on the press’ functions in urban projects. Official project communication Created on the basis of media logics, official communication surrounds the project. It makes it possible to grasp the project’s political stakes and becomes data for collective action. Indeed, confronted with the political stakes sup-

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ported by public buildings, more and more frequently, accompanying communication is set up with the objective of accelerating its appropriation by the inhabitants. Often with educational postures, the communication strategy stages the project, like a genuine history of public buildings in the city. It is surprising to note that major urban projects – such as Euralille in Lille, Euroméditerranéee in Marseille, Lyon-Confluences − are created or at least, posted in long-term history as new operational needs. The project’s historicity, understood as a citizens’ communication tool, also legitimates the metropolitan declaration. Reports concerning the Musée des Confluences If we consider that in a project logic, information can be presented on three levels: • information on the programme’s principles which structure the social, cultural purposes, policies which legitimate the political action (e.g.: reduction of the cultural split), • information on the implemented process and strategies (e.g.: based on the public’s competence in constructing programming) • information on tools (e.g.: itinerating exhibitions...) Newspaper information demonstrates a deficiency in the principles and basis of political action. Information is centred on the operational and on the description of tools and devices enabling action. Information without reference to contexts is hardly put into perspective. The meaning of the cultural and political project is hardly spoken of. It is not a question of condemning the press, this is also a collective responsibility which is only slightly provided for by elected representatives who mainly appear during conflictual stages and symbolic decision stages (choice of site, architecture...). The Centre Pompidou project in Metz circumvents this media coverage difficulty with abundant official communications (specific newspaper and website www.centrepompidou-metz.fr) where the three information levels are present. For the Museum of Lyon, processing this data presents: • simplification of decision-making processes: the press (and elected representatives) consolidate the idea of THE political decision with

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definite choice and not the collective micro-decisions which constitute the project’s reality. It consolidates a difference between representation and practice. A description logic does not provide for the project’s complexity and its stakes. The authoritative decision is hard to legitimate around the project, • personalisation: the project’s co-development and the collective action are hardly presented to the detriment of some emblematic figures, • a conflictual situation as a condition for the proponents’ increased visibility.

2.2

Topos

Development of a message by its form But the message presents: • a semantic instability due to lack of coding stability and evolution of the project’s meaning over time, • a semiotic rupture: the act of creation allows an interpretation and not a translation of the message. Reading the message runs up against arbitrary signalling: the search for singularity in public buildings presents the risk of difficulty in accessing the meaning (lack of codification). On the contrary, political rhetoric can be fully expressed in arbitrations performed within the relationships site/shape, site/function and shape/function which structure architecture, like a basis for its expression. The social and relational network, the mediations constituted by language, text and images provide a interpretative framework. Due to leading the decision-making process, the elected representatives arbitrate and structure a collective message, step by step, which will be interpreted by the shape built by the contractors’ team. Architectural visibility “against” the message? The work on visibility replaces resorting to traditional symbolism. However, visibility is not void of meaning, it provides a rational economical logic of

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territorial promotion. Political expression through architecture is, with the Musée des Confluences, of a promotional nature. It is part of fierce competition between territories. Failing political reflection on shape symbolism, this acculturation chooses to implement an action’s visibility in space and not the sending of message by symbols, or by standardisation. With a spectacular envelope, the building offers an emotional image which can be converted into media capital. Historically, the public building passes from a political logic of unifying the nation through architectural media (standardisation), to a political logic of mass production after 1945, then to a political logic of territory differentiation after the 80s. Public building architecture as a media moulds a national identity in the 19th century, and it now creates local identities through singularity. Thus, the choice of public building architecture follows the institutional evolution of decentralisation.

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References CENTRE POMPIDOU, COOP HIMMELBLAU, Construire le ciel, Paris, catalogue d’exposition, 16 décembre 1992, 12 avril 1993 BRETON, PHILIPPE, Médias, Médiation, Démocratie, Hermès, « Communication et politique », n°17-18, CNRS Editions, 1995, p.327 BONFANTINI, MASSIMO, La sémiose de l’invention projectuelle dans Pellegrino, Pierre, Le sens de l’espace, les Grammaires et les Figures de l’Etendue, livre III, Paris, Anthropos, 2003, p.439 LAMIZET, BERNARD, La médiation culturelle, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1999, p.9 LENGEREAU, ERIC, L’Etat et l’Architecture, 1958 − 1981, une politique publique, Paris, Ed.Picard (comité d’histoire du ministère de la culture), 2001,citation de R. PAIRA rapport « Propositions pour une réforme de la fonction d’architecte, 12 juin 1969 » LENIAUD, JEAN-MICHEL, Le palais au cœur de la cité dans Monuments Historiques, « Les palais de justice », Paris, n°200, janvier-février 1996, p.17 MONDADA, LORENZA, Décrire la ville, Paris, Anthropos, 2000, 284p. MIQCP MISSION INTERMINISTERIELLE POUR LA QUALITE DES CONSTRUCTIONS PUBLIQUES , La qualité des constructions publiques, Paris, MIQCP, 1999, 68 p. MOUILLAUD, MAURICE, TETU, JEAN-FRANÇOIS, Le journal quotidien, Lyon, PUL, 1989, 204p. MUNTANOLA THORNBERG, JOSEP, La topogénèse, fondement d’une architecture vivante, Paris, Anthropos, 1996, p.31 et p.91 PAULIN, MICHEL ET DUPRAT, BERNARD, De la maison à l’école, élaboration d’une architecture scolaire à Lyon de 1875 à 1914, ministère de la culture, école d’architecture de Lyon, 1991, 587 p. SALLOIS, JACQUES, Les musées de France, Paris, PUF, 1995, 127 p.

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J ESSE L E C AVALIER

Wal-Martians: Wal-Mart’s Servo-Organism

500,000,000 megabytes or five hundred terabytes: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has the largest private database in the world and records 20 million customer transactions a day (Petrovic and Hamilton 2006:133). Wal-Mart maintains such a vast store of information because hyper-efficient inventory management is the only way that a company so large and with such razor-thin margins can maintain profitability. The term “logistics” includes the managing and transport of this enormous inventory and is central to the company’s daily operations. In fact, Wal-Mart is obsessed with logistics and this obsession is instrumental in the formation of its typical building forms: the so-called “Big Box” retail stores and the distribution centers that supply them with their goods. While the goods in transit through these buildings are inherently material and must be physically moved, Wal-Mart manages them as if they are immaterial – as if they are pure information. Correspondingly, the distribution centers function like gigantic computers whose inhabitants straddle both the concrete realm of things and the abstract realm of information. By using the writings of Marshall McLuhan and J.C.R. Licklider to examine these conditions, it will be argued that hybrid and seemingly contradictory spatial states result, summarized here with the new term “servo-organism.” McLuhan argues in Understanding Media that humans act as direct extensions of their technology, as “servo-mechanisms,” while Licklider, in his essay “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” sees the relationship as a mutual interface in which both sides benefit equally from each other’s presence. “Servo-organism,” on the other hand, is neither a state of extension (McLuhan) nor symbiosis (Licklider) but a combination that results in new forms of incorporation and allows us to link previously incompatible spatial conditions and open new directions in urban discourse.1 ............................................ 1 It should be noted that extensive work has been done to better understand the evolving relationships between humans and machines, cyborgs, post-humans, etc. For more on this, see The Cyborg Handbook edited by Chris Gray, Routledge 1995; The Harraway Reader by Donna Harraway, Routledge 2004; How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics by N. Katherine Hayles, University of Chicago Press, 1999

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Goods as Information, Information is good Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is one of the largest companies in the world and its success has been largely determined by its sophisticated logistics systems, its efficiency and its invention of “just-in-time” delivery. Wal-Mart was one of the first companies to use the Universal Product Code (UPC) symbol (fig. 01) to track its goods and is now pioneering the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags (fig. 02). The UPC symbol consists of a binary code that can be quickly scanned and entered into a database. This scanning occurs at nodes along a product’s journey: for example, a product might be scanned when it leaves the factory floor for the shipping container; when it arrives at its distribution center; when it reaches its retail destination; and finally when it has been purchased. The UPC can also be used to access information about the product, its provenance, price, etc. The RFID tag, on the other hand, provides a constant link to the item in question and allows Wal-Mart to monitor shipments in “real-time.” Currently Wal-Mart is attempting to convince most of its suppliers to switch to RFIDs in the next few years.2 By increasing their reliance on this technological coding, the relationship with the specific goods has changed. Rather than receiving a box of goods, opening it, inspecting its contents and understanding the physicality of the items, the goods become reduced to their UPC symbol or RFID signal.

Fig. 1: UPC symbol ............................................ 2 Wal-Mart is currently attempting system-wide RFID implementation within the next few years. The RFID impact could be profound. For example, if every product had an RFID tag, then customers would no longer need cashiers to check out, they could simply pass their cart full of items through an electric gate and have their account automatically debited (similar to EZ-Pass systems that many cities have adopted to alleviate congestion). Or, according to Kazys Varnelis, “There’s no reason why RFIDs couldn’t already be the subject of incredibly sophisticated, long-term forms of tracking – or why, if you enter Wal-Mart already wearing clothes tagged with RFIDs, you couldn’t be greeted with highly specific and individualized forms of product information. Let’s say Geoff walks in, and he’s already bought two t-shirts and a pair of pants: from the RFIDs still embedded in his clothing, the store will know exactly who he is, even what he might be shopping for.” From an interview with Geoff Manaugh, August 12, 2006: www.worldchanging.com/archives/004801.html. For further information, see the video “WalMart’s RFID program” at www.walmart.feedroom.com.

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Fig. 2: RFID tag

Because the goal of the market-driven corporation is always profit, the specifics of the items for sale are important only insofar as they can be strategically distributed to maximize that profit – commodities are abstracted in the pursuit of capital. In order to make decisions about where these products can be best used, Wal-Mart analysts work with a massive database in order to anticipate needs and market opportunities. Though physical in the sense that they occupy quantifiable space and need to be transported, functionally these goods are perceived merely as data. Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media acknowledged this transition when he wrote “in the new electric Age of Information and programmed production, commodities themselves assume more and more the character of information” (McLuhan 1966:102). However, even though this merchandise is conceptualized as data, its materiality is undeniable and, in spite of sophisticated data networks, it still must be transported using traditional means.3 This conflict between high-speed digital networks and relatively slow terrestrial networks gives rise to the conditions in which Wal-Mart distribution center employees find themselves placed – somewhere between the concreteness of physical space and the abstractness of digital space. ............................................ 3 This is acknowledged by Licklider in an interview: “The printing press was the great step into sharing information but the printing press didn’t handle the problem of distributing it, it handled the problem of copying it. And we have needed for a long time some better way to distribute information than to carry it about. The print on paper form is embarrassing because in order to distribute it you’ve got to move the paper around and lots of paper gets to be bulky and heavy and expensive to move about.” Though he is referring to the distribution of information, the same issues apply to the transit of physical goods. From King, Steven. Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing. MIT, 1972.

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The challenge of transporting and distributing merchandise is largely responsible for the spatial manifestations of Wal-Mart. The need to handle it efficiently dictates the location of distribution centers, the location of retail outlets, the traffic patterns in the parking lot, the interior layout, the aisle widths, etc. But this manifestation of physical parameters is coupled with a manifestation of less tangible factors, like the control of information. According to McLuhan, with technological advances: All solid goods can be summoned to appear as solid commodities by means of information circuits set up in the organic patterns that we call “automation” and information retrieval. Under electric technology the entire business of man becomes learning and knowing. In terms of what we still consider an “economy,” this means that all forms of employment become “paid learning,” and all forms of wealth result from the movement of information (McLuhan 1966: 58). McLuhan recognized that acquiring information would be more important than accumulating physical things. Historically, it was often the case that if one had possession of a great number of desirable products, then capital accumulation would follow naturally. According to McLuhan, the key to generating capital is the acquisition of information, something at which Wal-Mart excels. In fact, like a dragon sitting atop its hoard of gold, it is their massive consumer information database that they guard most closely. Commodities, once a producer of wealth, now produce information that, when translated into knowledge, becomes the real source of money and power. An example from science fiction offers a glimpse of the possibilities of this information accumulation: in Frank Herbert’s Dune, the most powerful characters are the god-like Space Guild Navigators (fig. 03) who rely on a rare substance to grant them both omniscience and omnipresence. This substance, a spice, is the source of all struggles in the novel: those who have it will do anything to maintain control and those who lack it will do anything to acquire it. The desire for spice parallels today’s battle for information access and helps us to better understand the shift from the transit of material goods to the transit of immaterial information-goods. Likewise, it is the executives of companies like Wal-Mart, with a data vault second only to the U.S. Department of Defense, who become increasingly able to exert themselves across

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time and space while also being able to “see” throughout their entire network. Though Sam Walton (fig. 04), the company’s founder, helmed the company largely before the advent of digital communications, he was nonetheless in the office at 5:00 a.m. every Saturday to review the all profit and loss information from the previous week. His successor, David Glass (fig. 05) recognized the promise of information networks and was responsible for initiating Wal-Mart’s aggressive information acquisition strategy. According to Glass, “Our distribution facilities are one of the keys to our success. If we do anything better than other folks, that’s it.”4 Information management is not simply a business approach of a company; it is an obsession for its leaders and a way of life for its employees.

Fig. 3: Space Guild Navigator from Dune

............................................ 4 David Glass, quoted in display in Wal-Mart Visitor’s Center, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA

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Fig. 4: Sam Walton

Fig. 5: David Glass

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Distribution Centers (very large Computers) The distribution centers (DCs) that handle these goods and information are a case of architecture reduced to a purely diagrammatic state (fig. 06). Their form and position are the results of a direct translation of efficiency protocols into a three-dimensional space. They are typically removed from an urban context and surrounded by parking lots and loading docks. Characteristically flat and very large – the DC near the Wal-Mart Headquarters is over 1.2 million square feet – the exterior is undifferentiated, save for perhaps some words of inspiration (fig. 07). These buildings have a much different set of parameters, few of which are traditionally “architectural” but instead are a “problem of programming… It’s all about queuing and flow control, the same kind of problems that chip designers have to deal with. And, of course, if you see the big box from above, it’s just a giant microchip” (Varnelis 2006). Inside, the distribution centers are a tangle of rollers and conveyors and an endless procession of boxes and pallets (fig 08.). Most of these goods are delivered by trucks, unloaded by the DC workers, placed on a belt to be removed and loaded to another truck for shipment. Much of the allocation of the goods is done automatically but the picking and packing requires human workers.

Fig. 6: Wal-Mart Distribution Center

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Fig. 7: Wal-Mart Distribution Center, exterior

Fig. 8: Wal-Mart Distribution Center, interior

By accepting that the goods Wal-Mart handles can be understood as both information and material, then the distribution center functions more as a processing device than as a storehouse or a place of inhabitation. J.C.R. Licklider, in his influential essay “Man-Computer Symbiosis” uses the term “computer” to describe “a wide class of calculating, data processing, and information-storage-and-retrieval machines” (Licklider 1960:5). Given this definition

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and given the ultimately abstract nature of the merchandise that Wal-Mart distributes, it can be instructive to view these distribution centers not just as very large buildings but also as very large computers. In light of Licklider’s definition, the typical automated warehouse, in which “The Warehouse Control System can itself have ‘intelligence’ to process dispatch-order patterns, to rearrange stock to suit the order demand, and to optimize equipment cycles and picking operations,” (Drury and Falconer 2003: 201) could also be easily understood as a computer. This categorization is useful because it allows a reconsideration of the actual humans who inhabit these mega-computers and their relationship to architecture and space.

McLuhan and Licklider: Extension, Symbiosis and Servo-Organisms In a typical distribution center, the workers experience direct and sustained contact with both machines and information. Because the projects of both McLuhan and Licklider were directly concerned with the state of humans in such environments, an examination of some of their early writings will illuminate aspects of this condition. One of the central theses of McLuhan’s Understanding Media is that media function as extensions of human thinking and feeling and he sees this as a defense mechanism of sorts in order to cope with the increasing hostility and intensity of a world characterized by media saturation. He explains this further by writing: Any invention or technology is an extension or self-amputation of our physical bodies, and such extension also demands new ratios or new equilibriums among the other organs and extensions of the body… To behold, use or perceive any extension of ourselves in technological form is necessarily to embrace it. To listen to radio or to read the printed page is to accept these extensions of ourselves into our personal system and to undergo the ‘closure’ of displacement that follows automatically. It is this continuous embrace of our own technology in daily use that puts us in the Narcissus role of subliminal awareness and numbness in relation to these images of ourselves. By continuously embracing technologies, we relate ourselves to them as servomechanisms… An Indian is the servomechanism of his canoe, as the cowboy of his horse or the executive of his clock (McLuhan 1966: 45-46).

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McLuhan’s idea of servomechanism is unconventional because he asserts that the relationship between media and humans is reciprocal. If a servomechanism is defined as “a powered mechanism producing motion or forces at a higher level of energy than the input level” (www.dictionary.com 2006) then it is puzzling to label the human responsible for the input as the servomechanism. In the more straightforward reading of the situation, the vehicle would be seen as the servomechanism because it intensifies and extends the human’s small effort of depressing the accelerator. However, McLuhan is claiming that we are so heavily influenced by the technology that surrounds us that we are the ones receiving the input, in effect becoming technology’s “servo.”5 McLuhan argues that humans are not immune to the effects of the technology they created but that there is a developing relationship between the two that is continuously transforming both. Though writing a decade earlier, the work of J.C.R. Licklider complements McLuhan’s because it also addresses the interconnectedness of humans and media, specifically computers. Licklider wrote “Man-Computer Symbiosis” in 1954 and its influence was widespread because it crystallized several ideas about the future of computing and offered a new understanding of the potential of interactive computing. Licklider’s essay “rapidly achieved the kind of status as a unifying reference point in computer science… It became the universally cited founding articulation of the movement to establish a timesharing, interactive computing regime.” (Edwards 1996: 266) Licklider makes a case for the needs and benefits of a closely linked relationship between humans and their computers where the two operate as a single entity with a seamlessly integrated interface that allows for faster and more effective decision-making. He saw these possibilities as a result of the perceived complementary nature of humans and machines. Licklider’s starting point for his argument is based on efficiency. He argues that large organizations and companies were spending too much time doing laborintensive calculations and preparations in order to be properly equipped to make a decision. He proposed that “Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in ............................................ 5 Elaborating on this notion, McLuhan writes, “The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance … we become what we behold.” McLuhan, p. 18

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technical and scientific thinking” (Licklider 1960: 59). Because computers were especially well-equipped to process large amounts of information they could accelerate the decision making process by freeing humans to do the “thinking” and to make decisions based on the data sorted and presented by the computer. For Licklider, the optimal human-computer interaction would be one in which the computer would do the labor and the human would do the “thinking.” Though this is often the case, the distribution centers of retail logistics offer another version of this relationship. In the case of Wal-Mart, whose daily operation is characterized by an enormous amount of information management, the computer is actually performing many of the labor-intensive calculating processes in addition to many of the decision-making duties. Because Wal-Mart’s supplies are so carefully calculated, the decision about where to route different goods can be made based on pre-existing inventory formulae. What the computer cannot do is manage the physicality of the merchandise. That is, it can locate the goods and it can determine where they should go but it cannot execute the repetitive and labor-intensive task of selecting them and transporting them to the desired location. It needs humans for this. Humans have the flexibility, agility and economy that currently, and for the foreseeable future, will far outdo those of computers.6 This reliance on the humans by the computer to do the routinizable tasks that it is incapable of doing itself constitutes a reversal of the roles assigned by Licklider. Instead of the computer serving as the laboring “body” for the thinking human “head,” the opposite is true. The mainframe becomes dependent on its organic counterparts to ensure that operations run smoothly. Combining McLuhan’s version of “extension” and Licklider’s “symbiosis” presents another understanding of the inhabitants of these large distribution centers not as workers, not as decision makers and not as “mechanically-extended” subjects but as a collective “servo-organism.” If in a servomechanism the machinic output is disproportionately larger than the organic input, then in the case of the distribution center, the machinic input is relatively small while the human labor that it prompts is extensive. In this space between the physical and the virtual, these inhabitants become cyborgs because they are entities that are “both their own agents and subject to the ............................................ 6 According to distribution expert Joylon Drury, “the final picking of discrete articles generally has to be done manually.” Drury and Falconner, p. 204

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power of other agencies” (Gonzales 1995: 268). Furthermore, “each cyborg implies a new spatial configuration or territory – a habitat” (Gonzales 1995: 272) – in this case the distribution center.

Servo-Organism in Action Three examples of human-machine interface in a typical distribution center support the notion of the “servo-organism”: human/scanner, human/palletjack and human/crane. In order for Wal-Mart to maintain its mechanical and hyper-efficient routine of monitoring and distribution, the workers “on the front-lines” must be directly linked to the information network and must be able to quickly and nimbly move large quantities of goods or reconfigure the retail and warehouse floor. In order to access Wal-Mart’s large store of data, employees are equipped with wireless scanners (fig. 09) that are with them at all times. The scanners are primarily a means of communicating with the central computer database and act as the “eyes” of the mainframe in Bentonville. In this sense, the computer is depending on the humans for information but there is none of the collaboration that Licklider imagines in his ideal symbiotic relationship. Instead, the workers function as mobile conduits and as tools necessary for a completion of a job. The portable scanner could be seen as a mechanical extension, or servomechanism, for an individual. However, because the function of the device is not directed to the worker but beyond them, the worker-scanner combination functions more as an extension of the central computer in Arkansas and places the human in the servant role – mechanically autonomous but bound to the demands of the computer. A further development in this human-scanner relationship is apparent in the “wearable scanner” (fig. 10), provided by Symbol, Wal-Mart’s primary supplier of the hardware and software and the company that allows Wal-Mart’s employees to remain in constant contact with the central information hub in Bentonville. This system “allows workers to move freely through inventory aisles and still be able to scan, access information and perform data entry” (www.symbol.com, 2006). This technology is the latest step in the development of scanning devices from heavy and fixed scanners to the smaller handheld scanners mentioned above which allow employees more freedom but still maintain a clear distinction between body and tool, human and machine.

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Workers must decide to use handheld scanners but the wearable scanner eliminates any decision making because the workers are always using it. The removal of agency is an example of the cyborg condition described above where the entity “is both its own agent and subject to the power of other agencies.” That is, the workers still have control over all of their cognitive and motor abilities but now have to contend with the weight of the “largest civilian database in the world” that is now strapped to their forearms and wrapped around their fingers. Not only is there an erosion of the boundary between the human and computer but also there is internal sensory erosion within the user. Their hands are feeling, lifting and moving as usual but now they are also “seeing” for the central mainframe and are able to distinguish between an array of objects quite often hidden from them in a shipping container, pallet or cardboard box.

Fig. 9: Wireless scanner

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Fig. 10: Wearable scanner

Fig. 11: Pallet-jack

Fig. 12: Shipping pallet

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Fig. 13: Power-loader from Aliens

Workers use a device known as a “pallet-jack” (fig. 11) to aid them in moving and placing large qualities of goods that would be otherwise impossible for one person to lift or carry. The standard format that most goods arrive to the store is on a pallet (fig. 12), usually a wafer-like construction with three spacers connected perpendicularly with planks on either side. The pallet-jack has a significant influence on the layout of stores and warehouses because its turning radius is one of the primary determinants of dimensions. The pallet-jack also allows its driver to do much more than humanly possible. Though more advanced than the typical pallet-jack, the power-loader exo-suit from James Cameron’s film Aliens (fig. 13) suggests the logical continuation of this kind of technology. In Aliens, the power-loader is “worn” and used to assist in material handling, salvage operations, alien battles, etc. It is also an example of a servomechanism in the sense that its “wearer” controls the mechanical elements in order to increase his or her strength and ability. The difference in the typical distribution center condition is that even though the workers’ strength and ability are augmented by mechanical extension, their actions are still dictated by Wal-Mart Headquarters in Bentonville. In automated warehouses and distribution centers with extra-high inventory storage, the human workers must physically move to the location of the goods ordered, remove them from storage and prepare them to be loaded onto some form of transit. In order to do this, they use a device called a “picker crane”

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which is basically a forklift on a track that can move horizontally and vertically (fig. 14) and “combines pallet storage with order picking, useful for medium throughput operations or where the majority of withdrawals are full pallet loads” (Drury and Falconner 2003: 93). The humans who use these picker cranes become almost completely absorbed by their environment (fig. 15). In some cases, they become so much a part of the mechanism that it becomes difficult to even identify them (fig. 16). In the case of the picker-crane, the augmentations of the scanner (knowledge) and the pallet-jack (strength) are combined with that of mobility. Now they have access to huge amounts of data, can lift tremendous weight and virtually fly through space in three axes. In spite of these newfound abilities, the workers are still bound to the commands of Wal-Mart’s central computer. Zooming out to the scale of the “building,” a publicity photograph from Symbol offers a view of the “habitat” of these warehouse employees (fig. 17). Dominant in the image are the shelves upon shelves of mute boxes covered with the ciphers that will allow the specially outfitted warehouse servo-organisms to interpret their contents, provenance, and destination. Also evident is the internalization of the warehouse world – this habitat is an insular terrain protected and independent from its surroundings.

Fig. 14: Picker-crane diagram

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Fig. 15: Automated distribution center interior

Fig. 16: Automated distribution center interior

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Fig. 17: Publicity photograph from SYMBOL

Spatial Contradictions, Blurred Boundaries When viewed in parallel to the notion of servo-organism, two pieces from the artist Rebecca Horn from 1972 titled Fingergloves (fig. 18) and Pencil Mask (fig. 19) provide a helpful filter. The sculpture/performance Fingergloves witnesses the struggle of manipulating objects at a distance by using tools that are the literal and linear extension of the artist’s digits. The fingers and hands are one of the primary thresholds through which we inhabit our physical world. They are functional and agile and also sources of pleasure as they act as primary touch receptors. The monstrous extension of Horn’s fingers promises enhanced abilities to interface with her surroundings at a distance but at the same time denies their physicality because the wearer can no longer feel them. The promise of connection distances her even more from her surroundings. Likewise, because of their inflexibility, they preclude an interaction with objects within a certain radius. Most significantly, they prevent the wearer from touching herself save for in the most attenuated poses. In an effort to recognize objects at a distance, the wearer sacrifices the ability to recognize herself.

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Fig. 18: Rebecca Horn, Fingergloves, 1972

Fig. 19: Rebecca Horn, Pencil Mask, 1972

The project Pencil Mask consists of a web of straps worn about the head from which protrude eighteen pencils. During the performance, the artist uses her head and the mask to cover a wall with a dense web of lines. In the same way that the wearable scanner breaks down certain internal divisions between touch and sight (the hands in effect “see”), the pencil mask both upsets and enables new sensory functions. One writes by moving, by seeing, or simply by thinking. Furthermore, even though movement and seeing are conflated with communication, the author/wearer still has an impact on the outcome because the pencils follow the profile of her face and as a result, certain zones on the

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wall are darker than others because they receive more pressure. This suggests that even if mechanical extension of humans precludes certain forms of control or expression, there is still some reciprocal influence on the outcome. If in Fingergloves, sustained interaction with the surroundings serves to erode the integrity of the subject, in Pencil Mask, continued interaction creates more traces and increases the presence of the wearer. In Horn’s pieces there is an analog to the concept of servo-organism and the tensions that it embodies. The workers are at once present and removed, strong and weak, fixed and mobile, connected and isolated. This suggests that the continued interaction with augmenting technology poses significant dilemmas in terms of how we might constitute bodies in space, and by extension, buildings. The benefit of such augmentation promises certain kinds of physical emancipation, whether through profound ontological transformations or more prosaic things like spatial mobility. Furthermore, the blurring of human boundaries in the servo-organism could also blur conditions at the scale of buildings and cities. We can witness such a process with the development of the “wearable” scanner. Not only does the border between body and space dissolve but also so do some of the internal borders within the wearer. The condition of these networked warehouses is one in which humans are both discrete entities but also “incorporated” into the larger body of the machine–information organism of Wal-Mart such that the boundaries of both are in a constant state of negotiation. This kind of tension also suggests another way of understanding architectural scale not as an incremental reduction in size but instead as a continuous exchange across all scales in a very physical way such that “the city and body will interface with the computer, forming part of an information machine in which the body’s limbs and organs will become interchangeable parts with the computer and with the technologization of production”(Grosz 2002: 303). These conditions suggest, through their erosion of boundaries, the possibilities of moving beyond conventional urban binaries (urban/rural, center/edge, virtual/physical, abstract/concrete, etc.) in order to straddle both. Doing so opens up categories of seemingly contradictory urban states that can exploit the potentials offered by logistically driven operations like those of Wal-Mart.

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References DRURY, JOYLON / FALCONER , PETER , Building and Planning for Industrial Storage and Distribution, Oxford: Architectural Press, 2003. EDWARDS, PAUL, The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996. GONZALEZ, JENNIFER , Envisioning Cyborg Bodies: Notes from Current Research, in The Cyborg Handbook. Chris Gray, ed. London:Routledge, 1995. GROSZ, ELIZABETH, Bodies-Cities, in The Blackwell City Reader, Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson, eds. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. LICKLIDER , JCR, Man-Computer Symbiosis, from IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, volume HFE-1, p. 4-11, March 1960 MCLUHAN, MARSHALL, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1966. PETROVIC, MISHA / HAMILTON, GARY G., Making Global Markets: Wal-Mart and Its Suppliers, in Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First Century Capitalism, Nelson Lichtenstein, ed. New York: The New Press, 2006. VARNELIS, KAZYS, Interview with Geoff Mananugh, www.worldchanging.com/archives/004801.html, August 12, 2006. www.dictionary.com, August 12, 2006. www.symbol.com/products/mobile_computers, August 16, 2006.

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M ONIKA G RUBBAUER

Images of office architecture in the media – the paradigm of urban competitiveness and global interconnectivity

Introduction This article explores the relationship between media and urban space by focusing on the representation of office architecture in the print media. It discusses media images of office buildings and interior spaces that are characterized by an apparent uniformity and examines the related processes of image production. By emphasizing the visual power I argue that these typified, “generic” images of urban business environments acquire symbolic power as “global spaces” and contribute to a paradigm of urban competitiveness and global interconnectivity. Why office architecture? Why should images of office architecture in the media be of relevance for the perception and conception of contemporary urban space? Concerning the issue of architecture being represented in the media the debate usually focuses on examples of spectacular architectural projects for cultural and tourist purposes like the highly discussed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In contrast, office buildings and questions of their architectural design generally occupy a marginal position in these discussions; being rarely presented as remarkable objects as a consequence of their aesthetic value or their outstanding design solutions. Nevertheless, office buildings have been a key element in the physical transformation of urban spaces in the last two decades. High-rise office towers, office parks and large-scale development projects have profoundly changed the face of cities all over the world. Frequently they constitute the largest and most visible new structures in the city. Their development has concentrated a major part of private investment in urban development and they have acquired notably symbolic roles in strategies of urban renewal and regeneration – which are principal elements of New Urban Policies throughout the world (Hall & Hubbard 1998; Brenner & Theodore 2002; Swyngedouw et al 2003). At the same time the images of these new urban landscapes of business have

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become omnipresent in the mass media. They are widely used for editorial purposes, journalistic coverage, commercial advertising and political campaigning. An office building enters this media stage most effectively and spectacularly in form of a skyscraper. Drawing on a “symbolism of height” (Domosh cited in King 2004, 6) emblematic high-rise towers are depicted as landmarks that represent private corporations as well as cities and nations (King 2004). Nonetheless, this article focuses on another type of representational logic: images that are characterized by the uniform and standardized appearance of office architecture rather than a unique and outstanding architectural design. These images seem unremarkable. Even though they are a ubiquitous element in everyday visual media, it is typically not paid much attention to. These images simply confirm the common presumption that office buildings in general (apart from those exceptional landmark buildings mentioned above) somehow tend to “look the same”. Undeniably, the architecture of office buildings has (since the Modern Movement) been a prime example for the worldwide standardization of architectural production (Frampton 1980) and a number of recent processes has merely reinforced this: the exchange of knowledge within the globalizing architectural profession, the worldwide export of building technologies as well as standardized requirements of global companies and real estate investors have particularly contributed to the aesthetic uniformity of recent office buildings (Eisele & Kloft 2002; Knox & Taylor 2004; Sklair 2005). Minimalist, highly sophisticated structures of steel and glass developed into the prototype office architecture of the digital age exemplifying what Ibelings (2002) has termed the “architecture of supermodernism”. Thus, if architecture of office buildings arguably exhibits a high degree of uniformity, why marvel about images which depict this kind of uniform office architecture? These images are highly intentional products and they are used to convey messages just as images of emblematic skyscrapers. However, this tends to be disregarded since it is achieved in a less spectacular and less obvious way. I posit that these images of unremarkable, indistinguishable office architecture in the context of competitive urban policies and expansive strategies of multinational companies particularly acquire symbolic power by drawing on the notion of a “global uniformity”. As it is illustrated in the discussion of the visual examples, office architecture is used to symbolize internationality and global integration – obtained through the fact that it cannot be

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localized and that it seems to look identical as everywhere else. Thus, global aesthetic standards are equated with international standards and competitiveness in the economic field. This representation of a “global uniformity” through images of office architecture does not depict but construct reality. Even though office buildings figure as frequent examples in the debates about the uniformity of modern urban spaces (Zukin 1991; Jameson 1992; King 1993; Augé 1995) these accounts tend to neglect the constructed nature of “uniformity”. It is distinguished between the aesthetic characteristics of the object itself, on one hand, and that of its image, on the other hand. Consequently, it is essential to compare how a building looks like in dissimilar sites to perceive it as “uniform”, i.e. looking alike in cities throughout the world. For the majority of people this comparison still relies in large parts on the reference to images - very few people have visited all major cities on the planet and are able to judge from their personal experience only. Thus, the perception of “global uniformity” is necessarily mediated and constructed through visual media. Hence this paper examines how photographic images of office architecture in the media in fact produce, rather than simply depict, “global uniformity”. It furthermore enlightens the process of visual mediation and discursive construction of urban space. The main questions that I depart from are: • How is “aesthetic uniformity” reproduced in the visual representation of office buildings? • How is “aesthetic uniformity” meant to generate meaning and how does it become “global”? • What type and function of urban space is conceived? These questions address two areas of investigation which are frequently treated separately: the visual content of images as well their capacity to convey meaning and construct reality, on one hand, and the processes of image production and their institutional framework, on the other hand. The following section establishes some necessary foundations by briefly outlining the theoretical approaches the paper refers on. The third and main section examines visual examples from press coverage and advertisement in Austrian as well as in international print media. It analyzes how these images are produced, what sort of (urban) space they represent and which techniques of visual representation they adopt. The last section of the paper concludes with some conceptual

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thoughts about the specific way in which the visual representation of the built environment in the media conveys meaning and constitutes spaces of economic activity.

The experience of images and how they become meaningful Images are constitutive of today’s mass media. Visual information is surrounding us as part of everyday life. The remarkable ability to handle this wealth of visual experience and make sense of it is fundamental for the functioning of what is variously called consumer society or information society. Over a decade ago W. J. T. Mitchell famously postulated the “pictorial turn” (Mitchell 1994). Since then questions of visual literacy have gained increasing attention in various fields of research; like cultural and media studies, visual sociology, ethnology and philosophy (Evans & Hall 1999; van Leeuwen & Jewitt 2001; Müller 2003; Sachs-Hombach 2003). “Visual Culture” as a recently emerging field of research is essentially defined by its “focus on the visual as a place where meanings are created and contested” (Mirzoeff 1999, 6). All these approaches within the area of visual studies deviate from the common assertion that images are no mirror of a pre-given “true” reality and that they do not present an objective copy of what reality looks like. Images have to be studied “not as evidence of the who, where and what of reality, but as evidence of how their maker or makers have (re-)constructed reality” (van Leeuwen & Jewitt 2001, 5). However, how meaning is precisely generated through images and how this can be studied systematically is still open to discussion. Conceptual as well as methodological differences are first of all a result of the varying analytical focus: exclusively on the content of the image (semiotics) or including related contextual information (visual anthropology, iconography), image production (cultural studies, political economy) or the viewing audience (ethnography, cultural and media studies) (van Leeuwen & Jewitt 2001, 6-7). Taking the “constructed” nature of images – as described above – as a starting point, this paper particularly considers two theoretical strands: first, classic examinations of photographic practice in semiotics as well as cultural studies and, second, recent studies of cultural production within the field of cultural economy. Consequently arguments which are essential issues in regard to these theoretical strands are pointed out.

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Examinations of photographic practice in semiotics and cultural studies have been extensively engaged in deconstructing the myth of photographic objectivity (Burgin 1982; Tagg 1988; Barthes 1999 [1977]). Nevertheless photography has retained an aura of objectivity even though most people in western societies are conscious about the possibilities of today’s image manipulation technologies (see also Grittmann 2003). The apparent credibility of photographic images derives from their capacity to operate as, what Charles Peirce (1931) has termed, indexical signs. A photograph is through the mechanical-chemical processes that are constitutive of its production causally linked to its referent. What is depicted has at some point in time been physically in front of the camera. Barthes has explained this “myth of photographic ‘naturalness’” (Barthes 1999, 40) by the power of the denotative, literal meaning that is privileged in photographic images to the effect that the connoted, symbolic meaning is naturalized. The image seems to merely “show” something rather than “tell” making the photographic image, as he famously stated, a “message without a code” (Barthes 1999, 35). Another constitutive aspect of photographic practice is its dependence on an industrial system of image production, distribution and consumption (Watney 1999). This system not only determines questions of technology, organisation or financing within the photographic practice. Moreover, institutions which constitute this system – e.g. companies producing the technical equipment and providing the processing, museums presenting photographic exhibitions or magazines publishing guidelines on how to take good pictures – also cause the ways of how we produce or look at photographs. This range of institutions, as Simon Watney argues, “defines our sense of coherent, identifiable styles, as well as our internal sense of what is appropriate to certain types of photography as opposed to others – the conditions of our sophisticated photo-literacy” (Watney 1999, 151). Thus the query for this paper is to which extent the photography of architectural objects presents a special case. How does the physical stability and longevity of the built environment as a motif influence this “myth of photographic naturalness”? And how does the constitution of architectural photography as a coherent photographic category with an identifiable style shape the production and perception of images? These questions are resumed in the course of this paper. Furthermore recent studies of an “industrial” cultural production within the area of cultural economy are taken into account (du Gay & Pryke 2002;

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Hesmondhalgh 2002; Frosh 2003). These investigations try to go beyond the traditional dualism between culture and economy – which has been central to debates in social sciences – and examine “the ways in which the ‘making up’ or ‘construction’ of economic realities is undertaken and achieved” (du Gay & Pryke 2002, 5) as a question of cultural practices. Accordingly this paper examines the photographic images of office architecture (the objects of investigation) as cultural products and the processes of their production as ways in which “activities, objects and persons that we categorize as ‘economic’ are built up or assembled” (ibd.). The question of meaning as posed here is therefore intrinsically connected with the processes of image production. These images are clearly used to communicate messages within the environment of mass media. Their use is intentional. They serve a designated purpose. The production of these images takes place within an organizational framework that involves photographers, graphic designers, advertising agencies, editorial departments as well as print offices. An image that finally appears in the media has been imagined and conceived, shot, selected, manipulated and set into an overall layout, exclusively with regard to its potential meaning and the anticipation of its interpretation by others. The meaning of these images as cultural products is therefore in fact produced throughout the whole processes of production rather than being an attribute of the end-product itself, or, as Paul Frosh put it: “meaning is what makes the product” (Frosh 2003, 13). This approach is not intended to preclude or restrain the individual perception of images by the viewer. Images are polysemic by nature; they are always open to a multiplicity of interpretations (which in fact is one of the fundamental differences as compared to text). Thus, the final meaning for the individual viewer is only constructed “in the articulation between viewer and viewed, between the power of the image to signify and the viewer’s capacity to interpret meaning” (Evans & Hall 1999, 4). This implies that assertions about this individual perception can arguably be made only by methods of qualitative research that query the viewers’ reactions. Yet, images as cultural products are definitely aimed at an “ideal viewer” whose reactions to the images are anticipated and taken into account. The production process is guided by this (multiply constructed and therefore not necessarily univocal) preferred meaning which the viewer is directed to by various means: photographic techniques (e.g. framing, distance, lighting, focus, speed), photographic style, the caption and accompanying text, the

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layout, the choice of medium, position and size (Kress & van Leeuwen 1996; Doelker 1997). The aim within the image analysis is therefore to decode this intended meaning as it is generated throughout the processes of the image production. Why are certain decisions taken at a definite point? How can they be explained by professional routines and conventions, by personal beliefs, values and interests as well as by structures and institutions of production? On the subject of methodology this means that the analysis of the case studies relies only initially on iconographic methods. The iconographic interpretation of the images will be brief and surely incomplete as will be the discussion of the complex interplay between visual and textual information. Crucial to the argument is the proximate step: the reconstruction and subsequent analysis of the processes of image production based on contextual information as well as personal inquiry with the people and companies involved.

Images of office architecture in the print media: visual examples The images examined in the following section are taken from city marketing, economic coverage as well as advertisement in the finance, real estate and higher service sector. They are selected out of a broader survey using Austrian as well as international media because of their comparable messages: they are used to make explicit or implicit reference to the status and the function of a building (or a city in general) within the global economy. Furthermore, these images are deliberately chosen to illustrate a range of different modes of representation of office architecture: a) as part of urban scenery, b) as a single object or c) as a working space. The significance of this selection is, first, the range of institutions that have produced or used these images and, second, the fact that the – regardless of the apparently very different types of depicted spaces – follow a similar logic to generate meaning and employ the same visual techniques.

Office buildings as part of urban scenery The first example is an advertising subject of a German real estate investment company, the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immobilienfonds” (DEGI) (figure 1). The DEGI has been specializing in the management of open real estate funds

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for 30 years. It is one of the largest real estate companies in Germany and a major player in the European market. The poster is the main subject of the company’s image campaign of the year 2006 and has been placed as advertisement in major German newspapers1.

Fig. 1: © DEGI 2006

The image shows a view over an urban landscape dominated by high-rise office towers in the front. The lower urban fabric in the background dissolves in the haze blurring the horizon. The office tower in the center of the picture is framed by fragments of a white rectangle that is reminiscent of the viewfinder ............................................ 1 Adverts have been placed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung as well as in a number of more specialized real estate magazines. In addition it has been put up as a poster in selected places like the Frankfurt and Munich airports and railway stations.

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in cameras. The headline says “Take advantage of our global expertise in the search for yield around the world”. Neither the image nor the text reveals the location of the picture. There are no readily identifiable landmark buildings or landscape elements, there is no street life to be seen and there are no people depicted that could indicate the region and the cultural context. The location of the image is Chicago. The motif has been chosen, as a representative of DEGI clarified, for purely symbolic reasons and has in fact no relation to DEGI at all. It is meant to illustrate that real estate investment is profitable if you know the right object and if you have the experts assisting you to find it. The skyline of Chicago is used to represent, in the words of the DEGI representative, a “big, neutral, world city” demonstrating that DEGI is working in places “all over the world” (personal communication, Nov. 2006). In fact, the identification of Chicago by the viewer is not intended, rather on the contrary. Chicago was chosen as motif because it does not possess such a well-known and characteristic skyline like other cities. Moreover it was deliberately depicted from a viewpoint that makes the identification as little probable as possible (e.g. by showing only a fragment of the lake). Finally some characteristic features were even changed through digital manipulation (e.g. the height of some buildings). So the message of this subject is not: DEGI is also investing in Chicago. But: DEGI is investing all over the world and this is how the whole world looks like. The second example also shows office buildings as part of urban scenery, although from a very different perspective. It is an advertisement for the EMBA-Global, a high-profile Executive MBA program that has been offered jointly by London and Columbia Business Schools since 2001 (figure 2). The subject is part of the “London experience. World impact.” campaign of the London Business School (LBS) which has been running in British and international media since 2005. The London and the Columbia Business School are among the most prestigious institutions in the field of international business education. The EMBA-Global program intends to “prepare future global leaders” (LBS 2006) providing them, as the LBS claims, “with a global network and ... access to two world-renowned faculties, two exceptional alumni networks, and two world business capitals - New York and London” (ibd.). The picture shows a number of buildings, mostly modern office building, as they look from street level. Again no street life and no people are pictured. The dominating element is the steel and glass facade of the building on the right side that mirrors the other buildings. The caption says “EMBA-Global.

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World Impact.” The location remains indistinct, although visible fragments of historical architecture point to a North American rather than, for instance, an Asian city. The image was chosen, according to LBS, to reflect the strap line “world impact” and to “suggest global impact through scale” (personal communication, Nov. 2006). Again the identification of the location is not intended. In fact, the image was acquired from Getty Images, the worldwide largest agency for stock images without any reference to location. The description of the image in the online archive says only: “Shot of tall office buildings and a nice blue sky”2.

Fig. 2: London Business School 2005 © London Business School , Agency: First City Advertising, Image: Getty Images

............................................ 2 Image rbrb_1293 (Royalty-free) at www.gettyimages.co

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These tall office buildings are intended to visualize the “world impact” of the EMBA-Global program and to demonstrate that “The EMBA-Global will build global business capabilities and enhance your transnational perspectives” (figure 2). The message is twofold: First, the image locates the EMBA-Global program. It demonstrates that the program is placed in two world cities and that it profits from their exceptional business environment. And second, it locates the promising executive that the program is targeted at illustrating that the EMBA-Global enables the “future global leader” to do business everywhere in the world. The image seems to say: If this is where you want to be and where you want to do business, than do the EMBA-Global. Both images are presenting the depicted urban scenery literally as “the world”. The depicted urban spaces are meant to be situated everywhere in the world; except that this world is explicitly restricted to cities that feature tall office buildings as the places where business is done. This is demonstrated through the archetypical urban space of western type “world cities”. “The world” in this context is equated with world cities; and New York, Chicago or London are made to be the world.

The office tower as singular object The two following examples are taken from Austrian media and demonstrate how office towers are set up for editorial use. The first subject, taken from the daily Austrian newspaper “Der Standard”, was illustrating an article about the sale of shares of a major Austrian company operated by the German “Deutsche Bank” (figure 3). The mounting shows a chart with the development of the Austrian company’s stock prices superposing an image of two office towers, the headquarters of the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. The buildings fill out the format almost entirely. Distortions have been avoided; the building lines are almost parallel to the image frame. The two buildings appear almost as a singular object without paying reference to the surrounding urban fabric.

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Fig. 3: Der Standard 11 August 2003 © Der Standard, Image: APA-Images/EPA

The picture is accompanying the article as an illustration of the financial transaction that has taken place. Thereby the two towers are not simply meant to visualize the content of the article by a descriptive logic (as for example the image of people buying shares in a bank or of brokers in the stock exchange would); the towers are in fact used to stand for the Deutsche Bank. The company as an abstract network whose financial activities are mostly “invisible” and “immaterial” is given a “face” and a “location” in real space. This grouping of the coverage of economic activities with the image of a company’s headquarters is a frequently used method in print media as well as in television. It builds on the viewers’ ability to relate the textual and the visual information. Although the relation seems obvious, the ability is the result of social learning. In order to make sense of office buildings as a visual motif, one has to be acquainted with the existence of multinational companies, the function of headquarters and the significance of logos. In short: We have learned to “see” an office building as the embodiment of a company, even if we do not know the building itself.

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The next example – following a similar logic – locates corporate economic activity within a high-rise office tower. The cover of the supplement to “NEWS”, a major Austrian news magazine, shows a spectacular view of a highrise office tower against clear blue sky (figure 4). The building is depicted as singular object without urban context; the fragments of an adjacent low-rise building in the front are concealed through the letters of the headline. The headline translates as “Top-Location for Euro-Companies” and is followed by the subheading stating that a new office market survey awards Vienna good chances for the future.

Fig. 4: Cover of a supplement to the magazine NEWS, Immo Extra 17/2005 © NEWS 2005, Image: © Karl Thomas – www.alllover.cc

The building can be identified as the Vienna Twin Tower. It is the main office tower of the Wienerberg City, a private, mixed-use development project of the last decade. The tower is a well-known landmark in Vienna and the majority of local people are able to identify it. While the image in the previous example serves merely as an unremarkable visual background, the image in this case is deliberately placed to attract attention. The sensational manner of the photo-

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graph is mirrored in the bold, highly visible letters of the headline. Even though function and style of the two photographs differ, the logic is similar: the view of the Twin Tower is supposed to demonstrate that Vienna serves as “Top-Location” for multinational companies. Thus, economic activities of multinational companies are undoubtedly situated inside high-rise office towers. The intended message is that these types of office towers make Vienna into an attractive business location and multinational companies in Vienna are situated within these office towers. Both images show buildings which are well known. The Frankfurt towers of the Deutsche Bank as well as the Vienna Twin Towers are landmark buildings which are likely to be identified by people who are familiar with these cities. At the same time both images convey a message on a more general level that is independent from the specific object. The cause herein is the way these sorts of images are typically perceived: They are not meant to be “looked” at; they function merely as distraction and as an eye-catcher. People will quickly glance at these images – rather than carefully study – while scanning through papers or magazines. As Mirzoeff points out “most of our visual experience takes place aside from the formally structured moments of looking” (Mirzoeff 1999, 7). In today’s consumer culture the glance – as Paul Frosh has noted in reference to Bryson (1983) – as a rapid, flickering, constantly onward moving mode of viewing, has become the typical way of dealing with the excessive visual information surrounding us (Frosh 2003, 107). This kind of superficial and cursory visual perception is necessarily selective and works through categorization. We judge and categorize the things we see according to our knowledge and our experiences rather than perceiving them as individual objects (Frosh 2003, 110). Today’s mass media – by deliberately using these images – takes advantage of the above described specific viewing conditions. As in the first two examples, the aim of these two images is therefore not necessarily to make the identification of the building or the respective city possible; although the identity of the buildings is not concealed. Moreover the images display a category of office buildings which is recognizable even when merely glancing at them or paying limited attention. Within this mode of viewing the Frankfurt headquarters of the Deutsche Bank and the Vienna Twin Tower both function as typical high-rise office towers. The former as typical corporate headquarter that might accompany any report about transactions operated by major financial institutions. The latter as the typical prestigious and spectacular skyscraper

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that is supposedly significant of any competitive business location. In both cases abstract, “immaterial” economic processes and relations are given a concrete materiality. The office building is presented as an agent of economic activity as well as a place, where economic activity is not only happening but also, more importantly, where it gets internationalized.

Spaces of work The last two images discussed in this paper show office spaces as working environment. The first subject is an advertisement for UBS, a global financial services company providing services in wealth management, investment banking and global asset management (figure 5). UBS is one of the worldwide largest financial institutions and operates on a global scale. The photograph shows part of a sparsely furnished room with a man and a woman standing at the window. The minimalized glass facade delimits the room. Behind the window the contours of a number of tall buildings are vaguely recognizable.

Fig. 5: © UBS 2006 all rights reserved

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The advert is part of the first global campaign of UBS of the year 2005 that aimed at the worldwide establishment of the brand UBS (UBS 2006a). The main slogan “You & Us” presented UBS as a “global financial firm with the heart and soul of a two-person organization” (UBS 2006b) emphasizing the personal attention that is given to the clients needs and goals. The campaign is using a variety of images of skyscrapers and office spaces as a background for the two people; representing the client and the advisor at UBS and the trusting relationship between them. The architectural elements in the picture are, first of all, defining the setting for the conversation between client and advisor: The conversation takes place in an exclusive office space of a high-rise tower. The skyline behind the window indicates that the building is located in one of the world’s main business centers. Apart from that the architecture also symbolically emphasizes the company’s capacity, its importance and its global network as a statement by UBS concerning the campaign makes clear: „The background images – skyscrapers, offices, mountains – were chosen for a clear purpose. They all subtly reinforce the message that a UBS advisor has the support of a large, powerful institution able to mobilize global resources on a client's behalf ” (ibd.). This symbolic connotation relies not simply on the physical qualities of the depicted interior space. The decisive aspect is the unspecific and nonlocalizable appearance of the architectural setting. It lacks any reference to a specific cultural context and shows no personal belongings or physical traces of work. It is the fact that this office space could be anywhere in the world that demonstrates the global scope of the activities of UBS. The crucial role of the architecture becomes even clearer when comparing how the advertising subjects of the overall campaign differ throughout the world. UBS took precaution to pay attention to cultural differences in the campaign. Depending on the cultural context and the region, local characteristica were taken into account – for example in the selection of the depicted people or details of the furnishing. Subjects designed for the US market minded the ethnic diversity of the depicted people, a subject for the Japanese market showed a bonsai-tree instead of a vase of flowers. However, in the selection and the depiction of the architectural elements no concessions to local differences were made3. The developers of the campaign attributed global validity ............................................ 3 This is particularly true for the subjects of the main campaign which were placed in international media throughout the world. Nonetheless, there were some subjects that diverged from the global strategy by showing skylines that could be recognized more easily. These were exclusively targeted

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to the architecture’s symbolic capital. They assumed that non-localizable architecture would signalize internationality and global activity throughout the world’s different regions and cultural contexts.

Fig. 6: © Vienna Business Agency 2005, Image: Gabriela Koch

The last visual example is an advert by the Vienna Business Agency (VBA), the City of Vienna’s primary business promotion vehicle (figure 6). The VBA provides a range of consulting services for entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors and has in the last decade put increasing efforts into the global marketing of Vienna as a world-class business location. The scope of the economic activities of UBS as a global financial company on the one hand and the Vienna Business Agency as a local promotional agency of a small-sized city on the other hand are obviously very different and so are the reach as well as the .......................................................................................... at regional markets and promoted selected business units.

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target groups of these two advertisements. Nevertheless the advert by the VBA relies on the same kind of logic to present the business location Vienna and the agency’s activities as the example by UBS. Again a conversation is depicted, this time on the terrace of a presumably tall building. Two men are sitting in the front working on a laptop; a woman is standing in the back talking on her mobile. The scene is delimited by the fragile structure of the glass facade in the back and a partial view on the city which is also being reflected in the facade. The architectural elements are reduced to a minimalistic structure and reflecting surfaces. They define the setting but give no evidence to the location. Again non-localizable architectural elements are meant to demonstrate international standards and global interconnectivity presenting Vienna as modern business location. Only the silhouette of St. Stephan’s cathedral, the landmark of the city, which is reflected in the facade, indicates Vienna as the location of the scene. Thus local and global sphere are clearly defined: glass and steel as unspecific and “place-less” materials refer to the global context, whereas the historical monument enables distinction and identification. Both images present a non-localized office environment as paradigmatic for the international scope of the economic activity that is considered to develop in there. It is the fact that people do not recognize where the particular space is located that implies that it could be anywhere in the world. And it is this possibility of a physical global presence that suggests that the respective economic activities too develop on a global scale. Thus, a non-localized office space is meant to give evidence of global economic networks and international business standards.

Visual typification and the “generic” spaces of business The discussion of the visual examples above demonstrated how office buildings and spaces are presented as agents as well as places of economic activity, as prerequisite and evidence of its global scope and as a signifier of world city status. How is this message conveyed? What role has the uniformity of the architecture thereby? Certainly the images above are familiar to us and the depicted buildings resemble countless other buildings we (as western media consumers) have seen. Nevertheless the architectural design of the buildings in the above

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examples does not necessarily follow a certain style or specific formal rules (even though the glass facade surely stands out as the most important symbolic element). The buildings do not really “look the same” in the truest sense; yet they do appear typical and very common. It is not the buildings material uniformity but rather the appearance of uniformity as a strategy of visual representation that conveys meaning. The buildings appear uniform because they are presented so and are typically classified as a category rather than individual aesthetic objects. This impression of identicalness and generality is achieved through typification as a technique of visual representation. Some concrete examples – quoted in the following section – clarify how this typification works in the above cases. Typification is basically the use of visual stereotypes. “The more these stereotypes overshadow a person’s individual features (or the individual features of an object or a landscape), the more that person (or object, or landscape) is represented as type” (van Leeuwen 2001, 95). By means of people the statement seems obvious, but for buildings it gets more complicated. A building’s individual features – aesthetic attributes, outstanding and non-conventional design solutions – mark its characteristic. But the “pure” object of architectural design exists only conceptional. People who inhibit and use a building, the traces of living and working in a building as well as the immediate urban surroundings, e.g. the entrance situation, the landscaping as well as the relations with the neighboring buildings, in fact, also constitute individual features of a building. The typification of the built environment in the above examples purposely omits these sorts of individual features: The view of Chicago is cleared of too characteristic landmark buildings (figure 1). The office towers are depicted as singular objects without showing the immediate surroundings (figure 3 and 4). The depicted office spaces are emptied of any personal belongings and nonstylized pieces of furnishing (figure 6 and 7). All the images exclude “ordinary” people, street life and those “spatial semiotic” elements which enable access to specific cultural and regional contexts. Visual typification does not necessarily imply anonymity. A building or a city does not have to be depicted in a way that makes identification completely impossible to appear as a “type”. In fact, the above places and buildings can be identified if one happens to know them. Thus typification produces a “generic” image of urban business space – not through anonymization – but through de-

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contextualization; i.e. deliberately omitting or concealing elements which are specific of the place, the region and the culture. This de-contextualization is a result of the process of image production and not simply an attribute of the building per se. The buildings and spaces could be depicted in countless different ways that would make them appear more place-specific and contextualized (even though some features like the glass façade or the height of the building would arguably remain characteristic visual elements). In other words: there is somebody at some point within the process of image production who is responsible for “leaving out” individual features. A closer look at the processes of image production – as can be traced in the examples above – shows in more detail how this typification is the result of individual decisions of people involved and the organizational framework of image production.

The processes of image production The images discussed above certainly originate from very different productive domains: advertising, city marketing and journalism. The advertising subjects of DEGI, the London Business School and UBS have entirely been produced by external advertising agencies; the conceptual work accomplished in cooperation between agencies and the clients’ marketing departments. In the case of DEGI and UBS sub-contracting photographers shot the photographic images for the special purpose of the campaigns. The image in the subject for the London Business School, however, is taken from Getty Images, the world’s largest stock image agency. The advert for the Vienna Business Agency, conceived within the organization, is produced by relying on external graphic designers and photographers. And, finally, the two subjects of editorial use for the Austrian newspaper and the NEWS magazine are created by the respective editorial departments. They acquired stock images from APA-Images and Illuscope, two Austrian image agencies. This short portrayal already gives some insight in the organizational framework within which contemporary image production takes place. Clearly one person never produces images in the media single-handedly. In doing so a number of individuals and/ or companies are always involved dealing with the conceptual work and the photographic production as well as with the editorial work, the graphic layout and the printing. At what stage within this chain of

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production is this typification as the “leaving out of individual features” realized and why? The answer is based in the interaction of three aspects that are constitutive of the processes of image production: 1) the crucial role of “cultural intermediaries” within these processes, 2) organizational routines and institutions of the visual content industry and 3) photographic conventions that frame the photographic practice. First of all, art directors, graphic designers and other creative workers (accounting for the conceptual part in the image production) play a central role in the decision how photographs ought to look like in order to be effective. Their specifications are either directly translated by the photographer in his or her work or they provide the search criteria for the selection of stock images from image agencies. As “cultural intermediaries” (Negus 2002), they judge the potential meaningfulness of images to advertising consumers and thus “translate” between the realm of production and consumption. The production of the advert for DEGI (figure 1) exemplifies the crucial role of cultural intermediaries in the image production. It shows how typification is consciously employed at all stages of production as the result of conceptual decision on behalf of the advertising agency. The concept of the campaign was essentially based on the idea to represent the global scope of the company’s activities through the motif of a “generic” world city. Because of this requirement the contracted photographer suggested Chicago as a location and, in consequence, chose viewpoint, framing, distance and focus of the photograph accordingly to enhance this generic character (personal communication, Nov. 2006). Finally the realization of the subject within the advertising agency involved digital manipulation of the original picture, also with the aim to make it appear even less specific. In a similar way the images of the skyscrapers and office spaces in the UBS campaign were an integral part of the campaign concept and were produced with high costs – especially for the occasion. The second reason behind the employment of typification is the impact of professional routines and image agencies as central institutions of the visual content industry. The use of the image of the “Deutsche Bank” headquarter (figure 3), for instance, shows how typification is the result of routines rather than a conscious decision. The image is selected from the APA-images online archive; it can be found under the keywords of “Deutsche Bank” and “Frankfurt”. It is destined as background of the advertisement and, considering the time constraints in the production of daily newspapers, one can suspect that the attention given to the choice of the image was rather low. Accordingly the

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original picture was inserted almost without changes (apart from slight clipping on the lower edge). This kind of information chart is day-to-day business in journalism and the editor from his or her point of view simply reproduced a frequent and conventional form of visualizing quantitative data in the print media. The cover of the supplement to the NEWS magazine (figure 4) is – in a similar way – a product of editorial routine; it is also acquired from an image agency. However in this case a more conscious decision to present the Vienna Twin Tower as a “type” and to “leave out” unnecessary elements on behalf of the editor can be assumed since the original picture is substantially clipped to remove neighboring buildings. Moreover the headline is placed as to conceal the remaining parts of the adjacent building in the front. The above stated cases also demonstrate the crucial role image agencies (as the key institutions of todays image production) play in the provision of “typified” images. Paul Frosh, in his illuminating account of what he entitles the “visual content industry”, argues that stock images in fact are designed to be ordinary and general because of the logic underlying the industrialized system of image production. The image agency acquires the right to sell photographic images from the photographers. The photographers in return receive a share of the revenue generated when their images are sold (Frosh 2003, 4). A successful image is therefore necessarily open to multiple uses, it is polysemic but at the same time specific enough to convey meaning. This system is, as Frosh notes, inherently conservative and is build on recognizable “image types” which are constantly re-produced: “If the successful image is defined as that which is maximally resold, it is also that which is maximally imitated” (Frosh 2003, 60). The example of the picture used for the London Business School advertisement (figure 2) exemplifies how this system makes typification an integral part of the image production: The picture is, as already pointed out, acquired from Getty Images without reference to the location of the scene. All available information is the general description of the image: “shot of tall office buildings and a nice blue sky”. This image being already produced to serve as stock image, now represents a “generic” urban space. Its aim is not the depiction of a specific location but the deliberate reproduction of an image type. It is this typification that enhances the changes of the photograph to be accepted by Getty Images, that in consequence allows the classification of the image within the archive and that, at the same time, makes a search for the image by the

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client possible. In this case the image is located under various subjects, e.g. “office building”, “urban scene”, “skyscraper”, “cloud” or “reflection as well as, most significantly, under the concept of “business”. The consequential implication is that the power of image agencies not only lies in the provision the typified image itself, but also in the association of the image with certain keywords which direct and simplify the task of interpretation. The classification of the “shot of tall office buildings and a nice blue sky” as “business” subsequently implies not only that the image is discovered when searching for “business”, but also that the image “naturalizes” this label. It provides an apparent verification that this is how “business” looks like. Finally it is also the constitution of the genre of architectural photography that explains how typification in images of office architecture in the media comes about. Since the Modern Movement architectural photography has been driven by the desire to depict the “pure” architectural object without interfering, distracting elements (Colomina 1996). The sterile, unnatural appearance of such images without inhabitants, furniture, and signs of aging, use or dirt, has long been an issue within the architectural profession and education. However, architectural publications with images by professional photographers as well as the “how to do a good picture” guidebooks for the amateur photographer still tend to follow these conventions. This implies we are accustomed to see architecture depicted without people, without the traces of “real life” within a building, without personal belongings and signs of occupancy. Hence de-contextualization can also be understood as the result of photographic conventions. The crucial point about these conventions is that they are very familiar to most of us (western people with visual literacy), “they fall below the threshold of conscious attention.” (Lister & Wells 2001, 75). As “as way to do something” (ibd.) they appear natural and pass un-noted. These conventions are not defined by the power of certain institutions within the scope of photography alone, nor are they only a question of style. Watney suggests the notion of these conventions as “patterns of conformity, internally coherent, which do not of course reflect any pregiven reality. Rather they themselves constitute the cultural grounds from which we variously conceive “reality” as an apparent stable unity. It is the relatively systematic coherence of this field of photographic signification which is carried over into our assessment of the non-textual world.” (Watney 1999, 160). In short: images of “pure” architectural artefacts seem natural and ap-

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propriate. The photographic convention causes the production of these images and provides a stable framework of interpretation.

Conclusions In the following conclusion the questions posed at the beginning of this article are once more resumed: How is aesthetic uniformity reproduced in the examined images of office architecture, how is it used to generate meaning and, finally, what kind of urban space is conceived? In the above discussions of the visual examples I illustrated that the images are not simply characterized by the uniformity of the buildings but rather by their de-contextualization. The de-contextualization through methods of visual typification presents buildings as a type and creates “generic” spaces of business. And only through this typification – resulting in the lack of individual features – the steel and glass facades gain symbolic capital being the most important signifying element. Thus the buildings are mostly not depicted to look like “any other building” (in terms of their aesthetic qualities), but to look like they could be in “any other place”. Meaning is generated through the use of these images in the context of a dominant discourse. As “global spaces” these office buildings and interiors equate non-localizable space with international or even global economic activity. Moreover they make the high-rise office towers to a central place and agent of this economic activity. If multinational companies are typically located in these sorts of high-rise office towers, than these office towers are already significant to the relating economic activity - which is of course not necessarily the case. A substantial part of these office spaces are empty or used by local companies. However, this creation of meaning is not simply a question of ideology that informs the decisions of the people involved. As I stated the typification is the result of the interaction of deliberate decisions, professional routines, structures and institutions of production as well as photographic conventions. Due to this multitude of reasons, these “generic” images of global business spaces are persistent, repetitive and unremarkable – very much in contrast to the ephemeral character that is generally attributed to images in the age of information and communication technologies. The images are constantly reproduced and remain largely unquestioned. Moreover, the constant repetition of “typical”

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spaces reinforces the intended meaning through narrativity: “Mobilized potentiality acquires meaning and reality because it has been cited and seen before” (Frosh 2003, 166, original emphasis). At the same time I suggest that these images are highly effective in communicating their messages for a number of reasons: First of all because of the nature of the sensual experience that images commonly provide: “The meaning which images construct ‘subject’ us largely ‘out of awareness’, at the same level at that we use language and its rules, without consciously knowing those rules or intending to follow them”. (Evans & Hall 1999, 311). Moreover, the visual typification functions as „short-cut“ (Lippman cited in Frosh 1993, 12) to perception. It enhances comprehension and makes it faster or even possible while only gazing at images. As Mirzoeff argues the principle of visualizing is “not replacing discourse, but making it more comprehensible, quicker and more effective (Mirzoeff 1999, 6). The more schematic, typical and conventional an image is, the greater are the chances that it will be seen and understood in the expected way. And finally, these images are likely to be effective in providing a “verification” of reality because of the special nature of the motif: The physical stability of the built environment enhances the impression of photographic objectivity. Due to the buildings physical presence and because it does not move or change its appearance, we are prone to think that it has only one appearance and that its image is closer to reality than for example images of people The description of Barthes, who noted that photographic images create a new consciousness, gains a special sense: not being-there but the awareness of having-been-there (Barthes 1999, 40). With the feeling of having-been-there we no longer distinguish between the buildings we have seen in person and those we only know from images. The judgment about the global uniformity of office buildings subsequently relies on personal experience as well as on images seen in the media, without noticing or paying attention to the difference. The likely effect is that the mediated character of this “global uniformity” is neglected and the conveyed meaning is naturalized. The crucial point in the related discursive construction of urban space is the normative value which is implicitly ascribed: first, high-rise office buildings are made to stand for the cleanest, most profitable, most prestigious and most valuable parts of the economy. This implies a focus on the higher service sector, the presence of multinational companies and the internationalization of

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the local economy. Second, the generic images are derived from the role model of world-cities: the aim is not to be possibly everywhere, but to be in these cities. In conclusion I wish to set this question of meaning against the context of a wider debate about the relation between cultural and economic realities that investigations of a “cultural economy” are engaged with. Thereafter the images of office buildings and interiors examined in this article can be seen as part of an economic discourse which is “not simply a matter of beliefs, values and symbols but rather a form of representational and technological (i.e. ‘cultural’) practice that constitutes the spaces within which economic action is formatted and framed” (du Gay & Pryke 2002, 2). These images can therefore not only be interpreted as depicting these spaces of economic action. More importantly, I suggest that they also represent specific processes and relations that are conceived as “economic”. By doing so, they, in fact, essentially contribute to the formation of an interpretative framework that relates specific economic functions to specific elements of the built environment; the internationalization of economic activity to the typical high-rise office tower. I finally suggest thinking of these “generic” images of global business spaces in terms of scopic regimes as “particular and historically specific combinations of meanings and subjects” (Evans & Hall 1999, 6). These images constitute a scopic regime (or contribute to it) that presents a) the agents of economic competition as urban and b) the city as competitive/ competing on a global scale.

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References AUGÉ, M. (1995): Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. London: Verso. BARTHES, R. (1999 [1977]): Rhetoric of the Image, In: Evans, J. & Hall, S.: Visual Culture: The Reader. London: SAGE, pp. 33-40. BRENNER , N. & THEODORE, N. (EDS.) (2002): Spaces of Neoliberalism. Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe. Oxford: Blackwell. BRYSON (1983): Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze. New Haven: Yale University Press. BURGIN, V. (ED.) (1982): Thinking photography. Houndmills: Macmillan. COLOMINA, B. (1996): Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media. Cambridge: MIT Press. D OELKER , C. (1997): Ein Bild ist mehr als ein Bild. Visuelle Kompetenz in der Multimedia-Gesellschaft. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. DU GAY, P. & PRYKE, M. (EDS.) (2002): Cultural Economy: Cultural Analysis and Commercial Life. London: SAGE. EISELE, J. & KLOFT, E. (EDS.) (2002): HochhausAtlas. München: Callwey. EVANS, J. & HALL, S. (EDS.) (1999): Visual Culture: The Reader. London: SAGE. FRAMPTON, K. (1980): Modern architecture: a critical history. London: Thames & Hudson. FROSH, P. (2003): The Image Factory. Consumer Culture, Photography and the Visual Content Industry. Oxford / New York: Berg. GRITTMANN, E. (2003): Die Konstruktion von Authentizität. Was ist echt an den Pressefotos im Informationsjournalismus? In: Knieper, T. & Müller, M. G. (eds.): Authentizität und Inszenierung von Bilderwelten. Köln: Herbert von Halem, pp. 123-149. HALL, T. & HUBBARD, P. (EDS.) (1998): The Entrepreneurial City. Geographies of Politics, Regime and Representation. Chichester: Wiley. HESMONDHALGH, D. (2002): The Cultural Industries. London: SAGE. IBELINGS, H. (2002): Supermodernism: Architecture in the Age of Globalization. Rotterdam: NAI Publishers. Jameson, F. (1992): Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso. KING, A. D. (1993): Identity and Difference: The Internationalization of Capital and the Globalization of Culture. In: Knox, P. (ed.): The Restless Urban Landscape. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, pp. 83-110. KING, A. D. (2004): Spaces of Global Cultures. Architecture Urbanism Identity. London: Routledge. KNOX, P. & TAYLOR , P. (2004): Globalization of Architectural Practice. Globalization and World Cities – Study Group & Network (GaWC): Research Bulletin 128, http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb128.html (accessed 16 March 2006). KRESS, G. & VAN LEEUWEN, T. (1996): Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.

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LBS (LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL) (2006): http://www.london.edu/emba-global.html (accessed 14 December 2006) LISTER , M. & WELLS, L. (2001): Cultural Studies as an Approach to Analysing the Visual. In: van Leeuwen, T. & Jewitt, C.: Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE, pp. 61-91. MIRZOEFF, N. (1999): An Introduction to Visual Culture. London: Routlegde. MITCHELL, W .J. T. (1994): The pictorial turn. In: Mitchell, W. J. T.: Picture Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 11-34. MÜLLER , M. G. (2003): Grundlagen der visuellen Kommunikation. Theorieansätze und Analysemethoden. Konstanz: UVK. NEGUS, K. (2002): The Work of Cultural Intermediaries. In: Cultural Studies 16/4: pp. 501-15. PEIRCE, C. (1931-1958): The Icon, Index and Symbol. In: Hartshorne, C. & Weiss, P. (eds.), Collected Works, 8 Volumes, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press SACHS-HOMBACH, K. (2003): Das Bild als kommunikatives Medium. Elemente einer allgemeinen Bildwissenschaft. Köln: Herbert von Halem. SKLAIR , L. (2005): The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture in Globalizing Cities. In: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 29(3), pp. 485-500. SWYNGEDOUW, E., MOULAERT, F. & RODRÍGUEZ, A. (EDS.) (2003): The Globalized City. Economic Restructuring and Social Polarization in European Cities. Oxford: Oxford University Press. TAGG, J. (1988): The burden of representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories. London: Macmillan. UBS (2006a): http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/brand.html (accessed 14 December 2006) UBS (2006b): http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/brand/concept.html (accessed 14 December 2006) VAN LEEUWEN , T. (2001): Semiotics and Iconography. In: van Leeuwen, T. & Jewitt, C.: Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE, pp. 92-118. VAN LEEUWEN , T. & JEWITT, C. ( EDS.) (2001): Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE. WATNEY, S. (1999): On the institutions of photography. In: Evans, J. & Hall, S. (eds.): Visual Culture: The Reader. London: SAGE, pp.141-161. ZUKIN, S. (1991): Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World. Berkley: University of California Press.

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S OFIA M ORGADO

Lisbon: towards suprametropolis

Abstract Initially, analysis of each period showed a territorial structure under construction, from its foundation to its current status as part of a supra-metropolitan formation. Insertion into larger networks has led to an apparently homogeneous reduction of unoccupied space, which contributes to an undifferentiated landscape and few urban reference-points in the metropolis of Lisbon (Morgado, 2005). As part of an ongoing research (FA-UTL, Lisboa/ ETSAB-UPC, Barcelona), important premises have been defined: • The potential of unoccupied spaces as instruments for urban control; • The role of a knowledge based economy in the development of new metropolitan centralities; • The recent supra-metropolitan condition of Lisbon.

Absence Absence is the contemporary protagonist in the metropolis. Nevertheless, no author has attempted to interpret a concrete metropolis from this point of view, examining the circumstances in which unoccupied spaces occur, even when such spaces have been latent in conventional urban planning readings based on occupied space. This then was the challenge: how to interpret a concrete metropolitan formation starting from its unoccupied space. On the one hand, it would be necessary to show that unoccupied spaces really determine the various stages of urban development that lead to an effectively metropolitan status. On the other, it would be necessary to choose a metropolis where this premise is unquestionable.

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Such a premise is true of Lisbon, which is formed around a large unoccupied central space: the Tagus Estuary. Analysis of the metropolitan formation of Lisbon around the unoccupied is based on five significant moments in which three principles – water, land, and artificial creation – are used to identify morphologies of unoccupied spaces. Considering the motives and forms of occupation, as well as how they inter-relate with each other, the metropolis of Lisbon is not only described, but trends for future development are also outlined.

Inland sea The shapes of water and land were the main factors determining formation, resulting directly in the artificial creation which definitively marked later development of the ways of occupying territory. In territorial terms, the existence of estuaries is always a major factor. Yet here, the truly extraordinary facts are that there are two estuaries, and that the relationship established between them offered a major urban opportunity by creating special dynamics between the two main cities in the area: Lisbon and Setúbal. The urbanisation of this territory was incipient, merely comprising structures that were adapted to the water and the land. On the one hand, this demonstrates the structure of the rustic space; on the other, it enables the identification of artificially created features that interpret the territory and point towards an embryonic concept of territorial identity. In the middle of the 19th century, the territory under analysis was at a very early stage of development in terms of urbanisation, since the start of industrialisation only truly came about for political and economic reasons at the end of the century. This conjuncture is of exceptional relevance for this study, as it reveals the real foundations of the future Lisbon metropolis. At that time, the layout of the water and the land were the most decisive factors in determining the structure of urbanisation, directly resulting in the artificial creation that would definitively shape the future evolution of the forms of land use. In fact, prior to industrialisation, the urbanisation of what is now the Lisbon metropolitan area was organised around an open and central heart of water. All the infrastructural lines that would define the later shape of the metropolis converged on this expanse of water.

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Fig. 1: 1860 | the founding of the metropolis: inland sea (Sofia Morgado, 2005, Protagonismo de la ausencia. Interpretación urbanística de la formación metropolitana de Lisboa desde lo desocupado)

A new hierarchy The territory where the lines of development of the future metropolis of Lisbon were taking shape was transformed by large-scale infrastructures, particularly the railways and the port of Lisbon. These spaces were large specialist areas that established radial expansion along the lines of communication (national roads and railways). These highly specialised and artificial spaces included port areas shaped by the natural conditions of the water and large agricultural areas whose direct connection to the railway and ports imposed investment in land redistribution, mechanisation and colonisation. These productive areas were overlapped by the axial spaces of greatest infrastructural intensity that began to establish the skeleton of the metropolis Between the middle of the 19th century and the 1940s, there was a major transformation as the effects of technological change inextricably associated to industrialisation began to be felt. The political conjuncture and the effective

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development of a country that was investing in creating new infrastructures, combined with various urban plans, also contributed to this phenomenon. Their impact on the territory had a defining influence on the growth that led to the current metropolis of Lisbon. These highly specialised and artificial spaces included port areas shaped by the natural conditions of the water and large agricultural areas whose direct connection to the railway and ports imposed investment in land redistribution, mechanisation and colonisation. These productive areas were overlapped by the axial spaces of greatest infrastructural intensity that began to establish the skeleton of the metropolis. This was the dawn of a new form of territorial control and organisation: artificial creation. It would overwhelm natural spaces, beginning a profound restructuring process and creating the infrastructural base for the territory in terms of specialisation and the intensive and productive use of the unoccupied space.

Fig. 2: 1940 | the infrastructural base of the territory: a new hierarchy (Sofia Morgado, 2005, Protagonismo de la ausencia. Interpretación urbanística de la formación metropolitana de Lisboa desde lo desocupado)

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Selective exploitation A pre-metropolitan conurbation began to be formed, and territory began to be more intensively exploited, involving functionalisation of space expressed in maximum-productivity forms. This situation created a territory that was organised according to the efficiency of its infrastructures and that characterised the land according to activities in specific zones, particularly in terms of the artificial creation of urban occupation. The main axes of opportunity drove urban growth, both through specific uses (industrial and/or residential occupational) and through proximity to infrastructures whereby they were directly dependent on routes, fundamentally around railway stations. The guidelines for introducing the infrastructures into the territory generated a series of dynamics that in turn resulted in important modifications to the forms and structures of Lisbon’s incipiently metropolitan space in the middle of the 20th century. A pre-metropolitan conurbation began to emerge both from the efficiency of the infrastructure lines and the opportunities that they created. This also involved intensive exploitation of the territory that implied functionalising the space, which took the form of maximising production. In brief, artificial creation defined the extent and specialisation of the unoccupied space when could be directly accessed from the mobility networks. Applying both to agricultural land (large-scale holdings) and to spaces of opportunity, this definitively segregated these spaces from the others whose peripheral nature and inherent fragmentation (smallholdings on steep and frequent slopes) mean they are not able to compete with intensive production, either urban or agricultural.

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Fig. 3: 1965 | the machine-space: selective exploitation (Sofia Morgado, 2005, Protagonismo de la ausencia. Interpretación urbanística de la formación metropolitana de Lisboa desde lo desocupado)

Topology of connectivity This was when Lisbon first achieved real metropolitan status, with renewal of land-use opportunities in comparison with the foregoing period. The land is also increasingly facing a splintered form of occupation, in this case due to the development of previously identified areas, establishing specific forms of occupation that have different connections to the metropolitan network. Through a process of redistribution, infrastructure development and individual constructions, the characteristic areas that make up the core of the territory examined here define incipient urban perimeters: the basis of low density unoccupied space that immediately becomes widespread. In 1992, Lisbon reached the first truly metropolitan status as it renewed its land opportunities in comparison to the preceding period. Democracy in 1975 and membership of the European Union in 1986 established a new political and economic conjuncture that went hand-in-hand with major transforma-

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tions in the productive systems, which started focusing on the service sector, making the industrial and port areas obsolete. The evolution of radial axes of opportunity for an effective mobility network defines multiple central points because of their extraordinary connectivity. These central points stand out in the territory as emerging metropolitan centres set against a backdrop of unoccupied spaces, some of which have a passive function as recipients of occupation, while others act as tensors and organisers of the metropolitan space. It is irrelevant that their previous structures were rural. Above all, what matters is that this space is unoccupied and extraordinarily accessible from any point within the metropolis and even beyond, or that – at the very least – it will become accessible, integrating into the global networks. Therefore, the spaces that already have urban occupation and intermediate unoccupied spaces that are experiencing occupation out of inertia are actually far more passive vis-à-vis the dynamics and developmental trends in the metropolis of opportunity that Lisbon is progressively becoming. In closely connected unoccupied spaces, expectations are high, and production is far more flexible and mainly based on information or on assembling and storing of products in transit. This only requires a space that is available, monospecialist and communicable. Unexpectedly, the true centres are the inhospitable and unoccupied spaces located around motorway exits.

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Fig. 4: 1992 | a metropolis of opportunities: a topology of connectivity (Sofia Morgado, 2005, Protagonismo de la ausencia. Interpretación urbanística de la formación metropolitana de Lisboa desde lo desocupado)

Indifferent landscapes? Insertion into larger networks has led to an apparently homogeneous reduction of unoccupied space, which contributes to an undifferentiated landscape and few urban reference-points. In fact, the Lisbon metropolis is faced by a supra-metropolitan transformation that places it within a sub-global category, integrating it into networks that have international – and particularly European – dynamics in terms of the mobility of people and products, and of the productive transformation that is increasingly focused not merely on services but on a broad range of activities associated with a knowledge-based economy. The Lisbon metropolis emerges as an organism with apparently more homogenous forms of occupation that, due to artificial creation, are converted into areas that are large and poorly structured in terms of density and that lack diversity in terms of the formation of these metropolitan lands.

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Integrating the Lisbon metropolitan area into larger scale networks brought an apparently identical reduction of the unoccupied space, leading to a uniform landscape and few urban points of reference. However, identifiable forms correspond to this apparent uniformity, reconstructing Lisbon’s metropolitan identity according to the aforementioned unoccupied spaces. From 2001 to 2005, the Lisbon metropolis definitively acquired its form, while simultaneously clarifying its role within an Iberian conurbation stretching between Lisbon and Galicia which (in national terms) covers the northern half of the Atlantic coastline. Hence, the Lisbon metropolis suggests a still more complex transformation that incorporates the various metropolitan structures of Oporto, Coimbra and Aveiro.

Fig. 5: 1992 | a metropolis of opportunities: a topology of connectivity (Sofia Morgado, 2005, Protagonismo de la ausencia. Interpretación urbanística de la formación metropolitana de Lisboa desde lo desocupado)

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Suprametropolis The Lisbon metropolis is faced by a supra-metropolitan transformation that places it within a sub-global category. Given the increase in environmental concerns, which impose the definition of protected areas, and the sudden appearance of polarised centres in deserted or rural areas with excellent connections, there is frequent artificial and hyperreal recreation of the metropolis. It is believed that the unoccupied space will continue to acquire new meanings due to future transformations, artificially recreating itself in new forms that are associated to leisure and production, as well as defining new means of urban formation. In the current context and given new approaches to the creation of the urban space, which reveal the potential of the unoccupied space, this is an opportune moment to examine innovative ways of urbanistic interpretation and intervention. The work in question is appropriate as the theme has already been studied by highly regarded specialists as a potential instrument for metropolitan organisation and urban intervention. Given metropolitan Lisbon’s current urbanistic panorama, a concept for the urban project whose main instrument in characterising identity and structuring growth is the unoccupied space is seen as relevant. This also acts as the agent that articulates the territorial and urban scales. The current projects for major infrastructures (high speed train and new bridge over the Tagus, new international airport, surface lines of the Lisbon Underground) suggests the creation of a new supra-metropolitan hierarchy and a new cluster of centres superimposed on the current ones and transversal to its infrastructural and urban order. This will naturally lead to urban phenomena that must be anticipated with a vision that looks to the future of the territory and of urban development.

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Published research by the author/co-author, on this theme MORGADO, SOFIA, 2006, Assenza. Formazione e progetto di Lisbona metropolitana in Urbanistica & Architettura. Il ruolo del progetto Urbano nella riqualificazione della città contemporanea, Dossier Urbanistica, INU- Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica, Roma MORGADO, SOFIA, 2006 «Barreiro» e «Amadora», in AAVV (Álvaro Domingues coord) Cidade e Democracia, 30 Anos de Transformação Urbana em Portugal Ciudad y Democracia. 30 Años de Transformación Urbana en Portugal, Fundação da Juventude / Secção Regional Norte da Ordem dos Arquitectos Portugueses/DGOT-DU, Argumentum Edições, Lisboa. MORGADO, SOFIA, 2005, Protagonismo de la ausencia. Interpretación urbanística de la formación metropolitana de Lisboa desde lo desocupado, Departament d’Urbanisme i Ordenació del Territori, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, Universidade Politécnica da Cataluña, doctoral thesis (doctor europeos mention), TDX URL: http://www.tdx.cesca.es/TDX-0725105-162915/, ISBN: 84-689-3468-2/ DL: B-40164-2005, Barcelona. GEORGE, PEDRO; MORGADO, SOFIA; ET AL, 2005, Lisbona. Dalla monopolarità alla comparsa di una struttura matriciale in AAVV (coord. científica Francesco Indovina, Nuno Portas, Antonio Font; a cura di Francesco Indovina, Laura Fregolent, Michelangelo Savino), L’esplosione della città. Barcelona, Bologna, DonostiaBaoyenne, Genova, Lisbona, Madrid, Marsiglia, Milano, Montpellier, Napoli, Porto, Valencia, Veneto centrale, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna/Provincia di Bologna-Università IUAV di Venezia-Dipartamento di Pianificaziones, Editrice Compositori, Bologna. GEORGE, PEDRO; MORGADO, SOFIA; ET AL, 2004, Àrea Metropolitana de Lisboa 19752001. De la monopolaritat a la matricialitat emergent/Metropolitan Area of Lisbon 1970-2001. From monopolarity to an emerging matrix pattern in AAVV (ed. Antonio Font; coord. científica Francesco Indovina, Nuno Portas, Antonio Font), L’explosió de la ciutat. Morfologies, mirades i mocions sobre les transformacion territorials recents en les regions urbanes de l’Europa Meridional, Collegi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya-COAC/Forum Universal de les Cultures Barcelona 2004, Barcelona. MORGADO, SOFIA, 2006, Interpretation of the metropolitan formation of Lisbon. A research abstract in Cities in Perspective, The European Urban Researchers Association, EURA /18. GEORGE, PEDRO; MORGADO, SOFIA, 2005, Dinâmicas do Uso e Ocupação do Solo da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa 1940-2001, Pós-Revista do Programa de Pósgraduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da FAUUSP, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo, Nº 18, Dezembro 2005.

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M ATJAZ U RSIC

The Problem of “Expert Interpretative Vacuum” in Media Discourses – Discourse Analysis of Texts on Ljubljana Urbanism

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Introduction

In the relatively short period of post-socialist transition in the 1990s, various (capital) interest groups i.e. “urban managers” (Pahl 1977: 50) became an important factor in Slovenian spatial planning. In order to ensure legitimisation and to gather sufficient public support for their interventions in space, the developers tend to use a vast spectrum of communication techniques. By pushing some and silencing other, unpleasant themes and arguments under the threshold of attention, the elite powers direct the public discussion to ‘preferred’ topical areas. Thus are certain themes suppressed and cannot become a part of the opinion making. Media constructions of interventions in city space are by interest groups seen as a “social practice through which communicative rationality and action are brought to the people” (Salovaara-Moring 2004: 56) and used as a resource to gain legitimisation in a contested situation. In accordance to this, Habermas (1976) mentions that it is practically impossible to separate the political decision-making system and economy from the life-world. The two systems are intermingled, because the mediating structures between the two are publicity, a system of communication and also a set of media discursive practices. In the paper we’ll show how the media present spatial projects and how the access to media functions as an extremely important strategic resource that is often misused at the cost of public interests. As such, the systems of money and political power, based on legitimisation, are too often built on instrumental reality i.e. the rationality that “makes everything subservient to maximising the effectivity” (Chouliaraki, Fairclough 1999: 12) instead of being based on democratic ideals that foster “emotions, norms and beliefs strengthening the

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sense of place, security and identity in people’s life worlds” (Salovaara-Moring 2004: 57). The paper draws on empirical evidence from research project named “Discourse analysis of texts on Ljubljana urbanism”, completed in October 2006.1 As the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana has an important role in the spatial system in Slovenia, so it is of big interest for the Municipality of Ljubljana to have an insight and transparent image of the public debate on planning procedures that are currently taking place in the city. The basic purpose of the research project was to differentiate between the real (actual) and potential (apparent) interests, relations and processes in the space of the city and its surroundings. In general we noticed that in expert and popular publications exists a relatively high discrepancy between the actual urban processes and the level of their reflection in written media. This discrepancy presents a great danger for the assertion of public interests in the city. It is of great importance to uncover the tendencies that lie behind such constellation of published texts and show how the lack of reflectivity is often supplemented by ‘expert interpretative vacuum’ that opens paths to instrumental, market oriented ‘PR’ (public-relation) campaigns in the processes of spatial planning. The problem of expert interpretative vacuum i.e. deficiency of contentargumentative language in texts on Ljubljana urbanism, becomes more evident when media supported particularisms become represented as generalised public interest without serious, substantial public debate. To be clear, the advocacies of particularisms in discussions on spatial planning are not conceived as something unexpected or illegitimate in present societies but are becoming problematic due to inconvincible interventions of representatives of public interests (state, city municipality etc.). According to this, we’ll pay special attention to the analysis of representative texts about existing city plans that show hidden contents, implicit meaning of media constructions and persuasive strategies of various interest groups. The paper starts with a short presentation of the general frame of the research, then we discuss underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions in discourse analysis to show their relevance to our study. After that, we continue with the main part of paper − the comparative analysis of various ............................................ 1 The project was supported by the City Municipality of Ljubljana and performed by the Centre for Spatial Sociology, which is part of the Institute for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. The research team included four members: dr. Drago Kos, dr. Matjaž Uršič, dr. Marjan Hočevar and dr. Franc Trček.

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texts on Ljubljana urbanism. We demonstrate how different arenas in which the authors are embedded, produce different discourses in order to attain certain effects on readers. In the end, we conclude with a short debate about the effects of ‘expert interpretative vacuum’ in written media and its importance from the perspective of Slovenian urban planning and wider.

2

Methodological Basis – the Design of Research

One of the most basic assumptions in discourse analysis is that language use has social consequences. When preparing our research project we assumed that media discourses about urban planning in Ljubljana influence the actual spatial polices in the city. If we take into account the assumption that discourse is “language use conceived as a social practice” (Fairclough 1995: 135), we can state that power and influence are not found only in formal decision making, but also in creation and distribution of ideas and imaginations i.e. in construction of discourses. Cruikshank (2003: 4) notes that “due to the supposition that this variant of power works more subtly than various forms of formal power, and therefore can be more difficult to identify, some consider this the principal source of power”. In this sense the mechanisms of discourse analysis are important because they show how the ideas about interventions in space are formed and why they should not be taken as objective truths. By revealing the ways in which the ideas are constructed, the discourse analysis opens up the possibilities of doing things differently. There are numerous definitions of discourse. Potter and Wetherell (1987: 7) describe discourse as “all forms of spoken interaction, formal and informal, and written texts of all kinds”. Discourse is also described as ”language use relative to social, political and cultural formations – it is language reflecting social order and shaping individuals’ interaction with society” (Jaworsky, Coupland 1999: 3). In addition, it is important to notice that discourse cannot be identified as a form of conversation as “…it refers to all the ways in which we communicate with one another, so that vast network of signs, symbols, and practices through which we make our world(s) meaningful to ourselves and others” (Gregory 1986: 11). Discourses can be formed as “patterns in argumentation” (Cruikshank 2003: 4) in the sense that opinions about specific subject can be connected with other opinions about related subjects. According to numerous connections between related subjects, discourses have the

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form of ‘solid’ structures which have “an intrinsic logic between different opinions and meaning connected to them” (ibid.). The main subjects of discourse analysis therefore are not fragmented opinions that are found in the text but whole patters of meaning i.e. meaning systems. When preparing the conceptual scheme for our analysis of meaning systems in written media, we took into consideration several discourse analytical methods. We paid attention to “Critical Discourse Analysis” (Fairclough 1992, 1995), “Discourse-historical Method” (Wodak 2001) and “Pragmatic Text Analysis” (Verschueren 1995). Although there are many differences between the perspectives, they all share an epistemological and theoretical base which draws from social constructivism. In this context, our methodological approach did not follow the conceptual schemes of specific authors in detail, but was developed as a form of mixture, a combination of three enlisted approaches. To be correct, our methodological approach was not exact discourse analysis but more appropriately text analysis that fits into the field of discourse analysis. Thus our basic intention was to establish an approach that would in a simple and sufficient manner explore and reveal the fabric of meaning production in the case of texts on Ljubljana urbanism. The research procedure is more clearly shown on the design scheme of research process (scheme 2.1).

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Scheme 2.1: Design scheme of research process

Our base of materials included more than 250 articles and texts2 in different formats3 that were written in daily newspapers, weekly magazines and expert, professional (academic) publications. The database included all the texts that were written in the period of nine years (1997 – 2006). In the first step we divided the large group of texts into two smaller groups that were of special interest for our research. In the first group of texts were included the ‘expert, specialists texts’ (academic reviews, specialized magazines etc.)4 and in the second group the ‘popular texts’ (newspaper articles, popular magazines texts, leaflets etc.).5 In the second step followed the content analysis6 of each group of texts that included construction of frequency lists of popular and expert texts and later, in the third step – the discourse analysis in which we analysed ............................................ 2 This corresponds to approximately 600 pages (1.800.000 characters) of text. 3 Some of the texts were available only in printed version and had to be converted into digital form using programs like Textbribge Pro 11.0 and Recognita Plus 3.2. 4 Publications: AB – Arhitektov Bilten, Urbani izziv etc. 5 Publications: Dnevnik, Delo, Večer, Mladina, Nedeljski dnevnik etc. 6 Content analysis is: »a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication« (Berelson in Shapiro & Markoff 1997: 11).

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different media discourses. In each of the two analytical steps (second and third step), we paid special attention to the comparative analysis of the two groups of texts. Comparative analysis represented the main analytical tool which showed what are the principal differences and similarities between the two groups of texts.

3

Findings

3.1

Content analysis – basic differences between expert and popular texts

When analysing the texts in detail, we used various filtering techniques. Basically, all the materials, i.e. texts on Ljubljana urbanism were already in the beginning selected on the basis of themes or phrases that are in one or other way connected to urbanism. For example, the root of the word urban*, which could correspond to URBANism, URBANity, URBANisation etc, was used to differentiate the texts that deal with urbanism from a larger amount of other texts. After the basic selection of texts, in the next phase of research process the texts were analysed with the help of statistical program TextSTAT 2.6. The results of such analysis were numerous frequency lists of words that were used in the texts. Frequency lists enabled us to have a look at the vocabulary of specific group of texts on Ljubljana urbanism. Differences between the two vocabularies showed not only which themes were important for authors of specific groups of texts but more importantly enabled us to see in what way i.e. which words the authors chose to use in order to report about certain event (table 3.1). To simplify and make the procedure of comparison more understandable, we calculated the coefficient of term frequency (labelled in table 1 as CTF).7 The coefficient of term frequency gave us an opportunity to compare the two groups of texts that had different span of words in vocabulary.

............................................ 7 The bigger is the coefficient of term frequency (CTF), more frequent is the use of specific word in the texts on Ljubljana urbanism. The coefficient of term frequency was calculated on the basis of the following formula: CTF= (TF/NW) * 100 (The symbol TF represents the frequency of specific term, whist NW is the total number of words from a specific group of texts).

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terms8

CTF Expert texts

CTF Popular texts

ACCESSIB*

0.083

0.010

DEVELOP*

0.970

0.140

SUSTAINAB*

0.050

0.008

PLAN*

0.310

0.050

ECONOM*

0.099

0.018

GLOBAL*

0.050

0.010

POLITI*

0.165

0.060

PROBLEM*

0.150

0.090

EXPERT*

0.150

0.210

ECOLOG*

0.005

0.000

STRUCTUR*

0.250

0.000

Tab. 3.1: Comparison of coefficient of term frequency (CTF) for the group of expert and popular texts

The comparison between the groups of expert and popular texts shows differences in the use of vocabulary. In expert texts the words like development, planning, structure, economy, accessibility, globalisation and sustainable development are more often used. However, the biggest difference is in the use of term accessibility. In expert texts the use of term accessibility is 8.3 times more frequent than in popular, newspaper texts. Accessibility in undoubtedly one of key urbanistic notions that is evidently noticeable in expert texts but much less in popular texts. Differences are also noticeable in the use of terms: development, sustainable development, planning, economic dimensions of urbanism and globalisation processes. The authors in expert texts tend to use much more abstract words in order to impress and convince the readers that they are the ‘those who know’, whilst the authors of popular texts too often tend to lean on expert knowledge. Authors of popular texts more frequently use the terms: expert, expertise and expert knowledge, which could be an indicator of critical self-reflexivity, aware of their lack of knowledge in urbanism. Even if we accept ............................................ 8 In table 1 are given only a few translated examples (from Slovene to English language) of roots of the terms. For example, the root accessib* (in Slovene language dostop*) could correspond to term accessibility, accessible etc.

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the presumption that the authors of popular texts believe that the expert knowledge could help to achieve better results in spatial planning, it is important to mention that the same authors exclude i.e. tend to evade certain important dimensions of spatial planning like ecology. The selection of words is not a coincidental factor but an important indicator, which shows the opinion of commentator in relation to the event that he comments upon. If the commentator is at the same time also the only mediator between the event and public i.e. readers, then his selection of words affects the opinion of readers about certain event. Besides showing us the basic differences in the use of words between the public and expert texts, the frequency counts enabled us to identify different discourses. By examining where in the text are certain words located and how do they connect to other words i.e. how they are included in discursive context, we were able to form a list of discourses that were further analysed in the third step of research project.

3.2

Discourse analysis

3.2.1 Discursive gestures – Locating the (ideological) discourse in the texts Discourse analysis represented the crucial part of research project. The main goal was to show specific patters of meaning i.e. meaning systems that the authors used in the texts on Ljubljana urbanism. When looking for specific patterns of meaning in the texts we paid a lot of attention to discursive gestures,9 which facilitate the reification of specific values, practices and identities. Analysis of specific discursive gestures shows how easy it is to distort reality with the use of specific rhetoric mechanisms. In our text analysis, discursive gestures represent a kind of ‘flashing light’, which warns that the texts is not transparent and should be further analysed. Discursive gestures function as a tool revealing what kind of rhetorical strategies the authors use in order to achieve a certain level of public approval and legitimisation of their ideas. In the following paragraphs three discursive gestures that are often used in the texts on Ljubljana urbanism are presented. Compound categorization represents the first type of discursive gesture. An example from Slovenian newspaper shows how this rhetoric strategy func............................................ 9 Wallwork & Dixon (2004) describe discursive gestures as quiet reminders of the ‘out there’ reality of the world – a reality that, though humanly produced, becomes cast as a material fact. Discursive gestures may emphasize and inflect the content of the conversations that they accompany by “asserting a single state of affairs or partial state of affairs in a discourse world” (Polanyi in Reitter, 1996: 14).

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tions: “Let’s make out of it a Slovenian Tate Modern!” In the sentence two completely different categories are connected together. The adjective Slovenian refers to the social level, whilst the noun Tate Modern refers to spatial. The main problem of this relation is that two symbolically and completely nontransferable dimensions are connected together in an indissoluble unity. What the author of the newspaper article deliberately suppresses is the uniqueness of Tate modern, which makes it a world recognizable architectural and national symbol. You cannot copy the project of Tate Modern, set it up in other place and simultaneously transform it into other national symbol. Compound categorisation in our example hides the impossibility of the task to construct a building which will copy the idea i.e. social function of the Tate Modern. By using a ‘veil’ of attractive, but unrealizable idea, the author expects the reader to identify with his comments and support his prepositions for spatial interventions. Wallwork and Dixon (2004: 33) write: “…this form of classification is interesting because it makes explicit something that is often implicit within national categorization – namely, its tendency to elide the social and the spatial”. Metonymy is another form of discursive gesture that is often used in the texts on Ljubljana urbanism, e.g. “Due to unknown reasons, Ljubljana postponed the announcement…” Although such metonymies at first glance seem banal and unimportant, they produce specific effects on reader. The metonymies “establish a symbolic equivalence” (Wallwork, Dixon 2004: 33) between the ‘Ljubljana’ as a (geographic) entity and the people of Ljubljana as a social group. Similarly, other authors (Arnesen in Wallwork, Dixon 2004: 33) quote that metonymies form a: “relation of contiguity in which one thing can be converted to another without loss of basic identity”. Metonymies may thus invite to the reification of a social group which members are not recognizable. In facilitating a constant substitution between part and whole, concrete and abstract, social and spatial, and so on, they allow specific categories to acquire a ‘reality’ that is both human and somehow more than human (Wallwork, Dixon 2004). The third way in which social i.e. human and spatial constructions may be elided is through the use of anthropomorphisms. Anthropomorphisms may operate to “imbue place categories with human characteristics and motivations” (ibid.). For example: “Ljubljana may be described as a city that eats its ideas...” or “Ljubljana wanted to do something out of herself…” This process has significant effects on the readers as it may help to conceal, legitimise the

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interests of specific economic, political groups that underlie specific interventions in space. And more importantly, anthropomorphisms may confirm an image of the city as an independent entity that possesses a capacity to act and react in an autonomous way.10 In this sense, anthropomorphic formulations can represent a form of support to the interrelated processes of externalisation, objectification and reification. Berger (1966) interprets reification as a state of amnesia in which the individual forgets the human origins of the social world. Social phenomena are understood as “if they were something else than human products – such as facts of nature, results of cosmic laws, or manifestations of divine will” (Berger and Luckmann 1966: 89). Berger and Pullberg (1966: 68) describe this state of ‘forgetfulness’ as a defensive shield by which the individual protects himself from “fundamental terrors of human existence, notably the terror of chaos”. 3.2.2 Identification of main discourses After the examination of discourse gestures we focused on the identification of main discourses that are found in texts on Ljubljana urbanism. Due to a large number of texts, which could not be analysed one by one, we used filtering mechanisms to acquire the texts that contained a specific discourse. In this context we developed a series of “dictionaries” and “idea transition rules” (Bengston et al. 2005: 1). The dictionaries included specific key words, nouns, adjectives and phrases that were associated with the discourse that we wanted to analyse, whilst the idea transition rules enabled us to specify how pairs of words and phrases are combined to give new meanings. With the help of the statistical program Textstat 2.6 we isolated the texts, which contained words from our dictionaries and corresponded to idea transition rules that we set. By using this procedure, we gradually located and differentiated the texts, which contained specific discourses. We categorized 15 different discourses that the authors intentionally or non-intentionally included in the texts and could possibly influence a passive reader.11 In table 3.2 the discourses are sorted according to their strength i.e. frequency of their use in the texts. The dis............................................ 10 In some aspects anthropomorphism is similar to organicism, which is characterized by expressions that equalize city with a human body. E.g. »The city is like a body; the roads and highways are like arteries, veins that bring necessary substances from one part of the body to other. 11 For the purpose of the research we identified passive readers as readers which do not sufficiently reflect the wider context (political situation, social context, editing, financial scheme of publication, distribution etc.) in which the texts are embedded. Passive readers are more prone to accept ideas and imaginations that are written in texts as objective truths.

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courses that were especially noticeable in the texts are presented in the first group, the discourses with medium strength are found in the second group and the weakest ones in the third group. Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Professional discourse

Planning discourse

Globalistic discourse

Nationalistic discourse

Localistic discourse

Culturalistic discourse

Catastrophic discourse

Hygienistic discourse

Activist discourse

Systemic discourse

Organicistic discourse

Moralistic discourse

Neo-liberal discourse

PR (public-relation) disc.

Participative discourse Tab. 3.2: Discourse typologies

The following examples that are drawn from both expert and popular groups of texts illustrate how a discourse operates. The examples are from texts that include expert, nationalistic and catastrophic discourse (table 3.3).

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Discourse

Example

Professional discourse

1)“The profession demands verification of previous strategies of polycentric development and regionalisation” 2) “The experts think that more effort should be put on...” 3) “Qualified experts will collaborate in the project...” 4) “Ljubljana is interesting for scientific and expert comparisons...” 5) “These starting points are the basis for analysing defined needs in directing strategic spatial development in Slovenia and understanding spatial development problems in establishing priorities”

Nationalistic discourse

1) “If the project gets approval, the Slovenian planning profession and residents will be left with a bitter taste in the mouth” 2) ”...if Slovenian architects seek chances in international space, the same should apply to foreign architects in our country” 3) “He asks himself, did we need the architectural stars. Something like that could be built by Slovenian architects...”

Catastrophic (emotional) discourse

1) “Should we demand demonstrations on the road: you got the plans, solve the traffic catastrophe around clinical centre as you know, but start already? Start, start!” 2) “If I only think how many plans and planning attempts have we done, how many regulations, how many studies of city solutions, how many architectural competitions, first prizes, how much energy went into nothing” 3) “...this is one of important dimensions of crises in which the city is caught: the crisis of creative spirit suppression” 4) “When people see that a place is in decay, they become reconciled with it and take it as something obvious. It’s like a form of collective mental disease, which attacks people and produces fear of any novelties...”

Tab. 3.3: Examples of expert, nationalistic and catastrophic discourse

One of the most common rhetoric strategies in professional discourse12 is the use of abstract concepts, words and argumentation, which is not supported by verifiable data or information. The author tries to convince the reader to accept certain ‘professional’ knowledge on the base of trust in his profession. The rhetoric strategy is based on the presumption that the reader will accept the author’s opinion without questions and identify him as ‘someone who knows the truth’. The principle where the author perceives himself as ‘deus ex machina’ is shown in the first three cases of expert discourse. In the first example you cannot define who exactly is supposed to be part of the profession which demands certain measures. In the second and third example it is not ............................................ 12 The professional discourse was identified with the help of special dictionary that included words like: profession, professional, interdisciplinary, development, equilibration, heritage protection etc.

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clear who are the experts/qualified experts that think/collaborate in a certain way, whilst in the fourth example it is not clear which is the difference between the scientific and expert comparison. The fifth example shows another typical rhetorical strategy that is being applied in professional discourse – the author tries to impress the reader with the use of a set of abstract words. Similar rhetoric strategies but with different emphasises are used in nationalistic and catastrophic discourse. In the nationalistic discourse the difference between the domestic i.e. indigenous and foreign is strongly emphasized (e.g. Slovenian planning, Slovenian architects etc.) while in the catastrophic discourse the author tries to influence the audience by using especially dramatic speech and strong, ‘juicy’ words that trigger emotions on the side of the reader. It is important to explain that many texts include various types of discourses. The combination of various discourses that hide and elide certain aspects of interventions in space upgrades the level of persuasiveness in the text. For example the systemic discourse is often combined with planning discourse and participative discourse. For systemic discourse it is typical that the author emphasises the need to follow formal planning procedures and plans, puts stress on state interventions, inclusion of institutions, municipalities etc. Such discursive characteristics well coincide with planning discourse that emphasizes the importance of long-term, medium-term, short-term planning, preparation of appropriate planning conditions and participative discourse where emphasis is put on the role of various actors, participants in the spatial planning and environmental planning procedures.

3.3

Comparative analysis of discourses in the groups of popular and expert texts

Although the authors in popular texts tend to use more ‘sensationalistic jargon’ i.e. the vocabulary is more simple and common in comparison to expert texts, the later do not try to differentiate from them on the level of discussion. Instead of explaining the planning procedures and interventions in space to the maximum detail and from various perspectives, the expert authors more and more tend to follow the form of popular, sensationalistic texts. The expert authors are producing shorter texts and try to please the readers with the simplification of vocabulary. On the example of catastrophic discourse, we how narrow is the gap between the groups of popular and expert texts. Catastrophic discourse is present

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in both groups of texts and there are some differences on the level of its usage. However, these differences are not as big as we expected. The expert authors are supposed to avoid catastrophic discourse, which tends to impress the reader with the use of dramatic narrative. In contradiction to our expectations, the similarities between the two groups of texts are noticed already on the level of comparative statistical analysis of words that are part of catastrophic vocabulary (table 3.4). Roots of words from the dictionary of catastrophic discourse

CTF Popular texts

CTF Expert texts

Cris(es)*

0,006

0,011

Catastroph(e)*

0,013

0,004

Destructi(on)*

0,053

0,005

Degradati(on)*

0,01

0,015

Devaluat(ion)*

0,001

0,008

Decay*

0,001

0

Threat*

0,01

0,003

Fatal(ity)*

0,008

0,002

Accident*

0,014

0,001

Disgrace*

0,005

0

Incorrect*

0,002

0,001

Barbaric*

0,002

0,001

Useless*

0,001

0

Chao(s)*

0,003

0,002

Tab. 3.4: Comparative frequency analysis of words from the dictionary of catastrophic discourse

The repertoire and frequency of words like: crises, demolishment, accident, destruction, catastrophe, fatality is in popular texts usually higher than in expert texts, but the expert authors also often use words like: crises, degradation, destruction etc. In the case of specific words (e.g. crises, degradation and devaluation) from the vocabulary of catastrophic discourse the frequency is even higher in expert than in popular texts. The use of similar vocabulary undoubt-

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edly contributes to the diminishment of differences between the sensationalistic (formal-declarative) and expert (content-argumentative) language. The comparative analysis of main themes i.e. concerns for which the catastrophic discourse was utilized, shows an almost identical picture. We identified 7 main themes that were usually connected with the catastrophic discourse. Graphs 3.1 and 3.2 in percentages show the presence of certain themes in articles with catastrophic discourse.13

Graph 3.1: Categories of themes in popular texts with catastrophic discourse

Graph 3.2: Categories of themes in expert texts with catastrophic discourse ............................................ 13 The total number of popular and expert articles that included catastrophic discourse was 52. Due to different number of articles in each group of texts, the percentages were calculated on the basis of a common coefficient.

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The results reveal that popular in comparison to expert texts do indeed have a larger repertoire of categories of themes that are connected to the catastrophic discourse. The most frequently noticed category of theme in popular articles is describing bad spatial planning (44%), followed by descriptions of chaotic development (20%), effects of neoliberalism (16%), incapacity of profession (8%), economic weakness of the system, passivity of civil society and incomprehension of planners by the public (all 4%). The authors of expert texts usually use the catastrophic discourse to express the dissatisfaction with chaotic development (34%), followed by bad spatial planning and neoliberalism (both 24%). In spite of differences between the categories of themes in popular and expert texts, the main 4 categories in both groups almost coincide (graph 3.3). The first 4 categories in popular texts are the same as in expert texts. The order of categories in popular and expert texts is almost identical, only the order of the first and second category is inverted. The themes for which the authors of popular and expert texts use the catastrophic discourse are thus very similar. Due to this congruity we can constitute that the differences between the expert and popular texts are relatively small.

Graph 3.3: Comparison of categories of themes in popular and expert texts with catastrophic discourse

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The narrow gap between the two groups of texts can be problematic due to various reasons. Crusikshank (2003: 14) notices that: “If we listen repeatedly to similar descriptions of the situation, through media or from politicians, without alternative descriptions available, these kinds of descriptions will be generalised and eventually enter into the culturally shared knowledge…” which in turn affects the way public perceives spatial planning. We assume that in order to get more audience, the authors who publish in expert publications, are willing to lower their writing standards and use similar vocabulary and themes that are being noticed in popular texts. At the same time, in order to keep their privileged position of a ‘scientific reference’ i.e. advisor to the civil society, the expert authors tend to keep their professional group reserved and self-contained. For this reason the expert authors not only use strong nationalistic discourse but try to prevent from interdisciplinary. Non-synergy between the professions (architecture, landscape architecture, sociology etc.) is attained by sticking to systemic-abstract jargon, which keeps the ‘unconsecrated’ outside the debate. The professional authors frequently use words and expressions that are related to the terminological sphere of their profession and analyse the actual problems only descriptively, without paying attention to wider connections and consequences. By frequently using systemic-abstractive discourse, the expert authors in general do not try to offer concrete solutions for analysed problematic what rends the public debate on actual problems extremely difficult. Systemic-abstract discourse in expert texts is often combined with political discourse, which emphasises the importance of sustainable development and ‘European’ spatial planning. Since there exist no clear definitions of sustainable development and European planning, the experts in many cases adopt ideas from very general documents like “The White Paper on Environmental Liability” (2000) without the necessary critical distance. Adopted ideas and concepts are often not sufficiently analysed and integrated i.e. adjusted to local circumstances and trends that direct the spatial planning. Generalized Europocentric concepts and ideas are by experts often falsely presented as tools which will automatically solve locally specific spatial problems. The text analysis also shows that in many cases, popular texts are much more critical, more applicable and have a more complex argumentative scheme than expert, professional texts. On the basis of these cases we may assume that the process of differences diminishment is not one-sided but valid for both groups of text. The authors of expert texts are trying to lower their standards

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and get wider audience while the authors of popular texts are trying to improve their level of persuasiveness by adopting expert argumentative strategies and vocabulary. This synergic process of constant rampant growth and interwoven nature of discourses is by some authors called “intertextuality”14 (Fairclough 1992: 84-85). In relation to intertextuality, Wodak and Meyer (2001: 47) write that: “Fundamentally, special discourses of (the) science(s) are to be distinguished from inter-discourse, whereby all non-scientific discourses are to be regarded as components of the inter-discourse. At the same time, elements of the scientific discourses (special discourses) constantly flow into the interdiscourses”. It is important to note that the complex process of discourses melting cannot be explained only by text analysis. Besides the lowering of writing standards by expert authors and ‘sophistication’ of popular texts, there exist various factors that contribute to the diminishment of differences between the groups of texts. These factors may also include the diminishment of public interest in complex expertise, the diminishment of critical mass of interested experts and especially the specific context of Slovene media. The mode of news and texts distribution was during the transition period radically modified. Richardson (2007: 78) notes than a two-way process of intense “audience fragmentation” took place. The audience was perceived both as ‘a consumer’ and as a ‘commodity’. According to the first view, the texts were made attractive or appealing to a market of consumers, whilst in the second view the texts were perceived as means to access the audiences by selling their advertising space. While the first type of audience fragmentation represents the bottom-up approach,15 the second type i.e. top-down approach of audience fragmentation is much more worrying in the context of public opinion formation. The top-down approach is characterised by media producers that try to segment i.e. categorize audiences and influence the target groups in order to achieve a certain goal (e.g. the legitimisation of a certain spatial intervention).

............................................ 14 Fairclough (1992: 84) describes intertextuality as: »the property texts have of being full of snatches of other texts, which may be explicitly demarcated or merged in, and which the text may assimilate, contradict ironically echo, and so forth.« 15 Audience fragmentation is the result of increased choice of media options.

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4

Conclusions

The text analysis sheds light on differences and similarities in the choice of rhetorical strategies by different groups of authors. The narrowing of the gap between the two groups of texts is especially problematic from the side of expert authors. The growing communicative incompetence of expert discussants, using deficient contents and simple textual techniques, contributes to the diminishment of institutional and individual reflexivity, which gives wider legitimacy to economic interest groups. Expert authors are supposed to have an important role in the “public sphere” and according to Habermas (1962/1991: 176) embody and stimulate independent voices free from political or economic powers that try to direct the public opinion. Public opinion has a different meaning depending on whether it is brought into play on the assumption that political, economic and social power must be subject to public discourse or is merely a construct to be manipulated in the service of powerful institutions. In this sense experts are often portrayed as important representatives of public sphere and work as a sort of ‘safety fuse’ i.e. critical counterbalance to powers that try to impose private and suppress public interests. The text analysis shows that the critical contents of expert texts on Ljubljana urbanism are often diluted. The role of experts in texts on Ljubljana urbanism is not clear and there does not exist an “ideal speech situation” (Habermas 1984: 177) which could lead to the consolidation of ‘critical forum’ where the advocates of private interest could be confronted with the advocates of public interests in spatial planning. Transition from socialism into ‘freemarket society’ undoubtedly represented an important factor which contributed to the dissolution of old spatial hierarchies and authorities that represented the major force in public opinion formation. The decay of old authorities not only opened space for new actors to contribute to the formation of public opinion but also left a vacuum, which was instantly filled with various PR campaigns. The not yet consolidated structure of critical forum on spatial planning offers plenty of opportunities for various economic interest groups to influence the discursive practices of authors in popular and expert texts. The present circumstances in which the public opinion leaders i.e. expert authorities are weak and are being substituted with expert interpretative vacuum can also be described by “motivation crises” tendencies (Habermas 1976: 75-76). According to Habermas the Motivation crises appear when the socio-cultural system changes and their output become dysfunctional for the

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political decision-makers and for the system of social labour. Motivation crises effects have influences on the public engagement and political behaviour of ordinary people. Due to fast and radical changes which happened in the field of politics and economy the people are experiencing helplessness and exclusion from policy making. In many situations their political activity i.e. public engagement finds a counterbalance in strong advocacy for private interests, resulting in passiveness and a “subordinate mentality of the people towards political elites” (ibid.). People tend to become depoliticized and retreat from public discussion. According to Ronald Inglehart (1997), who analysed the impact of cultural values on national socio-economic systems in the EU countries (World Values Survey, 1995, 1996, 1997), the economic development plays an important role in the transformation of existing/accepted social values and is also retroactively influenced by their change. In discussing the different pace of values shift in West European countries, Inglehart (1997) emphasizes the conjunction between economic growth and social development.16 The improvement of economic, social security and educational, occupational opportunity may prompt a shift towards postmaterialistic values (indicated through a greater emphasis on such goals as self-expression, quality of life and belonging), which should in return result in greater concern for spatial planning and environment. Inglehart (1990) notes that, probably due to influences from transition period, many developed middle European countries (Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia) still have a materialistic orientation that affects the rigidity of discussion about spatial planning. At the same time some authors (Deth, Scarbrough 1998; Turnšek et al. 2000) assert that after 1995 changes in the direction of postmaterialistic value orientation have been noticed. If this is correct, the adoption of concepts and strategies that promote public participation, inclusivity in discussion on spatial planning should in the long run outlast the motivation crises tendencies that were being noticed. When the cumulative effect of series of long-term investments in the educational strategies, reforms and transfer of knowledge from the national institutions, differentiated groups of experts, NGO’s will start to have effect, the public sphere will enlarge and allow greater possibilities for the participation of momentarily passive actors in the ............................................ 16 The context of social development is related to the extent of public concern for spatial planning and environment.

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process of spatial planning. Only when people intrinsically accept the redefinitions of existing social values according to new political and economic circumstances, the actual implementation of procedures that allow public participation in spatial planning could actually take place i.e. become a reality on the level of everyday life. Sources (2000). The White Paper on Environmental Liability. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, European Commission (EC). (2006). ESDS International World Values Survey. Url: http://www.esds.ac.uk/International/access/wvs.asp (4.2.2006) (2006). World Values Survey (WCS). Url: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org (5.2.2006) BENGSTON, N. D., POTTS, S. R., FAN, P. D. AND GOETZ, G. E. (2005). An Analysis of the Public Discourse about Urban Sprawl in the United States: Monitoring Concern about a Major Threat to Forests. Forest Policy and Economics, 7, pp. 745-756. BERGER , P. AND LUCKMANN, T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, N.Y., Anchor. BERGER , P. AND PULLBERG, S. (1966). Reification and the sociological critique of consciousness. New Left Review, 35, pp. 56-77. CHOULIARAKI, L. AND FAIRCLOUGH N. (1999). Discourse in Late Modernity – Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. CRUIKSHANK, J. (2003). How are Ideas about Rurality Constructed – A Methodological Design. Paper at NOLD 2003, Tromsø, Norway, Regional Development in Place. Between the Cultures of Economic Development and the Economics of Cultural Production, Kristiansand. DETH, J. W. AND SCARBROUGH, E. (1998). The Impact of Values. Oxford, Oxford University Press. FAIRCLOUGH, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge, Polity Press. FAIRCLOUGH, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis. London, Longman. GREGORY, D. (1986). Spatial Structure. In Johnston R. J. et al. (eds.), The Dictionary of Human Geography. Oxford, Blackwell. HABERMAS, J. (1976). Legitimation Crisis. London, Heinemann Educational Books. HABERMAS, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action, volume 1, Reason and the rationalization of society. Boston, Beacon Press. HABERMAS, J. (1962/1991). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. INGLEHART, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization: cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press.

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JAWORSKY, A. AND COUPLAND, N. (1999). Introduction: Perspectives on Discourse Analysis. In Jaworsky A. and Coupland N. (eds.), The Discourse Reader. London, Routledge, pp. 1-45. KOS, D., URŠIČ, M., HOČEVAR , M. AND TRČEK, F. (2006). Discourse Analysis of Texts on Ljubljana Urbanism. Ljubljana, CPS, Faculty of Social Sciences, City Municipality of Ljubljana. PAHL, R. E. (1977). Managers, technical experts and the state. In Harloe M. (eds.), Captive cities: studies in the political economy of cities and regions. London, New York, Wiley, pp. 49-60. POTTER , J. AND WETHERELL, M. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology. London, Sage. REITTER , D. (2003). Rhetorical Analysis with Rich-Feature Support Vector Models. Potsdam, University of Potsdam. RICHARDSON, J. E. (2007). Analysing Newspapers. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York, Palgrave Macmillan. SALOVAARA-MORING, I. (2004). Media Geographies – Regional newspaper discourses in Finland in the 1990s. Helsinki, Department of Communication, University of Helsinki. SHAPIRO, G. AND MARKOFF, J. (1997). A Matter of Definition. In Roberts C. W. (eds.), Text Analysis for Social Sciences: Methods for Drawing Statistical Inferences From Texts and Transcripts. Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, pp. 9-34. TURNŠEK, N., UHAN, S. AND GREGORČIČ, M. (2000). Some cultural characteristics of Slovenian population in the period 1991-1997. IB revija, 34 (2), 61-71. VERSCHUEREN, J. (1995). The Pragmatic Return of Meaning. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 5 (2), pp. 127-156. WALLWORK, J. AND DIXON J. A. (2004). Foxes, green fields and Britishness: On the rhetorical construction of place and national identity. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, pp. 21-39. WODAK, R. AND M. MEYER (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis. London, Sage.

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A NNA K ARWIŃSKA

The role of contemporary media in creating an identity for a post-socialist city district: The case of Nowa Huta

1

Introduction

Nowa Huta, the youngest district of Cracow, emerged in the result of an intensive industrialization of Poland, as well as due to the concept of social “restructuring” envisaged by the new system, i.e. the formation of a socialist state. A few factors contributed to the selection of this, and not any other site to build an industrial, socialist city. It complied with the postulate to deploy large industrial works; in addition, the newly chosen site had all the prerequisite parameters (availability of water and proximity of fossil fuels and ore deposits).

Fig. 1: Before Nowa Huta was built. The Mogiła Village

Fig. 2: Here the construction of Nowa Huta Steel Mill has started 26th of April 1950

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Finally, the new location provided job opportunities for the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. There was still quite another important factor, rarely discussed in public, viz. creating counterbalance for the conservative, traditional burger community of Cracow that was perceived by the ruling authorities of that time as a seat of potential political opposition. From the very beginning the concept of building a large industrial complex in the vicinity of Cracow raised much controversy, even thought protests had a little chance to surface under the Stalinist regime. Building large steelworks also had its social implications. Large labour resources had to be found, which led to encouraging the inhabitants of the surrounding rural areas to make a new life in Nowa Huta. It also meant expanding transportation network which would facilitate every day commuting to work. There were quite significant demographic changes caused by building the steelworks. Within 1966 – 1970 period 23,254 people came to Nowa Huta, while 3,610 left it. In 1970 a regional breakdown of Nowa Huta population was as follows: 35.5% were native inhabitants, and 64.1% were born beyond Cracow perimeters. Within that number 6.7% came from urban areas after 1960, and 20.1% from rural areas. Professional structure of Nowa Huta inhabitants was dominated by production workers over services, and manual workers were in majority to white collar workers. Nowa Huta community showed lowest indexes of higher and secondary education, and the highest of vocational and primary education. Medium skilled workers, technicians and engineers with secondary vocational education constituted a major social group in Nowa Huta. Compared to other districts of Cracow, Nowa Huta had fewest people working in education, culture, and specialists in other than technical disciplines. The composition of that community contributed to the fact that the lifestyles of its members were much less differentiated than those of people living in cities more endowed with various functions, particularly those of non-industrial character. A significant social and professional uniformity of Nowa Huta inhabitants, as well as the fact that great many of them followed a monotonous working routine at steelworks was a major contributing factor. The transformation of “burger” Cracow under the lead of industrial, workers’, socialist Nowa Huta, envisaged by the decision makers of that time, remained a vision that has never come true. For many years, the relationships

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between the “old Cracow” and its “younger sister”1 looked encouraging in the official reports, yet the inhabitants of Nowa Huta never integrated with Cracow, while the residents of Cracow maintained negative stereotypes of Nowa Huta dating back to the period of building the steelworks.2 The negative stereotypes were proved by the classified advertisements. For many years local dailies published such ads: “Will swap apartment for a larger one. Nowa Huta out of question”. With the passage of time conflicts subsided, yet the rift between two communities still remained. Even though Nowa Huta was included as a district of Cracow agglomeration in 1950, to the minds of people, as well as in social life it still remained a separate town for quite many years. Phrases such as “Nowa Huta by Cracow”, or “going to Cracow”, to quote just a few commonly used both by Nowa Huta residents, still prove its separateness.

Fig. 3: “Nowa Huta out of question” (Plac centralny)

In a sense, the concepts such as the feeling of being left on the margin of a sprawling metropolis, significant cultural separateness finding expression both in spatial development and lifestyles, the variety of local potential became a springboard for building a local identity. Nevertheless, to the total surprise and outrage of the authorities of that time, the first, genuine elements of local identity began to emerge due to social unrest. The first protest of workers’ community instigated by the authorities’ attempt to remove a cross raised in ............................................ 1 That cozy name of a new district of the city was commonly used by the daily newspapers. 2 Large groups of young people came to Nowa Huta in the first stage of its construction. Frequently lacking education, severed from their roots, without any social control, they were clearly prone to all kinds of pathologies. That “dark side of Nowa Huta was assiduously hidden from public eye.

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one precinct proved the fact that the concept of building a “socialist town without any churches” was not feasible. Hence, it were not the social clubs, not even precincts better equipped with social infrastructure than other parts of the city, but the defense of religious values that became the foundation of the communal identity. Yet, one has to admit that the standard of living in Nowa Huta was better than in other districts due to abundant greenery, well developed social facilities, recreation grounds and sports facilities. However, it became apparent that meeting the material needs at a decent level did not suffice to build a well functioning, integrated urban community before other, more desired values were not fulfilled. Thus, it was by no means a coincidence that “socialist” Nowa Huta became the hub of strong anti-communist opposition at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, and then in time of the Martial Law, and that resistance to the government became an important contributing factor in building local identity.

2

The contemporary Nowa Huta in search of identity

The post-1989 period of transformations was the time of changes in the mentality of many Nowa Huta residents, in particular of the younger generation. In the consequence of a dwindling output of Nowa Huta steelworks the need arose to discover and employ other local resources. The experience gained during the above mentioned “marginalization” on the map of Cracow, and the growing sense of uniqueness of the site, historical insights and building local community were also important. The inhabitants of Nowa Huta constituted a culturally differentiated community, which fact was quite recently perceived by the people building a new image of that district (perhaps taking advantage of growing popularity of multicultural communities). Building a new image is connected with the process of building a competitive potential, a significant element of local resources. That potential, once properly used, may bring tangible material gains to a given community. On the one hand the enthusiasts of Nowa Huta such as Maciej Miezian, the author of a guide book of that district keep reminding that Nowa Huta was not merely a socialist town built on a “crude root”, but it was a site of smelting furnaces of Celtic origin, dating a few thousand years back. On the other hand, it was

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pointed out that the concept of a socialist town did not mean just building steelworks and sprawling high-rise apartment blocks.3 An exhibition held in Nowa Huta museum in the first half of 2006 reminded the visitors that the original concepts for the city of gardens had never been implemented, and it showed the bold visions for Nowa Huta designed by talented architects. The very idea of listing Nowa Huta as a national landmark (which became a fact) reinforced the belief about the unique character of that place.

Fig. 4: Planned Town Hall and a Plaza for Nowa Huta

At this point it should be mentioned that even though Nowa Huta is a district of Cracow, city authorities are reluctant to perceive the spatial and cultural values of that district as worth their attention in building the “brand” of the city. Cracow is the city of numerous highest rank historical relics, a well known destination for tourists seeking cultural attractions, many objects related to Pope Paul II, the seat of many institutions, the place of world-famous cultural events such as the Festival of Jewish Culture. Over the past few years Cracow has become a more and more popular weekend destination not just due to its “staple” historical landmarks, and the people who come to visit are not necessarily young. Such “new visitors in town” who might not be especially interested in historical sites and cultural traditions help to create a fashion for unusual, unique places which appeal through aesthetic associations, ways of ............................................ 3 Quite recently the very concept of a guide book for Nowa Huta did not seem to make much sense due to the competitive edge of much richer and more famous wealth of historical relics of Cracow. Yet the guide book became a bestseller, and Nowa Huta has become a more and more often visited destination for tourists eager to experience something new.

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spending leisure time different than those typical of classical tourist town with centuries-long history. To many Nowa Huta may be equally interesting, or even more interesting than the Old Town, beautiful in its own right, and yet somehow reminding of other historical structures in Europe, or still different parts of the world. Hence, it is for the tourists, as well as for themselves, that the residents of Nowa Huta strive to create a unique, unforgettable place. It should be noted in the analysis of building the image of Cracow that the traditional methods used for the promotion of a historical city might prove quite irrelevant and ineffective in creating an image of a completely different entity. What is more, the identity of Nowa Huta is created, at least a part of it, to oppose the Grand Cultural Capital of Poland, as Cracow is at times solemnly called. It might be inferred from the analysis that mass media play a special role, both traditional ones such as local press, posters, local tv channel, and some more up to date that emerged with the development of digital technologies. Creating the image of Nowa Huta is just one (by no means most important) out of the whole plethora of elements employed by the Department of Cooperation and Promotion of Cracow City. Yet, the residents of Nowa Huta are not satisfied. A group of local enthusiasts decided to attract the attention of Cracow residents and tourists to their district. They set up a Society of Fans for the development of Nowa Huta whose primary objective is solving the most pressing issues of that area and launching new initiatives addressed mainly to the young inhabitants of Nowa Huta. Their views are presented in a magazine of young Nowa Huta lovers aptly titled “Nowa Huta”, which is coming out at irregular intervals. One of the early projects called “55 souvenirs for 55th Anniversary” meant designing gadgets characteristic of the district. The first jigsaw puzzles have come out, and more souvenirs bearing Nowa Huta images are on their way. There is another interesting project called Identity Quest „I Love NH” that has been launched with a great panache. It employs various instruments to reach all generations, and not just the youngest, most active group of “enhacks”4.

............................................ 4 That is a popular name given to Nowa Huta residents.

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Fig. 5: I love Nowa Huta

One of its poster slogans reads “Love, Respect, Do not destroy”. The message is to protect everything that surrounds Nowa Huta, care both for the youth as well as the elders, stop vandalizing the staircases, facades, playgrounds, etc. That initiative sends the older residents, former builders of the district, a signal that the “socialist” tradition, nowadays much despised and rejected, may have its revival, becoming an element of the contemporary Nowa Huta image. That is a significant part of that district’s identity, once rashly discarded, which has a chance to survive due to a new fashion for post-industrial spaces and “socland” revival. Apparently Identity Quest I LOVE NH is targeted on young residents of that district. They were the buyers of I LOVE NH T-shirts, trendy key chains, mobile phone chains, coffee mugs and tea cups, reprints of socialist era postcards. All this merchandise will be available through NOWA HUTA NON STOP website, in shops, art galleries and (obviously) in the internet shop www.nhsklep.pl. Sacrum Profanum Festival, whose concerts are traditionally held by the Cracow 2000 Office in a shut down rolling mill of Nowa Huta steelworks, is a very significant event promoting Nowa Huta cultural scene. Already the first concert, Carl Orff ’s “Carmina Burana” staged in 2003, became a great success. The decision of the production’s director to enhance the performance with documentaries about Nowa Huta including those quite remote from the varnished image of socialist construction site. The spectators were thrilled with the scenery. The rolling mill house is located about two kilometers from the main entrance and it is surrounded by other shops in which production continued during the concert. While the make shift “concert hall” accommodated 2 thousand strong audience, just as many steel mill workers were busy at work. The final concert in 2004, this time Mozart’s “Requiem” sounded different than in a church interior. Yet it became another artistic and social event that attracted both domestic and foreign patrons. The successive Sacrum Profanum concerts; Prokofiew’s “Romeo and Juliet” in 2005, and Bizet’s “Carmen” in 2006 were much awaited and widely © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

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described by the media events, and became the highlights of the cultural season in Cracow. Nowa Huta has become a truly significant spot on the map of Polish cultural events.

3

The use of media in building a local identity

Needless to say, local press has become the most “settled down” medium used for building the identity of Nowa Huta. That press was also circulated in times of Polish Peoples’ Republic when it was employed mostly for propaganda purposes. A characteristic feature of contemporary publications (some quite short-lived , others coming out every now and then) is that each of them is backed by a group of people eager to voice their opinion on how to define their district’s identity, and who are more or less enthusiastic in their actions. It may be worthwhile to list some examples. “The Voice” Nowa Huta weekly that celebrated its 55th anniversary in 2006 is a prime example. That oldest weekly in Nowa Huta, celebrating its revival in new economic conditions, is a local paper providing information and articles. It has been coming out in its new form since 1991 with a circulation of 18 thousand. Its articles focus on the current events, feature humour and also convey some serious messages. Some space is devoted to local news, and the readers can also access older issues through the internet.

”Lodołamacz” (“The Icebreaker”) with a caption “fighting people paper” is a monthly with a circulation of 15 thousand. It first came out in 2005 as a supplement to “Łaźnia Nowa” theatre. The sixteen-page monthly is published by the theatre enthusiasts and it is mostly focused on culture, concerts held in Nowa Huta, theatre performances, happenings, etc. In addition, each issue contains Nowa Huta Survey presented in the form of an interview with a celebrity, an actor, a politician, a scientist, etc. that is in some way related to Nowa Huta. That is another clever method of building the image of that place,

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proving wrong the stereotype about strictly working class, industrial character of that district.

Naturally, in line with the needs of small business outlets emerging in Nowa Huta and creation of new workplaces providing various services, from the most rudimentary to the most refined ones, that district also has its newsletters and advertising papers usually distributed free of charge throughout the district, or dropped into residents’ mailboxes. “Kreator”, a typical commercial brochure that has been coming out for a few years is a good example. A design journal “Feniks. Design for Nowa Huta” is a fine example of a periodical. Even though published by Małopolski Institute of Culture, a scientific establishment, the journal still provides information, as well as some photographs of Nowa Huta. In this way it promotes the district presenting various artistic workshops, provides news about conferences, and other facts about the life of the district. It should be noted that regional newspapers play an increasingly important role in promoting Nowa Huta and building its identity in line with the growing popularity of that district. Public television also contributes to creating the identity of Nowa Huta and building local patriotism among its residents. Since January 2006, every week the viewers of Channel 3 of Polish Tv could watch a new release of Nowa Huta Newsreel. The newsreel is also shown before every feature show at the “Sfinks”, a Nowa Huta movie theatre. The newsreel is created with the assistance of a

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professional film maker Jerzy Ridan and the support of a group of young people, who earlier attended film workshops at Nowa Huta Culture Club named after Andrzej Bursa. This is not just a depiction of current events, but it features short documentaries discussing the problems and personalities of Nowa Huta. The decision to produce Nowa Huta Newsreel on regular basis was taken during Nowa Huta Film Marathon. Local tv channel presented Nowa Huta culture in a very attractive and unusual way in November 2005. A tv reporter went sightseeing the district from the windows of the 1960s bus nicknamed “a cucumber”. In the program there were shown both the places and objects dating back to the socialist era, as well as the most recent cultural facilities including Nowa Huta Museum, New Bath Theatre5 which staged a happening promoting the first night of “Kind Oedipus “ play production. The invited guests included young people performing breakdance, the pioneers who built the district half a century ago, and finally the representatives of Nowa Huta nomadic Gypsies who were forced to settle down by decree of the Polish People’s Republic. Most of those people have already become a part of the district enhancing it with the local colour and contributing to its “multicultural” character. One of the highlights of that event was an auction of plaques bearing the former name of the main square of the district. By the decision of the city council councilors the square was renamed after Ronald Reagan. Many residents of Nowa Huta sensitive about the issues of local identity never accepted the change. The internet television in Nowa Huta represents modern technology. “Całkiem Nowa Huta” (Brand New Nowa Huta) channel that premiered on the TVNET platform has for its mission propagation of active life and support to the district. It is no secret that the channel opts for the “good” news, and not just sheer sensation. The current program presents people’s views, comment and observations. Another program aptly named “Observer” presents news from politics and social life. There is also a program discussing the work of City Council councilors. It is worth noting that a special channel for the disabled who are quite often neglected even by their neighbours, is under way. The authors of the new program hope to find within that group some more ............................................ 5 An avant garde theatre staging „off ” productions was moved to Nowa Huta from Kazimierz, a former Jewish districts of Cracow. That idea was initially considered to be very controversial, however, it worked out very well, The theatre has become one of the most important cultural centres of Now Huta and it attracts the residents of Cracow and tourists alike.

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interesting residents to enhance the local scene and culture. The district council took notice of TVNET, a new private tv station that started to receive some financial and administrative support since 2006. The council saw the opportunity the new station provided to change the image of Nowa Huta, reinforce integration processes within the district, and propagate a positive image of the district to the outside world. There is a new, dynamically growing radio station Nowa Huta that operates on the internet . The station, specialising in musical programs, was founded by a local enthusiast who managed to infect not only other music lovers, but also those interested in art. One of his campaigns called “paint your city” made him quite famous and promoted the station not to its surroundings, but to other districts as well. So far that activity has not been bringing high financial rewards. Everybody is welcome to make his appearance on the radio. You do not need education, assertiveness and good intentions suffice. Both the founders of the radio station as well as its listeners care most for fun. Yet, they also want to talk about Nowa Huta, to promote it, to get to know it and share their views on art, beauty and good with other residents of the district. Other media are also active in creating the image of Nowa Huta, suffice it to quote a series of events targeted on Nowa Huta organised by the Apollo Film at the turn of March and April 2006. The objective of that festival was to dispel certain recurrent stereotypes about Nowa Huta. Some most interesting artistic events were selected for that purpose (authored by a group of artists operating from the former “Swit” movie theatre) and shown to the residents of Cracow. That cultural event was not presented in the district, but downtown Cracow in the “Film Cafe” at the “Kijów” movie theatre. There was much discussion about culture in the cafe, but the primary objective was to promote Nowa Huta artists who are quite often familiar to the residents of that district, but who have not made it yet to the “high society” of culture. There were pictures inspired by the architecture of high rise apartment blocks, comic strips depicting the past, the contemporary scene and Nowa Huta stereotypes, events bordering on performance and sport, e.g. break dance show, and finally NH Clothing (NH for Nowa Huta) fashion show. Films made in the Polish People’s Republic time convey quite different message when shown, and discussed nowadays. Polish Socrealism Films, presented in March 2006 within a film festival, contributed to the discussions about the old and the new image of Nowa Huta and the revolution implemented by the young generation. One may say the history has come a full circle; over half a century ago propaganda

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instruments praised the youthfulness of Nowa Huta opposing it to the old, burger Cracow. Nowadays, it is the young ones that are searching for a new formula for that unusual place, quite often acting against the acknowledged values within the official culture, doing things that would not be accepted in Cracow, the seat of the “refined culture”. Many young people value only the information they can find on the internet. That is why both the Nowa Huta radio station and television gained popularity due to their access to the web. There are more and more Nowa Huta www pages. They are continually updated as new societies, festivals and artistic events spring up. Much space is given to describe the transformations of Nowa Huta, there are new pages focusing on history, socrealism traditions, current events. The web pages range from the official sites of the district to private sites of its residents. It is interesting to note that Nowa Huta has become popular not just in Poland. “Nowa Huta” entry on any search engine brings many pages focused on the continually developing district. The table below presents the search results on three most popular browsers: BROWSER

SEARCH RESULTS

NETSPRINT

37000

GOOGLE

90500

YAHOO

61700

Quite frequently web pages focus on the socialist past of Nowa Huta. With new generations coming off age, for whom socialism is just a thing of the past, everyday life in socialism times has become an intriguing subject. At times young people find it difficult to believe the absurd regulations or prohibitions that were quite ordinary for their parents or grandparents. The same disbelief applies to the conditions of life under the socialist system. Nowa Huta internet pages are being used to present contemporary projects, e.g. the one by Małopolski Institute of Culture, “nowa huta.rtf ” showing various “truths” about Nowa Huta. That is how “The Book of Freed Texts” was created. It contains various stories, pictures, preserved newspaper clippings, descriptions of everyday life and special occasions. The book came out as a real publication and it became a starting point for discussion on the internet. The discussion about the past, the important issues, the present. That one of

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the kind, contemporary showcase of the district was a joint contribution of both amateurs, as well as professional historians. The posters that were produced from the collected materials and put in various parts of Nowa Huta gave some food for thought and discussion. A team of students of Cracow Academy of Fine Arts that designed the posters collected materials determining the graphic and typographic expression of Nowa Huta. They were looking for some old inscriptions, signs and pictures which were later displayed at exhibitions and artistic events held not only in Nowa Huta, but also in other parts of Cracow.

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Conclusion. Between Virtual and Real. What is Nowa Huta like?

That much for the description of some media-supported activities aimed at building the identity of Nowa Huta. We might wonder how much that vision of Nowa Huta is apparent in everyday life of the district. The changes within urban space are quite conspicuous. Just like in other parts of Cracow, the results of free market economy, Polish membership in international structures and globalization are significant. Yet, it is by no means an easy feat to find the magical world created by the media or meet the fascinating people who present their work on the internet, on the posters, or use other means of expression. The Nowa Huta presented in the media does exist, yet it only a part of the picture of that district. Regrettably, the transformations did not bring just economic revival and new tourist attractions to that predominantly grey and uninteresting part of town. It is also a district of a thoughtless destruction of the old town planning order, a district infested with unsightly structures of quasi-architecture, a district where apart from grand festivals and events dedicated to various aspects of culture there is also drab existence quite disappointing to those who unreservedly believed in the bright, colorful image created by the media.

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Literature MACIEJ MIEZIAN, Nowa Huta. Socjalistyczna w formie, fascynująca w treści, Wydawnictwo Bezdroża, 2004 http://www.nh.pl/ http://nowa-huta.w.interia.pl/ http://www.nh.pnth.net/przewodnik_historia_nh.htm http://tvnet.com.pl/ http://kijow.pl/filmy/nowa_huta. www.radionh.com.pl http://www.glos-tn.krakow.pl/ http://www.zyciekrakowa.pl/nowahuta/index.php http://nowahuta.org.pl.

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G RAHAM E LLARD AND S TEPHEN J OHNSTONE

Motion Path1

A Building is Being Filmed Motion Path is a synchronised twelve screen video work, shot in four of Erich Mendelsohn’s major public buildings; the Schocken Department store building in Chemnitz, The Metal Workers’ Union (IGM) Building in Berlin, the B’nai Amoona Synagogue in St. Louis, USA, (now the Centre of Contemporary Arts) and the De La Warr Pavilion, in Bexhill on Sea, England. Motion Path locates itself in a space between architectural documentary, abstract film and projected installation and suggests a kind of archaeological probing of the very simple question: how can film represent architectural space?

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A version of this text was first published to accompany the exhibition of Motion Path at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, England. 8 April to 2 July 2006. www.dlwp.com This first staging of the work was commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion. The artists wish to thank Alan Haydon and Celia Davies for their commitment to the project. Motion Path has been funded by Arts Council England with the support of Film London. Additional support from the International Fine Art Research Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Department of Visual Arts, Goldsmiths College. Copyright: © 2006 Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone. www.ellardjohnstone.com

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Fig. 1: Motion Path, Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone, De La Warr Pavilion, Installation documentation photography by: Jerry Hardman-Jones

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Starting from the position of seeing Mendelsohn’s emblematic and spectacular glass staircases as enormous light modulators we have used specially designed and other more ad hoc camera devices to emphasise the prismatic effects produced by the always mobile spectator of Mendelsohn’s architecture. Referring back to the architectural films made by Lazlo Moholy Nagy and Pierre Chenal, for whom the roving camera was imagined as the ideal medium for rendering the dynamism of modern architecture, Motion Path emphasises transparency, parallax, simultaneity, multiple and constantly changing views and restlessness in order to produce an experience of the buildings as a set of changing relationships between vistas, voids, solids, reflections and apertures.

Fig. 2: Four composite images of the three-screen projections:, The Metal Workers' Union (IGM) building, Berlin, Germany.

Fig. 3: The Metal Workers' Union (IGM) building, Berlin, Germany.

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Fig. 4: The Schocken Department Store, Chemnitz, Germany.

Fig. 5: The B'nai Amoona Synagogue, St. Louis, USA (now the Centre of Contemporary Arts, St. Louis)

Each location has been filmed using a repertoire of specific camera moves that register the effects of parallax and trace the extraordinary sinuousness of Mendelsohn’s modernist architecture. In effect the buildings provide a kind of shooting script as the camera’s motion is guided by the serpentine fluidity of handrails, the spiralling movement of glass encased stairwells, and multiple and shifting sightlines provided by canopies and walkways. The resulting video footage has been edited across twelve screens, synchronised to produce a fluid filmic space in which the architecture of the building is re-drawn through the gliding, continuous movement of the camera.

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Fig. 6: Image of Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone in their London studio working on the completion of Motion Path, February 2006. Photography: GAA/Laurin Clausmeyer

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Fig. 7: Motion Path, Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone, De La Warr Pavilion, 2006. Installation photography by: Adam Lloyd Monaghan

The work explores the possibilities of a form of ‘table-top’ video sculpture, part architectural model, part video installation. It further develops our thirteenyear interest in immersive environments, film and architecture, video projection and architectural space, and our current concern with the conventions by which architecture is represented in film.

Fig. 8: Motion Path, Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone, De La Warr Pavilion, 2006. Installation photography by: Adam Lloyd Monaghan

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Moving Through Buildings An architecture must be walked through and traversed… This is so true that architecture can be judged as dead or living by the degree to which the rule of movement has been disregarded or brilliantly exploited (Le Corbusier quoted in G E Kidder Smith 1961) The point of view of modern architecture is never fixed, as in baroque architecture, or as in the model of vision of the camera obscura, but always in motion, as in a film or in a city. Crowds, shoppers in a department store, railroad travellers, and the inhabitants of Le Corbusier’s houses have in common with move viewers that they cannot fix (arrest) the image. Like the movie viewer that Benjamin describes (“no sooner has his eye grasped a scene than it is already changed… (Beatriz Colomina, 1996) Importantly, the buildings that we filmed in Motion Path were all public buildings, and evidently buildings designed by Erich Mendelsohn with a mobile user in mind. Certainly all four buildings explicitly structure a route, or routes, through the space to determine the users experience of the building as a dynamic form but what immediately becomes apparent on entering Mendelsohn’s public spaces is that their extraordinary fluidity seems to invite, demand even, a promenading gaze: the architectural language Mendelsohn uses deliberately captivates the mobile user with reflective and transparent surfaces that endlessly produce changing views and perplexing vistas. At the same time his buildings aimed to render visible, or perform, ideological claims in terms of a syntax of use: the buildings were designed around an idea of a circulation and movement that is also rhetorical. For instance, Mendelsohn explicitly designed the Metalworkers Union building to make visible the social and political claims of the union – and the workers and union officials move through the building in a way that enacts the principles of democratic decision-making.

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Fig. 9: The Metal Workers' Union (IGM) building, Berlin, Germany.

Fig. 10: The Metal Workers' Union (IGM) building, Berlin, Germany.

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In effect, it has been suggested, the building becomes a model of union participation and this is performed through the movement of officials and members as they circulate around the building on union business. In this way the stairwell acts as a core for vertical circulation that connects all members and activities of the union, But the stairwell also takes the form of an extraordinary and immersive light modulator, animating and accentuating movement through the use of transparency and reflection as the user appears to open and close spaces as he or she moves from floor to floor. (A similar modulator effect is at work in the stairwell of the De La Warr Pavillion). The B’nai Amoona Synagogue in St. Louis, Missouri is more horizontal and linear in form and a building within which ‘tracking’ views reveal the the main structure between intersecting planes or ‘wipes’ and ‘cross-cuts’ as the user is invited to move from exterior to interior via canopied walkways.

Fig. 11: The B'nai Amoona Synagogue, St. Louis, USA (now the Centre of Contemporary Arts, St. Louis)

Fig. 12: The B'nai Amoona Synagogue, St. Louis, USA (now the Centre of Contemporary Arts, St. Louis)

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Thirdly, in the now disused Schocken department store in Chemnitz, a different kind of transition occurs as you move across wide open floors still mapped out by the paths and walkways that circulated shoppers around the now missing display counters. However the depth of the scene is still articulated through the parallax effect resulting from the repeated columns supporting the reinforced concrete floor supports and the extraordinary ribbon windows that curve effortlessly into the distance.

Fig. 13: The Schocken Department Store, Chemnitz, Germany.

Finally, The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea is a building with mobility at its heart – having been from the very start proposed and designed as a space or site for continual perambulation and promenading.

How Do You Film a Building ? One of the initial questions we asked ourselves was ‘how do you film a building without it becoming a setting or a backdrop for a narrative?’ Or again,

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‘how do you film a building without figures in the foreground acting out a narrative within an architectural mis-en-scene?’ This is the question the writer Iain Sinclair suggests Patrick Keillor asked himself before he made the film London (1992). Keillor’s answer was to keep the camera absolutely still – no pans, zooms, tracking shots or tilts. And it works spectacularly well, the camera’s over-extended, almost autistic stare drawing out and unearthing a city built on hidden stories and melancholic coincidences. It is also the question one can imagine Chantal Akerman asked herself as she began to shoot Hotel Monterrey. Again Akerman’s response was to keep the camera still, and hold the shot for an almost unbearably long time. So much so that the still camera becomes a forensic or archaeological device: if you stare at something long enough inevitably something will be revealed.

A Building Films Itself Whilst the penguins waddle happily up the swirling ramps of Berthold Lubetkin's Penguin Pool at London Zoo Londoners, no doubt all living in far humbler and certainly more old-fashioned abodes, look on admiringly at these plump inhabitants of utopia. This 1936 film promoting Lubetkin's zoo architecture was made by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the émigré Hungarian artist, designer, photographer and Bauhaus visionary. This short, silent black and white movie is shot as a seemingly unbroken curve of motion, the camera's arcing progress suggesting the freedom and energy of a modern metropolis, one that happens to be inhabited by penguins. (www.felixfilm.com.nagy.htm) In Architecture d’aujourd’hui which Pierre Chenal made for Corbusier in 1931, the architect can’t hurry through his house fast enough. We see him drive up in his car to the villa in Garches. He gets out and hurries inside. Then after just a few sweeping vertical and horizontal camera shots of the facade, he has already left the rooms in the direction of the roof terrace. After finally coming to rest, he looks to the horizon. This introductory gesture of striding and pushing through the enclosed ensemble influences the whole film. There are confused views, landscape windows, circular movements, jumping from window to window… (Alessandro Redivo, 2004).

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We, however, were interested in something rather different from the static camera in Motion Path and our response to the question ‘how do you film a building?’ revolved around a fantasy – ‘what if the building could film itself ?’ Not only that, ‘but what if the building imagined itself being used, wandered, traversed, and filmed itself from the position of its users ?’ With this fantasy in mind it was important that we retained an idea of the possibility of speaking not just of what the building looked like, or even what was buried under the surface of the thing itself , but how buildings produce a. dynamic, changing experience as the space is traversed– so that ant prospective film might render a space made visible by movement and mobility. Central to what we were attempting to do in this work, then, centres on the possibility of granting the building it’s own point of view, or its own way of seeing, and linking this with the fantasy that the camera frees itself of the cameraman and instead is bound to the walls, stairs, walkways and sightlines of the building itself. Important here in the early planning of the work were two modernist films about architectural space: Moholy-Nagy’s film of the Lubetkin penguin house at London Zoo, The New Architecture of the London Zoo (1936) and Pierre Chenal’s film of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye; Architecture d’aujourd’hui (1930). Typically, we found it very difficult to actually see these films and until very recently we were totally dependent on written accounts and descriptive fragments, all of which emphasised the drifting, sinuous, ever mobile camerawork that is supposed to characterise these films. In fact, and as is often the case, our sense of these films drawn from the available descriptions was far in excess of their actuality and when we finally did see them they did not really accord with anything we had imagined. But our creative misreading of both The New Architecture and Architecture d’aujourd’hui and our desire to locate a camera/building in perpetual motion chimed with some earlier multi-screen installations we had made such as AfterBody Press and Prisma. After Body Press was a multi screen video work that ran in a maze-like configuration through the ground floor galleries of Robert Adams’ Eighteenth Century house, Osterley Park. Filmed in the renowned and incredibly grand Neo-Classical rooms of Osterley Park itself, After Body Press created an endlessly moving environment of synchronised swirling, doubled images that folded into each other along six specially arranged projection screens. These multiple, episodic and wandering images were captured using two hand-held cameras that were passed between us in a baton-like fashion according to a

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range of pre-planned and tightly choreographed movements. Sometimes these movements were tied to the contours and reach of the body as it perambulates through the building, while on other occasions the camera movements mimicked the roving of the eye as it traced the lines of Robert Adams’ remarkable decorative pattern work in carpets, ceilings and wall friezes. After Body Press drew on and emphasised the architectural qualities of the projected video image to create an immersive and dynamic space that the spectator experienced as a kind of performer. Integral to the installation was the recognition that the viewer must act or perform simple, sometimes unconscious or involuntary acts in the space in order to experience the work. The origins of After Body Press were to be found in some photographs of a now little seen performance film by the American artist Dan Graham titled Body Press (1970-72). In an account of his double projection film Graham describes how, by using two cameras passed between two performers as the they guided film cameras across their bodies in a spiraling figure of eight movement, he attempted to demonstrate the relationship between human eye, human body, camera eye and camera body. Here the diagrammatic photographs of the filming process Graham employed in Body Press suggested a way of recording a performance of Adams’ house in which the video camera literally takes on the optical vantage of the roving body as it follows the contours of the building itself. This relationship between camera and body was then mirrored in the resulting installation of synchronised, multiple projections as the viewer is invited to similarly engage with the mechanics and performance of looking at and experiencing a building. A further piece of work, Prisma (2002), was also important in thinking about how to film Mendelsohns buildings. Prisma emerged out of studio-based research which explored the dynamics of the moving image, the condition of the mobile spectator and the relationship between the virtual camera and the physical projector. In this piece we aimed to construct a simple immersive environment in which the mobile spectator encountered the architectural qualities of the projected video image. By using computer generated architectural modeling programmes we aimed to exploit the differences and similarities between screen space and real space. The work employed an obsolescent programme to create physically impossible multiple camera movements that are recreated as a synchronized and ever moving architectural image world on screen. The resulting installation is then experienced by the spectator as a

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dynamic environment of projected images that enfold and swirl around the viewer. The objects that appeared on screen were formed from lighting units that would typically be used in an architect’s visualisation of a planned space. These ‘light objects’ were then animated to glide from a point in deep space through a set of points of view or ‘virtual cameras’. Here the camera does not fly through space but rather objects fly through the camera, which is at the same time in motion, spiralling and circling on its axis. The result was a kaleidoscopic immersive environment that placed the viewer in the centre of the cinematic portal that is a ‘stargate’ (exemplified in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey or used to signal a transition to another kind of space in cinema advertising trailers). The work was staged in a number of ways both as a largescale projected installation across four screens that surrounded the spectator, and also as a smaller, more fragmented vista across eight separate screens. Drawing on these earlier pieces ‘Motion Path’ both ties the camera to the countours and sightlines of Mendelsohn’s buildings and at the same time sets it wandering via a series of tightly choreographed movements using established walkways, paths, and routes as a compact camera dolly glides through the space. The emblematic stairwells were then shot in two ways. Firstly, by physically attaching the camera to the handrail and sliding the camera down the stairs, sometimes with the camera pointed directly ahead to produce a swirling and falling motion, sometimes with camera pointed sideways to create a sequence that, in a descending or ascending movement, appears to penetrates the horizontal plate of each floor. And secondly, through the use of a camera head that was able to trace the line of vision projected by the circling, spiralling stairways. For these sequences we designed and had built two custom camera mounts; a ‘sled’ or crawler, as we named it, that allowed the camera to run along the handrails and turn around their axis; and a ‘crank’ or ‘mount’, a three axis 360-degree pan and tilt head that enabled a compact DV camcorder to spin around its own axis as it was propelled horizontally or vertically through the space.

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Fig. 14: Shooting using one of the custom camera mounts. The Metal Workers' Union (IGM) building, Berlin, Germany.

Fig. 15: Custom made camera mount

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If our misreading of early modernist architectural film is one source of this desire to project a camera through architectural space, then other precedents we should acknowledge can be found in the work of experimental filmmakers such as Ernie Gehr, Stan Brakhage/Joseph Cornell, Richard Serra and Bruce Baillie. Gehr’s Side/Walk/Shuffle (1991) is shot from the glass lift on the side of the Fairmount Hotel, Nob Hill, San Francisco as it travels up and down the building. Composed of 25 shots, each 90 seconds long, the camera tilted dramatically each time, the film presented ungrounded city views, from a flowing, spinning, unaccustomed mobile perspectives. As the critic Gilbert Perez notes Gehr’s camera “can set whole buildings in apparent motion, vary their speeds relative to one another by subtle panning, halt their motion as the rest of the city slides by, …it can disorient us and reorient us by rendering the city from various arresting shifting angles, up, down, and sideways, upside down and right side up, unaccustomed mobile positions that keep giving us pause…” (Perez.1999) Another important example is Stan Brakhage’s Wonder Ring (1955) a film shot from the Third Avenue El train in New York, its view determined by he winding of the train track, the carriage becoming a dolly. The film, run backwards, was also to form the basis for Joseph Cornell’s GniR RednoW (1955) (hence the new title title), Cornell: “commissioned” then-burgeoning filmmaker Stan Brakhage to film the Third Avenue El before it was dismantled. As noted by film historian P. Adams Sitney, the experience was a pivotal one for Brakhage, allowing a move away from his early psychodramas and advancement toward conveying subjective impressions through the engagement of camera and environment, without the crutch of mediating characters, and the graphic arrangement shots. The result was Wonder Ring, a minor masterpiece of reflecting surfaces, blurred views from inside subway cars, and a silent journey through a city shifting in front of our eyes and through time. (Rowin, 2004) Similarly Richard Serra’s ‘Portland Turnbridge’ (1976) uses the structure of its subject, the turnbridge itself, as an armature or support for the camera, allowing it to dictate entirely both framing and movement to produce not an image of the bridge but an index or recording of it’s movement. As Rosalind Krauss points out “in Serra’s film the camera, from a position at one end of the bridge,

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sights down its entire length to make the of the bridge itself a giant viewfinder” (Krauss, 1994). In many respects movement itself began to constitute the subject of the films we were making in Mendelsohn’s buildings and we started to imagine that we were fulfilling Elle Faure’s dream of Cineplastics: In the 1920s, as (Anthony) Vidler points out, the art historian Elle Faure recognized the potential of a close affiliation of film and architecture. In The Art of Cineplastics, Faure states that architecture should cease to be art of immobility…Instead, he challenges architects to set their designs in motion, to develop what he calls “cineplastics” the dynamic and spiritual basis for building and city making. Cineplastics can be understood as a kind of merger between architecture and film, in which film would transcend plot, and architecture would be more than static object. Faure’s cineplastics envisions film as a visual symphony of moving architecture, a sensual journal created from form, amid buildings and landscapes. To Faure, film, alone among the arts, is “plastic drama in action, occupying time through its own movement and carrying with it its own space”. The space of the film, its surfaces and forms, and even its human characters are, in a sense, its architecture. Faure exhorts architects “to build edifices that are made and broken down and remade ceaselessly – by imperceptible passages of time and modelling that are in themselves architecture at every moment”, and thus to release architecture into shifting assemblages of cinematic motion. (Schwarzer, 2004)

A Building Asks to be Filmed

Also of interest to us was that Mendelsohn has been identified on numerous occasions as one of the first architects to deliberately build a ‘media building’. Certainly Mendelsohn designed buildings with a clear awareness of their eventual representation in a photographic image. A much reproduced image of the Schocken department store in Chemnitz makes apparent the strong graphic qualityof the building, appearing as it does in positive and negative by day and night.

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As Baumann and Schnasse point out in the catalogue to the Bauhaus show “Modern Greetings: Photographed Architecture on Picture Postcards 1919 – 1939”: “The department store company which most consistently concentrated on how its buildings were designed was Schocken. And they hired a brilliant architect to do it for them: Erich Mendelsohn. His smooth often slightly curving façades with bands of lighting by night created a distinctive corporate identity within the space of a very few years. It stills makes an impact even though the department store has long since been forgotten. Mendelsohn also integrated lettering in his conception as he had seen it done in American department stores. This made his department stores and other projects of a similar nature genuine media buildings because not only were media elements incorporated in the design but the buildings themselves were eminently suited to use by and for the media. It goes without saying that picture postcards were an integral part of this bold venture into corporate design. They were sold at reasonable prices at all stationary checkouts. The composition of the photographs – planned down to the last detail by the architect, a photographer in his own right, and then photographed again once they were completed – seems simple and tranquil but is still fraught with exciting tensions. The curve of the line of the façade is emphasized in both photographs and buildings; photographs have quite frequently been taken by day and by night from the same point of station, that of a person standing on the ground, to considerably underscore the dynamic of the façade”. (Baumann and Schnasse, 2004) Towards the end of editing Motion Path we then discovered a rather extraordinary connection with something El Lissitsky’s suggested in a review of Mendelsohn’s photo essay about American cities, Amerika (1926), that resonated in all kinds of unanticipated ways with the project: “a first leafing through its pages thrills us like a dramatic film. Before our eyes move pictures that area absolutely unique. In order to understand some of the photographs you must lift the book over your head and rotate it. The architect shows us America not from a distance from within, as he

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leads us into the canyon of its streets”. (El Lissitsky quoted in Schwarzer, 2004) Finally, it was always crucial to consider how the work was to be experienced by a viewer. The finished installation took the form of four sets of table-top projections – part architectural model, part video installation. On each table were three synchronised video projections onto to three separate screens. Each set of screens showed one of the four buildings. The four tables were arrayed in the exhibition space to prompt or necessitate a mobile spectatorship – the scale of the images prompting or drawing in the viewer for closer scrutiny, whilst the installation as a whole and the carefully orchestrated movement across all twelve screens requiring a more remote overview. The absence of a single ideal and privileged point of view underscores this mobile viewing and proposes and physically active process of negotiating several viewpoints, and composing the work in various ways, over time and across space. The routes through and around the work were equally important and devised in such a way to make necessary a careful navigation with no straight through route and no obvious circuit of the work.

Fig. 16: Motion Path, Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone De La Warr Pavilion, Installation documentation photography by: Jerry Hardman-Jones

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And as the spectator moves through the multiple screens arrayed through the space as series of wipes and edits are produced as one screen falls in front of another. In this way the mobility produced by the buildings and out of which the image sequences are generated is echoed then in the form of spectatorship into which the final installed work inducts the viewer. Bibliography BEATRIZ COLOMINA, Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media. Cambridge Mass and London MIT Press, 1996. KIRSTEN BAUMANN AND ROLPH SCHNASSE, Modern Greetings. Photographed Architecture on Picture Postcards 1919-1939. Stuttgart: Arnoldische Art Publishers, 2004 www.felixfilm.com.nagy.htm G E KIDDER SMITH, The New Churches of Europe. London: The architectural Press 1964 ROSALIND KRAUSS / RICHARD SERRA, Sculpture in Richard Serra. Props Dusseldorf: Richter Verlag 1994 GILBERT PEREZ, Film in review. Ghosts of the City. The Films of Ernie Gehr. in The Yale Review 87 October 1999 ALESSANDRO REDIVO, Three Films by Chenal to Show Modern Architecture and Propagandise a New Architecture Magazine. www.planum.net/archive/main/m-movchenal (2004) MICHAEL JOSHUA ROWIN, Tokens and Traces of Chance: Thoughts on the Cinema of Joseph Cornell. Reverse Shot Online, www.reverseshot.com/legacy/janfeb04/cornell.html, 2004 MITCHELL SCHWARZER , Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004 IAIN SINCLAIR , Lights out for the Territory London: Penguin 2003 REGINA STEPHAN (ed) Erich Mendelsohn. Architect 1887-1953. New York: The Monacelli Press 1999

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R IITTA O ITTINEN

In Hoc Signo Vinces1. Eurosigns in the City Scenery of Brussels

„[the European flag] is the symbol not only of the European Union but also of Europe’s unity and identity in a wider sense. The circle of gold stars represents solidarity and harmony between the peoples of Europe” (Portal Europa. Gateway to the European Union).2

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Introduction

The identity and image of Europe are extensively debated in official and unofficial, academic and artistic forums. The diverse eurorepresentations that divide between Us and the Other figure in our everyday discourse. Researchers’ interest in these issues will grow, too, as universities and other players – including the European Commission – increase funding for research on Europeanness and the European Union (see e.g. Jansen (ed.), 1999). The breadth of such research is growing as well. Interdisciplinary research on e.g, city space, town planning, and media has recently entered the fray. Image and identity become intertwined with questions of migration, cultural and economic diversity, and racism. My article contributes to this field by analysing the individual meanings and the overall impact of EU-related representations (below, eurosigns) in the city scenery of Brussels. With eurosigns I mean business signs, advertisements, logos, hoardings, window displays, and information campaign material that make use of at least one of the institutional symbols of the European Union as a signifier.3

............................................ 1 “By this sign you will conquer” or ”In this sign you shall conquer”. 2 The history of the flag goes back to 1955. 3 Europe and the EU are used as overlapping concepts by politicians, journalists, and citizens.

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A eurosign must include at least one of the following: a modification of the blue flag of European union with its twelve golden stars (the eurostars), the map of Europe with EU member states highlighted, the attribute “eur(o)” or the €-sign (for history see Siebert, no year), or some other visual element (semi)officially endorsed by the EU (e.g., the barcode flag or logo). Eurosigns are ubiquitous in Brussels. They range from the official, hegemonic branding of the EU institutions to the quaint charm of hand painted signs of artisans and small entrepreneurs. Both the official and private use of eurosigns tap into the resources of the EU as a superbrand (see van Ham 2001; Brøndberg 2005) but the unofficial narratives are neither as carefully branded nor as effectively disseminated as official PR-material for the European Union. Still, the mixed group of entrepreneurs selling computers, food, jewellery, shoes and trips to other continents under the word or sign of “euro” or some visual modification of the official EU-flag has truly set its mark on the urban landscape. In contrast, I will not discuss here eurosigns of associations, lobbying organisations, or large companies.

The methodology of my study draws on histories “from below”, urban studies and the ethnographic tradition. Ethnography involves direct observations of real time mechanisms in action. As a mode of research it is rooted in firsthand experience and can be characterised as in situ monitoring. This approach is

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rather uncommon in European studies (see Koelen, van der et al., 2006). I would call my approach modern urban archaeology, too, because it characterises the interdisciplinary nature of my attempt to put together a mosaic of urban values. This approach addresses questions concerning how people fashion their environments to create meanings about who and where they are in the world, and how, in the process, they communicate feelings of belonging and attachment (on “geo-ethnography” see Till 2005, p. 11).4 I use pictures of eurosigns as source material to dissect the concept of Europe, and to raise questions about mediated space, identity politics and supranational image making. The emergent image of Europe is strongly influenced by the unifying iconography of the EU, and the shared overall context of Brussels as the capital of Europe, but also by many other diversifying tendencies arising from its heterogenous composition and cultural niches. The heterogeneity of Brussels as a city reflects, both in degree and kind, the heterogeneity of Europe as a whole. Therefore, a study of eurosigns in Brussels sheds light on questions about the hybrid nature of European citizenship, the redefinition of national identity and “elective belonging” (Savage et. al 2005). It also suggests future scenarios and potential contents for the image of Europe. This should give something to think about for city-marketing and city branding, which are flavours of the day on the image building front. Sections 2 (Getting Streetwise) and 3 (Brussels of Districts) discuss Brussels as the context, and section 4 (Branding EU from above – and Sideways) summarises aspects of the European Commission’s branding and image campaigns. The analysis of street-level signs takes place in section 5 (Grass Root Designers in Action). Two concepts of branding are useful for understanding eurosigns. Section 5 uses a softer concept of branding that is more attuned to the impact of brands on feelings, emotions and the like, and section 6 (Conclusion) briefly discusses a harder concept of branding for the modern corporation. I will argue that the softer concept is appropriate for the analysis of eurosigns used by small companies close to the street level, because little investment is required for using eurosigns, and they are not part of a high............................................ 4 This article is part of my wider project (Histories, Images and EUropeans) about the image of Europe, and branding EU and Brussels – with the special reference to popularising history. Some of the pictures of this project have been used in a Finnish guide book Tervetuloa Belgiaan (2006). More can be seen at Työväenhistorian uutisvirtaa, http://blogit.helsinki.fi/thpts/post53.htm (18.12.2006), as a slideshow Eurosigns in Brussels and in the forthcoming anthropological film “Wroom, merde et vlan!” CARegionaism and Internationalism in the Heart of Europe (by Ilkka Ruohonen & Riitta Oittinen).

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flying corporate strategy. They are interesting as evidence of cultural values and strategies rather than as generators of economic value.

On the other hand, a deeper analysis of the Commission’s branding efforts should modify the harder, business-oriented concept to fit a non-profit supranational entity that is larger than many corporations, and that, like businesses, would like to create appropriable value through branding. This paper does not attempt to shed light on the governance of EU branding but, through parallels with street-level use of eurosigns, I hope to offer some insight into what I consider to be the limits of its success.

2

Getting Streetwise

A few words on how I started spotting eurosigns. I made a more permannent move from Helsinki to Brussels about five years ago, at the turn of the millenium. In Brussels I am, to quote Bronislaw Malinowski, a “marginal native”, someone who is both on the inside and the outside (see Lähteenmäki, 2007). My position somewhere between a native and a tourist affects my making sense of the environment. Besides going to museums and cultural events, I started to photograph the visual scenery and statements of the city. The rich-

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ness of the street scenery pointed out both shortcomings and advantages in museums (see Campbell 2006), and I do not deny that my flanerie has some aesthetising qualities to it but I certainly would not define myself as a “gentleman stroller”. As so many other Nordic newcomers, I found the local approach to the built environment both carefree and creative. The ways of taking control of space that startled me included reckless driving, totally self-regarding walking in groups, the most inventive DIY constructions and decorations, the filling up of space with posters and paintings, and the like. Brussels is a combination of the distractively creative and the destructively creative. Its corner shops, cafeterias, call centres and other semipublic meeting spaces with their signs, advertisements, displays and decorations brought me back memories from Asia, Africa, the United States and Eastern Europe. They also brought alive whole epochs: the time of Belgian colonialism, the collapse of the British and Ottoman Empires, the age of emancipation and independence struggles, the birth of nations and the disappearance of almost whole peoples, the legacy of regional conflicts, the organised immigration of workers and the unexpected arrival of their families, the Soviet era and, more markedly, the arrival of postcommunist entrepreneurship. Many of even the older periods are still surprisingly present in Brussels, if you care to notice them, and the attendant demographic fluxes mark the population of the city. Brussels is rarely static, and the watchful eye must stare, yet proceed to record thousands of images (see Patrick 2002). If you do not carry a camera, you are always likely to miss a shot forever. For example, I never got to photograph the Eurodisco or the Eurosolarium. They are gone but others with the same name are bound to appear only to disappear again. Other images are fleeting: the graffiti stating that “eurocrats drive the cost of housing sky-high” did not stay there for long. Such expressions of opinion never make it to the fancy and esthetical books on architecture that are popular in Belgium. My idea was to photograph precisely those aspects of Brussels that remain mainly undocumented. Very soon I noticed how EU and Europe kept cropping up as a constant theme, and I started to systematically make notes of and to photograph eurosigns in their original environment. Despite the old saw that a picture paints a thousand words, pictures hide and omit information as well. This makes the use of pictures in research a fascinating subject. Supported by several methodological paradigms, the camera has been an almost mandatory element of the tool kit for research for

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several generations of ethnographers (Pink 2005, 49). On the other hand, the mainstream of the social sciences has privileged the written word above all else. Many social scientists and historians – excluding e.g., art historians – have even had the tendency to overlook or ignore the visual. Images have served as decorative or illustrative elements rather than as supplementary data, let alone as independent objects of study. The sad fact is that there is often neither space nor money for using visual material in social science publications, although the emergence of “visual studies” has changed the situation to a degree. There has been a strong tradition of street photography that provides, in principle, material for research. That may change. The decline of street photography is lamented in a 1999 essay by the Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer. After traveling in the U.S., Meyer noticed “the disappearance almost everywhere of any downtown life. Those parts of the city had become populated mostly by parking lots and empty streets, with whatever was left of ‘life’ taking place inside tall buildings. What used to be a bustling environment around commerce, had now been displaced towards the ’shopping mall’ located in the suburbs. ‘Street life’ changed from being in a public-city -space to that of a private-corporate -one, the mall” (Meyer 1999, quoted by Patrick 2002). Meyer adds that in most of Western Europe it is safer to walk about with a camera than in the Americas.5 These two things typical of the U.S.A. definitely not apply to Brussels-Capital Region; each of its 19 communities has a downtown of sorts, bustling with commerce and action that spread onto the sidewalks and even the roads. Though I usually avoid photographing unknown people, it is not rare for strangers to ask to be photographed. Even my real objects, the eurosigns, have sparked off discussions with locals.

............................................ 5 Meyer (1999) asks why Europeans have not made as much of street photography as they could, given that the Europeans have ampler opportunities for it. He continues that “one line of thinking is that this tradition has been conceptually exhausted. Another is that such imagery does not sell very easily, it isn’t decorative enough I would venture to guess, and therefore is discouraged as not sellable. A third possibility has to do with what is being published these days and therefore might have the possibility to generate income. In reality there is a close relationship between the decline of ‘street photography’ with the downward spiral that has been experienced in the photographic marketplace during the late nineties by documentary photographers or photojournalists.”

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There are, of course, easier ways of gauging euroenthusiasm than street photography. Even a glance at the Brussels telephone catalogue gives a rough idea of its scope. There are hundreds of companies and associations with names “eur(o)pean”. This gives scarcely an idea, however, of the size, visual communications strategy, functions, or neighbourhood of a company. Only in situ can one record how multifarious are the ways in which a night shop, market or its cafetaria communicates its business idea to passers-by. Usually many textual and visual cues are used. To take an example from my neighbourhood, there is Mr. Chand Prem Kapoor, who has several businesses. His laundry is owned by “Kapoor & sons”, and decorated with the flag of India and a picture of an elephant. Still, the shopwindow also displays the eurostars. One of Mr. Kapoor’s shops is branded as “Alimentation general” (general food store) and more specifically, a Viennese bakery. The window names it also as “Mannu croissant”, and, this time, it has the Belgian and EU flags together with the elephant logo. It is essentially a cafeteria, and it also sells samosas. Some of Mr. Kapoor’s shops cater more to an African clientele, as is the custom of many Indian and Pakistani entrepreneurs who have adopted a business model developed in Eastern Africa (or, with variations, in Surinam or the Caribbean), from where at least some of the shopkeepers originate, too. Another example of the mismatch between the name and the purpose of the business is a fast food joint “Tasty Corner: Los Angeles –New York – Tokyo”. It offers “Saveurs

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de Monde – Word’s (sic) Flavours”, and has added two relatively large EU-flag tapes below the text. Inside the restaurant, one notices a large, pink circle of eurostars that matches the overall colour scheme. The menu, though, consists essentially of Lebanese fare and Belgian lunch sandwich favourites, and the staff and clientele alike include many immigrants.

3

A Brussels of Districts

(--) the capital of Europe is less European than Berlin and more like Africa and Asia, more Third World and therefore less clear-cut, less comprehensible and less orderly than other European cities (van Istendael 2006, p. 99). In terms of inhabitants (ca. 1 000 000), Brussels is a comparatively small capital, but it offers endless material to a researcher of a “Europe of the regions”. To begin with, what is here called Brussels is in administrative terms Brussels-Capital Region, which consists of 19 independent municipalities, including the City of Brussels in its centre. (Brussels normally means the capital Region unless it is specifically used to refer to Brussels City). Brussels is bilingual, and all street names and traffic signs are always in standard French and Dutch but very many other languages, as well as dialects of French and Dutch – and mixtures of these – can be heard and seen on the streets. The cultural diversity of Brussels makes its presence felt at every step. Tourist information and officials routinely underscore the cosmopolitan nature of Brussels, because it is one of the most international cities in Europe. Roughly a third of its inhabitants are foreign nationals. Corijn et al. (2004, p. 82) have pointed out that the share of foreigners is even higher if one includes naturalised immigrants (52 246 naturalisations between 1987 and 1996). According to the census of 2004, the largest groups of foreigners originate from Morocco (41 987), France (39 138), Italy (27 953), Spain (20 428) and Portugal (15 958), followed by Turkey (11 595) and the UK (9230). Owing to its colonial history, there is a large group from DR Congo (7300) (Population census of 1.1.2004). All in all more than 100 nationalities live in the city, and more than 40% of the households are culturally mixed and multilingual. If illegal immigrants and short-term visitors working in Brussels were included, the figures would be still higher. Eurolines buses connect Tallin with Tangier, Warsow with Ouar-

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zazate, and La Coruna with Lviv via Brussels. The Eurostar links London, Paris, Lille and Brussels and the company can take you to over “100 places across Europe”. In most of the ethnic neighbourhoods many nationalities live together (Corijn et. al 2004, p. 83). The city is full of contrasts large and small. Brussels-Capital Region is one of the richest regions in the European Union, and the presence of the EU institutions undoubtedly increases the average per capita income of the inhabitants of Region.6 Still, almost 40% of Brussels residents live in deprived neighbourhoods (Corijn et al. 2004, p. 78). The poorest commune in Belgium used to be the tiny but most densely populated Saint-Josse-ten-Noode/Sint-Joostten-Node in the centre of Brussels. At one extreme, there are the (il)legal immigrants and the unemployed, at the other, the wealthy diplomats, eurocrats and employees of multinational corporations. Brussels is home to the Council of Ministers of the EU, much of the European Commission, and it is the seat of the European Parliament and the NATO headquarters. This Europe of “Upstairs, Downstairs” manifests itself in choices of place of residence, schools, entertainment and means of travel. Oases of exotic internationalism are reserved to the wealthier clients: Asian furniture for a Colonial Lifestyle, food in restaurants like Multi-Culti or Ethnic Foods (taste of natural world). This style of supranational marketing is not very prominent, though. On the other hand, though eurosigns can be found all over Europe and Belgium, Brussels overflows with them.7 The arrival at Zaventem airport gives a first taste. Coca Cola vending machines sport an image of Manneken Pis – the emblem of Brussels – with a halo of eurostars hovering above his head. The airport has purchased a statue of a bare-breasted woman brandishing the €sign and flying the colours of Belgium and Europe. Large panels wish travellers “Welcome to Brussels –Heart of Europe” at a point where the visitor probably only wishes an end to the interminable slug towards the exit. All routes out of the airport carry signs with European messages and playful symbolism. The ............................................ 6 The tax revenues of the Federal State and the Regions have not grown in proportion because EU officials are exempt from national income tax. The Belgian wealth tax regime is famous for its generosity to property owners. 7 The picture collection of the author (see details of the Eurospotter -team at the end of this article). At the beguinning of the year 2007 there were first hand pictures/observations from Belgium (e.g. Eurosleep, Europa-drinks), Bulgaria (e.g. Euro mini market, Euromöbel), Denmark (Euroman and Eurowoman -magazines), Estonia (e.g. Eurokamin, Euro bar & cafe), Finland (e.g. Euro-Oral; Eurotar; Eurokone), France (Eurokebab), Germany (e.g. Euro-Asia Imbiss, das Eurocafe, Euradöner), Hungary (e.g. Euroskin), Latvia (e.g. Euroaptieka), Luxembourg (e.g. Euromusic, Eurbureau – Computer shop), Moldova (Eurospalat), Nicaragua (Euro Hotel), the Netherlands (Eurotoilet, Europa supermarket), and Slovenia (Euromarine).

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tourist may end up at a hotel by the name of Euroflat, Eurostars, Eurovillage, Residence Europ, Europarthotel, Eurosquare Residence or Europa. The longer term visitor is helped by real estate agents such as Euro Domus, Eurorent or one of the numerous agents with eurostars in their sign. With bad luck, the visitor’s hotel is being renovated or scaffolded by Eurofacade, €uroscaff, EuroNeuf (“rehabilitation international”) or Euronet. No worry. If one has attended Auto Ecole Européenne or comparable – although, mind you, sixty percent of Belgians now fail their first driving ability road test – a car hired by Eurocar can be tanked with Eurosuper fuel on the way to Europharma to buy earplugs. Afterwards, it is time to visit the Portuguese Pub CEE (Communauté Economique Européenne) for a Belgian Stella Artois beer – also known in the US and UK beverage trades as one of the eurolagers – or Snack €uropa. Guidance on the road is provided by street signs, some embellished with both the Belgian and EU flags. I think that by now you’ve got the big picture of this eclectic, multicultural sign jungle. It is the combined repetition of and variations on the eurotheme that make the subject interesting. When a large number of pictures are compared, both common patterns and distinct trends start appearing. At this stage, I have hundreds of photographs on the theme, and new ones turn up almost daily. Only a small selection of the pictures can be included in this book. Before looking at eurosigns in small and medium-sized shops and enterprises, let us take a brief look at the identity and image campaigns of the EU. That helps to put “eurosigns in the small” into sharper relief.

4

Branding the EU from above – and Sideways

Brand A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolised in a trademark, which, if managed properly, creates value and influence (Brandcareers – glossary). Ultimately, Europe will rise or fall on this issue of identity. And as Europeans grapple with the question of who they are, the deep, powerful forces of business, politics, and culture will probably play a more important role than all the bureaucrats in Brussels ever will (Rossant, Business Week Online 20.11.2000).

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Both the branding of EU that takes place in Brussels and the branding of Brussels as the capital of Europe leave their marks on the town (Oittinen 2007a). To start with the latter, the general problem with branding cities is that they are very diverse products that can be difficult to fit neatly into a marketing campaign. Even if one can fit a city in a number of campaigns, branding can be difficult to manage and sustain in the long run (Jansson & Power 2006, p. 6). However hard the authorities try, creating an image for the City of Brussels or Brussels-Capital Region – it is not always clear what is being branded – is particularly difficult because of the capital’s dual function. As the capital of Belgium, Brussels stands for the state and its people (or the Flemish and Walloon peoples, depending on whom you ask). Brussels has to project national power, symbolize the nation and bear the burden of its history. At the same time, Brussels is associated with many real or supposed characteristics of the European Union. Brussels has become a synonym of EU bureaucracy and democratic deficiency. Some of the local actions of the EU, such as large-scale architectural projects mauling the cityscape, tarnish the image of the city, even if the buildings of the Institutions serve as huge advertising boards for worldembracing EU projects, say, against racism or for the free movement of labour. In practice, Brussels has been more effective in increasing its image as a fun place in the eyes of its residents – not outsiders. It does so by organising or supporting a large number of popular events that, in addition to their ennobling qualities, provide a jolly occasion to go out on town. One constant worry for the Eurocracy is the negative image of the European Union.8 In 2001 the then President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, and the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt invited a group of (dominantly male) intellectuals to discuss the needs and functions of a European capital and how Brussels could best express them.9 The brainstorming group included the Dutch starchitect Rem Koolhaas, who is busy with commercial and cultural projects throughout the world. His contribution serves as a good illustration of the vagaries of eurobranding. The best-known visual outcome of the group’s work, was the barcode flag designed by Koolhaas. It takes elements of each member states flag and makes a fabric out of them: the stripes symbol............................................ 8 A seminar on Connecting with the Citizens of Europe. How to Close the Communication Gap? arranged at the European Parliament in January 2006 is just an example. 9 The group included twelve people: artists, businessmen, journalists and researchers. They produced a report called Brussels, Capital of Europe (2001). Part of the material presented at the exhibition Image of Europe dates to this project.

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ise the sum of EU cultural identities. The flag caused irritation and amusement already at its launching in 2001. In the year 2004, the barcode symbol was adapted to include the ten new member states. Since then, Austria adopted the barcode as an official logo of its EU-presidency in 2006 and uses it in e.g. bags, pencils, and neck straps. I have seen Commission staff and EU journalists carrying barcode paraphernalia but I have never seen the barcode logo in any unofficial capacity on the streets of Brussels. On the other hand, the British quality newspaper the Guardian, which is by no means anti-European, was inspired by the logo project to set up a countercompetition (The Guardian 22.5.2002). The winning flag designs in the Guardian’s competition symbolised EU bureaucracy, Fortress Europe and disharmony among member states.

Koolhaas was again commissioned to campaign for a new European image by the Dutch presidency and the European Commission together in 2004. The stated aim was to reduce the “iconographic deficit” of usual representations of the EU. His Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and the British think tank Foreign Policy Center created a travelling exhibition called Image of Europe (Brussels 2004, Munich 2004-05, Rotterdam 2005, Vienna 2006). The exhibition included imaginary propaganda posters (Whatever the Weather – We Only Reach Welfare Together) and an immense cut-and-paste collage of European history and images of Europe. It was put on show in a barcode-

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striped circus tent in Brussels’s Euro-quarter. One of the aims of the exhibition was “to show the way in which Europe is represented through words and symbols.” Its manyfold agenda was also to explore contrasting perceptions by confronting “Europeans” with the views of “non-Europeans“. The stated intention of the organisers was to bring Europe closer to its citizens despite their scepticism and doubts. Koolhaas himself told that he wanted to “find a way of talking about Europe that appeals to those who watch Big Brother.”10 Judging by its reception, the exhibition was found to be both problematic and confusing. One of the stated aims of the project was to reach the “roots level debate on the EU”. It is reasonable to ask how far one has to be from the “roots level” in order to hold any hope that a campaign machinated from the top and engineered by a private architectural practice can succeed, let alone be credible, in the stated purpose. Further, the contents of the exhibition were only available in English; this only made it difficult for many people – including many Belgians – to understand its (well meaning/ironic) message of a “EU for all” (cf. Oittinen 2005, pp. 269-279 & Oittinen 2006). To make the long story short: it seems that the Brussels exhibition ended up as a travesty of its original purpose. The exhibition raised questions about the motives and skills of architects presenting themselves simultaneously not only as artistic entrepreneurs but also as media critics, historians, sociologists, visionaries, identity builders, best friends of the top politicians and the man of the streets. The exhibition probably increased the value of the Rem Koolhaas brand more than the EU brand.

............................................ 10 The material about the exhibition were at the homepage of the Netherland’s EU presidency www.eu2004.nl (visited 3.5.2005). It does not exist anymore. Some of the official speeches can still be found here: http://www.minbuza.nl/ (visited 1.1.2007 )

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In addition to exhibitions and campaigns, the EU institutions try to improve their image by providing free material in their information offices. There are several of these in Brussels, too. They offer colouring books, comic strips and booklets on EU issues. As noted above, the EU buildings don, both on the inside and the outside, posters popularising the EU. Unity in diversity -type of messages are offered to people in those parts of the city where they are mainly preaching to the converted. One notable poster features a lighthouse projecting the eurostars, and another features a hungry African draped in a euroflag. A more recent effort is the poster that I observed in the European Parliament. It features a photograph of a washing basin with about twenty different toothbrushes and mugs. It stands for the new .eu -Internet domain: “457 Millionen Europäer – eine Adresse”. Design competitions have been organised for young people to get them excited over the EU. The competition to create a logo celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Rome treaty was won by Szymon Skrzypczak from Poland. His entry was based on typographical variation in the text “Tögethé® since 1957”. At the award ceremony, Vice-President Margot Wallström, who is in charge of communication in the Commission, said: “The winning logo represents the diversity and vigour of Europe and at the same time it underlines the desired unity and solidarity of our continent. Member States, regional and local authorities are invited to use the logo for their events too” (Logo Competition,

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2006). I have not yet seen this logo or the barcode, which are more difficult to replicate and thus more proprietary than established eurosigns, in unauthorized commercial use on the streets of Brussels. Art and design students were invited by an EU information campaign to compete in 2006 to create a poster on “Breaking stereotypes”. The winning proposals where put on display for the public at large in 2006–2007 on the glass fence surrounding the Commission’s Berlaymont building. The barcode clearly appeals to design professionals. Three of the winners made use of the theme that was already familiar from Koolhaas’ flag (Breaking Stereotypes, 2006). The same fence is also used for a permanent display that tells the history of the Euro-quarter (Bruxelles, Quartier Européen, no year). Through its omissions, the narrative evinces a strategy of not biting the bullet. First, the story of the neighbourhood leaves out things that are invidious to the image of Belgium or the EU, such as the atrocious colonial policy of King Leopold II in Congo. Parc du Cinquantenaire, the visually striking background to both the old and the new Commission headquarters, was funded by plundering the resources of Congo (see Hochschild 1999). The sumptuous arcade of the park has been regularly used as a background to TV reports from Brussels. There is also a gap of many years in the narrative of the display concerning the Berlaymont building itself, because the Commission evidently does not wish to draw the visitors attention to the recurrent delays, spiralling costs, poor governance by the Belgian state, and possible irregularities during the renovation of the asbestos-ridden building between 1991–2004, when it had to remain closed while the Commission paid the rent. The souvenir and heritage industries also bolster a positive take on Brussels and the EU, because tacky memorabilia borrow from the EUs branding efforts. For example, the statue of Manneken Pis has been clad in a vest made of the EU flag, and images of the event are reproduced in tourist postcards and websites for tourists (Oittinen 2007b; see also de Saint-Denis 2006). The range of goods decorated with the EU flag ranges from golf balls to pocket calculators. In addition to mainstream products reproducing official EU iconography, more marginal goods popularising and even satirising the EU are sold in tourist traps. There is a humorous postcard commenting on the unwieldy procedures of the European Parliament and a poster parodying the sex antics of the citizens of the member states: ”Do it like a European” offers a hefty doze of stereotypes.

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The impossibility of controlling impressions of the EU is proven, for example, by artistic parodies of the EU. One of them is a fake poster campaign (2005–2006) promoting a non-existent Hollywood blockbuster movie by selfacclaimed con-artists Eva and Franco Mattes. Thousands of posters trumpeting ”United We Stand – Europe has a mission” – with the EU-flag in the centre and headlining Penelope Cruz and Ewan McGregor in star roles – hit the streets of Berlin, Barcelona, New York, Bangalore, and Brussels, even the entrance of the European Parliament. This was the first stage of a long-term communication strategy that began in late 2005 and gradually covered the whole media spectrum all over Europe. The artists describe their campaign in following terms on their Internet site: United We Stand touches on themes of subliminal art, cultural propaganda and European identity, clashing against expectations and exploding cultural stereotypes. ”Everyone remembers Peter Fonda in Easy Rider” says Eva Mattes ”nobody is surprised by a leather jacket with an American flag, while the same jacket with a European flag would only make you laugh”. Why is the patriotic iconography of the USA commonly accepted, while when it is applied to Europe it completely changes its meaning and actually becomes ludicrous?11 On a different note, people with less money and media skills express their sentiments by posting stickers with declarations on the lines of ”Eurobureaucrats – adapt or go home”, ”No to Euroturkistan” or ”Belgian – and proud of it”.12

............................................ 11 ”’United We Stand’. Mattes’fake movie hits the streets of your city...and your mind”, http://www.0100101110101101.org./home/unitedwestand/story.html (visited 1.1.2007). Compare e.g. to Thomas Kvam’s film Eurobeing, Unge kunstneres samfund 2006. Available at: http://www.uks.no/ (visited 1.1.2007). See also the Yes men’s Captain Euro -hijink, the yes men, Available at: http://www.theyesmen.org/hijinks/euro/ (visited 1.1.2007) 12 I have seen very few instances of graffiti or writing on the wall commenting on the EU in Brussels. Thomas Pröls brought to my knowledge the habit of certain NGOs to modify the EU logo, which would be an interesting topic of reseach.

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5

Grass Root Designers in Action

(--) a concept like Europe is constructed in processes of contention and bargaining. The images of Europe do not exist as a natural phenomenon but are discursively shaped (Stråth 2002). It is easy to adopt EU iconography for private use, because although there are restrictive rules against the commercial use of the European flag, no one seems to enforce them, and the signs are in practice non-proprietary and free of use.13 (Note, though, that the Commission is more particular with new logos.14) The reproduction of the euro currency symbol is permitted by the European Central Bank “provided that the source is acknowledged”. The economics of the signs has a bearing on how to analyse their use in branding. I will make use of two approaches to branding below. There is a softer concept of branding that is directed more to the non-profit sector, which seldom has full control of the thing that it wants to brand: there is no product to brand in the strict sense. There is also a harder concept for businesses that have a tighter grip on the products or services. The soft concept is more centred on images and associations, and vaguer on the management of the process by which branding is to create value; the hard concept emphasises business reengineering and value for brand investments (for a summary of a harder concept, see section 6 below). The softer concept is evident in e.g., Peter van Ham (2005), a scholar of the branding of states, who stresses that branding goes beyond PR and marketing. It tries to transform products and services as well as places into something more by giving them an emotional dimension with which people can identify. Branding touches those parts of the human psyche which rational arguments just cannot reach (van Ham 2005, p. 122). It is my contention that, in many ways, the softer approach fits the EU related aspects of the branding efforts of ............................................ 13 In principle, authorisation should be sought for the use of the flag: ”Each case will be examined individually to ascertain whether it satisfies the criteria set out above. This will be unlikely in a commercial context if the European emblem is used in conjunction with a company's own logo, name or trade mark.” http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/emblem/graphics1_en.htm (visited 6.2.2007) 14 The conditions of use for e.g., the 50th anniversary logo contain more explicit clauses than those of the flag. The use of the logo is free of charge, permission is not needed, and the rules are not clear on legal consequences of violations, except that these are construed under Belgian Law: ”The use should not be linked to commercial purposes (article 3.3).” ”Third parties, within the meaning of paragraph 3, are not authorised to use the logo in any commercial or non-profitable context which would lead the public to believe that the user or the Author benefits from the authorisation of the European Commission or any other European institution or body (article 4).” Available at http://www.logo-competition.eu/ (Visited 6.2.2007)

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small enterprises in Brussels better than a business oriented model of branding. This is because the use of EU signs does not figure in expensive and calculated corporate branding strategies in the cases that I discuss below. There is some economic logic to their use, but often in ways that are linked to identity and emotions.

Although the EU is under constant criticism, and its attempts to improve its image are even publicly ridiculed, many want to jump on the b(r)andwagon. There are those who believe that the EU brand offers them additional value, at least compared to the (typically low) costs of using it. There is no single explanation to the europopularity of eurosigns. It is probably needless to say that many meanings overlap. This is indicated by the fact that eurobranding and -images can be found in almost all economic sectors: building service and maintenance, cleaning, transport and freight services, education, food and catering, accounting, hairdressing, beauty and cosmetics, finance, clothing and apparel, construction, communications and entertainment (including gambling and adult entertainment or europorn). Typically a eurosign is only an element in a broader visual or textual field. Small entrepreneurs working under a eurosign or window sticker project multiple identities, personal or family histories, and ethnic or cultural belonging. Quite often there is, in addition to a eurosign, a sign that reminds of the

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old country of the owner. Sometimes the signs – or plain texts in the window – are unique and handmade pieces; in some cases a touch of “euro” has just been added with a sticker. Sometimes the look is professional but it does happen that there are a few stars too few or too many. The colours vary. It is also possible that Norway or Switzerland figure in a map that is meant to show EU member states only. The temporal aspect of the eurosigns is evident both in signs that have fallen behind times as well as those that are meant to usher in a new era for the business. There are signs that are visibly old and tattered, a throwback to the 1950s. The more dilapidated eurosigns – such as that of Night Shop Euro Common or PUB CEE – have not kept up with institutional change. The European Economic Community (EEC/CEE), aka the Common Market, changed its name into the European Community with the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. There are also signs using maps of Europe that have not been updated with new member states after a certain point (e.g., 1995 or 2004). Sometimes a eurosign indicates the revamping of the business. The first word in the sign of “Boulangerie euro-baguette” is clearly older, and uses different typography and colours, than the euro-baguette part. In the visually richest signs and windows the whole package is used: Euro(pe/a), the letter €, the map of Europe and the European flag. The history of eurotypography would be an interesting research topic as such. But evidently a eurosign can be meant to usher in new times for the business, or, conversely, to signify its noble past (we were here already in the EEC era). It can also show absolute disregard for or ignorance of political change. The Finnish toponym researcher Paula Sjöblom (2006, p. 257) has compared the name of an enterprise to a gate: if the identity of an enterprise is comparable to a house, then the name of the enterprise is like a gate in the fence surrounding and protecting the house. She has classified the functions of a company name into the informative, persuasive, practical, integrative and individuating. Eurosigns can have all these functions, too, but sometimes one must ask how well they serve their purpose. There are informative eurosigns and euro attributes. The sign clarifies the business idea of €urosouvenirs, which sells EU themed mementos, or of EuroComment Bookshop, which sells EU literature. It is common for the euro attribute to blur rather than clarify the message, though: Europhone is where you go to telephone outside Europe, the Ukrainian clerk at Euromarket sells food produced by multinationals, Eurosat is there to help you see satellite

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broadcasts from non-European countries. The confusions often seem to arise from the conflict between the informative and integrative tasks of the sign: Europhone and Eurosat are there both to make the customers feel good about being in Europe and to keep in touch with people who are not. Even semantically ambiguous names have distinct associations: they help you to have it both ways. The persuasive and the individuating functions also belong to the eurosign. It can individuate something as classy or valuable and distinct from the mundane, and persuade the customer to purchase it, and, in the process distinguish themselves from the hoi polloi. A eurosign can also persuade the potential client by appealing to their aspirations. An overlapping meaning is that of euro as cool and trendy. To go euro in this sense is to fulfil one’s aspirations. Sometimes we’ll never quite find out the idea: does a restaurant called Europarty suggest an uncommonly good experience, or one for Europeans only? Or does it also suggest that the client becomes, through patronising the restaurant, something that others can only aspire to be: a euro-client. The same can be asked e.g. about a laundry with the name EuroWash. Does it wash clothes superclean – euroclean? In contrast to the preceeding, the eurosign can also signify something very cheap and thus very practical: one can get everything for a euro from the Euro store (at least its display seems to suggest that everything there costs just one euro) or Eurosoldes (bijoux fantisie [sic], multi-gadjets). Here, the eurosign is perhaps used merely because the currency happens to be called euro. It is also possible that the eurosign is just a mute identifying mark: a “something” instead of something else but substantially just the same. Is the “euro” attribute in Euromarine meant to suggest any difference with maritime products offered by other boat shops? Perhaps not. An example of the practicality of “euro” is space saving. Compare the sign of a shop in the Marolles district selling “spécialités Belges-Greques-Espagnoles-Marocaines-Italiennes-Turques – Self service” – the sign is really big and the name unwieldy – to that of Restaurant Euro Mediterranee in the central tourist trap of Ilot Sacré. Here the name covers roughly the same region (Belgium excepted) more effectively. The eurosign also serves to create associations that are translocal: new European, international, global or “mondial”. Sometimes it seems to have the same function as the old-fashioned “colonial”. Euro is also used in one of the senses that American used to have: all new and

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shiny. Interestingly, there are relatively few signs with American symbols now in Brussels excepting those used by American brands themselves. Further, a eurosign can act as a metonym that signifies a more complex entity. As already noted, a eurosign can also stand for a diasporic, mobile and transient identity. In this usage it is akin to welcoming people to a new, perhaps temporary, home country. This usage would be different to its use by shops and services for immigrants, who are here to stay. Lastly, the eurosign can often be interpreted in terms of the aspiration of the owner of the business. Maybe it is even be a metaphor for a better life or a new start? This does not necessarily mean a better life for the customer, but a better life for the entrepreneur.

An important usage of the eurosign is, nevertheless, one that connects the identity of the owner and/or intended clientele to that of the EU. As already noted, the eurosign is used in connection with the sign of one or several countries. Examples include male-oriented Turkish football supporters associations, which are, in effect, cafeterias avoiding some business taxes. They often fly the Belgian, EU, and Turkish colours. In the same vein, a mosque and the Algerian flag have been painted on the business sign of the Euro International Call Shop. La Petite France, which is in the Euro-quarter, advertises with a baguette surrounded by eurostars. A Portuguese restaurant features a hand-

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painted pennant with the letter €. Some businesses opt for many flags. The signboard of Millenium Telephone includes the EU, Turkish, Moroccan, Bulgarian and Polish flags. The Snack and Fruit Bar has a picture in the window depicting a tablecloth made of the EU flag, and plates decorated with the Belgian, UK and Swedish flags. Some patterns emerge from the combination of eurosigns with different regions and ethnic affiliations. First, it is easier to transform old connections into euroconnections than to forge entirely new eurolinks. The connections created by colonialism turn easily into eurolinks, as in the many Euro-African enterprises. Euro-Indian, Euro Indian-Pakistani, or Euro-Bangla rhyme with the older pattern of Anglo-Indian company names.15 Such usages tend to have something aspirational to them. Where European domination has been more limited, such transformations are less frequent. I have not seen any Euro-Chinese business names, for example, but Alimentation Euro Asian does exist. I have not observed any EuroAustralian, Euro-Irish, Euro-Canadian, or Euro-North-American business names or signs either, probably because there is no aspiration to match.

............................................ 15 The Anglo-Indian dictionary Hobson Jobson: a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive (1903) offers us this definition: EUROPE, adj. Commonly used in India for ”European,” in contradistinction to country (q.v.) as qualifying goods, viz. those imported from Europe. The phrase is probably obsolescent, but still in common use. ”Europe shop” is a shop where European goods of sorts are sold in an upcountry station. (--) c. 1817. (--) ”Now the Europe shop into which Mrs. Browne and Mary went was a very large one, and full of all sorts of things. One side was set out with Europe caps and bonnets, ribbons, feathers, sashes, and what not.” -- Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, ed. 1873, 23 (--). ”Europe morning” is lying late in bed, as opposed to the Anglo-Indian's habit of early rising (Hobson Jobson, pp. 344-345).

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There are also stateless cultures that seem not to prefer eurosigns. The case of those who identify themselves as Arameans, Syriacs, or Assyrians in Brussels is illustrative. They have arrived mainly from Turkey or Syria, often use their local dialect of Modern Aramaic, a rare Semitic language, and are Christian. There are areas in Brussels (e.g., in Saint-Josse) where they have many shops and bars. These typically use signs which make the ethnic or cultural connection clear: the Assyrian Eagle sign, business names such as the Le Bon Samaritain, Les Jardins de Babylon, Mesopotamia or a name referring to a former home village, such as Midyat, or a home region such as Tur Abdin. These are seldom, if ever accompanied by eurosigns. It would seem that the desire to signal the presence of one’s threatened culture is so strong that there is a reluctance to dilute the identity-related message of the business display with differing identity-oriented signs.

6

Conclusion

Let us now turn to a harder concept of branding. Kevin Lane Keller (2000) has published a succinct Brand Report Card in the Harvard Business Review. According to Keller, there are 10 key objectives of brand management for a business. The successful brand excels at delivering the benefits that customers

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truly desire and stays relevant. Price, cost, and quality meet customers’ expectations and there must be “desirable and deliverable points of difference” with competitors. The brand must be consistent, and the brand portfolio and hierarchy should make sense. A good brand makes use of and coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities to build equity, and its managers understand what the brand means to consumers. Lastly, the brand should be given proper support, and that support has to be sustained over the long run and the company must monitor sources of brand equity. It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the appositeness of such criteria for the brand management of a supranational organisation such as the EU, nor to score the EUs efforts to manage its brand. Suffice it to say that there are attempts within the EU, to create and manage such a brand, and that criteria such as Keller’s could contribute to a methodology for assessing how well the EU it does its job. The main conclusion to draw from the prevalence of eurosigns in Brussels is that its users find them positive in some sense. The signs can be seen as part of a strategy that links the residence of persons to their biographical life history, and enables them to see themselves as belonging to the area and acquiring a new status; a process called elective belonging (Savage et al. 2005, p. 29). The use of the word euro or EU-symbolism tends to signal a democratic aspiration. The use of eurosigns to indicate exclusive quality is a minority strategy. In other words, euro can be interpreted as the great leveler: We all can be “euro” in our way. It is like the meal you can get at a restaurant called Euro Pizza which advertises European halal food and offers the choice of pizza, fish, tandoori, pasta, or döner. Although there are many restaurants named Euro Pizza in the world, this particular one (as well as its namesake in Antwerp) suggests that it offers something to almost everybody.

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There is a parallel with the brand strategy of Euro Pizza and that of the European Commission. The Commission, too, has to offer something for almost everybody. Its brand tells of a great history that has created common values, a great future that delivers on those values, and a capacity to adapt to a changing world according to a much more recent and selective set of values largely identifiable with those of private enterprise. At the same time, the brand respects a common social model, which, of course, has to change as well to meet the needs of EU businesses. The EU brand is very much an aspirational brand. The politics of the EU forces it to be a democratizing or popular brand in terms of the projected image. As Keller’s Brand Report Card reminds us, however, it is the delivery that finally decides the value of the brand. The Commission, which largely drives the branding efforts, knows that it is not in charge of much of the delivery. What it does deliver includes legislative and policy proposals that are often drafted after listening much more sympathetically to some stakeholders than others. It can have great problems in convincing the public that its delivery reflects the principles of democracy and caters to public demand. Hence, perhaps, the populist element in the branding effort. The Commission offers the chance for individuals to feel participating (in e.g., competitions) or to be touched by heart-rending posters appealing to universal rather than “Euro-

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pean” values. The image campaigns seldom appeal to some real or imaginary democratic characteristics of the Commissions methods of work. The real scope for successful branding – branding that is underwritten by substance controlled by the Commission as the brand manager – is rather limited. On the other hand, there will always be eurobrands that are more driven by the perceived substance of the delivery of the EU. It is likely that many of these brands dilute, or set in a realistic perspective, the more ambitious campaigns of the Commission. For every campaign of the Commission’s project of European excellence – past, present, or future – there is a concept of eurosomething that is mediocre, not quite the real thing, and what people really buy – or wish to avoid. Europizza in itself is such a brand. Everybody knows that the europizzas of all the world’s Europizzerias are not quite the best. In Finland, Eastern Europe and Russia there is the concept of a “eurorenovation” (evroremont): a quick fix that makes the flat just good enough to be rented or sold (e-mail from architect Netta Böök 19.7.2006).16 It is slightly ambiguous in that both totally incompetent renovation work as well as work that really gets a flat into “euroshape” – which is far from luxury – can be covered by the term.

............................................ 16 According to one home page ”evroremont” is a Muscovite term meaning ”Euro-renovation”, the replacement of Soviet style furnishings and decoration with a look supposedly more in keeping with the Western side of the continent (Gott 2001).

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There are also signs that read as tongue-in-cheek comments on the eurohype. Some Brussels’ signboards that are not eurothemed have a whiff of counterbranding to them (on counter-branding see e.g. Jensen 2005). Consider African Master-foodstore, Tam Tam Phone, Le Living Bar “Vata-Vata” (Resto-grill exotique), Shop Kaboul, the barbershop Nouvelle Ecriture Africaine, Naïa (Specialites Turques, Libanaises, Syriennes, Marocaines), but why not also BruCar or Scandinavian Dental Center – a very rare case where the flags of the Nordic countries are presented. In the Brussels context, it is if a eurosign had been left out for a reason here. Eurosigns are also used in ways that make it very hard to work out their function or possible meaning. Interviews of entrepreneurs might shed more light on the subtler meanings of the sign. Finally, private eurosigns can be more effective in changing the image of Europe than the efforts of the Commission. Especially after the 11.9 the European Commission has emphasised the importance of inter-cultural dialogue (e.g. Jean Monnet Group on the Intercultural Dialogue 2002). Giorgia Aiello and Crispin Thurlow (2006, p. 148) have said that in multilingual Europe, visual discourse may function as a cross-culturally strategic form of communication, thanks in part to its perceptual and iconic availability. From this perspective private eurosigns in Brussels addresses, too, the question: what is Europeanness today?

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The team of Eurosignspotters has around twenty members all around Europe. A warm thank you to Kaliakra Alexeeva-Milkova, Arnold Bartetzsky, Netta Böök, Laura Danilotskin, Marc Hautecoeur, Zsuzsanna Hegyközi, Elina Katainen, Hanna-Riikka Kavasto, Anja Lempinen, Raimo Parikka, Jukka-Pekka Piimies, Thomas Pröls, Leena Salakari, Maaria Seppänen and Tania Vladova, whose non-Belgian contributions helped me to put the Brussels material in perspective.

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SAINT-DENIS A. DE 2006, Manneken-Pis aurait-il voté la Constitution? European Commission, http://europa.eu.int/comm/represent/be/french/eurinfo298/fr/frinfo04.htm (cached, visited, 23.1.2007). SAVAGE, M./BAGNALL, G. AND LONGHURST, B., 2005, Globalization & Belonging. Sage Publications, London – Thousand Oaks – New Delhi. SIEBERT, J. (no year), The €uro. From Logo to Letter, Font Magazine 002, [Online] Availabe at: http://www.fontshop.com/virtual/features/eng/fontmag/002/02_euro/index.htm (visited 1.10.2006). SJÖBLOM, P. 2006, Toiminimen toimenkuva. Suomalaisen yritysnimistön rakenne ja funktiot. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran toimituksia 1064, SKS, Helsinki. STRÅTH, B. 2002, Intercultural Dialogue. Conference Brussels 20-21 March, 2002. Outline of the session “Images of Europe in the World”. Availabe at: www.ecsanet.org/dialogue/contributions/STRATH.doc (visited 3.5.2005). The European flag, Europa. Gateway to the European Union. Available at: http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/emblem/index_en.htm (visited 1.1.2007). TILL, K. E. 2005, The New Berlin. Memory, Polics, Place. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, London 2005. wittegids.be 2007. Availabe at: http://www.wittegids.be/displayhome.ds YULE, H. AND BURNELL, A. C. 1903, Hobson-Jobson: a glossary of colloquial AngloIndian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed. edited by William Crooke. Murray, London. Availabe at: http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:876.hobson (visited 1.2.2007).

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D EANE S IMPSON

RV Urbanism Nomadic Network urbanism of the Senior Recreational Vehicle Community in the U.S.

Abstract This paper will explore the implications of the senior RV community in the US as an accelerating form of nomadic network urbanism that challenges traditional models of static urban settlement. While nomadic communities are not a new or recent occurrence, one of this scale and sophistication is unprecedented – it numbers between two and three million retirees communicating predominantly by two-way satellite internet. This phenomenon may be defined in contrast to traditional spatial logics of urbanism, inasmuch as it is mobile, informal, non-hierarchical and network-based. Operating as a contemporary manifestation of the concept of unsettlement, RV urbanism will be framed therefore not simply as an anti-urban phenomenon, but as one that offers an alternate vision of urbanism – a low-density urban field given coherency through media.

Paper In 1963 Buckminster Fuller proposed the end of urbanism as it was typically understood at the time. In a contemporary age of hyper-mobility, Fuller deemed “…the notion of self-contained permanent settlements obsolete.” Instead, he outlined “an urban strategy termed ‘unsettlement’, consisting of a network of hyper-mobile nomadic bodies operating at the scale of the entire world connected through invisible radio links.” (Fuller 1963 cited in Wigley 2001:121) Fuller in this case inadvertently described a form of urbanism that would emerge as a reality on an unimagined scale thirty years later.

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Between 1990 and 1994, anthropologists Dorothy and David Counts conducted field research into an emerging social formation that would lead to their 1996 publication Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America: “While young people have been spending their energy in sedentary pursuits, buying homes in the suburbs, working in factories and offices, and raising kids, a generation of elders have become nomads… There are literally millions of them. Nobody knows how many because there is no way to count them, but millions (two or three millions appears to be a conservative estimate) do not just leave home to wander a few months of the year. These people live in those motor homes or trailers, they have no other home.” (Counts & Counts 1996:15)1

Fig. 1: Counts, DA & Counts DR 1996, Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America, Broadview Press, Ontario.

This article will address the contemporary phenomenon of the senior Recreational Vehicle community in the United States as a realization of a specific form of nomadic network urbanism – one literally in-transit – that challenges ............................................ 1 Counts and Counts note that historically it has been very difficult to quantify the population of RVers in the US with any level of precision as the US census has no specific category for RV or motor home residences. Estimates are based upon a combination of Industry sales figures, industry questionnaires and partial censuses.

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established urban spatial logics. While nomadic communities are clearly not a new occurrence, one of this size, sophistication and connectivity is unprecedented. Its population – supported by two-way satellite internet − is equivalent to that of a large US metropolitan area (Seattle for example) or twice that of the metropolitan area of Zurich. It continues to grow at a rapid rate – with the expectation that it will more than triple in size over the next 20 years as the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age – anticipating a future nomadic city greater in population than the largest city in the US.2 Nomadism − traditionally defined as the negation of sedentary urbanism − will be framed here as an alternate urban formation supported by both physical and nonphysical network infrastructure. Within the logic of Manuel Castells’ ‘space of flows’, the RV will be defined as both network node and network flow – producing an urban field of dense social connectivity of mostly physically disconnected nomadic inhabitants.

Fig. 2: RV Urbanism. Source: Deane Simpson.

A Recreational Vehicle, or RV is defined (RVIA 2006) as a “…vehicle that combines transportation and living quarters for travel, recreation and camping.” There are essentially two categories of RVs: towable and motorized. (See fig.3) The towable RV is designed to be towed by a motorized vehicle (auto, van, or pickup truck).3 Towable RV’s most commonly fit into the categories of travel trailers and fifth-wheel trailers. The motorized RV is a “recreational camping and travel vehicle built on or as an integral part of a self-propelled ............................................ 2 The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association anticipates massive industry growth based on Baby Boomer ageing. (www.rvia.org) 3 A towable RV is also “of a size and weight small enough so as not to require a special highway movement permit. It does not require permanent on-site hook-up.” Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (www.rvia.org)

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motor vehicle chassis. It may provide kitchen, sleeping, and bathroom facilities and be equipped with the ability to store and carry fresh water and sewage.” (RVIA 2006) Motorized RVs most commonly take the form of motorhomes. The larger class A motorhomes can be up to 8.5 feet wide, 45 feet long and 13 feet high (2.6m W x 13.7m L x 4.0m H). With ‘slide-out’ expanding walls on both sides of a motorhome, its width can expand to up to 14 feet (4.3m), producing a home on wheels of up to 500sqf (46sqm) in floor area.4 In the US, RVs are not only seen as luxury items for the wealthy – fulltime RVers represent a wide cross-section of income levels. (Counts & Counts 1996:283) The cost of new RVs are in the range of $4,000-$100,000 for trailers and $48,000$400,000 for motor homes – used-RVs can be much less expensive.

Fig. 3: RV types. Source: RVIA ............................................ 4 It is worth noting that the term RV does not extend to mobile homes, off-road vehicles or snowmobiles. A Mobile Home for example is “essentially a moveable house – often 10 (3.0m) or 12 feet (3.7m) in width – and can only be moved by a large tractor.” Mobile homes are commonly located in permanent trailer parks. (Counts & Counts 1996:315)

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Fig. 4: RV: motorhome floor plan. Source: Winnebago

Fig. 5: RV: motorhome interior. Source: Winnebago

The RV is a 20th Century invention. It originated with the first modern automobile trailer dated as early as 1906 in England (effectively two wheeled copies of the gypsy caravan.) Its ancestors in the US were the early homes on wheels that included covered wagons and horse drawn caravans, and camping rigs such as the automobile camper and the tent- and cloth-top camper. Earlier commercially available RVs were predominantly towable. The ‘Curtis Aerocar’ in the 1920s was the first commercially produced trailer in the US – foreshadowing modern fifth-wheel trailers. (Counts & Counts 1996:60) The Airstream became one of the most popular trailers after this period, becoming available in 1936. Early motorhomes were the result of custom conversions of automobiles and buses − they only became commercially available in the US in 1956. The first was the VW van camper, followed by the Chevrolet and Ford van campers and the Dodge house-car in 1961. The first large scale mass-produced

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motorhomes by Winnebago Industries in 1966. The ‘Winnebago’ became extremely popular, and was the most commonly used term in the 1970s and 1980s to refer to motorhomes. The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (founded in 1963) promoted considerable growth in RV ownership in recent decades. According to the 2005 University of Michigan RV Study commisioned by the RVIA (RVIA 2005), there were an estimated 8.2 million RVs on the roads in the US, and approximately 30 million ‘RV enthusiasts’. RV ownership has been particularly high in the upper age-groups − with 8.6% of US households over the age of 55 owning RVs. Three primary categories of RV lifestyle exist: Vacationers, Snowbirds and FullTimers. Each is classified according to the duration of time spent in an RV throughout a year. Vacationers own or rent a sedentary residence, spending the majority of their time there, and vacation in an RV for a period typically numbering in weeks. Snowbirds maintain a sedentary residence, in which they typically reside during the summer months − travelling south in an RV in the winter months. Snowbirds, who are predominantly retirees, spend between 4 and 8 months of the year in an RV. Full-Timers relinquish their sedentary residence, adopting a full year-round nomadic lifestyle. Full-timers – the vast majority (approx. 80%) of whom are both elderly and retired (Counts & Counts 1996:148) – are the particular focus of this research.5

Nomadism Nomadism has traditionally always been defined in opposition to sedentary society. In the preeminant text on traditional nomadism: The Muqaddimah, medieval Arab social historian Ibn Khaldun described the two fundamentally different environments in which all human cooperation and social organiza............................................ 5 Counts and Counts carried out a questionnaire of RVers in the mid-1990s. They found that “86% of serious and full time RVers are aged 56 or older. 79% were retired. Average ages of RVers for various surveys range from 63.4 for men, 60.9 for women. A 1993 survey of lotholders at an RV co-op park were 65.8 years old on average. A study of the membership of the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA, a club for motor home owners) depicts the average RV owner as a retired 63 year old man or 60 year old woman with some college education. A 1993 Recreational Vehicle Industry Association study found that the typical motor home owner was 63 years old. The highest ownership rates of RV’s on the US population were people aged 55-64, 16 percent of whom owned RVs. The next highest ownership rates were 12.8% of those aged 65-74. Of people aged 75 and over, 43.4% owned RVs.

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tion developed: a) the desert life of nomadic tribal societies and b) the sedentary life of towns and agricultural villages. For Khaldun (1377:118), “the very nature of their existence is the negation of building, which is the basis of civilization.” The nomad, or the nomadic society, has therefore traditionally been perceived as anti-urban − as mobile ‘other’ functioning outside of the construction of the state apparatus and sedentary society. Historically, three kinds of nomads have existed: hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, and peripatetic nomads. Nomadic hunter-gatherers follow seasonally available wild plants and game, and practice the historically most established subsistence method. Pastoralists raise animal herds and move with them to prevent pasture depletion in any single area. Peripatetic nomads, common in more developed nations, travel from place to place offering a trade wherever they go.6 RVers function in a similar fashion to the three forms of traditional nomadism inasmuch as they do not reside in a ‘fixed’ dwelling – instead moving from place to place on a predominantly seasonal basis.7 However, as they do not rely on nomadic behavior for subsistence or survival, but as a mode of leisureoriented lifestyle, RVers would therefore suggest the need for a fourth term: leisure nomads. Leisure nomadism, and the emergence of senior RV urbanism in the US may be understood in the context of wider demographic, sociological and cultural transformations. These include: a) the widespread ageing of the population, and the subsequent emergence of a new ‘third age’ − a new generation of ............................................ 6 Nomadic societies – especially pastoralists and hunter-gatherers have undergone considerable decline during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries due to a series of technological, economic and political transformations. These included: the increasing dominance of the political goals of the nation state which led to more rigid policing of national boundaries; the emergence of technologies that resulted in weakening the relative military power of the nomadic people and also their political autonomy; and the development of alternative forms of transportation which made areas only previously accessible to nomads accessible to others. See (Barfield 1993). 7 “…in mountainous areas nomads may spend the winter in the lowlands, move to the foothills in the spring, to the high mountain pastures in the summer, and return in the fall. If they attempted to stay in any one place the whole year-round, they would soon find themselves both short of pasture and subject to climatic extremes that their animals could not easily survive: in the winter the highlands are covered in snow, in the summer, the lowlands are extremely hot.” (Barfield 1993:12). The RV analogue to this situation involves those who spend the colder winter months in the southern states such as Florida or Arizona, and the hotter summer months in the northern states.

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‘young old’ who no longer work, but enjoy extended years of good health (Laslett 1989); b) the process Ulrich Beck terms individualization – referring to the increasing freedom of the individual over the constraints of traditional social structures (Beck 1992) (Huber & O’Reilly 2004); and in turn, c) an intensive shift in social organization in societies from a production-based culture of work to a consumption-based culture of leisure, foregrounding the concept of lifestyle (Chaney 1996). These transformations are described in more detail below: a) Ageing. The phenomenon of population ageing according to the UN is unprecedented in the history of humanity. This extensive ‘graying’ of the world in the past half century has been driven predominantly by both an increase in human life expectancy and a decrease in human fertility rates. As an indication, from 1950 to 2000, the world’s average life-expectancy increased from 45 to 63 years and is projected to reach 73 years by 2050, whilst the world’s average fertility rate of children per female decreased from 5.02 to 2.69 from 1950 to 2000 and is projected to reach 1.96 by 2050 (UN DESA 2004). Rather than being a temporary local event, population ageing is defined by the UN as an enduring global one, likely to have profound consequences on all facets of human life, from the social, to the economic, from the political, to the urban (UN DESA 2002). Despite being a ‘younger’ country than many of the western European nations, the US is also encountering a significant growth in its over 60 population.

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Fig. 6: Trends in the percentage of the aged in the world. Source: UN DESA, Population Division

In parallel to the widespread expansion of the elderly population is the extension of the period of time that the elderly are living in a healthy and active condition. For the first time ever, according to the sociologist Andrew Blaikie (1999:69), this is leading to “…the emergence of a large (and potentially vast) social group whose daily experiences do not consist of work or schooling – at least, not in the traditional sense of socialization for work – and who, crucially, can expect to live up to a third of their lives in this state.” This has supported a shift away from the conventional three-phase life stages consisting of childhood, adulthood, and old age. Whereas in the past, the third age was seen as a period of decommissioning and institutionalization of the elderly, the social historian Peter Laslett (1989:4) proposes a shift toward a four-phase life-course through the bifurcation of the third phase. Following the conventional first and second ages of childhood and adulthood is a “…third era of personal fulfillment, and a fourth era of final dependence, decrepitude, and death.” Similarly, Blaikie (1999:69), describes these new Third and Fourth Ages as those of the ‘young old’ and the ‘old old,’ or of extended active leisure (independence) followed by a shorter period of decay and senility (dependence).

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The leisure nomads of RV urbanism are clearly a product of this new Third Age. b) Individualisation. The process that the German sociologist Ulrich Beck (1992) calls individualisation refers to the social transformation occurring in Western countries in recent decades in which dominant traditional social hierarchies have become increasingly subordinated to individual choice and freedom. This supports a progressively more differentiated and pluralistic society. Full-time senior RVers are clearly tied to this process − they consciously decide not to perform the traditional roles of sedentary retirees, whether as the central member of an extended family structure or in another expected role (grandparents take flight.) (Huber & O’Reilly 2004) This individual freedom is linked also to the third aspect of transformation: the increasing weight placed upon lifestyle. c) Lifestyle. The emergence of the term coincides, according to the sociologist David Chaney (1996), with the mid-20th century shift in social organization from a production-based culture of work to a consumption-based culture of leisure. For Chaney, lifestyle is a distinctly modern form of social grouping, based upon modes of consumption. Chaney (1996:14) uses the term consumption to refer to “all the types of social activity that people do that we might use to characterize and identify them, other than (or in addition to) what they might ‘do’ for a living.” The elderly – who generally no longer function as producers, but primarily as consumers, are the exemplary subjects of this shift from a societal mode of production to consumption − retirees are the emblematic lifestyle subjects. The phenomenon of population ageing in the developed world is exacerbated by the arrival at retirement age of the generation known as the ‘Baby-Boomers’. Born between 1945 and 1965, this generation emerged, in the US especially, at a time of major social and economic change. The shift from the war-time logic of military production to a peace-time logic of domestic consumption coincided with an intensive period of (sub)urbanized development, producing the first generation in the US that was predominantly urban rather than rural − one fully integrated into a quickly developing global media culture. This period also saw the development of urbanism as a consumer-based lifestyle product incorporating mass production, and mass lifestyle-marketing −

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Levittown would be the most emblematic example of this. Marketing associated with RVs is predominantly couched in terms of lifestyle – and it is the most common term used to describe Rving (Counts & Counts 1996). The arrival at retirement age of the Baby Boomer generation suggests also an impending explosion of new leisure nomads in the next two decades. The three traditional forms of nomadism align to a particular spatial model that functions in contrast to that which is defined sedentary space. Several accounts are relatively consistent in their description of how nomads operate spatially (Deleuze & Guattari 1986:50) (Barfield 1993) (Khaldun 1377) (Jabbur 1984). Nomad space is characterized by the dominance of the trajectory of movement (pathway or line) over the destination (node or fixed point). Points are secondary – inasmuch as one is arrived at only to be left behind. Therefore, the space between points is critical. This functions in contrast to sedentary space that privileges the fixed point over the line. This is no clearer than in the definition Counts and Counts (1996:313) offer for the senior RVer disease known as ‘Hitch Itch’: “After a week or two in one place they begin to feel its symptoms – restlessness and dissatisfaction. Once it starts, the only recourse is to hitch up the rig and head down the road. The relief is only temporary. The next time the sufferer is in one place for a while, he or she will suffer a relapse.” The nomad functions according to a territorial occupation of space rather than one that is codified, divided and controlled. Nomad space is defined by characteristics rather than borders, as in the case of sedentary space. The nomadic trajectory that defines a line differs from the sedentary route. It distributes people in an open borderless space without fixed enclosure, in contrast to the function of the sedentary road that divides precise shares of space, controlling communication between the individual properties. Nomads therefore, according to these accounts, promote a form of space that is both indefinate and noncommunicating. It is precisely this non-communicating aspect of nomad space that is challenged by the contemporary leisure nomad. The wider systems of infrastructure of the RVer support a high level of inter-connectivity – suggesting the possibility to define this spatial formation as a form of network urbanism – albeit a highly decentralized one. This infrastructure takes on two primary forms: one physical and (more importantly) one that could be described as non-physical. Each is constituted by a system of autonomous elements (points

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or nodes) and relations (lines) – forming a network supporting the flow of material or information.

Network (P) The physical RVing infrastructure is essentially a fixed system. It consists of two main elements: firstly, the road and highway system (constituting a system of lines or circuits); and secondly, the parking/camping sites for vehicles (constituting a series of points or nodes.) The RV vehicles themselves operate as mobile elements that flow within the physical network.

Fig. 7: RV Physical Network. Source: Deane Simpson.

The road and highway system in the US is a critical aspect of RVing infrastructure as the vehicles have limited off-roading capabilities. Operating as a system of lines, it is formed by overlaying the various road and highway networks including the primary roads of the Interstate Highway System, and the secon-

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dary and tertiary roads of the various state and county systems. The sheer scale and extent of the road system is an important factor in the growth of the RVing lifestyle in the US. For example: the Interstate Highway System is the largest highway system in the world at 42,787 miles (68,860km) in length, and is 10 times larger than the next largest highway network (Germany). The US National Highway System, incorporating the Interstate Highway System and other principal roads is a total of 160,000 miles (256,000 km) long (FHA 2006). Parking and camping sites function as a series of infrastructural nodes within the US road and highway system. These nodes are either formal or informal sites. Formal campsites include: public parks, membership or coop parks and private parks. As of 2005, there were over 16,000 public and privately owned park/campground sites in the US, operating as a series of nodes within the road and highway system. Privately-owned campgrounds include chains such as the Kampgrounds of America (KOA) a franchised RV park group. RV Membership Parks are profit-making associations of affiliated parks that offer sites on a time-share basis. RVers pay annual membership fees for inexpensive but limited period use of sites. Public campgrounds include city or federally owned and operated sites. Formal sites typically offer what is referred to as a hook-up. A hook-up supplies electricity and water and sometimes sewerage services directly to the RV. Informal sites do not offer these services. Common informal sites are Long-term Visitor Areas (LTVA) that are administered by the US Department of the Interior. These sites are available to ‘boondockers’ – or those who stay in areas where there are no power or water hook-ups and no charge for occupying the space (for up to six months). The term comes from the phrase ‘docking (parking) out in the boonies (remote areas)’. The majority of RVs are equipped to boondock – this requires self-contained water and waste disposal tanks and a 12-volt electrical system, which for long-term boondockers is normally powered by either solar panels or a generator (Counts & Counts 1996:311). The points or nodes in the network vary greatly in size: from single RVs parking alone or in small groups on a remote site, to temporary physical cities numbering up to one million people. Notable informal sites include Quartzsite, Arizona − a small desert town approximately 50 miles (80km) north of Yuma. Its population of several hundred expands in the winter months, typi-

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cally peaking at over one million in February. The majority of winter RVers at Quartsite boondock on US government designated Long-Term Visitor Areas. SlabCity is an abandoned US military base near Niland, California. It is named after the concrete foundation slabs for temporary (now demolished) WWII buildings. While some RVers live there permanently, the area is most densely populated with RV residents from November or December until early March (Counts & Counts 1996:86).

Fig. 8: Quartzsite, Arizona

These points or nodes do not only exist in what is traditionally understood as ‘non-urban’ areas. In many cases RV sites are embedded within existing urban fabric – operating on an unwritten ‘timeshare’ basis. The sight of RVs parked

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in supermarket or big-box retail parking lots is the most visible form of this − Walmart is a common free parking site. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as destination boondocking, as it involves parking for temporary overnight accommodation along the way to a distant destination. According to one RVer, these sites include “…in the winter, hotel/motel parking lots. In the summer, school yards. Anywhere else that is quiet and that we won’t be in anyone’s way. Shopping centers, church parking lots (except on Saturday night), and our all-time favorites are old roads that have been straightened. They are often level, drive-in and drive-out, paved and quiet. Also gravel pits, boat launches, etc.” (Counts & Counts 1996:173) This leads to the informal and temporary inhabitation and transformation of existing urban sites – effectively the generation of a thin nomadic layer increasingly infiltrating fixed, built-up urbanity.

Fig. 9: RV overnighting, Walmart

Network (NP) The non-physical RVing infrastructure consists of two main elements: firstly the (mobile) RV-based communication equipment (computer and two-way satellite internet technology) in which each moving vehicle operates as a node or point; and secondly, the series of circuits or lines of communication – in

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particular the web-based RV club sites and the internet that supports them. This infrastructure serves as a platform for the flow of information between RVers. It supports a high level of social connectivity, constructing a dispersed urban field at the scale of the entire United States.

Fig. 10: RV Non-Physical Network. Source: Deane Simpson.

On-board RV communication equipment is increasingly sophisticated, and remarkably widely used amongst the senior RV community. As early as 1995, (Farlow 1995 cited in Counts & Counts 1996:148) over two-thirds of fulltimers had computers in their RVs. While more recent figures are not readily available, it is estimated that this proportion has increased substantially. In addition to the increasing presence of portable and laptop computers, the majority of RVers now use two-way satellite internet access. With a satellite dish mounted to an RV, a user is able to access the internet from any remote location in the US with a view toward the southern sky. Two-way satellite internet allows the transmission and receipt of data from remote areas via

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satellite to a hub, which then sends the data to the internet. Download speed as of 2006 is up to 2Mbps with contemporary satellite technology. Commercially available to consumers from the mid-1990s, satellite internet access has radically improved the ability of remote and mobile civilians to communicate. In recent years, the dominant staging area of RV communities − typically known as RV Clubs − has become the internet. RV Clubs are one of the central aspects of the RVing lifestyle. As of 1994, the RVIA listed 12 ‘national’ RV clubs and 32 clubs organized for owners of RVs of particular brands names. These numbers have grown substantially since then. Clubs not only organize yearly or seasonal rallies and conventions but also keep members in close communication through newsletters and magazines – many clubs supply park spaces and some redirect mail. In general the clubs have increasingly cemented a web-based presence with forums, chatrooms, info sites, etc. Forums offer support on travel itineraries, technical issues, buying and selling RVs, RVer dating, RV friendly recipes, discount RV merchandise, security tips, rallies and conventions etc. The largest and most well known RV community is the Good Sam Club, founded in 1966 to allow RVers to get to know and help one another. It publishes Highways Magazine and has a considerable web presence on www.goodsamclub.com. As of July 2006, there were over 1,000,000 Good Sam Club members. Large rallies of the Good Sam Club are known as Samborees. Escapees (www.escapees.com) was one of the first RV clubs exclusively for fulltime RVers. It was founded in 1978 and as of early 2006 it had 65,000 members. It has two large-scale rallies each year known as Escapades (Counts & Counts:16). Many other clubs are based upon RV brands (but generally offer the same services such as networking, newsletters, mail forwarding etc.) − these include the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers (Winnebago Clubs 2006)) with 19,000 members in 2006.

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Fig.11: RV websites: The Good Sam Club, the world’s largest online RV community with over one million members. Source: www.goodsamclub.com

Fig. 12: RV websites: The Escapees RV Club: forum directory. Source: www.escapees.com

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Fig. 13: automatic satellite locator blog. Source: http://map.datastormusers.com

Network (P + NP) The overlaying of these two networks defines the RV as both a node and material flow. Whereas in a conventional network (characterized perhaps by our typical understanding of the internet for example) where human subjects operate as fixed points in (office or domestic) space, the RV suggests a more complex network of flowing nodes functioning in both in the physical and non-physical realms, and in-between.

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Fig. 14: RV Physical + Non-Physical Networks Combined. Source: Deane Simpson.

Manuel Castells in The Rise of the Network Society (1996) describes in some detail a shift in the dominant mode of urbanism, a shift supported by the increasing prevalence of various types of networks. Castells suggests the subordination of the traditionally defined urbanism of the ‘space of places’, to that which he refers to as the ‘space of flows’. For Castells, the ‘space of flows’ refers to the emerging spatial logic in which social interaction occurs in between others who are both absent and distant in time and space – in other words: living, inhabitation and social connectivity transgress immediate physical distance (Dean 2000). This suggests the possibility of perceiving the physically spread but densely networked mobile inhabitants of the RV community as a socially coherent urban field.8 ............................................ 8 This article is indebted to Dean’s paper (2000:86-91) on the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service as an important case study precedent in dispersed urbanism. According to Dean, given the rise of the network society “…it seems necessary to rethink what urbanism is and how to practice it. The RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) is an interesting example. Whilst it bears no historic reference to the evolution of the ‘city’ as we know it, it is an extreme example where minimum density is

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One of many urbansims The nomadic senior RV community in the US must be understood in urban terms, rather than as a purely anti-urban phenomenon – or to use Fuller’s term, unsettlement need not imply the opposite of urbanity – but an alternate form of decentralized urbanity.

Fig. 15: usuyaki tamago (japanese egg crepe) as form egg analogy for the city (after Price, C) . Source: Deane Simpson.

The interpretation of the phenomenon of RV urbanism within a wider framework would involve a negotiation between two opposing positions. On the one hand, the RV lifestyle could be perceived as a mass-consumed product supporting a second phase of American ‘escapism’, after the first that began in the post-war period with the white middle-class abandoning the inner city for the suburbs.9 The behavior of many of America’s largest generation – the Baby Boomers – could therefore be associated with two waves of urban migration – the first from the center to the periphery, and the second from the periphery to everywhere, and anywhere.10 If the first wave of migration was driven by fears of violence and the loss of property value, and the promise of freedom in owning one’s own house and piece of land; then one could speculate that the .......................................................................................... coupled with maximum social cohesion.” If the RFDS functions as a fixed decentralized network, the RV community operates as a mobile distributed network. 9 See Castells 1996:400 for his reading of American escapism . 10 Archigram’s David Green alludes to an extreme vision of this: “…we will have to wait until the steel and concrete mausoleums of our cities, villages and towns etc., decay and the suburbs bloom and flourish. They in turn will die and the world will perhaps again be a garden. And that perhaps is the dream, and we should all be busy persuading not to build but to prepare for the invisible networks in the air there.” (Green 1967:297)

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second wave is driven by a fear of boredom, stasis and death, and the promise of freedom to live anywhere.11 Both motives are undeniably tied to an individually-focused rather than collectively-focused view of the world.

Fig. 16: first and second wave of urban migration. Source: Deane Simpson.

RV urbanism, on the other hand, could be understood as a potentially liberating experiment – one challenging traditional social, economic and urban models of collective life that have become increasingly limiting, and in certain cases obsolete. It could even be seen as a contemporary realization (literally in practice) of the early thought experiments of the architectural avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s – one that is paradoxically being realized by the demographic assumed to be the most conservative and least experimental. Perhaps unconsciously, RVers have picked up a thread that has been dropped during a period of highly conservative and reactionary urban practice. As Mark Wigley points out, the theorization of networks and network urbanism is not a recent phenomenon – but one with a strong history in the discourse of the 1960s, particularly in the work of Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan and Constantin Doxiadis. These theoretical discussions and the discourse surrounding them also influenced a number of architects active in the 1960s and early 1970s. There are many parallels between these propositions and RV urbanism ............................................ 11 See (Counts & Counts 1996:39-58) Chapter 2 Ageing, Retirement and RVing.

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as it is being realized. Apart from the obvious connection to the statement of Fuller introduced at the beginning of this article, there are clear parallels also to the work of Archigram and projects such as Walking City, Instant City, Underwater City, Living Pod, and Freetime Node. The themes of networks, mobility, nomadism and transience are recurring in their work, alongside a preoccupation in exploiting technology for the purpose of personal choice and freedom. In the 1969 text Childen’s Primer, Archigram’s David Green refers to trailer nomads as ‘node-owners’ plugged into camouflaged ‘logplugs’ and ‘rokplugs’ in the wilderness. Logplugs, for example, would offer vital services such as water and power, and most importantly what was referred to then as ‘international information hookup’ – an Archigram-ism for the yet to be invented internet. According to Green (1969:297): “Plugs will increase the service to these communities… The whole of London or New York will be available in the world’s leafy hollows, deserts and flowered meadows.” Imagined is a utopia formed from the collision of the most urban and the most anti-urban of conditions – one that the contemporary RV community we could say has at least partially realized – albeit as a work heavily in progress.12

............................................ 12 “In a letter to the Escapees Newsletter, Dave Weston compares the contemporary builders of Escapees co-op parks to early pioneers: “To me, we are the “pioneers” of our century – building new communities where none have been before, and creating brand new social structures at the same time.” (Counts & Counts 1996:95-96)

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Fig. 17: David Green, Archigram. Trailer nomads as Node Owners. 1968. Source: (Green 1969)

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.

Fig. 18: David Green, Archigram. Logplug Project. 1968. Source: (Green 1969)

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References BARFIELD, T 1993, The Nomadic Alternative, Prentice Hall. BECK, U. 1992, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Sage, London. BLAIKIE, A. 1999, Ageing and Popular Culture, Cambridge University Press. CASTELLS, M. 1996, The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell, London. CHANEY, D. 1996, Lifestyle: Key Ideas, Routledge, London. COUNTS, D.A. & COUNTS D.R. 1996, Over the Next Hill : An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America, Broadview Press, Ontario. DEAN, P. 2000, Outback Metropolis – Time Sharing Urbanism, Architecture Australia, January/February 2000, pp. 86-91. DELEUZE, G. & GUATTARI, F. 1986, Nomadology: The War Machine, Semiotext(e) University of Minnesota Press. FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION (FHA) 2006 from (www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep10/nhs/) GREEN, D. 1969, Children’s Primer in Lachmayer, D & Shoenig, P. & Crompton (eds), Archigram: A Guide to Archigram 1961-1974. Academy Editions, London, p. 297. HUBER , A. & O’REILLY, K. 2004, The Construction of Heimat under conditions of individualized modernity: Swiss and British elderly migrants in Spain, Ageing and Society 24, pp. 327-351. JABBUR , J.S. 1984 (1995), The Bedouins and the Desert, State University of New York Press. KHALDUN, I. 1377 (1967), The Muqaddimah, Princeton University Press.. LASLETT, P. 1989, A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age. Harvard University Press. RECREATIONAL VEHICLE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION 2006 from www.rvia.org UN DESA: Population Division 2004, World Population to 2300, UN, New York. UN DESA: Population Division, 2002, World Population Aging 1950-2050 Report, UN, New York. WIGLEY, M. 2001, Network Fever, GreyRoom 04, pp. 121-122. WINNEBAGO CLUBS 2006 from http://www.winnebagoind.com/clubs/wit/

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JARKKO R ÄSÄNEN

Real-Time Sonic Texture – an interior design concept

The Concept Modern living or bedroom is something that I would call medialized space in response to question that was put forward in the conference call; surround audio system and broadband internet connection are beginning to be rather standard home appliances. By adding these new preparednesses – broadband and 5.1 or 7.1 surround system – and the fact that hearing is in central role when perceiving space around us, we get to the core of Sonic Texture. The idea is simply to transfer surround soundscapes in real-time and in high quality from different sites into one's living or bedroom. I list here some various perspectives on ambient sounds. They stand for the existence of Sonic Texture against presumed assertion that the kind of virtual reality applications separate people from nature and from reality in general. Some points overlap and some are in contradiction with each other.

Explanatory Points Ambient sounds “(...) Our hearing system developed in a sound-rich environment, with nature sounds ever present, and it is adapted to this type of sound background. It is only over the last few hundred years that buildings have effectively excluded these sounds. Modern architecture is one very important cause of the present increase of tinnitus and hyperacusis.” (Jonathan Hazell, 2001). Audiologists like Jonathan Hazell and Pawel Jastreboff have written about the negative consequences of low background noise environments. A brief summarization of their ideas I am referring to: In the middle of noisy urban life it is common to seek rest and stress relief from silence. Anyway it might turn out to be a disappointment. This is because

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perception of sound is a complex and subjective process, as the classic example explains: If our first name is mentioned in nearby conversation, we are immediately distracted by it, although we cannot hear the rest of the conversation. If strong negative feelings have been learnt to connect in auditive perception (for instance during continuous exposure to loud and unpleasant noise), the mechanism can remain active also outside the situation where the negative feelings originate. Thus even silent sudden sounds of daily life – sounds from neighbors, doorways and outside – might feel disturbing and maintain the stressed condition. “Loudness of any sound depends on the contrast between the signal and any background noise” (Hazell 2001). The alarmed condition following sudden loud sounds has probably been useful during evolution if sounds were caused by approaching predator. The way to relax for people with aforesaid problems could be found from non-stimulating natural background noise, to what our auditory system has been adapted. Silence is not gold after all. In addition of method presented by Hazell, Sonic Texture could also be used to create auditory masking effect. This could be useful in acoustic space where the lack of sound isolation is a concern. Masking effect occurs when an otherwise clearly audible sound is made less audible by another sound. For example a conversation at a bus stop can be completely impossible if a bus is driving past. Sounds with wide audio spectrum, such as noise, are effective maskers. Nature soundscapes often have wide frequency range because of the variety of different sound sources included, and usually they can be used effectively as auditive maskers. The difference between environmental sound enrichment and auditory masking is in their way to make unwanted noise inaudible. The first basically helps listener to forget disturbing sounds, after making listener gradually feel comfortable with them by combining pleasant audio stimulus with unwanted noise. The latter has many different functioning mechanisms, one being suppression. It means that the original neural activity caused by the first sound is reduced by the neural activity of the other sound.

Environmental awareness Sonic Texture could restore natural soundscape to almost any architectonic space with minor modifications. ‘Natural’ is of course referring here only to similar auditive experience to what our auditory system has been adapted, as

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stated earlier. Could this virtual listening experience still be instrumental in creating awareness of environment in larger scale, since that of immediate surroundings cannot always be considered much of an achievement? With Sonic Texture there is a chance to hear the sound of tree falling in a forest with no one being around: when listening to nature soundscapes at least the existence of unspoiled nature remains necessary since the sounds are broadcasted live from the site. We are also in a situation where access to natural state parks, not to mention wild nature, is not necessarily available for everyone. It has already become something of a luxury, while networked computers are gradually becoming part of basic needs also outside the Western world. If even the auditive dimension of visiting at unique nature conditions could be made available for everyone, it is worth to be done. I can easily imagine that when virtual reality applications have developed a little bit further, and are beginning to be available for even the not so wealthy, an iconoclastic opposition may rise: If authenticity and economical value of the original is threatened by reproductions of any kind, benefits of someone are usually under threat too. This mechanism has motivated ancient prohibitions to make images of god, as well as contemporary prohibitions of photography in museums and of copying various things.

Traveling ‘Real-time’ is probably the most unique feature of the project. The fact that sounds provided by Sonic Texture are really happening somewhere else at the moment appeals strongly to our curiosity and escapism. It offers a cheap way to travel: just by switching the channel and closing eyes one could experience the sensation of staying at some Shanghai’s marketplace during rush-hour, on the shore of Harris island pounded by the Atlantic waves, or on a carelian swamp near Ruunaankoski listening to those little finches and titmice singing. Internet can be thought of as an instrument, but also as a product of globalization. It is rare to experience the feeling of being elsewhere while navigating the World Wide Web (at least to me because I read fluently only Finnish and English). This is because most of the internet applications are designed to mediate useful information for different language groups and images of global western culture. The feeling of being elsewhere while traveling is about being

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in range of local details, and internet at its present form is not organized for mediating such contextual information. Unlike experientiality of commercial images that is usually mediated with dramatized audiovisual material, unedited “raw data flows” such as web cameras or audio streams could be able to mediate experiental information from physical locations. Sonic Texture could bring the international nature of internet to the level of experience from the level of knowledge by mediating local details. Unedited, real-time audiovisual streams have also the potential to deconstruct ways of reading av-media by offering alternative representations of reality, since reality in tv-news inserts and in “reality” tv-shows is commonly represented in highly dramatized and edited way.

Music Listening environmental sounds as music would be the cagean perspective on the project. Appreciating sounds aesthetically, at least inside canonized culture is rather new phenomenon. John Cage among other artists established respect for sound in itself during last century with his antagonist thoughts and compositions in context of Western art music. In addition of cagean perspective on music (everything as music), Sonic Texture joins in the tradition of musique concrète pioneered by Pierre Schaeffer as a work of contemporary radiophonic art, and is hopefully paying homage to Erik Satie’s concept of wallpaper music. And of course the option for listening several real-time soundscapes simultaneously – maybe by dividing them to different speakers – should be included to Sonic Texture software for more adventurous listeners!

Technical Points Recording Technical realization of the project remains open. There are several methods to create realistic "being there"-listening experience of the recorded soundscape with regular home theater setup. Such are recording soundscape in surround audio compatible format on the site, with either selected multi-microphone recording technique, or just a single special surround microphone. It is also

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possible to convert a plain dual channel recording in surround audio with a custom-made software. The recording solution to be used is strongly a matter of budget. Special surround microphones and professionally arranged surround recording units with multiple microphones are both equally effective, but equally expensive options too − especially when the amount of real-time soundscapes is more than one as it in the final realization should be. Varying results can be achieved in producing the spatial illusion with different and less expensive microphone setups, or converting dual channel audio in surround audio with custom software. These options might still work well enough if planned carefully.

Other technical measures It is possible to capture soundscape of a site with weather prepared shelter including the microphones, mixer with preamps, sound card and a computer with internet connection. At least in Finland, a goal has already been set to make wireless broadband connections available also in coarsely populated countryside. They would make it possible to transfer soundscapes from auditively rather intact environments too. New mobile phone technology could also be used for arranging necessary data connections. Anyhow, the need of electricity makes the nearness of settlement or at least power lines indispensable for unit to function. All audio adjustments (e.g. equalizing and limiting for preventing sudden loud sounds) would be done in recording units before sending the compressed material to server computer. The server computer would back-up the audio recording of last 24 hours to be used in case of technical problems. Final stream would be made available on the web site in stereo and surround formats for everyone to listen. It is possible to develop commercial product out of Sonic Texture too, which would offer simply a set of beautiful active speakers with a receiver box to be plugged in internet. Many might find this option more attractive and approachable, because of its concrete furniture-reminding form and easy user interface. But in near future, in expected case of new home entertainment devices being integrated in single user-friendly package, the free website-based version of Sonic Texture will be the best solution.

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Situating the collecting units should be done with extreme care despite them being particularly harmless. The amount of wiring and other intervening is of course something to be minimalized and avoided. National wildlife recordist- and acoustic ecology associations could offer help in search of the most suitable sites to offer certain kinds of soundscapes. Collaboration with nature state parks would be ideal solution in many ways; for instance electricity could be lead then from administration posts. Collaboration with tourism councils of cities might be fruitful also, since a real-time sonic portrait of a city could be an interesting advertisement. In any case, there will always remain huge amount of auditive variables to be taken in account when choosing the site for recording: possible flight routes over the site, site being possi1bly part of seasonal hunting area – and in some countries a peaceful region in countryside might suddenly become a literal battlefield when military forces come there for their annual training camp.

Conclusion Sonic Texture cannot be blamed for being just another “deus ex machine” that wastes nature recourses and people’s time to offer shallow amusement. It is mainly applying the infrastructure and resources that already exist and will exist without it. Besides offering amusement, it would respect the listener by giving space for individual interpretations, insights and experiences. References Environmental sound enrichment, JONATHAN HAZELL: http://www.tinnitus.org/home/frame/environmental_SE.htm

Links THE ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY INSTITUTE: http://www.acousticecology.org/ WORLD FORUM FOR ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY: http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/wfae/home/

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Fig. 1: Illustration by Jukka Salminen

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M AURO C ECONELLO

Virtual Models for City Design The Potential Role of Digital Systems Supporting Design and Restoration Projects in Cities

Representing the Urban Landscape The correct representation of “land” has turned out to be a fundamentally important feature when the design aspect of new planning projects has to be divulged and made “visible”, not only to the likes of those who work in government institutions or local technicians and administrators, but also to citydwellers themselves. The plans that are drawn up, not to mention the technical and thematic paper-work, very often prevent sectors of the public not normally used to reading such information from fully appreciating the situation. The 1980s saw the first few attempts at creating systems that would employ a series of instruments representing and illustrating design projects and new urban initiatives. This was done to help the general public to better understand this “technical” situation with a host of instruments ranging from plastics and digital models to geographic information systems equipped with multi-media applications as well as the internet, of course (Shiffer, 1992). Starting off from analytical schemes like the ones used by Lynch (1960) (enabling us to give an area a certain ‘ease of interpretation’ and, therefore, the ability to be correctly represented) we have been able to re-create and utilize such concepts for the study, the planning and the modification of urban space so the “best possible form” can be obtained. (Lynch, 1976) Such topics have since been further worked upon and used in other research projects by employing virtual technologies which have been able to plan and spread the message that the design project intends to create. Since the city and the land upon which the city lies form a reality that is difficult to describe (and, above all, to represent) an efficient analysis of this situation is nonetheless extremely useful. This enables us to understand in a

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fully comprehensible way all the characteristics, features and choices that might arise during any sort of structural intervention in a city. The territory in question possesses numerous pieces of information that tend to be both descriptive as well as visual. In the first case the already widespread use of territorial information systems – the G.I.S. – has made the management of data related to the various features that make up the area of land considerably easier. In the second case the use of digital models is a powerful instrument of representation and a valid form of help that enables people to see and appreciate both the actual state of things and the hypothetical modifications even before the latter take place. This also allows for the correct evaluation of outcome and effect before any real intervention is allowed to occur. This is even clearer in the case of territorial representation where the level of detail (which is the fundamental guarantee of the 3D GIS simulations) adds an irreplaceable merit to design projects (Brail et al., 2001; Raper, 1991). Indeed, it is an instrument which is of the utmost efficiency since, a part from representing a particular environment, it enables us to move around freely inside it and observe particular features from a variety of different standpoints. You only have to consider how useful it is for landscape planners and architects when they have to check the progress of a certain phenomenon or when they have to evaluate the extent of the impact of urban intervention upon the surrounding environment (Dodge et al., 1997). Therefore, its indispensability can best be understood when a high level of detail and a total level of adherence to reality are called for. Moreover, this hyper-realistic model also allows us to reach further and get to the very construction of virtual environments (Kraak et al., 1999; Raper et al., 1993). Of course, these are environments which do not actually exist in reality.

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Fig. 1: Digital model of an urban area.

Virtual Models for Urban Planning The use of 3D models has for years been the object of research in the field of territorial representation as well as the inter-connected field of event simulation. Since the arrival of programmes for automatic design, the usage of numerical models has attempted to replace the physical model or the studio model (Batty et al., 1998). Following on from this, the use of simulators that are automatic, to a greater or lesser degree, has tried to re-create the right conditions to generate urban environments in such a way that they can be used in planning processes and, in many working experiences (above all in cities with particular characteristics) this new role has provided highly useful indications. Indeed, these programmes, based upon the more or less random inclusion of objects from pre-defined libraries, find it hard to adapt to the morphological features of most Italian and European cities. Unlike the repetitive planning scheme of cities like New York, it would be useful at this point to reflect upon the complexity of centres in many Italian cities like Florence, Milan or Rome which call for detailed and well-articulated models with particular characteristics that cannot easily be standardized. So, starting off from a model created as an extrusion of volumes in the information system, this model is then exported by using the VRML format which, a part from being a standard format for communicating models by © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

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internet, easily allows for the conversion into different formats that can be utilized in as many model software programmes. During this phase the models of buildings are enriched with details and particular features which make them increasingly more similar to real buildings. This operation has been made possible on account of maps and facades of buildings (as well as photographs) which have been chosen for such experimental purposes. The photographs have been used to create the necessary texture to apply to the models, a part from being particularly helpful in the definition of size and construction details. The last product in the modelling phase – the so-called ‘detail’ phase – is, therefore, a digital object which reproduces its own corresponding figure in reality both in form as well as in appearance. Although all the various steps have been the subject of a rigorous methodological approach its ‘rapidity’ should also be taken into account. This has to be the case since in order for the research to be fully carried out it is absolutely essential to check the feasibility of the whole process and to go through the process step by step so it can be done in the most rigorous and scientific way possible. A greater level of definition might have been achieved merely using 3D laser scanning systems which enable the acquisition of whole portions of buildings and, starting from the clouds of points where forms may be reconstructed. Technological processes like the aforementioned, in addition to digital photogrammetry systems (Guidi et al., 2004) have widely been used at the Virtual Prototyping and Reverse Modelling Lab at the Polytechnic of Milan and they will enable us to perfect the definition of digital models, if necessary. However, at this point we have to underline the importance of exactly defining the scope and the detail level which are deemed necessary for our modelling. Indeed, since the models are simplifications and schematizations of reality there is always a gap between reality and detail level in the actual model. If the detail is not sufficient we run the risk of losing the main interactions and so the model will turn out to be incomprehensible and useless. On the contrary, if the detail is excessive the model will become much too complicated and will end up being just as indecipherable as in the previous case. Therefore, the definition of the detail level is one of the most important planning steps that have to be undertaken when these models are used.

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Fig. 2: Visualizing results on a Cad wall in a virtual theatre.

The fundamental characteristic of digital models, a part from the photo-real simulation of reality, is that they are able to function as true virtual prototypes endowed with behavioural and performance similarities. They make us observe, simulate and analyse the design project (as well as how it behaves) in a much better way than offered by similar technologies, both from a visualization point of view and a database point of view. The further shift from the hyper-realistic model to the systems of virtual reality enables the planner to check out the planning decisions in relation to urban re-organization (including new forms of intervention in the pre-existing urban landscape) by using sophisticated equipment and the aid of stereoscopic systems (Ceconello, 2003). By employing such format conversion techniques the models created in the previous phase are imported in suitable software that has been studied for the digital visualization of re-constructed environments on a large screen in a Virtual Theatre. At this stage, when you surf in an interactive and real-time way the virtual re-construction more than clearly shows up all the potential problems that a planning operation may bring about in any particular urban area and it also offers you the best type of solution in the most suitable context. It is easy to visualize the different proposals in their natural sequence and to single out the most fitting. A further merit stems from the fact that results and planning activities are now provided for the benefit of a non-specialized public. You only need think of the fact that we can now convert a whole section of a city into 3D by using a standard format like

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VRML (or later systems like GEOVRML, X3D) which are able to maintain the three-dimensional features of the model in files which are directly usable in other applications. By maintaining a link to a GIS database you are able to use an application on the web which can be easily used, questioned and surfed through, not forgetting that it is accessible to everyone.

Fig. 3: Query of a 3D model with textures in a GIS.

Today, without any shadow of doubt, these are characteristics which, right from the very outset, constitute the best way of evaluating any type of intervention. These characteristics are a unique instrument which can be used in the study of a variety of interventions in any single area, so the best strategies can be established (leading to the most suitable forms of restoration and reuse) and, in equal measure, divulged to the public at large.

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Refernces BATTY, M./D ODGE, M./D OYLE, S. AND SMITH, A. 1998. Visualising Virtual Urban Environments, CASA Working Paper 1. London: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London. BRAIL, R./KLOSTERMAN, R. 2001. Planning support systems: integrating geographic systems, models, and visualization tools. Redlands: Esri Press. CECONELLO, M. 2003. Strumenti e tecniche di visualizzazione. In: Gaiani, M. Metodi di prototipazione digitale e visualizzazione per il disegno industriale, l’architettura degli interni e i beni culturali. Milano: Polidesign. D ODGE M./D OYLE S./SMITH A. AND FLEETWOOD S. Towards the Virtual City: VR & Internet GIS for Urban Planning, Virtual Reality and Geographical Information Systems Workshop. May 1998. London: Birkbeck College. GUIDI G./BERALDIN J.A. 2004. Acquisizione 3D e modellazione poligonale. Dall'oggetto fisico alla suo calco digitale. Milano: Polidesign. KRAAK, M.J./G. SMETS AND SIDJANIN, P. 1999. Virtual reality, the new 3D interface for geographical information systems. In: Camara, A., J.Raper Spatial Multimedia and Virtual Reality. London: Taylor & Francis, pp. 130-136. LYNCH, K. 1960. The image of the City. Cambridge: Mit Press and Harvard U.P. LYNCH, K. 1976. Managing the Sense of a Region. Cambridge: Mit Press. RAPER , J., KELK, B. 1991. Three-dimensional GIS. In: Maguire, D.J., Goodchild, M., Rhind, D.W. Geographical information systems: principles and applications. Essex: Longman scientific and technical, pp. 299-317. RAPER , J./MCCARTHY, F. AND LIVINGSTONE, D. 1993. Interfacing GIS with Virtual Reality technology, Proceedings Association for Geographic Information conference, Birmingham, 3, 25, pp. 1-4. SHIFFER , M. J. 1992. Towards a collaborative planning system, Environment and Planning

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E LIZABETH S IKIARIDI AND F RANS VOGELAAR

Hybrid Space / Soft Urbanism

Hybrid Cityscape In October 1999, a boat spent a week cruising down the Rhine from Cologne in Germany to Rotterdam and Amsterdam in Holland as a floating media laboratory. On board were eighty passengers: artists, musicians, architects, urbanists and media collectives from North Rhine–Westphalia and the Netherlands. They were all working on projects concerning the space of flows (the river) and the space of places (along the route). ReBoot [the name is a play on words, as ‘Boot’ means ‘boat’ in both German and Dutch] was launched by the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, under the auspices of “kunst NRW.NL”, an official cultural exchange and co-operation project between North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands.

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Fig 1: ReBoot: a floating media laboratory, 1999.

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On its way down the Rhine, the ReBoot boat docked at various cities along the way (Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Emmerich, Arnheim and Rotterdam) to address the local public. Art projects, concerts, guided tours and lectures were held at these locations in collaboration with local artists, DJs and performers. The boat, connected via Internet with a series of spaces along the river (clubs, labs, etc.), was part of a translocal networked environment. During the journey, programmes were broadcast live via the Internet and on local television. Along the Rhine, the archetypal symbol of connectiveness between Germany and the Netherlands, an intense atmosphere of (partly networked) collaboration developed in “the supreme heterotopia” of the boat. Amid the networked collective experimental working process, a new hybrid emerged of media and real space. It was a space that was not tied to any specific point on the map, but had emanated from an interplay of different locations.

Fig. 2: ReBoot: hybrid landscape, 1999.

A traditional translocal network, the River Rhine was connected with contemporary “glocal”, combined global-local, media networks (Internet/TV). Reboot

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was a hybrid (combined physical and media) vessel, generating a hybrid (combined physical and media) cityscape. These new hybrid (“real” and media) landscapes, these interconnected networks, are rendering traditional concepts for analysing space obsolete. A new domain of planning and design, combining urbanism and architecture with information-communication networks and media spaces, is emerging. This new field of ‘Soft Urbanism’ needs new tools and new research categories to develop the new hybrid network urbanities.

Hybrid Space Today, media networks (Internet, telephone, television etc.) are influencing and interacting with “real” places. The emerging space created by digital information-communication flows is re-shaping not only our physical environment but also the social, economic and cultural organisation of our societies in general. The term “Hybrid Space” stands for the combinations and fusions of media and physical space. Hybrid Space is the product of alliances between physical objects and information-communication networks, and between architectural and media space. Hybrid Space can be found everywhere in our daily lives. Take, for example, the private (communication) spaces of mobile telephony, creating islands of private space within public urban space, or monitored environments where cameras keep watch over open urban areas. More examples are appearing in our domestic environments, as our homes become increasingly “smart” and networked spaces, with the fridge controlling the milk reserves, the mobile phone warning us that the oven was not switched off, and the TV set ordering new movies. The tele-workplace is becoming an integral part of the home and the (connected) car is a mobile extension of our networked existence. Physical space and its objects should not therefore be looked at in isolation, but in the context of and in correlation with the networked systems which they belong to and interact with. The concept of Hybrid Space sees the hysical environment in the context of and in correlation with the networks which it belongs to and interacts with. Hence, the Hybrid Space approach concerns itself with methodologies to help

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us understand the fusions of media space and physical place and develop them in an integrated way. This distinguishes the Hybrid Space approach from the methodology which urban sociologist Manuel Castels introduced with his notion of the „space of flows“. Castels juxtaposes the „space of flows“, i.e. media spaces and information-communication networks, against the „space of places“, the local urban space (Castels, 1996, 376-428). More interesting than this juxtaposition and polarisation, than this distinction in media networks and urban places, is the interplay of media and urban space. Focusing on the hybrid ambivalent spaces, both analogue and digital, virtual and material, local and global, tactile and abstract, in which we live and interact could prove a very productive approach. In this hybrid urban landscape of combined physical and digital space, traditional terms of spatial distinction are losing their validity. The new domain of Soft Urbanism integrally addresses architectural and urban space together with information-communication networks and media space. Soft Urbanism devises categories and tools to develop and steer today’s network urbanity.

Soft Urbanism Architects and urbanists, working on the spaces for social interaction, are increasingly challenged by the professional implications of the relationship between the physical and the digital public domain. These entail, amongst others, investigating the relationship and interconnection between the “soft” city and its finite material counterpart, the living environment; speculating on interfaces between the “virtual” and the material (urban) world; and designing hybrid (analogue-digital) communicational space. The term “Soft Urbanism” stands for a new interdisciplinary field of design and planning, which researches the transformed architectural-urban space of the emerging information-communication age and explores the dynamic interaction between urbanism and the space of mass media and communication networks. Soft Urbanism deals with information-communication processes in public space, the soft aspects overlying and modifying the urban sprawl: the invisible networks acting as attractors, transforming the traditional urban structure, interweaving, ripping open and cutting through the urban tissue, and demanding interfaces.

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But Soft Urbanism is more than just proposing interfaces. It adopts a “softer” approach to planning: planners should shift their focus from permanent material objects to infrastructures, the preconditions for processes of urban organisation. Soft Urbanism not only intervenes in infrastructures, it adopts their concept and follows their paradigm. It introduces an inherently flexible approach by expanding the horizon of social interaction and opening new paths of urban development. Soft Urbanism is not therefore about determining places, but about creating frameworks for processes of (political, social, planning-related) self-organisation. Soft Urbanism rethinks the intervention strategies and reintroduces programmatic speculations about the combined digital and physical public domain in urbanism. “Soft” strategies are “bottom-up” strategies: instead of defining first the global result of the interaction and then the relationship needed between the elements to produce it (a “top-down” approach), simple rules are developed for a set of independent elements. What emerges from the interaction between these elements is aleatory. According to biological models, fields of interaction between multiple forces could serve as a reservoir for the selection processes in urban transformations. In this article we will demonstrate with the aid of a series of projects how Soft Urbanism, as an integrative approach to urbanity, is relevant to the city in flux, in shrinking regions as well as growing agglomerations.

Soft Strategies Half a century of peace in Western Europe, demographic developments and the rapid globalisation of migration and capital have broadened the operational scope of architects and planners. As urban expansion and growth are no longer high on the urban development agenda it would be better if we were to break free of our obsession with building. This would help us develop a holistic perspective that takes account of the whole space of the urban landscape – including the unbuilt as well as the built areas and the digital and media space as well as the physical and architectural space – in urban transformation processes. Demands to appropriate and raise the quality of our environment are getting louder. The task today is not just to deliver buildings, but also and to an

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increasing extent, to orchestrate and steer the growth, transformation and recycling of the urban landscape. Meantime, centralised planning is in a critical situation. As this crisis involves the state institutions it is heightened and accelerated by the dire state of local authority finances. But it is also a crisis in our belief in the manipulability of the world and our control over urban phenomena. Today, with the emergence and empowerment of a multiplicity of social players, other processes of city development are gaining in relevance. These players, in communicative processes (also with the support of new media), are appropriating the classic tasks of state spatial planning institutions. In a changeover from Government to Governance the vertical processes of centralised and institutionalised planning are making way for de-central, networked steering. In this setting, the alternative “soft”, flexible and process-oriented strategies of Soft Urbanism are becoming more and more meaningful. A set of conceptual models and project examples will both clarify the combination and interaction of physical and virtual space and demonstrate the ‘soft’ strategies of Soft Urbanism.

Pubic Media Urban Interface We formulated aspects of Soft Urbanism within the framework of the „Public Media Urban Interfaces“ project (Sikiaridi/Vogelaar, 1997, 142-143). This project is simple and clear, yet it moves in a complex space of connotations, a thematically informed space, generating many discussion topics and themes. It is a matter of considering digital networks and physical space collectively as spaces of social interaction. The Public Media Urban Interfaces project proposes overlaying the city with a network of interfaces between urban and media space. These interfaces will be located in public space and will offer everyone access to the global media network. The project envisages a network with a bottom-up structure, where processes from below get a chance to assert themselves in media space, in contrast with top-down media such as television. It offers an alternative scenario for the interplay of mass media in order to reinforce the function of public space. This project develops a hybrid urban network-space, a fusion of media space and urban space, and speculates about publicly accessible interfaces

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between the global media space and the local urban place. It emphasises the role of the public in an increasingly individualised society and fills the vacuum between local and global. The products of this alliance between urban and media networks are hybrid spaces which are, at the same time, analogue and digital, virtual and material, local and global. The locally-based public ‘tele-feeder facility (at your neighbourhood laundrette)’, the primary unit of Public Media Urban Interfaces, enables the public to produce, narrow-broadcast and receive messages in a dynamic communication environment. By creating a locally-based dynamic media network from the bottom up, local events can be accelerated and energised to temporarily invade the glocal media space. As this link between global media space and local place has its interfaces in public space, it is possible to broadcast, access, and influence the global media environment from the local (urban) neighbourhood. A demo project, exploiting London's urban tensions and structure, unfolds strategies and visualises aspects of these investigations, confronting a working hypothesis with the idiosyncrasies of a specific urban situation.

Fig. 3: Public Media Urban Interfaces: dynamic model of the urban and media communication space, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism und design.

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One hundred and twenty-eight feeder houses (Media Babies) are distributed evenly over the sprawling London towns and interconnected by a digital network supply of eight Bridge Clubs located on the Thames with a continuous stream of (non-)events. The Media Baby at your neighbourhood launderette consists of a Catching Gallery, two Intro Booths, a Debutantes’ Booth, a Connector Platform and a Microwave Transmitter. The Catching Gallery is the area where the public can view the narrow-broadcasting activities of eight other Media Babies and one Bridge Club. Interactive technology enables the public to intervene in these narrow broadcasts but also creates possibilities for establishing direct contacts, thus forming endless smaller networks within the larger framework of Public Media Urban Interfaces. The Bridge Club, which provides the space for public events on an urban scale, fills the gap between programmes meant for local distribution and programmes that deserve a larger audience. Using the larger broadcast facilities at the Club’s disposal, the selected programmes are experienced and transformed to suit a mass audience. The Bridge Club, as a hub in the network of translocalities, also bridges programmatic events related to the site where the club is located.

Fig. 4: Public Media Urban Interfaces: communication processes in hybrid (combined urban and media) space, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism und design.

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The publicly distributed ‘Air Time for All’ Smart Card allows you to produce and narrow-broadcast and to adopt a message (not your own) by giving it extra Air Time. At the Media Baby in the neighbourhood, you will find the facilities to make your programme and to monitor it as it goes on air. You can also accelerate messages (not your own) by giving them extra broadcasting time with the help of the special Smart Card. As a message gains strength, its chances of spreading to a much larger audience increase, reaching more Media Babies, a Bridge Club, the city or even the whole country, Europe and the rest of the world. Replacing the right to vote, a right to narrow/broadcast is established.

Urban System Design The Public Media Urban Interfaces project demonstrates the Hybrid Space and Soft Urbanism approach by addressing both media and urban space in an integrated way. In this scenario, buildings are considered as interfaces, as elements within a system of combined media and mobile connections. We researched how new technologies influence urban functions such as home, work and leisure and how space for evolving lifestyles should be developed for the city of Almere in the Netherlands. Nowadays, the home is developing into an intelligent networked environment, like the connected car, which is not just a Microsoft project, but has long since become reality. In today’s ambient intelligence and domotica applications the so-called digital home, e-home or smart home, digital music, video and television entertainment (digital entertainment) take centre stage. At the same time, consumer electronics shows are promoting house prototypes in which the heating, the refrigerators, and special tele-care and tele-medication control modules for pensioners, not to mention nursing-aid and care robots, communicate wirelessly with the computer or the personal digital assistant (PDA).

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Fig. 5: Integration of tele-shopping in the home or the house as an element in a system of combined media and mobile connections, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, 2003.

A new task has been added to the architect’s remit: the programming of the building project. Buildings can be “programmed” with the aid of soft tools. Multiple-shift usage (for different times of the day and week) of buildings can be supported by digital technologies. Electronic access controls with user identification have long been a permanent feature in many hotels, office buildings and plants. Building-security technology is now a growth industry. When designing buildings, it is necessary to take account of the changing use of space and, hence, changing building typologies: the larger house that doubles as a home office, the office building which is used primarily for meetings on set dates and therefore has to first and foremost satisfy the communicative and representative requirements, or the emerging need for small-scale distribution centres in the midst of residential areas for teleshopping facilities and conference rooms that can be rented by the hour. Supported by the omnipresence of digital networks, the “deterritorialisation” processes, the disengagement from constructed space and spatial fixing is now forging ahead. Digital technologies and media space are robbing real architectural-urban spaces of their function. The sale of books over the Inter-

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net is driving neighbourhood bookshops out of business. In contrast, however, the larger bookstores are increasingly discovering that the (book) event venue is an – as yet – unexploited niche market. Telecommuting, even if only for a few days a week, has implications not only for the available space, but also for the structure, the quality and the choice of site for office buildings. Now more than ever, offices ought to offer space for the communicative elements of the routine workday. This will modify the spatial hierarchies and change the nature of the built environment. Nevertheless, proposals are being put forward which advocate that media space be upgraded to take over the functions of the physical-urban space in order to deal with the “shrinking cities”, a widespread problem in Europe at the moment. Even if this seems at first a paradox, media services are regarded as the solution to infrastructure facilities which are not working to full capacity and are therefore no longer sustainable. It is thought that the implementation of mobile services will counteract the thinning in the network of the social infrastructure, and thus guarantee quality of life for the more immobile members of the population, pensioners and the economically disadvantaged in the shrinking regions. Models combining mobile and media services – the film projectionist who travels from village to village, the bus that brings individual passengers to their chosen destination, but also telelearning and telemedicine – are being tested in several regions in Germany. These can make simultaneous use of the simplest low-tech and state-of-the-art developments in information and communication technology.

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Fig. 6: Urban Service Design: mobile analogue-digital infrastructure for shrinking cities, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, 2005.

But there is more to it than this. At the heart of the issue is an understanding of buildings as the interfaces in a space which has been rendered dynamic. It is not just a matter of getting involved in the design of the building, but rather of devoting oneself to the development of systems within the totality of their immobile, mobile and network elements. That means not only designing ‘housing’, but also programming their changing uses and conversions. Such a process-oriented perspective takes account not only of the completion of buildings, but their cycles as well; from their daily and weekly cycles to their entire lifecycles and eventual recycling.

Urban Networks Urban organisms are changing from hierarchical systems, with the periphery organised around one centre, into a heterarchy of network organisations. The nodes in this network are functionally and symbolically differentiated, mutually complementing each other.

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An understanding of urban systems as multidimensional networks – with physical and media connections – paves the way for an understanding of the dynamics of the complex contemporary fragmented urban landscapes. The cityscape does not only derive its complexity from its morphologies, patterns and plan formations. No less complex are the transformation processes of these urban structures, which need to be considered with a view to exerting a qualitative influence on the developments in urban realities. “Network Science” (Watts, 2003), a variation on the Complexity Theory of the 1980s and 1990s, focuses on the theme of network structures and offers an X-ray view of the evolution and impact of complex systems in the real world. An approach based on this “network paradigm” could contribute to an operative understanding of the topological relations that steer the development of the highly complex system of the cityscape. Cities, or certain parts of them, will for example, gain in symbolic centrality – and hence in importance – while other, sometimes neighbouring (parts of) cities will lose relevance and disappear from mental maps. Territories closely surrounding symbolically and functionally important nodes in the network city will play an increasingly subordinate role, some of them even becoming dysfunctional (for example “problem areas” and housing estates inhabited by marginalised social groups with poor connections to the urban surroundings and the information-communication networks). In the discontinuous landscape of the “network city” spatial fragmentation is a mirror and generator of social segregation. The residential areas (“ghettos”?) of the excluded co-exist in stark social contrast and threaten the neighbouring "gated communities", residential areas with restricted access, populated by the upper and middle classes and protected by private security services and "live cams". As Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin put it: “There is a desperate need, […], to imagine ways of weaving secessionary and glocal network spaces into the finer-grained fabric of the urban spaces and times that surround them. We must speculate as to how airports, malls, theme parks and the like ‘may weave themselves into the local fabric to create social interaction and acceptance as opposed to continually reinforcing barriers.’” (Graham/Marvin, 2001, 414.)

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Rooting Routes The localities surrounding Schiphol Airport close to Amsterdam in the Netherlands are not really participating in the “global condition” of the airport. They see themselves as the “backyards” of the airport, having to endure all the nuisance and getting none of the benefits of Schiphol’s high performance in the global spatial hierarchies. To address this problem we developed a proposal for interweaving Schiphol Airport with its local fabric by applying transit tourism. A significant number of Schiphol Airport users are transit passengers, with time to kill between flights. They sleep, shop, go to the movies… but the wait is still experienced as a burden. Why not offer “quality time” experiences to transit passengers and “short-time-stayers”, as for example corporate travellers and city hoppers scheduling their international meetings at Schiphol? Why not offer, as an addition to the experience of the airport facilities, a unique experience of the local surroundings by giving local embedment to the global space of the airport? Why not offer as an addition to the experience of the facilities of the airport itself also a unique experience of the local surroundings of Schiphol-airport, by giving the global space of the airport a local embedment? In the “ROOTING ROUTES ” project for Schiphol Airport we proposed a series of routes for cyclists, tourist mini-buses, tourist boats and water-taxis, which would weave the airport into its local surroundings: sportive routes, nature routes, educational routes, historical routes, shopping routes... Schiphol passengers could, in their transit time, visit and experience the surroundings of the airport. These routes could be guided, monitored and controlled electronically, for example, with the passengers’ own mobile phones.

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Fig. 7: ROOTING ROUTES, menu of routes weaving Schiphol Airport within its local fabric, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, 2004.

This would strengthen the experience and image of Schiphol Airport as a “place” and give it extra potential as a global transit node. It would also bolster the shops, restaurants and other smaller-scale economic activities in the airport surroundings and help to upgrade the public and green spaces in the region. Last but not least, it would boost the tourist economy in the outskirts of Amsterdam, relieving the pressure on the inner city. This strategy would help to interweave Schiphol Airport with its local fabric and, at the same time, would strengthen the role of the airport as an interface between the global spaces of mobility and the local surroundings.

The Ruhr Network Another series of our projects focuses on the “network city” of the Ruhr. Situated in the west of Germany not far from the Dutch border, the Ruhr region is part of the west European urban network. The urban structures of the Ruhr echo the industrial networks that shaped this cityscape: the hidden

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patterns of the underground mining galleries and the logistical systems of waterways, railways and roads that cut through the urban landscape. In pre-industrial times, this region was so sparsely populated that it was unaffected by the urban forces which led to the emergence of the historical compact city in other parts of Europe. Unlike the traditional European city, the Ruhr developed from the beginning of the 19th century, with the rise of industrialisation, until the middle of the 20th century, expanding into an urban network on a regional scale. In the post-industrial era, with the closure of the mines and the demise of heavy industry, this urbanised landscape became more and more fragmented as manufacturing sites were abandoned and city populations steadily dwindled. As a result, the cityscape of the Ruhr is today characterised by fragmentation and gaps in the urbanised suburban peripheries. In order to understand its highly complex patterns, this cityscape needs to be read as a network of overlapping and interweaving traffic arteries, waterways and media connections. To get to grips with this dynamic urban fabric, to comprehend the forces at work within it, one has to appreciate the relations inherent in this fragmented networked landscape. It is a question of understanding the systems that give this splintered landscape its complex – and dynamic – open structure.

Communication Model / Circuitry It is essential that we comprehend this networked cityscape as part of our contemporary urban condition. In the words of Vilém Flusser (1920-1991), philosopher of communication: “In order to understand such a city at all, one must give up geographical notions and categories in favour of topological concepts, an undertaking which is not to be underestimated. One should not think of the city as a geographically determined object (like a hill near a river, for example), but as a bend, twist or a curvature in the intersubjective field of relations.” (Flusser, 1998, 53). According to Flusser, this “topological thinking”, thinking in (spatial) relations and not in geometries, implies that “the architect no longer designs objects, but relationships. [...] Instead of thinking geometrically, the architect must design networks of equations”. (Flusser, 1992, 49). In Flusser’s (ontological) vision, the new city would be “a place in which ‘we’ reciprocally identify ourselves as ‘I’ and ‘you,’ a place in which ‘identity’

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and ‘difference’ define each other. That is not only a question of distribution, but also of circuitry. Such a city presupposes an optimal distribution of interpersonal relationships in which ‘others’ become fellow human beings, ‘neighbours’. It also presupposes multi-directional traffic through the cable of interpersonal relationships, not one-way as in the case of television transmissions, but responsive as in the telephone network. These are technical questions, which have to be resolved by urbanists and architects.” (Flusser, 1992, 84). Flusser describes the city in terms of this communicative model: “Geographically, the city will therefore take in the entire globe, but topologically, it will remain, for the time being, a barely noticeable curvature in the wider field of human relations. The majority of interpersonal relationships will lie outside it (in contemporary civilisations).” (Flusser, 1998, 57). Hence, the plexus of interpersonal relationships lies also in other communication systems outside the urban setting, such as the media networks. The physical cityscape is therefore only a particular instance of communication space. It has to be developed by an integrative approach, which addresses both urban and media spaces of social interaction. Placing the issue in a general model of communication, as Flusser does, allows the urban discourse to be shifted from the morphological level of a formal (‘geographical’) description of the fragmented cityscape to a ‘topological’ understanding of the relations and networks that pervade it. Here the term ‘urban’ describes an overlapping and superimposition of communication spaces and networks, a superimposition of interpersonal relationships and dialogue.

Neighbours Network City (NNC) The Neighbours Network City (NNC), a project developed by invOFFICE in 2004 for the city of Essen and the Ruhr region in Germany as the Cultural Capital of Europe 2010, is based on and addresses the networked structure of the Ruhr Valley. The NNC project operates on the scale of the agglomeration comprising 4,435 square kilometres and over 5 million inhabitants; for, in 2010, the Cultural Capital of Europe will not be a city but a region, the Ruhr Valley. The NNC proposes an infrastructure that can be decentrally deployed and is open for bottom-up development. This infrastructure will help to create

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openings to initiate and support urban cultural self-organisational processes. As the inverse of CNN, the NNC project develops synergies in the many local forces in the urban network to create an open Gesamtkunstwerk, the Cultural Capital Ruhr. The goal of the NNC is to strengthen the public space of the network city of the Ruhr, which is in danger of steadily disintegrating into socially and ethnically segregated areas. Nowadays, when addressing public space, one has to consider not only urban public space, but the media public space as well. In fact, the traditional functions of public urban space are being taken over by telecommunication networks, where topical issues are disseminated and discussed and merchandise is showcased and sold. Whereas, in the past, the settings for recreation and festivities were provided by public space, they are now being increasingly provided by radio, TV, telephone or Internet. The NNC focuses on both media and urban public space, creating interfaces between the physical space of the city and the spaces of media communication. It activates both urban and media public space and develops scenarios to reinforce the public space of the fragmented urban landscape of the Ruhr. A true inverse of CNN, it uses the potential of communication technology to embed the global media space in the local public space of the city. The NNC proposal consists of a series of interconnected sub-projects, each of which addresses a different layer of the urban network and thus follows a different ‘network logic’. However, these sub-projects are also interwoven, in the sense that they activate and strengthen the ‘knitted networks’ of the cityscape.

Urban Dinners “wir ESSEN FÜR DAS RUHRGEBIET” (We’re eating for the Ruhr region) is a German play of words on the slogan of the Cultural Capital project “ESSEN FÜR DAS RUHRGEBIET” ([the city of] Essen for the Ruhr region). The “wir ESSEN FÜR DAS RUHRGEBIET” project proposes that urban dinners be held simultaneously in neighbourhoods throughout the Ruhr Valley on the longest day of the year. The urban dinners are organised decentrally by and for the neighbourhood residents and the users of the city. Travellers, tourists, downand-outs, commuters and business travellers are also welcome to participate

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and dine. The many different cooking cultures, reflecting the multicultural character of the region, fuse and combine to create a new hybrid cuisine.

Fig. 8: wir ESSEN FÜR DAS RUHRGEBIET or the urban dinners; invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, Amsterdam, 2004.

The tables are laid in derelict spaces throughout the region, the wasteland of the cityscape. Temporary occupation and habitation of this no-mans-land reintegrates this space in the regional mental maps and turns the borders of the urban landscape into communicative seams of the cityscape. Theatrical and musical ensembles and other cultural groups from the region roam around on that evening, going from table to table and performing small artistic intermezzos. At exactly the same moment, throughout the whole of the Ruhr Valley, a million voices join in a toast: “wir ESSEN FÜR DAS RUHRGEBIET”! The urban dinner event is organised with the aid of an Internet platform and local media, integrating a diversity of local institutions and activity groups, from ethnic associations to parishes and small cultural communities. Its success as an integrative project is measured by the multiplicity of the forces and networks it manages to bring together. It is a process-oriented project with a bottom-up approach, whereby many local forces within the cityscape are activated. The locally embedded Internet communication platform grows and 294

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mutates during this process. The urban dinner, as an ‘inverted event’, is above all an impulse for developing the Neighbours Network City of the Ruhr. A second urban dinner will be held along the A40/B1 motorway, the basis of an important network in the Ruhr region and the backbone of the cityscape.

Water Mobili The post-industrial landscape of the Ruhr is criss-crossed by a complex system of partly derelict waterways. The regional initiative Fluss Stadt Land (River City Land) was set up by seventeen cities in the north-east of the Ruhr to upgrade this dense system of rivers and canals, left over from industrial times, into a leisure landscape. The Water Mobili project that we developed for this regional initiative addresses this waterway network. It envisages an array of leisure elements to stimulate the ‘acupuncture points’ on this networked landscape and open it up for leisure society. Given the high unemployment rates, ‘leisure society’ in the Ruhr is primarily a society of involuntary leisure The project provides simple modular building components that fit easily into containers which can be moored at specific spots in the water landscape. The modular components can be assembled in all sorts of ways to make camping rafts, floating bars, fishing points, kiosks, exhibition decks, picnic places, floating water theatres, storage or W.C. units, cabins, relaxation decks, roofs, swimming pools or other imaginative compositions yet to be discovered.

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Fig. 9: Water Mobili as part of the Neighbours Network City project; invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, Amsterdam, 2004.

These pieces of mobile water furniture serve as places for recreation. They are small, floating constructions that add recreational possibilities to the abandoned industrial network of the waterways, thus activating the post-industrial water landscape of the Ruhr.

Hybrid Emscher Landscape Another important player in the network city of the Ruhr is the Emschergenossenschaft (Emscher Association), founded in 1899 and responsible for water management. It owes its name to the River Emscher, which was used as an industrial sewer. Running through the north of the cityscape, the Emscher sent a stench across the entire industrial hinterland of the Ruhr region. At present the Emscher Association is working on a project to clean and transform the Emscher into a ‘blue river’ that will flow through the cities and neighbourhoods and be enjoyed by the local inhabitants. The sewage and industrial waste will be diverted underground. Nearly all the sewage from the

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Ruhr region will then pass through a 51-kilometre concrete pipe which is currently being laid 40 metres underground, parallel to the River Emscher. A swimming robot will function as an ‘automatic inspector’, monitoring, cleaning and carrying out repairs inside this underground sewage pipe. The pipe will be accessible via entry points distributed at regular intervals along its length. Our proposal is to upgrade the entrances, which are located at points in the cityscape frequented by many people, into public facilities and exhibition spaces. Together these will form the Emscher Access Pavilions Project. With the aid of these access facilities, the two linear systems – the open stretches of the newly ‘blue’ Emscher and its counterpart, the underground tube – will be connected with the public places and the open spaces of the surrounding cityscape. These Access Pavilions, designed as special architectural follies, represent the engineering achievements of the Emscher Association and concentrate on exhibitions around the theme of water in general. The Access Pavilions are hybrid spaces, combining architecture and media, and also function as interfaces to a virtual Emscher landscape: one can pay a virtual visit to the amazing underground artefact of the endless concrete tube or flyover and grasp the urban landscape of the Ruhr in a birds-eye dynamic simulation. Water stories, urban management news and other local water news also feature in the pavilions programme. The pavilions connect the physical linear space of the Emscher river with the Emscher information space. This hybrid environment can also be entered by remote access. Urban, physical and media systems are thus interwoven into a single, large urban network.

SUB_CITY, the Big Urban Game Like no other region, the Ruhr has been defined by its “underground”, its subcity. The coal seams were the determining factor for industrialisation and hence urbanisation. The patterns of the cityscape were based on and shaped by the complex underground networks of mine galleries and shafts. The region is deeply conscious of its sub-layers as the foundation and the driver of its cityscape. The memories of this, however, are ambivalent. The deeper layers contain forgotten mining galleries, inaccessible shafts and groundwater lakes,

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which are regarded as a threat, reminding people of the many disasters that took place in the past. The SubCity game, which we proposed as part of the NNC project, deals with the sub-layers of the city. Using mobile devices, SubCity can be played individually, in groups or even by large communities. The Zollverein colliery in Essen, a World Cultural Heritage site, offers access to the virtual reality of SubCity. Here, in the last remaining working entrance to the underground network, one can enter a three-dimensional, interactive media simulation, take part in the networked space of SubCityurban dreams and interact with the communal urban substrate. The game re-interprets and re-codes this communal urban substrate. Via a simulation the inhabitants and the visitors of the Ruhr can recreate the deep layers of the cityscape. They can dig virtual shafts and galleries, develop and revitalise an urban underground and live there with their revelations and dreams.

Fig. 10: SUB_CITY “SUB_CITY” a big urban game on the “sub”-layers of the cityregion Essen/Ruhr, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, 2004.

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---> roaming the urban network, searching for connections to the SubCity ---> the keyholes to the SubCity are spread around the cityscape: you have to find them ---> the moment you pass through a keyhole you become an actor in SubCity ---> you communicate with your fellow actors and their dreams ---> you exchange and interact using the SubCity tools ---> while interacting you define your avatar, the actor of your dreams ---> you search for new keyholes --> the moment you re-pass through a keyhole you become a new actor ---> you redefine your character by interacting with the help of the SubCity tools --> you pass through the next keyhole ---> you exchange information ---> in search of your docking elements ---> in search of your home ---> Physical, technical, urban, socio-cultural, virtual and imaginary networks knit the tissue of the Ruhr region. The network city as an open Gesamtkunstwerk.

Re-Codifying / Urban Acupuncture The themes and threads of the NNC project could be further explored in a project for the museum site in the city of Bochum – also part of the Ruhr network. We suggested that the museum site be developed with a dual strategy of urban branding and communication combined with some small-scale architectural interventions; a superordinate strategy geared to a reinterpretation of the site, which would be achieved by giving it a new name and image and by a re-codifying acupuncture of minimal architectural interventions. Bochum recently gave numbers to the railway aquaducts around the city centre and improved the access routes by illuminating the flyover-underpasses. The museum site is just outside the city centre, its open green landscape contrasting with the densely built city. The museum site is accessed from the city centre via the flyover-underpass named “Gate 11”. This strategy was our starting point for renaming the green oasis just outside Gate 11. It is based on a German play of words, as “elf ”, which means “eleven” in German, is phonetically very close to “Elfe”, meaning “elf ”. We decided to rename the museum site “11enhain Bochum” which can be read as “Elfenhain Bochum” (“elves’ wood Bochum”). This communication strategy invests the site with an associative urban image and provides a new framework for the corporate identity of the museum.

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Meantime, after a detailed study of the problematic spots, the site-specific energies, and the micro-topologies of the museum site and buildings, we discerned three acupuncture points. We then formulated proposals for minor interventions to activate the “energy fields” at these three points, connecting the interiors and exteriors of the museum landscape. We devised a series of small-scale interventions for lightweight plug-on architectural elements: a new access bridge through the window of the old building, inverting obsolete building typologies, an observation point overlooking the neighbouring park as a landmark for the new restaurant, and a new display and desk, redefining the entrance hall of the museum.

Fig. 11: Museum Bochum: re-codifying acupuncture of minimal architectural interventions, invOFFICE for architecture, urbanism and design, 2006.

The museum site is developed as a hub in the urban network of the Ruhr, an oasis for the city nomads. The introduction of architectural features that enable new – un-usual – uses and open up fresh perspectives on the museum 300

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space recode the site as a “heterotopia”, a place with a different logic from its urban surroundings. The new name and the new urban image accentuate the identity of the site within the urban network of the Ruhr. This then enhances the attractiveness of the site and strengthens the ties and alliances with the museum institution as a whole.

Idensity® In the oppositional dynamics of today’s urban environment with its divergent tendencies towards concentration and decentralisation and functional mix and segregation, traditional terms of spatial distinction are losing their purport. In this fragmented urban landscape, juxtapositions such as “centre” versus “periphery” and “landscape” versus “city” and terms such as “functional zoning” in relation to living, working and recreation are becoming obsolete. The polarity between private (domestic) and public space is disintegrating. Public and private environments are becoming intermingled and inseparable in the fusions of media and “real” space: the “hybrid” spaces of the publicly aired privacies of “Big Brother” and reality TV, the media presence of war amid the tranquillity of our living room, and the private (communication) space of mobile telephony in public urban space. To help us understand these fusions, these superimpositions and interactions between media and “real” urban spaces, a new term – “idensity®” – has been coined to replace the – now obsolete – conventional terms of spatial distinction. “Idensity®” does not differentiate between information-communication networks and urban-architectural environments; it offers an integrated model for dealing with “hybrid” (media and “real”) space in the informationcommunication age. The projects reported in this article can function as models and case studies as they operate at the level of communication. They strengthen the identities of the cityscape and intensify the urban communication processes, increasing the density within the urban networks. “Idensity®” is a conceptual tool for the development of the cityscape. It merges the concepts of “identity” and “density” (of connections) and integrates the main tasks within the developmental framework of the cityscape: strengthening the identities of the cityscape, “connecting the disintegrated urban sub-systems” (Sieverts, 2003, 49-51).

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The “idensity®” model can incorporate an endless range of future (communication) spaces: • from the “tele-feeder unit at your neighbourhood laundrette”, a public infrastructure for teleshopping, telelearning or teledemocracy (see ‘Media Babies’ in ‘Public Media Urban Interfaces’), • to new “club” facilities, providing the space for “hybrid” (media and “real” space) events on a larger urban scale (see ‘Bridge Clubs’ in ‘Public Media Urban Interfaces’), • or the combined media and “real” space of your bank, using the corporate identity of its “real” architectural building to profile itself in its telebanking application, while fusing the representational entrance to its headquarters, a high-touch architectural space, with the media spaces of its network presence in the form of monitors, projections, etc. (just visit your bank). It is a composite term consisting of “density”, referring to real (urban) and “virtual” (media) communication spaces (density of connections), and “identity”. As a conceptual tool it can be used to steer processes of urban development. “Idensity®” integrates the concept of “density” (density of connections, density of physical and digital infrastructure, density of communication spaces etc.) with the concept of “identity” (“image policies”, “urban brands” etc.). As such, it can help us to understand the processes of distinction and spatial segregation between “urban fragments with potential for ‘global’ performance and which can be seen as part of a ‘global urban condition’” (see above) and those other, sometimes adjacent, (parts of) cities that lose their relevance and disappear from (global) mental maps. Idensity is fusion rather than a mere summation of the concepts of “density” and “identity”, as it inverts “identity”, linking it to communication: “identity” being defined by connectivity. Hence, it does not just address the “clear-cut identity, the specificity, the individuality of traditional places or sites (like centres and monuments)” but also the layered “idensity®” of the “non-lieux” (“non-places”), which are to be found especially in the realms of mobility and consumption (airports, hotels, shopping malls, motorway rest areas, etc.). Thus “idensity®’’ can deal with today's “generic cities”, where these same (chain) stores, cafés etc. pop up, levelling local differences and rendering places around the globe interchange-

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able. It does not refer only to objective elements but describes a field of superimposed (communication) spaces: the branded space of the chain store, the symbolic space of the traditional building accommodating the shop, the media space of teleshopping, the communication space of the GSM… This new term has been introduced to describe and analyse the communication spaces of the coming “network society”, a society not so much based on membership of the traditional, relatively static structures of the family, the corporation or the state, but on flexible, dynamic, ever-changing networks of exchange and communication. It lifts the discussion on urban space from the morphological level of a formal description of the patterns of the “network city” to a more integrated structural understanding of the networks of spaces for social communication. The term ‘idensity®’ is a conceptual tool for researching and developing space in the information-communication age.

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Refrences GRAHAM, STEPHEN AND SIMON MARVIN, splintering urbanism – networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition, London 2001. CASTELLS, MANUEL, The Rise of the Network Society, Massachusetts/Oxford, 1996. FLUSSER , VILÉM, ARCH+, No. 111, March 1992. FLUSSER , VILÉM, Vom Subjekt zum Projekt. Menschwerdung. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Verlag, 1998, p. 53; first published in Mannheim: Bollmann Verlag, 1994. FLUSSER , VILÉM, Vom Subjekt zum Projekt. Menschwerdung. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Verlag, 1998. SIEVERTS, THOMAS, Die Grenzen der Systeme. In „Deutsche Bauzeitung“ (db), 07/2003, Juli 2003. SIKIARIDI, ELIZABETH AND FRANS VOGELAAR , Öffentliche Schnittstellen zwischen urbanem und medialem Raum. In „Mensch Masse Medien: Interaktion oder Manipulation“, Dokumentation des Internationalen Forums für Gestaltung Ulm 1996, Frankfurt a.M., 1997. WATTS, DUNCAN J., Six Degrees, The Science of a Connected Age, London, 2003.

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O LIVER S CHÜRER /A NDREAS RUMPFHUBER /G ERNOT T SCHERTEU

Medial Architecture, or a Battle-Rap on reality-production by means of electronic media facades

What? Writing this text on media facades, like working on Medial Architecture in general, was a participatory process that rather involved conflict than consensus. Those conflicts are of different nature, involving architectural theory and practice, concerning the use of technology, issues of politics, urban planning, design and development, traffic, design conventions and legal issues and norms, to name just some. We understand exactly those conflicts as the productive mode of our work. It is therefore also our intention in this text − certainly in an exaggerated way − to allow the reader to trace conflicts. Not in order to build up hermetic oppositions, but to reveal the multivalent issues. The discussion involves ruptures, clashes of ideas and misunderstandings. In this respect the current situation is comparable to the introduction of film, or modern building materials and technologies. Today we witness a time where media architecture gets defined in wild mixture of hopes, anxieties, and prejudices. We therefore will not present a finished or academically polished discussion of media façades.

Who? We were three and more authors at the text in hand. One a theorist and assistant professor at the Institute of Architectural Theory at the University of Technology in Vienna, one is an architect and researcher at the Center for Design Research in Copenhagen and part of the newly established Center of Research Architecture at Goldsmith’s in London and one a media designer with his own firm working commercially on the technical development of media-façade systems in an international consortium. And then there are others, our discourse networks, but last not least the audience we experienced

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at events we held on the topic at the Architecture Center in Vienna and at the Ars Electronica.

How? We chose to borrow a format that is claimed to be out there in the streets. A Hip Hop format: the Battle-Rap of the MCs, the master of ceremony. Don’t worry, that’s not going to be Hip Hop rhymes here, plus we promise never ever to sing that text) But – and this is important for us – while battling MC’s are pushing forward their arguments just to diss there opponent. And, unlike in urban space decisions, in a Hip Hop battle the live audience votes. Here we use the battle to point out some arguments that are going to define the common ground of the urban media discourse of the everyday in the near future. We use this format not to build up a simple dichotomy judging morally or ethically on either side. But to actually break up this somehow two-folded discourse to a multiplicity of ways to understand the issue. It also shows, that a clear-cut distinction of what is avant-garde and what is the conservative approach to the topic, is actually redundant and can’t be decided on this terms. Like in the continuous flow of the battle, oppositional arguments do not only relate to each other but also get mixed up and get used from both sides in different ways.

Battle-Rap; Challenger MC1, Opponent MC2, Style: Storytelling, Length: max. 12 Minutes 0 Seconds to time-out. MC1 Urban public space has always been used by means of representation. Without the urge to present oneself our cities would look totally uninteresting. And there would be no need to visit other cities, since everything would look the same.

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MC2 Ah, the common critique against the international style! I bet your next argument will focus on brutalism.

MC1 Profiling and self-portrayal is a human need. People want to be different. And they want to communicate this by presenting this difference to the outside. In our today’s knowledge and media society it is just natural to do this by means of new technology. For architecture media façades are just the next logic step for tenants or owners of houses to present themselves. I’m not talking about advertisement. Since − this needs to be highlighted: The adoption of media façades for means of representation is actually a blessing for our urban landscapes! Or to put it the other way round: to use media façades purely for advertisements would be really problematic! No really, now one could dream of having a collaboration between building tenants and the surrounding community to present a worldview or a common identity!

MC2 Hell man, I don’t want to work for my rich neighbor for free in order to produce his worldview. It’s insane, not to distinguish the interests of several social groups. That’s an opposition of power – nothing else.

MC1 Ah. What do you know!

MC2 Now listen: Our urban landscape is a product of an ever-ongoing collaborative process. Everybody needs to be fully aware that in the first place it is not about self-representation! That self-representation of yours might lead to a blownup, irrational way of producing space. And we already have examples of urban space that no longer functions in a public sense. It’s all been privatized! Time

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Square, for example. I’ d say there have to be clear rules and guidelines to allow urban space to be public instead of merely following private interests of big players. You talk about tenants but you mean big corporations.

MC1 You seemingly are in an urgent need for a lesson in media arts: Lev Manovitch and others pointed out that there is a “… trajectory in 20th century art that runs from the dominance of a two-dimensional object placed on a wall, towards the use of the whole 3-D space of a gallery. … If we follow this logic, augmented space can be thought of as the next step in the trajectory from a flat wall to a 3-D space, which has animated modern art for the last hundred years. For a few decades now, artists have already dealt with the entire space of a gallery: rather than creating an object that a viewer would look at, they placed the viewer inside the object.”1 From now on artists and architects have revolutionary new possibilities in placing the urban user inside an urban space made up by dynamic, contextual data with which those users can interact collaboratively.

MC2 Oh stop that art crap and come back to the issue at stake – public space: Profiling and self-portrayal of corporations need to be bound and regulated. We are in need for clear borders! We virtually need new norms and rules! We need norms that protect us citizens from visual disturbances – all of us. Take traffic as a simple example. Media facades might influence and distract drivers. These norms need to be worked out in a broad discourse within our society. We need to have consensus about these issues! Not some boloney on art and the gallery space. Actually that’s an elite discourse but moreover there is a major difference between visibility and accessibility in public space. But don’t get me wrong in this point! In principal I do accept the desire to present oneself. It is totally legitimate. But we really need to find new standards. It’s a misleading simplification to focus on self-representation only. At first, new technologies have to be put in the hand of the people. In order to structure them right they have to be purely public at first hand. Take the Internet as an example and it’s prolific first years. Not only major industries but also the

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people benefit from that period till now. Would the Internet have been a successful technology only with advertisement as content? I say no!

MC1 Ah. Come on. Don’t be a whimp. And don’t overcomplicate things! It is just as simple like this. First: We need to understand that the technology of the media façade and advertisement are two different things. Second: We need to define urban zones of high attraction. There we need to apply different norms than in all other parts of our urban landscape. I mean places like Berlin Potsdamer Platz and the Picadilly Circus in London. There, the architecture is questionable or trivial. But important, powerful and liquid players can present themselves there. Media facades are not a distributed networked technology like the Internet. It’s up to the big corporations to finance interesting façade projects and get artists and people involved. It will never work bottom up.

MC2 Tank you! Exactly those corporate cities are the death of public urban space. After having left the shopping mall corporate spaces now produce highly controlled areas where no deviant development is possible besides pure consumerism. You need to understand that the media façade is actually an architectonic format and a theme of architecture. Only that architects nowadays don’t see the potential in them. Then it is easy for corporations to invade places like time square and just make traditional advertisements with a new technology – now its just animated. You really think this is good?

MC1 Yes I think this is good. And don’t forget: Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown have already depicted this argument in the early 1990th. Architects are at one point the designers of a façade. But architects are not really the ones that are accountable for the content of it: owners, tenants, or developers are producing the content!2

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MC2 It’s not as easy as that. There are way more stakeholders in the game. And architects are only one of them. But discussing in terms of content already means discussing solely on commercial grounds. The possibilities of a specific Iconography for those technologies have not even been discussed! Just try a little and think about the possibilities besides the still image and the moving image, same with graphics. Hence: the arts in cooperation with the people have to understand what is really going on: this is not another kind of display – it’s a totally new medium that might overrule radio, TV, the Internet, games and what ever! Soon they’ll coined traditional media − the term new media will depict those multi dimensional, highly informed structures we now call media facades!

MC1 Call it whatever you want. Fact is: Media façades are producing architecture as an image and produce therefore already space. Try to understand: that’s not the Ruby and Ursprung image categories.3 I’m not talking about glossy straight-line photography of architecture, not about having an image attached on some ‘architectural surface’ (whatever that might be) – it is this very sameness I’m trying to give you a picture of: architecture will produce space via being an molded image of icons, clichés, metaphors, symbols, and whatever will be important for society.

MC2 Ah, how avant-garde how revolutionary you think! Didn’t you realize that the avant-garde movement is dead! Anyhow your thoughts are purely neo liberal!

MC1 Now let me explain you: It is an obvious demand, that the inside functions of a building need to be represented on the façade. We know there is no other way to contribute to a democratization of our public space. And in this way we might democratize economy through corporations. One has to force them to contribute to the public sphere. They need to contribute to more humanity in the world! And this is the only direct and transparent way doing it. Media

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facades will make interiors public moreover produce a radically new urban interiority. They will show the truth of whatever is hidden in the inside. Of course it’s not Mies glass walls – but this is contemporary transparency! We have to defend accounts on media facades that try to use them as the new veiling, hiding, making beautiful images through non-structural additions.

MC2 Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that big corporations change over night and become caring for us? Do you really think that corporations are interested in anything else than the maximization of profit? You obviously don’t know: NASDAQ has realized the very first media façade in order to push stock exchange at a 10-story high screen in 1996. The transparency, tenant communication, urban interiority, etc. you are talking about is nothing but the invisible, liquid, globally streaming capital – that’s your nice little inside-out fantasy! Next: Give me one single reason why they shouldn’t abuse this technology for mere propaganda − the same way they did with all other media. There is, and will be, a major difference between communication of powerstructures and the production of a public presence. It’s all about the production of an economy of awareness like Franck coined4. In this case within an economy of images and this is all but trivial. Try to understand: advertisement produces awareness for products and brands. In the contrary a public presence is produced by cultural activism, by getting involved in social issues like the elderly, handicapped, wildlife, or future energy sources, etc. We need to start thinking critically and innovative at once!

MC1 Don’t be that pessimistic all the time! Be realistic: The technology is in place. It will be used anyway. So, let’s try to make the best out of it and try to influence the next steps of development. Architects have a voice; and they can argue for interactive media facades that attract and involve people. It’s not only humanistic − it will simply pay for companies, as its public image will be polished up.

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As I have said it before: the new technology of media facades is actually a blessing! Now it allows a tailor made, architectonic solution for specific buildings and their context. Everything now can be optimized! It’s a revolutionary new technology. It allows clothing a building in a completely new way! Now we can create corporate cultures that create a public identity!

MC2 That’s an exquisite reproduction of an age old dualism in a new cloth and more: you oppose content with construction. Implicitly you say that media artists will produce content and architects the construction. Both are producing the aesthetics of a new urban interiority for the sake of companies. Brother- behind that dualism you have a kind of monism called economy. Holy Christ! Together they form a nice old trinity. Your theory sounds really cool. A hint, call it “Con-trinity”: construction, content, corporation. Man − you should try doing some teaching at an architecture school or forming a new avant-garde. Better do both. That’s pseudo religious! Don’t you realize that you do nothing but reproduce some western cultural axioms?

MC1 Hey man. Just give me a break. Do you really believe in that crap you say here? Come down! Speaking from a technological point of view: these new media façades are actually neutral monitors! The possibility of re-programming them, I mean to upload different content is exactly the interesting aspect.

MC2 First: We know that all too long. Façades in general do not depict the program of the architecture “behind” or even its use: ever read Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas5, or the Organizational Complex, by Reinhold Martin6? Second: Media façades are only a continuation of a long tradition of a symbolic expression of architecture. You should know this. Or are you really that ignorant? Modernist doctrines demand that the façade unveils the inside of a building. That implies that the façade is nothing but a building part – and that depicts

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the restricted sight of architects. But what if, as Kari Jormakka stated in a panel discussion7, the façade is not considered as part of the building but as part of the street? Understood in that way, shouldn’t be unveiled what’s really going on in the streets: A brutal hand-to-hand combat in an everlasting competition for the sake of the capital?

MC1 Now you get boring in exaggerating everything. The picture produced by the media façade itself is only a 2-dimensional image that can be exchanged. It’s as simply as powerfully. But that will make buildings 4D – know what I mean? Four dimensional, that’s one part of the revolution in our urban areas: 4D space for a 4D living. That will enrich culture to an extent we can’t even imagine now.

MC2 4D, that’s unfair, you want to put me asleep with a lullaby of the 1930th. Hi, Bucky Fuller8 is greeting you. Moreover, welcome to the 21st century! Cultural activism – ha! Have you ever thought about the possibility of spamming or hacking such a facade? That will bring live in the city – really unexpected 2D images!

MC1 You just don’t face reality in pointless cynicism. Knowing about the exchangeable image, we realize that architecture faces a tough problem! Architecture will be substituted. It will be substituted by other disciplines! In the postmodern discourse Herman Czech9 stated against Hans Hollein’s formula architecture=everything10 that architecture is nothing but pure background. But it might not even be background any more. Architecture may vanish behind a ever changing image! Hence we have to gain terrain in embracing the technology and taking over the responsibility. Otherwise other disciplines will make the deal with major companies. Hence doing the business. And it is exactly in that respect we need to understand that space is about to be disappearing! Can you imagine? Architecture disappears! It becomes redundant and meaningless!

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Hey brother! And there is something more we need to talk about! We as architects have social responsibility. There is also the ecology factor. Nowadays every little provincial chapel is being illuminated and pimped up by thousands of electricity eating lamps. This is a way we can’t proceed to go along! We need also to save energy. That’s only possible in using latest technologies. LED’s seem to have very high potential here.

MC2 Yeah Yeah. Now we you want to speak about the power failures last week in Germany? Or what? I wanna stay on track. I don’t want to discuss our energy problems or the misery of our world today. We are researchers in architecture!

MC1 You think somewhat narrow. But take that: Walter Benjamin for example! He would argue that the sparse and paltry modernist interiors would fit the proletarians11. Since they no longer will be ashamed of their poverty. Moreover would ascetic furniture be convenient enough for the proletariat to relax and dream a little bit after a days work. Thus I want to argue that there is a shift in importance. What was formerly important: the interior of a building is now its outside. There is an urgent need for an aesthetic coherence. I mean the urban outside of a building and its embeddedness in an urban space. That’s what this new technology of media façades does!

MC2 That’s totally bourgeois! That’s not even 19th century. Pff. Take Friedrich Nietzsche for example. Since he would already uncover the bourgeois idea of matter of art12. It is actually ridiculous to think of finding something more behind the façade. Such a thought is actually hypocrisy. Nietzsche would say that already the surface is the arts deeper meaning. Architecture creates atmospheres and climates. In that sense we need to understand the media façade and in that sense we need to judge it and try to find a new ethics in it.

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MC1 Media façades enrich the social space of our urban landscapes! It’s all about experiences. People want to have experiences and now they even can experience this with a façade. People can interact with a façade, nowadays. Imagine having public TV on the cladding of houses! We can program the public space like the private space. That’s a radical new form of interiority! You suffer on cultural pessimism!

MC2 In general, we need to take into account the increasing visual contamination of our urban landscapes. But you really want to use the same concepts, programming that already pervade our homes? There are advertisements already all over the place. Practice shows that displays are only used in a commercial way. Even art becomes a commodity that is merely used to promote something. It’s not about giving art a place within the content of facades in order to make them culturally acceptable. Art in this case is the very method by witch the filters of an economy of awareness are undermined. Art is no balance to commerce it not even has a distance-relation to it. It is simply part of the dictatorship of the global economic states of affair. We are doomed to consume13, and media facades following your idea produce the biggest collective brainwash ever since the implementation of the TV! If there is an increasing use of media façades we need a regulatory and norms that give access to nonprofit organizations and to content of public interest.

MC1 This brings us nowhere! Of course do images something to us. But first we need to see things differently: De Bruyn already reminded us14: If we focus completely on the idea of architecture as information surface, we may forget that traditional architecture communicated messages and narratives not only through flat narrative surfaces but also through the particular articulation of space. To use the same example of a medieval cathedral, it communicated Christian narratives not only through its images covering its surfaces but also through its whole spatial

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structure. In the case of modernist architecture, it similarly communicated its own narratives (the themes of progress, technology, efficiency, and rationality) through its new spaces constructed from simple geometric forms — and also through its bare, industrial looking surfaces.

MC2 Yeah, but thus the absence of information from the surface, articulated in the famous "ornament is crime" slogan by Adolf Loos, itself became a powerful communication technique of modern architecture. Kari Jormakka would argue as he did in some small article, that hence the whole discourse of modern architecture could be understood in bringing the ornament back again;15 but through the backdoor so to speak. But what’s that today? Today’s ornaments are obviously news, weather reports, sports, polls, traffic control, and not to forget terror warnings. But that’s not my world.

MC1 We need to get interactive with this new technology.

MC2 Ah, by displaying beautiful patterns triggered by the quantity of toilet paper used that day!

MC1 Sure, by letting tenants choose there favorite house keeper as a public spectacle.

time-out!

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Fig. 1: Electronic Billboard at Gürtel ring road close to the Westbahnhof, Vienna

Fig. 2: bureau for city gardens, Heumarkt, Vienna

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Fig. 3: big wheel ‘Riesenrad’, Prater, Vienna

Fig. 4: electronic billboard, Praterstern, Vienna

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Fig. 5: Kronen Zeitung Gebäude, Heiligenstädter Lände – Kronen Zeitung headquarter, Heiligenstädter Lände, Vienna

Fig. 6: Wiener Städtische Gebäude, Franz Josefs Kai – Wiener Städtische headquarter, Franz Josefs Kai, Vienna

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Fig. 7: Media Tower, Taborstrasse, Vienna

Fig. 8: Media Tower, Taborstrasse, Vienna

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Fig. 9 & 10: Verkehrsbildschirm und Fussbrücke am Gürtel, Nähe Stadthalle – trafic screen and foodbridge at Gürtel ring road close to the Stadthalle, Vienna.

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Fig. 11 & 12: Uniqua Gebäude und Badeschiff an der Asperbrücke – Uniqa headquarter and Badeschiff Asperbrücke, Vienna

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Fig. 13: Weihnachtsschmuck an Balkonen im Schöpfwerk, 12. Bezirk – chrismas balconies at social housing schöpfwerk, vienna 12 district.

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Fig. 14 & 15: Die zwei Lichtphasen des Palmers Gebäude an der A2, Mögling –two light phases of the Palmers Headquarter, A2, Mödling

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........................................................................................ 1

Manovich, Lev ’The poetics of urban media surfaces’ in First Monday, Special Issue #4: Urban Screens: Discovering the potential of outdoor screens for urban society (February 2006), URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/special11_2/manovich/index.html

2

Venturi, Robert ‚Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room’, MIT Press, 1998.

3

Ilka Ruby, Andreas Ruby and Philip Ursprung, Images : a picture book of architecture, Munich ; London, 2004.

4

Franck, Georg ‚Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit’, München1998, Carl Hanser Verlag.

The Economy of Attention, excerpts from „Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit”, translated into English by Silvia Plaza and Alan Gross parts at http://www.iemar.tuwien.ac.at/publications/ 5

Koolhaas, Rem ‘Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan’, New York, 1994.

6

Martin, Reinhold ‘The organizational complex: architecture, media, and corporate space’, Cambridge, Mass., 2003.

7

Jormakka, Kari panel discussion at the Mediendeck OK, Offenes Kulturhaus Linz at December 13, 2006 on ‚Systems and parametric Architecture’ by Space and Design Research.

8

Buckminster Fuller, Richard ‘4D Timelock’. Privately published 1928, Chicago, Illinois; 200 copies, Biotechnic Press, Lama Foundation, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1,000 copy edition.

9

Hermann Czech, Zitat 1971: “Ich schlage zur Beruhigung vor, alle Öffentlichkeitsarbeit für suspekt zu halten: alle Publizität, die nicht Entwurf oder Theorie vorstellt, alles „gesellschaftliche Engagement“, das nicht politische Aktion ist, alle „Projektarchitektur“ und dergleichen Schmunzelkunst, alle Obszönität, die nicht um ihrer selbst willen veranstaltet wird – kurz: alle Versuche, der Architektur eine andere Rolle zu erpressen als dazustehen und Ruhe zu geben. Architektur ist nicht das Leben. Architektur ist Hintergrund. Alles andere ist nicht Architektur.” A palaver 50, Architektur im Radio, Herman Czech im Interview. 02.04.2006 - 13:00-14:00 Radio Orange 94,0mhz. http://www.apalaver.com/detail.php?id=96

10

Hollein, Hans ‘ALLES IST ARCHITEKTUR’ (1967) in «Bau» Schrift für Architektur und Städtebau, 23. Jahrgang, Heft 1/2, Wien 1968 Herausgegeben mit der Zentralvereinigung der Architekten Österreichs Redaktion: Hans Hollein, Oswald Oberhuber, Gustav Peichl auch in: «Alles ist Architektur - Eine Ausstellung zum Thema Tod» 27. Mai bis 5. Juli 1970, Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach. source text at http://www.hollein.com/index1.php?lang=en&l1ID=6&sID=12

11

Benjamin, Walter 'Erfahrung und Armut' ('Experience and Poverty'), essay 1933(1991d) in: Gesammelte Schriften (Band II/1).

12

Nietzsche, Friedrich ‘Die fröhliche Wissenschaft’ (1882 ergänzt 1887), Vorrede: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/nietzsch/wissensc/wissen00.htm

13

Schürer Oliver, ‚realityCheck’ in: Kataloge zur Ausstellung ‚Trespassing‚ Konturen räumlichen Handelns’ der Secession Wien 13.9.-3.11.02. Trespassing (1) 9.2002, Trespassing (2) 10.2002.

14

De Bruyn, Gerd ‚Undisziplinierte Architekturtheorie(n)’ in Wolkenkuckucksheim 9. Jg., Heft 2 März 2005. http://www-1.tucottbus.de/BTU/Fak2/TheoArch/wolke/deu/Themen/042/deBruyn/de-bruyn.htm

15

Jormakka, Kari ‚Vom Raum zum Bild’, in Architektur & Bauforum, Ausgabe 17/2005.

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O SNAT R OSEN -K REMER

Let’s Build a Wall… and Create a Monster! Using the Media in Re-presenting Urban Image

What we know about a city, or think we know about it − “What is the image of a city?” − This is a most complex question, first raised by Lynch (1960). Its interest and importance are created not only in how we see and grasp the urban reality by the signs and signals, overt and covert, that we receive from it, from within and without, but which significance we attribute to them. But because it is possible to augment, diminish, and change the signs or symbols that the town transmits, then it is possible that openly or covertly various factors intervene to present them in a new way, and thus change its image with the intention of giving the town characteristics that will be apparent to the residents, visitors and investors. The starting point of the research which led to this article, is the hypothesis that in the history of Haifa, the urban reality is linked to the image of the town – either intentionally or naturally, and therefore various expressions in connection with this reality are used as a weapon in the struggle against the existing image, aimed at redesigning or revitalizing the town’s image, or its creators. The article focuses on the Carmel Beach Towers in Haifa, and the fight against them, that became the flagship in the mission to represent the desired green image of the town. From the perspective of central topics, the article analyzes the manipulations of the urban image.

Introduction – Representations of the Town as a Language for Creating Image and Identity for the Place Efforts to build an image involve changes to the built-up area, and also to encoding the wide conceptual orientation; creating a town image means finding new ways and technologies, including exploitation of the media to present and promote cleaner surroundings and better communities.

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In changing an image, it is important what is changed, and also how and who does it, and who is opposed to whom in presenting it. The institutional and cultural power machinery makes use of, for example, discussion methods, use of “washing” techniques, by forbidding change in presenting certain concepts as the absolute truth, or softening concepts by what is called “laundering words”. Discussion creates laws, symbols, values, passions, truths and restrictions controlled by inescapable rules, (Foucault, 1995). In fact, discussion is discipline of knowledge that determines what and who belongs or does not belong, to the social consensus, and thus to our interests; it also dictates the right to belong to a place, and its image, in contrast to being excluded from it (Zukin, 1996). But when talking about the town as a dialogue, as a language or a text, one must take into account that it will mislead, be blurred or even be omitted (Barthes, 1973). Semantically it is possible to create and exploit symbols intentionally by combining “scene” + “metaphor,” or by “except for the example” + “meaning” + “metaphor” (Kreitler, 1986). The representation for the image of the town includes metaphors and tropes, as an explanatory framework for writing the history of the town. By its history the significance is generalized through associations of a part or micro-cosmos, to the macroscopic whole that the part represents. But apart from the historiographic possibilities – to note, to tell, to write, and to rewrite the history of the town, the town writes or reads aloud its own story (Duncan, 1996). The image of a town is based on the ability of narratives to guide social activities, to create concepts and experiences in the town (Paddison, 2001). In the world of niche marketing, and the politics of identity, the emphasis is placed on the multiple groups, on communities and cultures. Therefore, the promotion of an urban product “For the public good” is actually targeted at a certain sector of the public, more than to others (Vale and Warner, 2001). However, communities harbor diverse voices and opposed interests, and thus various points of disagreement arise despite the common feeling of belonging (Paddison, 2001). Local authorities can choose the goal of strengthening the positive impressions held by target groups with a common purpose concerning the town, and they usually try to improve the impression of images from negative to positive (Ward,1998). From time to time social movements rise against the spatial pattern that is produced and assume attitudes of public strength and order concerning the form and characteristics of the town (Castells, 2002). In the world of communication, through signs and signals we experience this reality in constant flows of images (ibid). In order to under-

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stand the flow we must understand the signs and symbols. An old saying has it that “one picture is worth 1000 words”, but McLuhan (1964) claims that “the medium is the message”, and through it can influence more than the transfer of information. One picture is not worth 1000 words – it transmits something altogether different. Kearney (1998) finds that the role of narrative is to set up and consolidate the individual, the society and its values over time. Thanks to the powers of imagination, if details are missing, it is the reader who actually provides the text. That being so, if we relate to the town and its picture like to a text, in order to understand it we have to decode what is hidden behind the signs that we are reading: What is the intention? Which image did its makers try to convey to the diverse audiences? What can the individual, the group or the society read from it and what not? … Through this approach, this article describes first the mythic image of Haifa, as is portrayed from ancient scripts, texts quoted, and from Hebrew songs, and through identifying the critical point marking change in the town’s image. From here, the article turns to observe, analyze and interpret the “invented legends”- reactions of different groups in the attempt to re-represent the image and the meanings arising from it.

The Haifa Myth, the Critical Point of Change and the Legend The image of the town Haifa – like every image – is dynamic, subject to constant revision and manipulation by a variety of media-savvy individuals and institutions. Therefore, change is to be expected. Nevertheless, the Carmel range and the sea remain constant as background décor to changes enacted in front of it.

The Myth of the Carmel and the Sea – The Ancient Origins The Carmel that is identified with the town of Haifa gives it its green imagery. The color green is connected to the name Carmel, derived from the Hebrew word “Kerem” for “vineyard” plus “-el” for God in Hebrew, thus: “God’s Vineyard” means a fruitful land (Kalai, 1988). The Jerusalem Talmud deals with defining the color “bright green” and even calls it the “greenest of greens”. The Carmel is known as a fertile agricultural place, with vineyards and pastures, a

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symbol of a good, rich place. “And the Carmel is considered a forest “(Isaiah, 29:17). Already in the Bible, the (green) Carmel is described as one parcel with the sea, and the “splendor” of the headland penetrating the sea, or kissing it – “…the Carmel touches the sea” (Joshua, 19:26) and “Like the Carmel comes into the sea” (Jeremiah, 46:18). And also according to Josephus Flavius “The tribe of Zebulon's lot included the land…which belonged to Carmel and the sea”. The sea therefore, belonged to the mountain, and vice versa and a part of the land belonged to them. . (Antiquities of the Jews, V, 1:22) The Carmel is considered an observation point for Via Maris: “And Elijah went up to the summit of the Carmel, and said to his boy ‘Come up and look at the Sea Road’” (Kings I, 18:44). There were already two lighthouses in the time of the Romans, and it was a custom to go down from the Carmel to bathe in the sea. Rabbi Haninah said: “Those who are diligent and wish to know the lesson of Rabbi Nehemiya, will leave the top of the Carmel when the sun is still above it, and will go down to bathe in the sea and [while the sun still shines] go up…” (Shabbat, 35:1). The images – the “green” place, the observation point, and the bathing place – have all existed for many hundreds of years, and Haifa has been identified with them. Haifa is considered a symbol of a “green” town, thanks to the Carmel hills, “The Evergreen Mountain,” (Teharlev, 1993). The Templars contributed to the image by planting pines, and the legendary mayor, Aba Khushi managed the town in the 1950s and 1960s with a strict policy of preserving trees. Thanks to the lighthouse in Roman times, and the Stella Maris army camp, it is considered “the eyes of the country” (Meltzer, 2003) and the beach is considered a protected area for summer holidaying and leisure, to the extent that “it is forbidden to bring bears to the beach!”! (Haifa Laws) These images are deeply embedded in Israeli life with great affection and are used by researchers, intellectuals and popular songwriters (see Ben-Artzi, 2004)1

............................................ 1 For example: A lovely boy was born on the shoulder of the Carmel (Manor, 1969), The Carmel (Kamzon, 1946) Between the Carmel and the Sea (Yoram Teharlev, 2000) The Daughter of the Carmel (Bar Am, 1950) A Child of the Carmel (Ben Zeev − Efroni) Only in Israel (Manor, 1969)

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Songs of the Carmel and the Sea – Images of the Mediterranean and Haifa The special importance of popular songs and their messages is that they have a normalizing dimension, stemming from the recurrence of singing and listening to them in public and in private. This transforms the urban surroundings in the songs, even if it is imagined or pretending to be “natural”. The popular Hebrew songs reflect and shape the social value systems being formed in the dynamic geography of the area according to Yifthal and Rodded (2003). According to the findings of previous research (Rosen-Kremer and Aravot, 2002)2 Hebrew popular music not only reflects Israeli culture, including urban planning, but is even a means of marketing the urban image, and building a local identity. Every common cultural commodity displayed in public such as: tunes, rhymes, photos, notices, symbols, stamps, games, stickers, slogans on Tshirts, hats… has the power to influence not only the town’s image, but even supplies images for building by interested groups (following Ward 1998; Vale and Werner, 2001). From here, decoding the cultural products over time shows that there are streams, either artificial (or by manipulation) unintentional. The image of the Israeli seashore is an inseparable part of the Mediterranean experience that was hoped would be adopted and belong to the human image in Israeli architecture from the late 1970s (see Carmi, 1997). So, in spite of observed contradictions till the end of the 1980s − as for instance, between the seasons of the year or between the image of the “north”, which is considered prestigious, compared to the underprivileged “south” − the sense of pride was not hurt, nor was identification with the songs of the Mediterranean motherland. The sea coast of Israel attaches everyone to the same group, and makes them identify with the same place.

............................................ 2 Proof of the success of popular songs about places on the market can be seen in the adopting of words of hits for stickers “on behalf of ”, such as the sticker “Not leaving town for anybody” in Kfar Saba, following the song by Shlomo Artzi (Midnight Album) in order to create identification with a place among youth groups; “ Kfar Saba Tango” “Kfar-Saba Turn”, and more, are evidence of the evolution of the geographical image of Kfar Saba from being neglected, with the image of an aging Israel, to “Turning Kfar Saba to Citizenship of the World” symbolizing globalization (Rosen-Kremer, 2003).

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Between summer and winter, fall and spring, From Haifa in the north to Tel Aviv in the south Along the beach, you and I are proud to be In the Mediterranean landscape. Bashan (1980s) Haifa is a particular case of “Mediterranean-ness” depicted in many songs. Ben Zeev (1984) for instance, describes the image (positive in her eyes) of white houses among the pine trees on the Carmel, and the favorable climate. She explains what it means to her to be “A child of the Carmel” (as distinct from being just a “Haifaite” who lives downtown, for example); to be connected to the upper and the lower sections at the same time, with the world of the sea and the hills which is expressed in “ascending” and “descending” that was already defined many years ago, see Haninah (above). …Daughter of the waves Rise from the shore To climb the hills… …Daughter of hills Go down to the sea To the waves and seashells. Ben Zeev (1984) The importance of the seashore to the residents of the town is exemplified by the angle from which young people look at Haifa from the seashore, from the entertainment area or from the southern beach in the small hours of the night. These are places with a social connotation of a publicly “alive” stretch of shore. The southern beach of Haifa, at dawn The sun will soon emerge from behind the hill And we naked, dance in the water Try to catch the big waves breaking on the sand. Ben-David (1997) The observation point of the Carmel also returns in descriptions from people arriving from out of town; the Carmel and the sea merge into one another and

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“wink” at visitors or returning residents. Shalom to you, lovely land Your lowly slave brings you a song of praise. Even if sometimes I roam all the roads, It’s good to roam, but better by far to return. Shalom to you, lovely land … …the feeling of familiar home Like electricity flows in my veins, …The Carmel and the sea Each and everyone and all, Always wink in welcome and bless he who comes. Shalom to you, lovely land… Goldhirsch (1977) In the familiar view, the Carmel and the sea belong together, and in this example symbolize home, the place you belong to and are used to; in order to feel belonging, you see them as one. In contrast to this, it is possible at a certain moment “to discover” in the “ordinary” view, something that was there, but which we did not notice. This is described on a journey by car on the coastal highway from Tel Aviv: There is a point on the way to Haifa All of a sudden somewhere on your left, Blue and deep, splintering and sparkling Like the holiday everyone wants. It was always there but you didn’t notice as usual, You just traveled on parallel… Horovitz (2001) The song relates to the view from the road, and does not say what changed or who was traveling, or what he became aware of, and what is there all the time. Of course apart from mood and concentration every change along the route reveals or hides things in the view, affecting attention. Immediately after the curve turning to Atlit, and from between two gravel walls supporting the railway bridge, we suddenly discover the blue sea on the left. This sudden encounter actually marks the approach to Haifa. From here on the sea wel-

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comes those approaching the town, accompanying them in parallel.

The Crisis of Image – From Nostalgia to Re-representation in Songs The view from the road entering the town and from the direction of the Carmel range has been violated from the nineties by the buildings that partition the hill from the sea, and hide the view of the shore to a most annoying extent. This is one symptom of a wider phenomenon of changes in Haifa’s image in that period; its legendary green image is threatened unintentionally or by the purpose of man. The negative images are also polluted in songs that reflect the new reality and affliction. Matthias Barak (1990) in his song “Carmel,” about the great forest fires that the Carmel suffered in the past: Once there was a shady tree – of the forest Carrying heavy sap, to say wisdom… That is my Carmel Considered a forest …Now my mountain is a desert The heart is burnt… But the mountain will bloom again It will bloom again. Barak (1990) The image of the green Carmel forest and the new buds becoming a desert is the absolute opposite of the image that reappears in the name of Ben Artzi’s book The Creation of the Carmel as a Segregated Jewish Residential Space in Haifa 1918-1948, under the inspiration of the passage “…and the desert becomes a Carmel, and the Carmel seems like a forest”. (Isaiah, 32:15) However, the song offers some hope, even though in the meantime there is mourning over the loss. Changes made by man over time (including the culture of planning) led, at the end of the 20th century to expressions of yearning for the Carmel landscape which is gone, or which is preserved only in old buildings. This is not so visible, and therefore one needs a special invitation to return, like in the song “Between the Carmel and the Sea” in which Yoram Teharlev (2000) prominent among Israeli (Haifa) songwriters, presents the green and pastoral past in contrast to the polluted present.

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Come with me we’ll go out again To walk among the reeds In fields and orchards, In paths of narcissi To the landscape of long ago. Come, come again, there To our little house Between the Carmel and the sea Come, come on again, there To the little house To our old house, Between the Carmel and the sea... …And today I saw here In the roads devoured by smoke Between the veils of mist The land of Israel again She called to me like then Come, come, return there, To the little house Between the Carmel and the sea Come, come there To the little house, To our old house Between the Carmel and the sea. …Through the paths of time There I am always for you. This is a song of longing for the landscape that once was – the little house of once upon a time, between the Carmel and the sea, is juxtaposing the new images with the old. The past that was experienced on walking trips in nature, the narcissi blooming and gazing at the view, transformed by the experience of seeing it in shades of black – roads, smoke, and the view blocked by mist. At the beginning of the 21st century the change was already clear by any criteria. The pride of belonging to the Mediterranean shore changes to a parody about what is encountered when touring Israel by road – Teharlev noticed that his old songs no longer spoke to the consumers (of songs) in the

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2000s, and so he “renovated” them (January, 2004). His song of the 1980s “Get up and walk in the country,” in the new version is: ”Get up and swoon in the country”. “To walk” is changed to “to swoon”, which in young people’s slang means to be excited. The Original: Get up and walk in the country With haversack and stick, Surely to meet on the way The land of Israel again. You will be embraced by her roads Those of the good land, She will call you to her Like to a cradle of love. That is indeed the same land, That is the same earth, And the same piece of rock Scorched burning hot. And underneath the asphalt To the show buildings Your country is hidden, Shy and humble (Teharlev, 1980s) The Representation: Get up and swoon in the country Travel in the new Volvo You will surely meet on the way Some jeep with nouveaux riches. Observe her all the way – Every orchard, field and garden, Don’t forget this is the land That in the end is merely real estate. Every kibbutz today’s a mall Every moshav a shopping center,

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Every grove a parking lot, Every orchard is a wedding hall From the plowing tractor Only the little one stays With a figure like a model. That, today is called vision. (Teharlev, 2004) In contrast to the original song, Taharlev points out the thrills, the changes and the new significance of the cultural landscape: the journey in the Volvo or jeep, “nouveaux riches– instead of walking with a haversack and stick; the culture of shopping malls – instead of settlements; parking for cars – instead of groves of trees and open expanses; fashion and exhibitionism – instead of the “vision” of a modest country. The land means real estate, instead of the significance of a piece of earth and a piece of rock. These new images are conceived as a real threat, especially to the lyrical legendary image of green hills, the Carmel, and the sea, and since the 1990s have given birth to struggles mediated by the desired image of the town, directed inwardly in the local aspect and outwardly in the national aspect. One struggle nourishes another, and is led by groups appalled at the changed landscape, desecrated in front of their eyes, which is symbolized by the project “The Carmel Beach Towers” (Goldenberg and Buchman, architects).

Nationwide Spread of the Struggle Against the Image Appeal to the court according to the National Master Plan no. 13 for the Mediterranean Details of the Carmel Beach Company plans for building six hotels and apartment hotels on the seashore, and beside them a promenade and amusement and leisure areas were first published in 1990. It seems that for six years there was apathy, until the first building was in the last stage of construction, and the foundations of the second building were laid (permission issued, 1993). In the claim against the Carmel Beach Towers (1996), the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) brought complaints against the shape and size of the buildings, claiming that their height reached 18 floors, instead of the 9

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given in the plan; that the area of the building was enlarged by 40%, and that the façade of the second building towards the sea was lengthened by almost 6. It was claimed that the instructions of the National Master Plan no.13 delimiting the seashores were not carried out; the order defining a space of 100 meters between the shore and the building, obligating preparation of a survey of the affects on the surroundings, and detailed specifications as to the use of the promenade for leisure, thus building apartments for residence deviates from what is permitted. On account of the prolonged delay, most of the claim was immediately rejected. The court3 accepted the claim of the Carmel Beach Co. because the National Master Plan no.13 was in accordance with Haifa Detailed Plan no. 864A that applies to the place instead of the government decision from 1983, because the ruling of the National Council from 1987 determined that the beach should be dried so that there would be a distance of 100 meters between the building and the shore line. The deviation from this stipulation requested by the Local Committee was already approved by the National Council. Together with that, a series of verdicts on the subject that reached the Court of Appeal, put the subject of preserving the beaches on the public agenda, and sharpened the purpose of National Master Plan no.13 on the subject of preventing building so close to the public beach only for private purposes. The court ruled that the beach is a national resource, therefore a common property which is not for sale merely for the benefits of the affluent. (Bein, 1998) Thanks to the repercussions, the struggle about the Towers became a symbol of the struggle between the “Greens” – in the image of Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED), and private real estate initiative in general. The court discussion on the National Master Plan no.13 for the Mediterranean Sea restrictions reaches the nation-wide campaign of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), under the slogan “The Seashore is Not Real Estate” (figure 1 on the left), and completes the images born in Haifa, for example the grotesque picture taken from the southern beach of Haifa, with a notice displaying “For rent, A SEASHORE” on a background of the Carmel (Figure 1 on the right). ............................................ 3 Appeals on the district court verdict in Haifa, 15.1.98 524/96, given by His Honor Judge D. Bein, the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) and the Israeli Association for the Environment and Others, the District Commission for Planning and Building, Haifa District and others Given by His Honor Judge Beinish, 2002.

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Fig. 1: On the right – “For rent – a seashore” a representation of a notice on the southern beach of Haifa. Spread widely on the Internet (22.3.2002). Anonymous creator. On the left – “No more! The seashore is not real estate”, sticker of the Society for the Protection of Nature (2002).

The Towers provoked an outcry against treating the seashore as real estate intended for development, and not allowing the general public access to it. If it seems that the “green” bodies are getting a lift with a private case, and that the discussion advanced to the “macro” arena, the expression of a specific protest in the Haifa area also focuses on the “micro” issue – the Haifa Towers themselves. Through the interpretation of the re-expression of the complaints, it is possible to discover the image of the place as seen by the groups on the ground that react through their “spectacles” to the existing image of “whose the town is” and what the preferred image of the town is or the image they wish to create.

The Private Struggle of the “Greens” Against the “Initiative” Regarding the Image of Haifa – Re-representation of Images. With national recognition of the struggle against the Haifa Beach Towers on the media, it followed that the buildings themselves and the real estate agents acquired a “bad name”. This was an opportunity exploited locally by the interested who, it seems, drew their strength from that image, and also legitimization to use it. From that moment what had been built was used as a tool in the struggle touching not only the image of the Carmel and the sea, but also

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re-presenting the images in additional contexts. One of the indicators for the actions taken by the interested authorities to improve the images in marketing and in general, is to present the surroundings “colored green” (green washed) because the quality of a “green” neighborhood leads to a higher quality of life. (Vardi and Lipschitz, 1993:4). In Israel, at the time of the approaching elections for local government in 1993, the Society for the Protection of Nature issued a booklet guiding in detail how to set up and operate an “Action Committee” to represent various groups in the community, “chiefly among sufferers” (ibid:12) with a call to enlist media ”to come to the aid of groups and individuals that want to influence the quality of the environment in their town or settlement… it is an excellent opportunity to influence” (ibid:3). Indeed, from the mid-nineties, non-institutionalized organizations and groups have shown awareness of the hidden dangers in approving plans without the town residents’ involvement. But this happened only after the erection of the first of the Carmel Beach Towers opposite the first rows of houses in Nave David, a neighborhood due for rehabilitation. A complaint was raised – by marketing and media – against damaging just the weak population. The essence of the protest, mostly on the significance of using “green” images, can be learned from cultural objects marketed “in aid of...” in various versions; three examples representing the image were tested, among products supporting the protest.

Three Examples for Displaying the Wall and the Monster on the Background of the Carmel and the Sea – Meanings Reveal Meanings The representations were chosen from three points in time, from different angles and for different purposes, including visual and literary information. Analysis and interpretation of what is displayed conveys overt and hidden meanings that lead to a chain of further meanings.

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Fig. 2: Above left – Aerial Photo of “Carmel Beach” Hotel in Haifa. National Photograph Collection, Photographer: Moshe Milner, 7.11.2000. By kind permission of the Government Press Office, State of Israel Above right – The wall and the sea in caricature; election poster of Mitzna. By kind permission of the Creator: Halemo (Moshe Halevi), August, 2000. Below – “NO to the Monster”. Campaign Brochure for the “Green Change”, 2001.

The First Example, 2001 (Figure 2, Below) The illustration was taken from a propaganda leaflet that was distributed to mail boxes of Haifa residents before the election for the Municipality in 2001. The “Greens” Party – “Residents Who Care About Haifa and Shinui (Change in Hebrew)”, headed by the Architect Gelbheart displays the symbol under the slogan: “There is a green future for Haifa” (Report to Voters, 2001). The name of the Party and the green future proposed for the town are a declared platform of the “Greens” – those bodies that protect the environment and its quality. The color connotes green lawns, foliage and grass. The color was chosen as the logo and symbol, all speaking one language, with the clear message – green, green, green...It seems that in this case, interested parties in Haifa took a ride with the “Greens” nation-wide image that began the struggle. This example actualizes the intended connection between the text and the image, by which means the concept “double effect” is achieved (Barthes, 1977): For once it is possible to relate to what is written in the report (ibid) that says: “Since we were elected to the Town Council, no new monster has risen in

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Haifa. The text hints that in the past all kinds of monsters (new every day?) rose in the town, a situation that stopped the moment the writers of the text themselves were elected to the Town Council. That is to say, a causal connection is suggested between the presence of the Greens on the Council, and the fact that apparently nothing that could be identified as a monster was erected in the town. This connection suggests that, thanks to the Greens, a change of image was produced: moreover, the “other” situation suggests, indirectly, the existence of some kind of new image, by voting exactly on what seems to be absent (since the election). The reader must believe what is written: that there is some monster there or a metaphor for a monster, a creature to conjure up connotations with a strange, frightening, or ugly appearance (Avneyon, 2003). Nevertheless, the image-dealers do not let readers mistake imaginary, legendary monsters, and so the verbal message is not isolated, but is aimed particularly at “the Monster”, the one and only, that is indicated for the second time, and this time also visually. Simultaneously there is an appeal to all target populations in Haifa. Thus, a reader who knows the special shape of the façade of the building on the Carmel beach, will link it to the icon that appears on the Party symbol. At the same time, the text notifies anyone who can identify the building’s silhouette by sight, but does not know that this is called– the “monster”. Presenting the known and accepted connection between the building and the monster, the reader is confronted with an image that he understands to be agreed upon and accepted by some kind of majority. In such a situation, it is embarrassing to admit that one doesn’t know something that is well-known. Therefore, even those who do not know the building will learn from the icon what is supposed to be known: that the subject is the “Monster”. The line erasing the icon from the Tower Hotel meaning “Not Allowed” indicates that this is the image to get rid of: this alone signifies the known monster as denigrated. Once again, what was said in the text is visually realized here: that a monster like the Tower Hotel no longer rises. The significance is that the icon symbolizes the ability to “stop the bulldozers” against the combined trio of capitalists, politicians, and the Municipality, headed by Amram Mitzna. If so, the “Greens” take the credit, that since they were elected for the previous cadenza, unrestrained building was stopped in the town. That is, they hint that they took action, but what was the mysterious action against the monster? We remain curious and uninformed until we receive more information. We are led to understand that the desired image of the town is that of pre-

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venting unrestricted and injurious building…of monsters. Nobody is talking about correcting the existing negative urban image, only not to cause a new catastrophe, although the publicized urban image is already green. The negative images, accompanied by illustrations and literary messages have been enlisted as instruments of derision, by the interested, who always paint themselves “Green”. Timing and the methods of distribution have an important role in encoding the representation: the wall, the sea, and the monster “star” in posters and notices, opportunely just at election times for both the local Council and for the Labor Party. That is to say, it is not purely an expression of opposition to putting up a building at that time, but exploits a negative urban image, still valid and existing, and presents it as a myth with political motivations. The image is portrayed as symbolizing absence of aesthetic sense, of ugliness, monstrosity and lack of consideration for people and for surroundings. It is also a symbol for a Mayor who encourages over- development, and a Town Council that condones his policy. 4 From the metaphor of the monster we can also draw the requisite ending for fairy tales: On one hand, the villain reigns (in the person Mitzna) and calls up an army of parties (buildings) of several kinds, and with its help he prepares to rule the world (the Israeli government); on the other hand, a wandering young knight (in the person of the architect, Gelbheart) succeeds in forming his own army (the “Greens”) and goes to war against the monster’s army. Following a fierce battle the heroic knight annihilates the monster, the enemy of the village, and now is supposed to win his reward (a major place on the Town Council) and everlasting glory. Therefore, with the purpose of influencing Haifa public consciousness, not just environmentally, but politically, these images are re-presented and conveyed in narratives to the potential voters. By means of cultural artifacts – pamphlets, posters, notices, stickers, caricatures and photographs – appearing in public places, posted directly into post boxes, and even directly to the private sector through Internet sites. On account of the “fairy tale ending” Rinat (2003) points to the connection between the voting in the local elections and the means of effecting change in ............................................ 4 It should be remembered that although someone may claim that this is a symbol of failure of the Green bodies who didn’t wake up at the right time to stop the damage, which was already known in 1990, and the first request was presented only in 1996, but this is the subject of another struggle, for example, the question of whether the green image of the Greens was justified. Likewise it should be remembered that Mitzna’s purpose was basically positive; to get Haifa out of its frozen sleep.

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the known condition of the seashore: “The feeling of complaint about a damage to the beaches already influenced the election of candidates who promised to protect them in Herzelia and Haifa”.

The Second Example, 2002 (Figure 2, above right) The negative image of encouraging building and development initiatives carried out on the Haifa shore, damaged Amram Mitzna’s image, and further, his candidacy for leading the Labor Party (on the background of his opposition to joining the coalition government of Ariel Sharon) against the then Minister of Defense, Benyamin Ben-Eliezer. This was clearly expressed on the satirical election poster: “All the Arabs want to throw us into the sea! This must not happen! Block the sea. Vote for Mitzna!” (Halemo, 2002). Actually this is a stinging political caricature 5 it has a story line, and an approach like fiction and it makes use of words and pictures. There is almost a plot, thus the reader “hears” voices coming out of the picture. But except the words “Blocking the sea” or the name Amram Mitzna, that are repeated and represented both literally and visually, the rest of the message conveyed by the poster is indirect. In order to understand the contents, the event must be understood, with the chosen background being the building that blocks the sea of Haifa. For this matter it is less important who is behind the caricature; he can be a political rival of Mitzna or a neutral onlooker mocking the events. First and foremost the importance is the comic use of contemporary architecture (as a wall) and the “Green Declaration” (a wall blocking the sea). The fact that the creator uses them as images of the presented place indicates supposed general public opinion and that of the target group for this poster. Moreover, the caricature might also reflect how the public understands and feels about the people who built it and supported its construction (Mitzna is connected with it). Therefore, even if these images are perhaps the products of a very few people or only of the designer himself, the declaration in the caricature reflects the preference of a wide public and is intended for them, rather than for others. Once again in this example, one reality is cancelled in favor of another: in the previous case – the diagonal line “cancels” the building that appeared in the ............................................ 5 Hebrew used the word ‘caricature’ for all kinds of comic drawings, beginning with portraits, through humorous caricature, political caricatures and comic strips. “Zeev“- Farkash, Yaakov, 2002, “The Face of Man In the Eyes of the Cartoonist.” In Almost 2000, Magazine of Science and Technology

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icon of the “Greens” and in this way “halts” the continuity of the past reality. In contrast, here − the diagonal text on the front wall is a label that grants it the status of a brand name, as “a wall”. Its meaning is marketed and explained by what is written above – on the background of the sea – from the perspective of what is liable to happen in the imaginary future: the romantic sight of the sea appearing on the horizon is blocked, supposedly as protection of our future existence. Here there is a critical presentation that allows the observer to live not just what happened, but (in the Gurewitz style, 1997) it also gives an invented script of what can never happen, thanks to the wall. Unlike things requiring an effort of attention, the caricature, including the building depicted in it – is a sort of entertainment, a distraction for the masses. Architecture has always been the archetypal work of art absorbed unconsciously by the public at large. According to Benjamin (1993), registering something visually at first happens quite casually. Therefore, in the visual media, when the crowd serves as a receiver and spectator, this can be exploited for distributing deliberate messages aimed at moving the audience. So the story of the building that blocks the sea is used to tell another story, that seems, to begin with, to be less connected to the “green” narrative opposite what was built, and that is the security narrative connected with the ArabJewish dispute. The Carmel Beach Hotel – is the Wall – exploited to actualize the rivalry in the Labor Party, and political and security struggles for existence. The rivals in the story are two ex-army personnel, both linked to building: Amram Mitzna, ex-Brigadier General, then serving as Mayor of Haifa, against Fouad (Benyamin Ben-Eliezer) who was a Colonel and Co-coordinator of Action in the territories, then Minister of Defense in the Coalition government that came to power in March 2001. It must be pointed out that until the Intifada (Arab uprising) Fouad was identified with the Ministry of Building and Housing. Mitzna, according to the artist of the caricature “… was known as someone who would give building permits to contractors to build on the seashore, and thus hide the view and block free access to the sea in some places in town” (Halemo, 2002). Therefore, in this case the images link building, the army and security. This narrative presents a different image. The political system, from the local authorities to the government, is manned by people with an army background and way of thinking. The caricature mocks the ex-army people in government, showing the difficulty of seeing civic images for those who

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manage war, and also in the arena of building, apparently the main business of politics in Israel. Fouad, supposed to symbolize security, is dressed in a helmet (signed as though it was a football), symbolizing self-defense. He appears afraid, and has found refuge behind the wall. Only his eyes peep out at the reader from the other side of the barricade, giving a hint of the future in his Authority. In contrast to him, Mitzna – who symbolizes blocking access to the sea – stands proud (exposed, with no need for defense) and portrayed as a strategist who looks far to the horizon with confidence. The “Wall” is considered a contribution to contractors and is re-presented as a defense element, and so Halemo (ibid) mocks: Mitzna is a suitable candidate for the Premiership, because he succeeded, with the help of the Carmel Shore Tower to block the approach to the sea, and by this, prevented the threat to the nation from the Arabs who want “to throw us into the sea!” On one hand, it is possible to see here another type of protest against the heroic-nationalistic character of planning policy in Haifa: in the form of mocking all the old myths of settlement like building “a Fence and a Tower (about which Mitzna was attacked) or barricades against Arabs. But here, on the background of the Carmel Beach Towers, another struggle is exposed, that of the Arabs and the Jews.

The Third Example Also in the architectural criticism the building is striking as a symbol of damage: “To the same extent it is worth presenting, for example, the Towers built on the Carmel shore in Haifa as a patch of blood; Towers that brutally damage the natural view of the sea, and no less, the legitimate rights of the public to use it. Yes, apologies to the Israeli public but not to the Palestinian.” (Portugali, 2004. My emphases O.R.K.) The “green” message and the message of “Israeliness” projected in contrast to the damaging image, takes architectural criticism even further. By means of strong words, the ”Palestinians” and “blood” seep into association with the Towers, and damage not only nature, but also society. The criticism, however, talks about damage to the public in general, however not about the private case of the residents of the Nave David neighborhood whose view of the sea is hidden by the new buildings, and neither is it about denying the Palestinian public’s rights. But by deliberately mentioning “the legitimate rights of the Palestinians” or the Palestinian public, there is

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suddenly a distinction between the Israeli public and the Palestinians. In that there is a special reminder, purposely or not, of a group whose rights to the Haifa beach have long been cancelled (albeit completely legally, by buying or by annexation according to the law), for the land on which the Carmel Beach Hotel stands belonged to the Arab Khayat family before the founding of the State, and was known as the Khayat Beach until the 1960s. The view from the road itself was one of the reasons for annexation, when Aba Khushi was Mayor it was decided by the local committee (9.12.1964) in Haifa Plan 81179, that the Azure Beach – should be an open public area. Accordingly a strip of land for widening the Tel Aviv –Haifa highway (between Shikmona and the Carmel Beach) was requisitioned (1968), not for transportation purposes, but with the declared purpose of “enabling an uninterrupted view when leaving or entering the town. The site was also intended for a reserve area for military parades that took place in Haifa from time to time”. That is to say that there will be enough land to set up stands for spectators to demonstrations of power of the State. This is not defined by law as a public cause permitting requisition without payment of 40%, as the Municipality of Haifa understood.6 The “red (socialist) image” of Haifa is surely related to that act. The intervention for the general good, in the socialistic approach was the inheritance of Aba Khushi, as also was the case of the area south of Haifa that was requisitioned in this period from the Khayat family. As a rule, it seems that ideologies, especially Socialistic, motivated planning processes in Haifa. That is to say, there is a connection between efforts to make the area of the Carmel Beach “Jewish” and the ideological justification to invest in building, and the following “Green” reaction. Yosi Sarid (in Bigelman, 1997: 9, 23) points out a “natural tension” between watchdogs of the environment – the “Greens” – and the bodies responsible for development. In his words, the developers have the right to “the last word” by the accepted recognition that we must hurry to develop the country from desert to forests and to build on every peak in Galilee, if not the others will come, and God forbid that there should be “weeping for generations”. That is, there is a connection between making the area Jewish and building. But he explains: “Only massive political pressure can stop a project dear to Government Ministries. It is a struggle between unequal powers, politicians equipped with backing to push their ............................................ 6 Verdict of the High Court 676/75, in petition 592/77 Estate of the deceased Farad (Fouad) Khayat and others against the Local Committee for Planning and Building.

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‘achievements to the voter’, who, of course, does not recognize all the nuances of the game, and looks for the bottom line, for example: cheap housing. On the other hand, bodies who face election and whose achievement is exactly the failure of their predecessors.”… To summarize – if, for a moment it is thought that the Carmel Beach Towers only have an image of environmental damage, and symbolize the struggle between the “Greens” and “entrepreneurs”, actually they conceal much deeper ideological struggles. The logic of separation, that uses fences and walls for political, cultural and spatial aims, is inherent in the process of forming the urban and rural landscape in Israel, so claims the Israeli Architects Association Exhibition “Separation” (2005). It presents the connection between the offensive barrier, as physically damaging the environment and also man. The “architectural monster of the Carmel Beach Towers” in Haifa, is one of the star sites in the exhibition, described this time as “a fist stuck facing the sea and opposite the poor neighborhood, Naveh David” (Zandberg, 2005). In other words, the building is considered aggressive and violent.

Epilogue – No End to Legends From today’s perspective, one can, if so, say that after the end of the struggle (Court Order, 2002), the negative image of the “Wall” and the “Monster” are still firmly established, at least in the minds of people who are sensitive to subjects of environment and society (Greens, architects, artists…). The buildings are presented as ugly, but became – in spite of the wishes of many Haifa residents – a prominent landmark at the southern entry to the town.7 However, some are impressed differently: in the questionnaire about the most beautiful architectural work of art in Israel, it was suggested: “The Carmel Beach Towers are not uglier or more horrible than any other big hotel”, and there were even some who joked that they “actually don’t look so bad, if you look at them from the sea” (Haayal, 2002). So, it is possible to infer that they are seen as monsters – also or perhaps only – because of the significance attributed to them in the

............................................ 7 At the time of writing this article the 2 first buildings are standing, but nothing is known about requests for permission for additional buildings, according to the local Master Plan.

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particular context, and their subsequently bad name. In that case it can be said that marketing the image succeeded! Indeed, the image of the real estate initiatives in Haifa is so bad that, since the case of the Carmel Beach Towers, defensive strategies have been taken in Haifa against projects (in planning) thought to threaten the green image, and the first of these is the Marina. Alternatives for the Marina from the Haifa Municipality were rejected by Green bodies and instead other options were raised, among them the plan for a protected anchorage… in front of the Carmel Beach Towers! Simultaneously, the Green bodies already warned against blocking another beach by continuing the “wall of structures” to the south, and destruction of more stretches of sand. Counter to the image of separation and annexation –the supporters of the Marina urge its power to actually improve Haifa’s image as a seaside town and tourist resort, as one of the reasons for building it. In the whirlpool of images, it emerges that the urban view as positive or negative depends on who is observing the reality and the consumers of the image, and interchangeably – to whom it is marketed and when. What is negative in the eyes of one is positive in the eyes of another. So, in the Haifa Municipality website, in the department of Haifa Tours, under the section of “Haifa Hotels”, a respectable place is devoted to the Carmel Beach Towers, and particularly to the Meridian – the second building. It is now featured and marketed by the Society for Tourism and Holidays of Haifa, as one of Haifa’s advantages: “The Meridian Haifa on the sea with all the temptations in the world… kisses the Mediterranean … enjoys a perfect location. On one hand, you can enjoy the pastoral quiet, broken only by the sound of the waves, and on the other hand, a short journey by train or car and you are in the heart of Haifa”. The hotel’s attractive slogan stresses its location “on the sea”, and in publicity the hotel adopts the color green – exactly like its rival “Greens”. The private apartments in the Carmel Beach Towers, the fruit of initiative of parties negatively dubbed “real estate sharks”, are today attractive dwellings “for the rich”. In fact, they are considered the only strikingly prestigious building in the Haifa district (in contrast to eleven in the central area of the country). The degree of prestige is also expressed by the celebrities who have lived in them, although “Today no famous people live in the building. [but] in the past: Shalom Asiag, Eyal Berkovitz lived there” (Prestige, 2005). In the area of the hotel, on the Municipal website (2005), the Carmel beach and amusement area are marketed under the heading: “Things Only Found in

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Haifa”, including the attraction: ”…to taste the Mediterranean festival atmosphere like on a real Riviera…”. But opposite the same paved promenade adjoining the Carmel Beach Towers on an illegal route, a court decision states the obligation of Gelbrheart (2003) in the name of the Municipality to return the site to its previous condition (sea sand) at some date in the future. That is, the promenade is seen as a problem. In addition, the court indicated, through the Carmel Beach Towers case, the need to ensure that only those functions that depend on proximity to the sea will be allowed near the shore, in order to keep the public designation of the beaches. Subsequently, the Towers were the trigger for the law for the Mediterranean seashore and environmental preservation of the shore (Knesset, 2002). Surprisingly, Member of the Knesset, Amram Mitzna, who is identified in Haifa as “the blocker” of the shore, voted in support of the Seashore Law (2004) for protecting natural beaches. Perhaps he demonstrates that from different (key) positions and at different times, the same image is grasped differently. Because images are dynamic, therefore, even though the monster image is fixed in the eyes of a certain public, it seems that over time it is changeable. This option appears rather practical nowadays, when it is fashionable to deliberately use monstrous images in certain works of art in sympathetic roles altogether different from the classic monster (for example, the film Shrek, 2001, Universal Studios), by representing them as cute or “green”. This reflects, so it seems, the politically correct8 approach accepted lately (in Wikipedia, re monsters) that is aimed at purifying language that expresses actually or only seemingly, discrimination, racism, or injury.9 In spite of this, a change of name for a certain object does not help to change its reality, but as we deal with images: it’s not the reality (even if dismal) that determines, but only the impression! In the meantime, the good luck of Haifa is that the Carmel and the sea will go on existing, and at least there is no doubt about their mythical image. Though, apparently, for a good impression, it is better to concentrate only on ............................................ 8 “Politically correct” is defined in Webster’s dictionary as “measures up to the sign of, or close to the progressive idea, especially on subjects connected to race, sex, gender orientation, and quality of the environment. 9 The approach is based on the idea that talking itself forms social reality on one hand and is influenced by power relationships on the other. Continuing this idea, when talking of the town as dialogue, as language, or as text, then the way to influence injustice in society is to change the language, and through that change the dialogue.

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the fixed, stable background of mountain and sea, and not on the re-presented building “performance” (in an opposed version to the political correctness) in the arena, and not on the screen, the Wall.

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References AVNEYON, EITAN, 2003 (1997). The concise Sapphire Dictionary. Hed Arzi and Eitav Publishing. (In Hebrew) BARAK, DUDU, 1990. Carmel. Composer: Yehuda Hagar, Performance: Hagit Shimoni. “Teletrom,” Israeli television, for saving the Carmel Forest, for the year 1993. Translation from Hebrew: Sonia Danziger. BARTHES, ROLAND, 1973. Le Plasir de texte, Tekstin hurma. BARTHES, ROLAND, 1977, The Rhetoric of the Image. In his book Image-Music-Text, trans. S. Heath. 1964; rptd. London: Wm. Collins Sons and Co.: 32-51. BASHAN, YIGAL, 1980s. A Mediterranean Child. Composer: Yigal Bashan, Yoram Tsadok Performance: Hupa Hey Trio. Translation from Hebrew: Sonia Danziger. BEN-ARTZI, YOSI, 2004. The creation of the Carmel as a Segregated Jewish Residential Space in Haifa 1918-1948, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes press. (In Hebrew) BEN-DAVID, AMIR , 1997. Adolescence. Composer: Ben David, Performance: Protoype. Translation from Hebrew: Sonia Danziger. BENJAMIN, WALTER , 1993 (1936 in German). Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit. Shimon Berman (trans). Trans. The United Kibbutz, Publishers, and Workers’ Library. Collection of Models in Aesthetics. (In Hebrew) BEN-ZEEV (EFRON), HAMUTAL, 1984. Child of the Carmel, Composer: Kobi Oshrat, Performer: Riki Gal (The First Festival Shown on television). Translation from Hebrew: Sonia Danziger. BIGELMAN, SHIMON, 1997. Everything is Political, even the Environment in Haaretz Supplement, July 1997: 9, 23. (In Hebrew) CARMI, RAM, 1977. Human Values in Urban Architecture in Harlap, Amiram (edt.) Israel Builds. State of Israel: Ministry of Housing. CASTELL, MANUEL, 2002. Conclusion: urban sociology in the twenty-first century (2000). In: Susser, Ida (ed.), The Castell reader on cities and social theory, Blackwell: p. 390406. DUNCAN, JAMES, S., 1996. “Me(trope)oils” Hayden White , in Re-Presenting the City. Edited by Anthony King. London: Macmillan: 253-268. FOUCAULT, MICHEL, 1995. The Archeology of Knowledge, Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith, London 1995, p. 210-211. GOLDHIRSCH, ILAN, 1977. Greetings, You Lovely Land, Composer: Steven Goodman, Performance: Yehoram Ga’on.. Translation from Hebrew: Sonia Danziger. GUREWITZ, DAVID, 1997. Postmodernism – Culture and Literature at the End of the Twentieth Century. Tel Aviv: Dvir Publishers Ltd. (In Hebrew) HAAYAL, READER , 2002. “In your opinion what is the most beautiful Architectural Work in Israel?” In Magazine for Matters of Actuality and Culture, 14.5.2002.. www.haayal.co.il/story?id=972&NewOnly=2 (accessed: 9.12.2006) (In Hebrew) Haifa Laws (old). In Dumb Laws www.dumblaws.com/laws.php?site=laws&cid=82 (accessed: 10.10.2005)

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ROSEN-KREMER , OSNAT, 2003. Urban Image Research: Kfar-Saba Case. Research Thesis for Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning. Haifa: The Technion, I.I.T. TEHARLEV, YORAM, 1993. The Evergreen Mountain. Composer: Moni Amarillo, arrangement. The Gevatron; Ruhma Raz and Personnel of Central Command MMC, Ora Zietner; The Voice Flows, two new arrangements (Adi Trio, Tal Betzalel). 31 version until 2004. (In Hebrew) TEHARLEV, YORAM, 2000. Between the Mountain and the Sea Composer: Nurit Hirsh, Performance: the Gevtron. “the Gevatron collection: my valey”, Processing: Zvika Kaspi, Media Direct. Translation from Hebrew: Sonia Danziger. TEHARLEV, YORAM, 2004. Get up and Swoon in the Country Composer: Ya’ir Klinger (improved Get up and Walk in the Country, 1980s, performance: the Northern Command area Army Group. www.emi.org.il/yoram_teharlev/htm (accessed: 10.10.2005) (In Hebrew) TOUR HAIFA website: www.tour-haifa.co.il/modules/article/view.article.php/c5/46 (accessed: 12.12.2006) VALE, LAWRENCE J. AND WARNER , SAM BASS JR , 2001. (ed), Imaging the city. Rutgers. VARDI, ALLONA AND LIPSHCHITZ, MICHAEL, eds, 1994. Local Matters – Quality of the Environment and the Municipal Elections. The Society for the Protection of Nature. (In Hebrew) WARD, STEPHEN V., 1998. Selling Places: The Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities 1850-2000, London: E&FN Spon. YIFTACHEL, OREN AND RODED, BATYA, 2003. “The Land With No Limits” in Motherland/McDonald’s. Streams in Designing Space and Culture in Israel. Work paper no. 24, June 2003. Mastercenter for District Development, Ben Gurion University in the Negev (In Hebrew) ZANDBERG, ESTHER , 2005: “The Separation Within Us” in Haaretz, 9.8.2005. (In Hebrew) ZUKIN, SHARON, 1996. Space and Symbols in an Age of Decline, in: Re-Presenting the City, King Anthony D. (ed). London: Macmillan: 43-59.

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