beyond imitating nature
biomaker
click
detournement
imagination
interactionism
memes
spacetime continuum
urbi et orbi |
An entry in IAAC Advanced Architecture Contest 6
INTERACTIONISM
Urban religion prototype
"The cities of an experimental culture will be formed on inconsistent patterns, and will produce them. These will be their chief products, the result of a way of living driven by the need for clarity on shifting landscapes of the ephemeral."
Lebbeus Woods
"It [architect's intention] cannot succeed. If one were to find a place, and perhaps there are some, where liberty is effectively exercised, one would find that this is not owing to the order of objects, but, once again, owing to the practice of liberty."
Michael Foucault
Productive City
Cities arose as nodes of exchange of goods and information. Their founding principle and purpose was to break free from the constrains of agricultural production. With an advent of industrial production came an explosion of urban population and modern urban condition. As the machines' computing power grew and communication networks expanded the production moved out from cities to mechanized factories in developing countries. Urban population found new occupation in services sector. But it is also gradually moving from the physical space of the cities into virtual space (online shopping, banking, food delivery etc.) located in remote data centers and combined with automated logistics, as well as to developing countries (call centers, rendering farms etc.). And in all sectors a large areas of productivity don't need human effort at all, it is being replaced by machines and algorithms (mechanized agriculture, robotized manufacture, computerized power plants and grids, algorithmic trading etc.).
Production of Knowledge
We shouldn't strive to make cities self-sufficient and bring physical production back into them. Instead we should amplify their heterotopic status and unlock their true potential - human congestion. Urban condition, underlying all the physical forces latent and manifested within the city, is a unique accumulation of people in physical proximity. It is both unlike scarcely populated countryside and virtual social networks. It forms a swarm, a social machine producing not only knowledge or innovation, but emergent phenomena which shape the core of human culture. However, as every swarm, it requires interaction of its agents.
Production of Spectacle
The industrial city disintegrated traditional "swarms" - rural families and clans. Without spatial frame of reference and established rules of interaction urban societies fell into dependency on external forces of organization. Whether it was the industry, the market, the state or mass media it all disintegrated a swarm into a collection of alienated individuals. Without own land, means of production and traditional values urban population turned its attention towards the global spectacle substituting "a processions of images" for real, "visceral" living. What served industrial production doesn't neccessarily serve knowledge production.
Production of Situation
Since the concept of "situation" appeared it became and continues to be a common strategy for opposing the spectacle: from Sartre's theatre of situations and Brecht's estrangement, Debord's détournement and Constant's New Babylon, through blazing architecture of Coop Himmelblau and Tschumi's event cities, freespace of Lebbes Woods, Spuybroek's proprioception and architectural body of Arakawa/Gins, to installations of EXYZT, Cirugeda's urban recipes. Yet none of them has produced a noticeable and lasting change. Their effects on public were superficial, if not contrary to designers' intentions, often misunderstood. Their influence on the profession marginal, often ridiculed.
Production of Space
Along architecture of situations new spaces, both physical and virtual, appear as apostles of change. Squats, artistic communes, fablabs, hackerspaces, urban farms offering new modes of production. AirBnb, Uber, Couchsurfing, food coops and countless other sharing economy platforms provide us with tools to unlock dormant potential of cities. While some succeed majority fails, either due to lack of its creators' determination or users apathy, lack of trust or incentive. The space is there, the real problem is attitude.
Production of Religion
Attitude is a matter of belief and that is why religion has produced far greater changes in society then architecture. The power of religion lies in emergence, it creates a set of rules and practices for a swarm, deeply internalized by its agents. In this sense, not only great religious systems fall under this definition, but also various philosophies, social movements and political doctrines, e.g. scientific method, feminism, racism, socialism etc.
The way to create a truly productive city, to create a precondition that would unlock its unique potential, is thus, instead of propagating seductive images of architectural projects, to design a religion that would network disconnected individuals into an urban swarm. This religion would have to present commandments and practices that would first of all engage individuals in non-superficial interaction with each other.
COMMANDMENTS
Talk to strangers.
Look people in the eyes.
Act on impulses.
Speak out your thoughts.
Show your emotions.
Go out.
Interact.
PRACTICES
Look into stranger's eyes for a minute.
Look at a stranger and try to guess his thoughts.
Try to imagine a strangers life while looking at him or her.
Say out loud whatever is on your mind right now.
Say ‘hello' to a stranger.
Tell a joke to a stranger.
Tell off someone who annoys you.
Tell a stranger how you feel about him or her.
Leave a letter revealing your secrets in a public place.
Call a random number.
Share food with a stranger.
Start a fight with a stranger.
Do something awkward in public space.
Do something "inappropriate" in public space.
Spend a day in a city without a mobile phone.
Spend a day in a city without a watch.
Spend a day in a city without money.
Walk into a restricted area.
Follow a homeless person.
Board a random train.
Ask for a lift in a parking lot.
Ask your neighbor for help.
Give something away to a stranger.
Etc.
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