Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Situationist Project- Revising the City

This was a project that involved coming up with innovative initiatives to redesign aspects of the city along Situationist lines. Text and photos below.

“We must replace travel as an adjunct of work with travel as a pleasure.”
-Guy Debord
Situationist Thesis on Traffic

In lieu of the recent announcements of an upcoming price increase in the New York City public transportation system, I would suggest some provisional improvements in the infrastructure that would not only create a more entertaining, informative and aesthetically pleasing ambience but would also readdress the hierarchical nature of the museum locus, critique the recuperation of the urban milieu as a spectacularized theme-park and allow for a more open spatial discourse on late capitalism.
The subway line, at present, presents the rider with limited options as to possible vistas-the underground rider in particular is confronted with the banalized tiling and conduits that indoctrinate one into industrial repetition, consumption enticing billboards and wave after wave of stations whose purely utilitarian characteristics have impoverished reality. How much more enjoyable the ride would be if the tunnels were bedecked with great works of art-large scale canvases such as Picassso’s Guernica and the more lengthier canvases of Pollock would be superb. Taking it a step further, the more notable museums of the city could be demolished and rebuilt as long thin corridors running parallel to the track. Of course pedestrians would still be allowed admission if they agreed to step aside periodically in deference to passing trains..






But the entertainment and education of children would also be a concern. I would suggest that once the revolution has commandeered the Disney theme parks, that rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion be reassembled lengthwise along the track as a history lessons for children as to the exploitation of their ancestors by animatronic social engineering..



The elevated tracks, instead of being repetitively bombarded with the static scopic regime of mathematized high-finance, would be allowed to watch such works as Debord’s In Girum Imus on large screens. There would be optional buttons for riders to slow down the trains in order to peruse points of interest. With the abolition of wage labor, disagreements would be kept to a minimum since no one would be late in getting to work.


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