S P L I T T I N G t h e p o w e r o f
M E D I U M S : s e p a r a t i o n
I invite you to listen to a story. In a future that’s closer than we may imagine, the super-structure holding up a hopeful dream buckled under the weight of the world. It held for several centuries, but it was futile. Its only hope was in sameness, order, obedience to the dream, and disobedience to the spirit which dwells in man. The civil order, where the masses transferred their power to others in the name of piety and patriotism, couldn’t withstand the impact loads of deviancy, endless wars, crisis after crisis, and the democratization of information. Nature overtook our cities in unexpected ways. Trees didn’t break through the asphalt of our endless parking lots. Our shopping malls weren’t claimed by the beasts of the fields. Our cities were claimed by human nature, the desire to build and dwell, and the social production of space. Informal shelter overtook the planned, delineated, segregated, comprehendible space that served the powerful in their accumulation of capital. The zoned esplanades dividing the haves and the have-nots filled in with “slums.”
central planning suburbs
fortress transit station drawbridge guard tower
However, the powerful are powerful after all. They would exploit their power as they’ve always done. Throughout history economic and political structures allowed them to manipulate life through crisis, division, and reinvention. This time, for whatever reason, call it the dream’s corroded foundation, none of those mechanisms were available. Their only option was separation. They would maintain power through spatial division. The privileged few would enter under the supervision of one of the looming guard towers surrounding a great gulf. Then cross over the Drawbridge to the Fortress for processing. After being ferried to the Transit Station, they would have freedom to travel between the Suburbs, the Communications Tower, and the Central Planning Administration. The glitzy architecture of the New City contrasts with the organic slums that overtook the Old City. What you will notice; however, is the slums cannot be contained. The “seething forces are rattling the lid of the cauldron of the state and its space.” Informality is quietly encroaching on the elite’s sanitized vision. drawbridge
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