A Rather pedestrian Sojourn Photos and Thoughts from a Semester Abroad
1
The Shakedown: An Introduction January 7, 2013
cmyk
Warsaw, Poland
Eclectic, Electric Warsaw, Poland
Stasis and Simultaneity March 1, 2013
R端ckenfigur
_4 _6 _14 _22
Berlin, Germany
_24
Ethereal Arterial
_32
Venice, Italy
Monument/Minutiae Rome, Italy
No Ghosts Invisible Light Paris, France
The Inherent in Heather Londond, England
Alive Beneath the Firmament June 2, 2013
_40 _48 _56 _64
All of the following content was originally posted on chrisonconquest.blogspot.com between January and June of 2013 by Christopher Perkins, a student at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, documenting his time in Warsaw, Poland and subsequent travels in Europe.
The Shakedown: An Introduction January 7, 2013
Before a ship can embark on its maiden voyage, it must undergo a period of testing to confirm that its components will not fail - that it will not sink - ensuring that the crew and passengers do not drown. This is known as the Shakedown. Or so I’ve heard from Wikipedia. In a few weeks, I will be travelling to Warsaw, Poland to study architecture and, perhaps more importantly, gain new life experience, explore the unknown, learn more about myself, learn more about others, learn more about the world we all inhabit, and grow to realize we are all different but that is really what makes us all the same. Before this voyage, this journey, this...sojourn can take place, there must be a shakedown. Although there will be no team of engineers inspecting my vital organs to ensure they can withstand the trials of travel in Europe, this period before my departure is when I will collect, along with my essential belongings, my thoughts, goals, hopes, and apprehensions. Along with that, I extend an invitation. Ernest Hemingway warned, “never go on trips with anyone you do not love.� Although I cannot control who joins me in my travels, that is the purpose of this blog: it is an invitation to you, dear reader, that you may travel with me, if only in spirit and through my words. And so, Shakedown complete, I am set for departure. Come fly with me.
5
cmyk
Warsaw, Poland
7
13
Eclectic, Electric Warsaw, Poland
15
21
Stasis and Simultaneity March 1, 2013
Time heals all wounds, they say. Live in the present. Synchronize your watches. Although it is an incredibly fun word to say, simultaneity is a challenging concept. As much as we may like to believe time can fly or creep by, it is an implacable, constant wave that we all ride through age. Being on the other side of the world makes time even more visible and even more constricting. When it is midnight in Warsaw it’s 6 pm in Detroit. Not only does this make communication more complicated, it seems to only lengthen the distance. In our age of immediacy it is sobering to have to wrestle the hands of time. It’s hard to be present when you’re waking up and everyone you know is going to bed. But time marches on. What a strange existence it must be for a pilot or flight attendant who jumps from time zone to time zone. To gain an hour is a victory but only to the mind. The body knows the truth and screams with jetlag at the farce. A pilot must dream of the consistency of true, real-time. The rebellion must grow tiring. You can try to fly against it but time marches on. And so it goes: the people wake up, the people live their lives and go to sleep and wake up and live their lives and go to sleep... Because it doesn’t stop no matter where you are. Warsaw seems to be filled with only two types of people: those entering adulthood and those leaving it—the academics and the elders—but the social fabric remains seamless. The buildings parallel this eclectic nature: a pre-war high-rise stands in stubborn preservation next to a modern apartment building. Yet balance remains. Homeostasis has been achieved. Punctuated by the occasional blaring ambulance or a pulsing nightclub, the city breathes with an electric hum. Trams are ridden in silence but with a collective sense of purpose: a destination. Language barriers strengthen the necessity and the beauty of the unspoken. Everyday movement and interaction becomes utilitarian and pure. Voiceless or not, life continues. The tram rides on whether you’re at your Stop or not. But as it approaches there is a momentary rush: a push towards the purpose. And we ride on to our destination, bound against our common enemy: time. Simultaneity means we’re all in it together.
23
R端ckenfigur Berlin, Germany
25
31
Ethereal Arterial Venice, Italy
39
Monument/Minutiae Rome, Italy
47
No Ghosts Invisible Light Paris, France
55
The Inherent in Heather London, England
63
Alive Beneath the Firmament June 2, 2013
Infinitely bound to time and subjective impression, the adventurous act of Travel is expressed in equal parts expectation and inevitability. While riding a train through the hills of Vienna, heading to Venice, I recalled the words of Japanese architect Toyo Ito: “When visiting a new place, my impression of the city is mostly gained during the process of travelling from the airport to the town center. That is how stimulating this route can be. The various characteristics and expressions of any city will appear, enveloping and devouring visitors.” As the sun was setting beyond the fading landscape I pondered Ito’s observation and felt it deserved further investigation. I believe traveling by train is the most fulfilling way to enter a new destination for it only amplifies what Ito describes. A train ride provides a more gradual immersion to the context of the environment. Jumping into a cold pool can shock the body into immobility but a slower approach provides a much richer experience. A slower approach into a new city allows one to fully comprehend the linear relationship of changing landscapes. And these transportation devices recall something much older, much baser, than simply vessels of sojourn. The train so expertly embodies the expectation of a new place and a new experience because it resembles a birth. Held in place within an intimate, womb-like cabin we travel tethered to the earth. It is a fabricated yet sustainable environment; separate yet connected to the physical world. Our vessel rocks and contracts as we approach our expected destination until the final scream and sigh. Breaking off, we are set loose into a new space.
Perhaps it is also possible to examine the plane as a demonstration of death. There is a rebellion and an immediacy to flight that expresses inevitability: flight as conclusion. We speed down a short asphalt path until gently rejecting the forces that have forever kept us tied to the earth. The clouds provide a playful image of a heavenly realm but beyond that, the lack of vision available when we reach the pinnacle of ascension expresses spatial experience as a point rather than the line of the train. It is a further rebellion against the laws of movement under the laws of nature. I recall a thought my dad shared with me before I left for Poland. From his own travels, his singular observation was this: no matter where you are, how foreign or strange the landscape, the sky is always the same. From life to death, the firmament stands above us blurring the line between physical and intangible. Stable yet fluid, visible yet unreachable, infinite in scope. From my own travels I have observed this: human behavior has never surprised me. People are as irrational, compassionate, rude, and indifferent anywhere you go. Alive beneath the firmament we are all the same. In a few days I’ll be on a flight home to Detroit. The strangest feeling is that nothing is strange. At the risk of sounding nihilistic, nothing ever changes. Indeed I have aged, grown, gained knowledge in the past three months, but have I “changed” as so many people ominously claimed I would from my travels? Perhaps I’m too close to myself to be able to tell. Perhaps I’m the only one who could. Language is a powerful instrument, at once poetic and pragmatic. I began this blog with a definition so it seems only fitting to end this phase with another. Shalom. Taking language to its fullest potential, it is an adroit and comprehensive word. Shalom means peace, it speaks of completeness and consummation. Mirroring itself it encapsulates both ends of a journey, it means both hello and goodbye. Beginning, end. Life, death. Shalom, shalom.
65
CHRISonCONQUEST.blogspot.com
68