Object and Subject, ambiguity in power-relationships

Anatomy Seminar TU Delft, Chair of Complex Projects, MSc I Spring 2017

BUILT IDEOLOGY a critical urban lexicon

OBJECT AND SUBJECT Ambiguity in power-relationships

Setareh Noorani, 4278178

In the bigger context of the studio research A Tale of Two Cities the following investigation seeks to explore the fragile balance of powers that shapes the built environment (object) as well as its multiple subjective identities, within the framework of the Critical Lexicon of Built Ideology. As investigated by philosopher Louis Althusser, ideology plays an essential role in shaping subjectivity. Michel Foucault sees Power as the main Ideology, which is tied to identity as a way of exercising power over individuals. Theorist Hannah Arendt nuances this notion by analysing how totalitarianisms allowed individuals to gain identity through the concepts of natality and plurality. But how does the tension between object, subject and ideology of power materialize in the city?

Are there blind spots where the ambiguities of these complex relationships manifest themselves? Can the analysis of the gap between these “opponents” allow us to re-imagine the way ideology and power shape our cities and ourselves, ultimately leading to a way to break the bond of power?

If A Tale of Two Cities refers to the city of Belgrade, this work zooms out and looks at the city as a stage where different upward and downward powers generate ambiguity. By deriving a visual lexicon tied to the concept of ambiguous power in ideology and investigating the physical places where this gap between powers displays itself, a comprehensive study will be carried out. The keywords are structured along Žižeks analysis of power as ideology, in the following categories: ideology in itself, ideology for itself and ideology in and for itself. The progression of the chosen terms aims at underlining an increasing sense of ambiguity, where object and subject hybridize and transform into one another. This study will be the fuel for a theoretic and programmatic underlay of the design for an ambiguous landmark in Belgrade.

OBJECT AND SUBJECT Ambiguity in power-relationships

SYMBOL FEAR APARTNESS DOMINATION VISIBLE CENTRE NORMAL GROWTH

SPECTACLE PLURALITY

Kruisplein, Rotterdam

SYMBOL

Ideology is rooted in material practices (Dowding, 2011).

Carried out by individuals, they form the live representations of ideology and at the same time a subconscious manifestation within daily life. The symbol is the example of forced beauty.

The diamond which surfaced from collective pressure.

Controlled in all senses, the symbol is not intended to be critically reflected on and evokes powerful meanings that directly influence attitude formation and mould human behaviour (bad architects group, 2007).

However the pervasive strength of a symbol does indeed unmask a questioning about the existing ideologies within the urban environment. When a symbol is seen from a different viewpoint and is no longer seen as the object, what exactly remains of its worth?

Medieval Rome is a good example of how a different outlook on the worth of a symbol can change an urban configuration.

The capital was dominated by the active strength of the objects. To reflect the current vision on the importance of Rome the symbols needed to tell an entire different story, even if that meant silencing the objects for ever. Pope Julius II made the symbols of the Catholic Church triumphant over those heralding the ancient times, leading thousands of people into a renewed interest for Rome, introducing religious tourism (baukuh, 2007).

Until now the interest for Rome as the ever-lasting city remains, transforming the Baroque city again into symbols of modern age, shopping malls and ice cream parlours.

bad architects group. (2007). The power of UNESCO World Heritage. In:Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. NAi Publishers, Rotterdam. baukuh. (2007). Roman Holiday. In: Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. NAi Publishers, Rotterdam.

Dowding, K. (2011). Encyclopedia of Power. SAGE

Korvezeestraat 371, Delft

FEAR

Fear is rooted in our basic survival mechanism and sustains the same hierarchical social order by resisting change. This resistance can be interpolated from the human psyche not willing to let go of experiences and early understandings of the world (Robin, 2004, p.75).

Fear of change of an order introduces a willingly forgotten class, a periphery marked by disconnection and exclusion.

One of the materializations of this phenomenon in the city can be seen in slums or marginalized areas opposing the well-known safe havens of consumption and capitalism.

Urbanism or architecture responding to fear, is one forgetting about a reality overly present in the world and contributing to an asymmetrical distribution of Power. Current day developments show the widespread trend of divisions by fear, such as proposed walls and shifting borders. In turn media or the commodified term of Gentrification plays a role within this ambiguous distribution of Power and attention by feeding the Fear, drawing attention on social orders and distancing the public. The beautification of the city out of fear between the classes results in the displacement of indigenous people from working-class neighbourhoods out towards the periphery; a rise in rent prices; exploitation of the land and of the badlynamed natural resources (De Cauter & Dehaene, 2007)

De Cauter, L., Dehaene, M. (2007). Meditations on Razor Wire. In: Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

Robin,C.(2004). Fear: The History of a Political Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rรถntgenweg, Delft

APARTNESS

“Cities exist to bring people together, but cities can also keep people apart” — Daniel D’Oca, Urban Planner Control is one of the most pervasive ideological concepts as it affects both the inner and outer life of individuals, the body and the mind. Control in the bigger scale of the city and the intimate scale of the home is done by politicians and planners alike to accomplish ideological goals. Planning policies are used as instruments of power to assert precise agendas, such as public “welfare” goals. “Most present social formations are (...) characterized by power asymmetry, unequal distribution of contradictions” (Luke, 1989, p.50). These forces go deeper than control enforced by the political society and express themselves as “mechanisms of power on a much more minute and everyday level”(Oliga, 1996, p.11). In this sense, the most evident manifestation of the ideology of control in the built environment is expressed by Apartness: “an urban planning instrument to segregate different groups” and thus to reassert control over them or to maintain a certain power balance/unbalance. In the book The Arsenal of Exclusion/Inclusion: 101 Things that Open and Close the City urban planner Daniel D’Oca studied the design elements in the urban landscape which can be used as “weapons” to unite or divide. Ambiguity of Power can be a force where different views coexist simultaneously, using it as a theoretical and applied tool to question these forms of control and apartness.

D’Oca, D. (2017). The Arsenal of Exclusion/Inclusion: 101 Things that Open and Close the City. Actar.

Luke, T.W. (1989). Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination, and Resistance in Informational Society. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Oliga, J.C. (1996). Power, Ideology, and Control. Springer.

Parnassusplein, Den Haag

DOMINATION

Domination places an individual to the top of the order by the legitimized act of violence, physically or mentally.

This is, as seen by Hannah Arendt, the original sin of tradition based in the private sphere of patriarchal domination (Peeters, 2008). As a form of control, domination is in turn something we find intervening on multiple scales within daily life. It transcends borders, shapes regional and global conditions, masked often as parade projects for the well-being of the nation or as the capital city in terms of culture, economy and politics.

Domination and (political) order beyond own borders of space suffices to contrast the non-capital as hinterland, foreign or threat in the order and power of modernity. The dominant city attracts disproportionate levels of economic and cultural resources, diverting them from other locations, causing increased pressure on the dominant city to sustain the quality of life for inhabitants.

The current challenge for the dominant city would be to act as an agent for its surroundings. To speed up the process for cities with potential and truly interact in a contemporary sense.

Peeters, R..(2008). Against Violence, but not at any price; Hannah Arendt’s concept of power. Leuven: KU Leuven.

Gipsy camp, Delft

VISIBLE

Visibility is power. Foucault mentions that visibility is introduced by power to control society. Surveillance needs only a potential visibility which puts the object into isolation.

Visibility is the power to assure an image and reassure the environment of its existence. The moment where something becomes visible it leaves a split-second to decide which role it takes in the power-relationship. The spotlight is set on the thing that is shown, isolating it. Though if something is left hidden in the city it can float in the space of involuntary discipline, where it’s an act of resistance or an act of secret subordination (Gordon, 2002).

The visible is also an inherent part of the constitution of the image, architecture and city-making. By planning the city, there is also a decision made what to show and what to hide. This is shown on a daily basis in the way we create and discard new images for the city. Even on the scale of interior design, visibility is a key notion in order to understand power relationships within the household. The Frankfurt kitchen was a milestone in interior design and gender equality in the sense that it was the first modern design where the woman could escape the controlling male gaze and thus gender unbalance (Shafriri, 2017).

Gordon, N. (2002). On Visibility and Power: An Arendtian Corrective of Foucault. Springer.

Shafriri, T. (2017). Critical Interiors. Available in anatomy seminar CP

Rotterdamseweg, Delft

CENTRE

Within this urban consciousness the power of a centre is ambiguous in multiple senses. The city or certain aspects of it can be made relevant in the centre. The subject and object of the centrality is not straightforward or better said the centre and its counter centre. The centre in this way is the subject for some, where the counter centre is what the centre is not, not a mark of interest. Not the centre of attention. Not the focus of the State energy. Not a display of power. The opposite can also occur. Where the centre is false and the counter centre is what renders its importance (Aureli & Tattara, 2007).

Foucault states that power is not located in one identifiable site and that adds to the difficulty of staging the city. Multiple props can be used in the play of the city. An example for this is the existence of a political centre juxtaposed to the financial centre, where a power play between identities occurs.

Aureli, P. V., Tattara, M.(2007).The city as political form. In: Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

Rotterdamseweg, Delft

NORMAL

“The Judges of normality are present everywhere” (Turkel, 1990, p. 170).

The development of normal and abnormal is found in the same context of sane and insane, or “reason and unreason”.

What is deemed by the current powers as reason and unreason constitutes our (ab) normality and in larger sense identity.

How we ultimately experience the normal is also attributed to “personal and shared experiences and cultural and social affiliations” and “parameters of what is considered “normality” in a specific moment in history” (Socks Studio, 2017, topic: Dysfunctional Plans).

But how flexible is the normal? The pervasive nature of the normal constituted by social apparati penetrates the archetypes of architecture and floorplans of buildings. Certain types are fixed to be inhabited, others are deemed uninhabitable or dysfunctional solely because it is out of the ordinary to do so. This can be contested by shifting viewpoints, for example the theoretic underlay of the Narkomfin building. The public and private functions were grouped within separate volumes, which re-imagined the exchange between the inhabitants and within the floorplan, creating a new sense of ambiguity.

SOCKS Studio.(2017). Dysfunctional Plans Turkel, G.(1990). Michel Foucault - Law, Power and Knowledge. In: Journal of Law and Society. Cardiff: Wiley.

Korvezeestraat, Delft

GROWTH

Growth is often a sign of fortunate times and a symbol of power and wealth. New projects endeavored due to these prosperous times are often a push to look forward into the future, though also tend to erase the past.

But until which extent is growth desirable in our cities and what are its consequences on the urban life? Cities as agents are both fueling and driven by a constant need for value, going past the initial need for the city as self-sustaining ideal (Zukin, 2007).

What grows is also exposed to its deterioration. Rapid changes of identity are the symptom of a schizophrenic, borderless expansion, with little attention to social integration. “The compact and continuous city has evolved into an urban form dominated by fragmentation and dispersion� (Mastrigli, 2007, p.114). Cities have a hard time holding their mighty appearance while unprecedented growth leads to unwanted settlements. The single house in an outer neighbourhood, the single shed and outer landfills can be a great nuisance for the ideal of the city. In their presence they hold the city hostage.

Zukin, S. (2007). Public Architecture and the Social Framework of Power.

In: Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

Mastrigli, G. (2007). In Praise of Discontinuity. In: Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

Friedrichstrasse, Berlin

SPECTACLE

The Modern is a transaction made over ever-changing world maps. The culture of Western societies shifted from simply inhabiting and cultivating ‘land’ to enjoying the ‘landscape’ as a source of appearance and taste. The seduction of sites was optimized in the first Modern city, Paris and soon spectacle became an important trait of modernity. The global competition for modernity is not only a matter of competing over power and knowledge, governing historical periods. Spectacle is one of the factors within the global competition between modern cities (Urry, 2007).

It can even bring a city into the spotlight and back into the rat race by creating specific icons. Bilbao is a good example; the work of Gehry transformed the public environment into a form of performance art. The pressure on constructing the exterior to veil the past of insignificance and to perform an act of modernity is afterwards repeated by several cities. But does this outward representation do justice to the inner soul of the city, or are people lured in by a fata morgana?

Urry, J. (2007). The Power of Spectacle. In: Visionary power: producing the contemporary city. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.

Kunsthal, Rotterdam

PLURALITY

Ideology creates reality as it shapes us into what we are.

If power creates the bonds and objects of inquiry over the course of time, then the notion of originating and going back to the origin can make both subject and object transcend the grip of power. Power, or non-power, is within the subjects (or objects) capacity. The state of subject is ambivalent though, because it is as Judith Butler says “an effect of a prior power and the condition of possibility� (Gordon, 2002, p. 8).

Freedom is an original state of power. Plurality is one of the conditions of that freedom. Plurality describes the opportunity to resist controlling mechanisms by trusting that the power of a group and the power of the individual and their ideologies can co-exist (Gordon, 2002).

This state of sameness and uniqueness affirms the state of mind that we are not entirely a product of the past or a drop in the ocean. It affirms the prospect of transcending the typical subject/object relationship by relying on plurality.

Gordon, N. (2002). On Visibility and Power: An Arendtian Corrective of Foucault. Springer.

Tower of Babel (rendered).