I live where all things sparkle; a promise of happiness fulfilled is just an unopened pocket book away. This great fortunate life can be purchased from one of the many number of storeroom windows which few can afford yet hundreds gaze into. There, meticulously presented is the perfect outfit or living room or hairstyle. YOU, YOUR life only BETTER.
It is adjacent to a DART station. Parking is unnerving, and so on weekends there is free valet. Don’t get me wrong, I love where I live, I just don’t understand the world that flourishes outside. I don’t get the rush to the shops, the “hanging out”, to be “In it”, to gather among the shopkeepers and restaurateurs. I have only been here a short time so this could all change. Currently I observe. I do not participate. And no I do not have a “fear of the marketplace” I just have limited funds, although, for most of my friends this is mutual. So here we all are sharing in the mutual lack of funds in the city that for many is a shopper’s wonderland.
As I gaze out my window I continually wonder, “Who are these people walking from shop to shop? Did they get what they came for? Will they return to their homes wishing they had remembered the items they truly needed? Will they return tomorrow? Will they forget again only to have to return another time?” It is easy to fall into this role of observer. I do not even have step out onto the “street” level. I pull into the resident parking garage after work and take the elevator up to my floor. I do check the mail which is found at ground level yet this is beautifully encased in storefront glazing far removed from the traffic outside. There is a lot of traffic given the two modes of transportation running parallel on either side of my residence.
With all the comings and goings how does one actually begin to feel at home? Well it may help that given my chosen profession I am found more at the office. Thankfully, I am grounded by my daughter. There is reality, kindergarten, bake sales, school uniforms, soccer, bicycles, and the playground. There is the fact that for her I must make this a home and that she makes this home for me. Children do not see the signs that adults are plagued by. They do not see the Urbano Home, the Urban Tacos, the Urban Outfitters (all stores or “places” found in my neighborhood). They see the fun whereas we see what we are told is fun or how to aspire to be more fun, FUN only BETTER. This reminds me of Calvino’s Cities and Signs from Invisible Cities,
“Your gaze scans the streets as if they were written pages: the city says everything you must think, makes you repeat her discourse, and while you believe you are visiting Tamara you are only recording the names with which she defines herself and all her parts.” [ Calvino 1974 :14]
7 comments:
The media theorist John Berger once argued that the purpose of advertising is not to make us envious of those who have that object -- it is to make us envious of our future selves once we have acquired that object. We see the object... we see the imagined lifestyle that the object promises to facilitate (however tenuously Coors Light might be associated with being sexually attractive)... we imagine ourselves with that lifestyle, surrounded by friends and dogs and women of questionable judgment... and we aspire to that imagined state. Since Coors Light has offered to make it possible, we'll start by buying some of that.
Likewise, if we follow Berger's reasoning, we do not "want" Einstein's bag. We want to be the fashionable person who will be seen and admired for having Einstein's bag. It's a remarkable house of mirrors...
Question: do we act the same way as producers as we do as consumers? That is, do we make buildings (or whatever) because of a desire to be seen and admired for having designed that building? Are we still participating in the house of mirrors?
Do we act the same way as producers as we do consumers?
This question took me some time to digest because I believe the answer is yes. This is alarming to me because clearly no one would like to admit this, yet the answer is clear it is in our skylines, on our magazine covers, and in our portfolios. Yes architecture is VERY marketable. Did it begin when Le Corbusier posed in front of his buildings with a new automobile? According to an article I read in the Architectural Review, Le Corbusier claimed the driveway of Villa Savoye at Poissy was designed with a specific car’s turning radius in mind, a car that appeared in photographs of his early buildings.
I think the answer to your question can be found in many stores. At Target, for example, I can purchase Michael Graves. Well his theory applied to essential tools to make my everyday life easier and cleaner. I am not denouncing this. I actually believe it to be quite brilliant. Now as an architect you invade the psyche “inside” the homes of the public. Not only have you designed the building they pass on their way to work but you have brewed their morning coffee.
Some very interesting questions Kara. I would have a tendency to agree with your answer, although I still believe that I do not design for myself solely. There is a duality to our architectural nature, both of and for ourselves, while at the same time giving/forming a piece(s) of the world we inhabit.
Nice start to the Vita Activa. Good luck with the upcoming semester.
~Rick
Very good blog! Although, I would like to hear your comments further on the points that Herb made above- purchasing a life as opposed to a product. It's like the argument of product versus process in architecture...like old Louie Kahn said, "You please society in your programming, not in the way you do your lousy building."
So what brings you to Apple beyond the pretty?
Great! Now I have to read all of Louis Kahn to find that one quote! (Actually, it's one of the nicest things I've read lately, and I need to see its context.)
Sometimes purchasing a product is not necessarily to make us envious of our future selves once we acquire it. How about cities purchasing a certain product in order to put themselves on the map for a better life. Bilbao purchased a Frank Gehry building to obtain global press and place themselves on the map by using the building as a product and the World Media, including all the Architectural press. Dubai is exploring on Avant Garde Architecture to place themselves on the map as well. Bilbao is a dying port and Dubai is running out of oil. This brings them second lives to their existences. Recycling Cities, whether for economic reasons or feeling envious, I find this noble. They are purchasing a life. A place like Miami Beach is definitely an imagined Lifestyle. Althought its South end (South Beach) can be experienced on foot, it does not feel like an Urban experience, it's an illusion. Perhaps because it is missing parks, civic space, landmarks, and places for family gathering. As creators, we have to do much more than just buildings. We have to create ARCHITECTURE.
Very interesting conversation and I certainly have a point of view on all this. We humans are (by most part) creatures of learned behaviors, we can modified them as we please, we can use them as we think is convenient or simply use them just because they are “fashionable” . So everything we know, we act or we might do, has been learned or will be learned. This been said, we were taught to react in certain way to certain circumstances. How we shop, what we shop, who to “segregate”, what to appreciate and taste in food, how we design …….why we design.
In this case I need to be with Kara and accept that is a constant struggle for me to detach myself from the fact that I am a selfish creature by nature, its sad for me to realize that when I “do good”…… “I am good” many times “feels good”, not because it’s the right thing to do, but just because some one else notice it and you can claim the credit!.
I come from a “linage” of Architects and I “know them” well. I haven’t met an Architect so far that I can say: “he / she are on the same level that mother Teresa… unselfish and detached from his / her ego.
Regardless I want to agree with Rick and Eddie ( I will like to agree!), it’s a fact that we are involved in a profession where “creator” is and adjective we can “attach” to our resume…. not sure we are creators but we are involved in creative process and thus we feel “creators”. This will be something great to discuss later on face to face.
Finally (using Herb’s metaphor) I can see how we all were raised in “mirror houses”, …..some of us with broken glass………, others with …..distorted ones ……or simply in houses with not too many!
Gus
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