Hypercity: about
What is the hypercity project?
A city is more than a collection of buildings, it is the sediment of our work and lives. Even the simplest stroll leaves a trace, if only a scuff on the sidewalk, and the terrain of the city is layered with the traces of those who have been there, who are there every day.
But this view of the city threatens to collapse into nostalgia.
So, shall we plan the mega-cities of tomorrow -- clear away the clutter of dead generations once and for all and build fresh? It is certainly tempting: there is a great deal that could exist, that could be better, that could facilitate an better way of living.
There intercedes a great darkness.
Great concentrations of human life are the consequence of great social developments, and form a nuanced territory of social relationships. The megacities of the world -- tremendous in detail, magnificent in its architectue, brilliant in its culture -- stand as an awesome tribute to the productive powers of humankind.
But these
But is a "city," defined by its political borders, an adequate way to discuss these social relationships?
Our being requires that we engage with our environments
But there
The very existance of such cities implies something more, a series of relationships that form the precondition for such a great concentration of human life.
The intensity of these relationships is remarkable. The last century has seen every planned development of urban life unceremoniously toppled; exceeded, subverted, and overthrown by the zeal with which city-dwellers persue new ways of life and modes of social contact.
Does this virulent excess mean that these cities will necessarily remain obscure to us? It is not an academic question. If we hold these reltionships as un-theorizable, we pose a stark limit to the possibility of better governance, of finer socialization, of happier living. If these relationships are un-theorizable, then between the single citizen and the frenzy of the crowd there interceeds an impenetrable darkness.
This is the way things stand: these relationships are un-theorized. It is not a surprise. In a class-cloven society, the profound injustice of these relationships makes their intensity dangerous. The government, in order to effectively administer and enforce these relationships, must also suppress them.
This is the way things stand: city government is in denial of even the clearest facts of public record, and the residents of the city stand as a continual threat, living proof of their lies. In this ideological universe, "society" is reduced to the level of backdrop, set dressing for a galaxy of isolated personalities. As we live in this city we are enmeshed in the darkness of this denial, and our social relationships, dressed up in the garb of the purely personal, assume a jerky, spastic gait which make social progress little more than a fevered dream.
Are we to follow those who venerate this darkness and this fever, who name it the very essence of the city, its romance and its appeal?
I want something more than this dreaming. There is a better prize at hand. It can not be as rapidly fabricated or easily achieved as a dream, but a dream does not survive its own fabrication, and its achievement does not last long enough to be enjoyed. What we have is much stronger, a real place where what we produce can be used and re-used, change and become something more lovely than any mere imagining.
What we have is a hypercity. Let us touch its threads and describe what we feel. Let us learn how to live in it together.
human beings and their social relations are the substance of the city
These relationships have a remarkable intensity.
What is important is that these are astronomically high numbers. They are not only beyond our ability to comprehend them singly (even Imperial Rome may have had one million residents), they defy even sensible innumeration of their institutions, their conduits and exchanges.
A city is more than a collection of buildings,
the sediment of their work and lives.
It is supposed by some, most notably E.B. White, that by their nature cities require the suppression of these relationships
It is my theory that these relationships are suppressed
seeks to suppress these relationships
Posted by Sam at July 24, 2004 06:24 AM
