Notes from New Sodom

... rantings, ravings and ramblings of strange fiction writer, THE.... Sodomite Hal Duncan!!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Transitional Landscapes

So I'm reading this link kindly sent to me by MJ and I've just come across this little nugget:

Urbanization thus supports a new type of public space and produces moving landscapes. Airports, train stations, port terminals, as well as interconnecting transport means, have become the new social places of a mobile society. The new category of 'temporary', 'in-between' landscapes, which will from now on be referred to as transitional landscapes, are the ones 'on the route' just before arriving or departing from the city, for instance in-between city and city airports. They are landscapes yet to be completed, work in progress. Placeless, meaningless and ephemeral, residual spaces of an architecture of power, itineraries in-between, they appeal to our sensitivity by reminding us of the temporality of our own existence: one moment they are here and the next one they are gone.

And this:

The highway experience... is one of several few landscape experiences one is familiar with when travelling to a city. Others include the railway, flying or boat experiences. A common element of all is that the traveller is subject to high speed, the restrictions of a container and a more or less 'distant' interaction with the adjacent landscape, which one perceives in transit. Remoteness however is not just about distance; it is a state of mind.

I don't quite know why this strikes a chord. But I know I'm going to have to reread that article a few times.

1 Comments:

Blogger Kelvin said...

Kia Ora (Hello) from a krazy blogger down under in New Zealand. I was just passing thru, so I thought I'd stop & say hello to you, so you know someone has been by - bye !!!

1:24 am  

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