Re: <nettime> net architecture nothingness

[human being <human@electronetwork.org>]

// it is hard to know how appeasement at this point is
// anything other than covering of one's own interests.
// JD, what is being proposed _is what is always being
// built. that's the problem. this is something else. that
// it implies secret architectural societies was never a
// point, that it is an example of the total authoritarian
// rule of the long reigning architectural establishment.
// apologists are as sad as those who perpetuate this.

of failed perspective

Libeskind(s) as Twin Towers (image)
http://www.architexturez.net/FILES/archive/sub.gate.archive/bc- 
twin_towers.shtml

Where would one need to be (in the harbor?) to
view the Libeskind rendering of the skyline. Is that
only for those at the Statue of Liberty to see? or is
it on some boardwalk in New Jersey, that symbol
that is supposed to evoke the statue of liberty in
some inherent abstract transcendent epipheny?
it would be nice to see a perspective, from the
base of the towers where the memorial will be,
LOOKING UP, and see what a person may be
experiencing from that first person perspective,
of the actual space in which this memorial is to
be placed in the monumental freedom tower, if
anything symbolizing private belief in capital to
defeat any questioning, over the public good.
more perspectives, please, let's see what the
quality of light and especially, how to fit the
traffic patterns of the site within infrastructures,
how will perpetual morning be accomplished?
how can we solidify the tragedy, perpetuating
it indefinitely, so that everyone can pity us in
our grand ignorance, championing mediocrity.
this is negligence that will put architecture in
the .US back a century, it is to have an Op-Ed
by the NY Post saying no one goes to NY, NY
to see architecture, that architecture does not
matter at this site, that it is money. The person,
a writer who did great journalism up to now, is
a no-nothing of the field and complacent and
resigned to mediocrity. apparently so is the AIA
establishment, to even take this serious. stop
the process now. stop the process. stop it now.
this is the opportunity to have architectures that
are mature, that are what has been called the
missing 'american' architecture, it is the time
and place to define the present, ours, and not
to have emigrants from WWII's precedents be
as far as our memories can leap as to what is
now possible. in the TV conference it was said
there was a building designed by a governor,
and two creative geniuses, Childs, Libeskind.
it was a see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
moment that only a propagandist could love...

if it is really development, that's it, and money-
then yes, REBUILD THE TOWERS, as is the
'freedom tower' is less symbolically charged,
less meaningful, and would be itself its own
monument to 9/11 and restore office space
and the windswept plaza to its original form.
a great form of denial at a totalitarian vision
of what architecture is has so taken hold in
the profession that it cannot even critique
itself-- it is too scared and cowardly to act.
the architects who do not oppose this plan
are not architects, they belong in another
field of inquiry, like accounting department
  at Ken Lay's Enron. this pathos is so large
and widespread that the WTC 1 and 2 are
not even able to be challenged for why one
would NOT nor NEVER rebuild the towers-
THEY FELL!!! there were huge structural
failures, fires of enormous catastrophe, of
huge loss of life, of shadows and a type of
wanton unrestrained development pattern
which glorified the conquering of public
space, selling this as a freedom that capital
affords us, as private individuals- and it has
not been held responsible for its own failure,
only glorified- much like loyalists to a fallen
regime, who cannot believe their monstrosity
of a great leader is now gone, and mourn for
an exact, embalmed replica in which to then
worship at the false perfection of ideologism.

REBUILDING THE TWIN TOWERs would be
better than building a NEW FREEDOM TOWER
as the former is architecture, in the wide-ranging
human imagination, all find relation to it in some
way in their experience. the latter only simulation.
this is, if one ignores all architectural details of
architecture, safety, fire systems, structural and
construction techniques and integrity, space, a
context on the ground and relation to the site,
the environment, social, cultural impacts, and
common sense about what is at question. the
WTC should be rebuilt in its original form, as
the masses of mourners are right to have their
symbol back, when in its place false symbolism
and false profits are proposed in its place. yet
this is not a truthful examination or review of
what is at stake. it is a highly-managed and
stage-set constructed campaign for buy-in, to
'capture the flag' of patriotism, and put it atop a
tower of GOP design in lower Manhattan. it is
to place radio waves at the height of american
democracy and freedom, not people, it is to
have as its value a quixotic energy plan which
uses decentralized energy in a centralized way,
to enable and increase the likelihood of attacks
on this building as its power sources are open
and revealed and contained in this, not symbol,
but monument to the past, trying to forget like
a steamliner into the future, and the NY public
is the iceburg that awaits in dense hanging fog.

Mediocrity is not good enough. okay is not good
enough. greatness is not good enough. world-
class is not good enough. creative genius is not
a commodity, it is a brand, and is sold as such,
highly overrated it must be said. this architecture
is engineering in everything but the words used
to describe it by its sole authors. it is a travesty
of historical proportions and will sink as such,
along with its proponents, as the future will rise.

'Rebuild the original Twin Towers!!! there is no
better option and it must go ahead full steam!!!'

Instead of using the infrastructure of citizens, of
those with knowledge of the profession, of the
students whose lives are dedicated to learning
and developing in this field-- consensus is given
priority to those who know little to nothing of the
interior complexities, even exterior, of the issues
faced. there are no calls for students to imagine
better safety systems, new structural guidelines,
various site plans, how to rescue people out of
existing high-rise buildings, the vacancy of the
reigning age of architectural asceticism known
as by the vague 'theory' moniker. the ideas and
forms presented ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
there is no question, under any critical review,
that historically bound, these even pass muster.

they are pathetic triumphs to mediocrity, to the
lack of meaning in architecture, to why those in
the .US do not 'get' architecture, their own, as it
is not their own, about their human culture, it is
about business and corporate interests priorities.

lightning will strike, taking out power to Freedom
Tower, what will that symbolize, when the wind
turbines and their generators explode? Or, in a
space-based war, to take out the centralization
of power associated with Freedom Tower by a
feasible space-based laser system, darkening
once again the same site, for a third time? is it
a charm to be this ignorant, to be this rueful in
disbelieving anything outside the safety zone
of what has been done before? The .US and
New York City were not on following, but on
leading, on taking risks, on doing things that
were beyond the next step, that leaped into
another realm, that challenged foundations
at the core - and this is none of that. It is a
campy, sad, pathetic waste of time. Our time.
our hopes. of architecture, of meaning, of a
reality that reflects our experience and also
our wishes, dreams, visions- that is what is
possible in the field, and what is now absent.

Sure, let those knowing nothing of architecture
dictate what should be: what will be will be. Yet
this is also a LIE. A lie of such proportions to the
basic integrity of the truth of architecture, that is
shared by buildings that transcend, in whatever
way, to be able to communicate-- buildings do
not tell someone "I EVOKE THIS IN RELATION
TO THAT" if one cannot see it for themselves--
it is just another pile ... standing up, living larger
than life, pretending to be greater than it really is.
down with the status quo, down with complacency,
recover the dreams, the imagination, architecture.
recover the future, it is ours to build, and build with.
Libeskind is OUT. Childs is OUT. This is treachery.

You would rebuild the past, which collapsed, and
say you remember and glorify it without changing
its outcome. You are unworthy of building at this
site. Your motives are base, unsound, despicable.
You should be shamed by your peers, not opening
this process to its public dimension, and you lost
the chance to engage the great questions of our
time with a misguided, meaningless mockery of
architecture, which is all about the architects, and
not about the public or culture which it is to serve.

Damn you for defeating the future, damn you for
not questioning the past, damn you for not opening
up the process, for going beyond your egotistical
selves. You have failed in epic ways, and what will
be recorded of this event shall prove the wrongness
of your approach at a critical juncture in time- there
is no time left- this is it- and you failed to do what is
in the best interests of NYC, the .US, and the world.
you failed as architects, you failed architecture, and
you are a disgrace to the very idea of building today.

New York needs to be able to see itself now, to look
to itself, to reflect, not to ignore its own wounds, or it
will never be able to heal, grow, go beyond the past.

PS. Mr. Scuozzo your article is an insult to architecture.
You obviously know nothing of its public value. If you
don't know what you're writing about, then don't write
as if you do. It is embarrassing and counter-productive.

PPS. The GOP is also going to be using a 'pit' scheme,
where people in Madison Square Garden will be 'six
feet under' those on the stage- historically familiarity?

  brian thomas carroll: research-design-development
  architecture, education, electromagnetism
  http://www.electronetwork.org/bc/

  brian thomas carroll: research-design-development
  architecture, education, electromagnetism
  http://www.electronetwork.org/bc/

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