Bill -n- (kris'tl) at OSB, Chicago

Abstract

Can the individual be implicated in the mega-scale environment by mediating the barriers and marginal zones of the urban landscape? This investigation engages the megalopolis and its full grotesqueness in terms of scale and intensity; experiments with a range of strategies attempting to emphasize the individual without combating the potency of the urban environment; prismatically separates and intensifies the visual, audible and tactile senses while involving cognitive processes in re-sensitizing the individual. The contemporary metropolis (or megalopolis) exists as a dramatic urban landscape. With a propensity for territorial sprawl, this mega-entity can be physically defined by its severe shifts in scale and intensity. Spatial cohesiveness is non-existent as immense, fragmented barriers are introduced and marginal non-spaces are created. The whole can be viewed as calamity of independent layers manifesting coincidental relationships and intersections. This contemporary environment is inherently in motion as conditional and cultural elements compete for attention. Planes, trains, automobiles, media, cell phones, signage, voice mail, BMW's, exercise make-up, couriers, overnight delivery, e-mail, phone sex, commercials, busses, espresso, deadlines, ambulances, whistles, bars, parades, politics, dogs barking, news at nine ... bombard the senses. Within this environment the individual must insulate perceptions to cognitively organize the stimulus. Consequently a psychological ambivalence is procured and sensual experiences lost.