Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Primary Advisor:
Brian Lonsway
Secondary Advisor:
Jonathan Massey
Productive Chaos: The Urban Festival
Introduction
Contention 01-02
Terminology 03-04
On Festivals
The Guises of Festivals 05-06
The Built Environment 07-08
Social Conditions 09-10
Power Structures 11-12
Comparative Analysis
Spaces of Festivals 13-28
Burning Man 39-34
Glastonbury Festival 35-40
Mardi Gras 41-44
On Identity
The Multiple Individual Subject 45-46
On Site
Site 47-50
The Issues of the Financial District 51-52
The Routine / The Spontaneous 53-54
The Production of a Festival 55-56
1: Designing Scaffolding to Deploy 57-58
2: Intervening on Existing Infrastructure 59-60
“An Ancient Comedy of Urban Errors” 61-62
Appendix
End Notes / Bibliography 63-64
Contention
“the idea that festival, like revolution, Just as an architect can explore spatial issues through the medium
of “a building,” an architect can likewise perform his/her art
marks both a break in everyday life through the medium of a “festival.”
and a rehabilitation of the everyday...”1 This thesis is an exercise in absurd juxtaposition which will
illuminate disparities in iconic American cultures. I have decided
to transplant the infamous Burning Man festival in an unlikely and
somewhat incompatible setting: the bustling streets of America’s
capital center, Wall Street. In doing so I will call attention to the
In the era of modernity, society changes so rapidly, yet the built existing problem of the highly regularized conditions of the Wall
environment is, by comparison, relatively static. New structures Street worker of New York City by juxtaposing their circulation
require massive investments of capital, and thus are expected to patterns and movements in the city with the spontaneous ludic
have a degree of permanence which will justify a high investment conditions of festive activities achievable through the redesigning
through a long life. However, temporary architectures (which may and transformation of the existing cityscape (streets, facades,
last an hour, a day, a week, or a year) provide a way for the built sidewalks). By activating these differences, the festival will
environment to change at a pace similar to the extreme speed of reconstruct our existing notions of the street as a connector, and
shifts in the consumer tastes, social trends, and flows of energy redefine the street as a space of dynamic engagement.
and capital.
Festivals are special celebratory instances, desirable and defined The City Fabric
by their temporality. They provide counterpoints to and escapes
from our routined lives. Our existing systems are designed to
produce stability, yet we already introduce moments of ruptures
(festivals) to counteract the constant routines and to provide relief some street
from the existing state. The contention is to design an architecture space needs
be retrofit fo
through the medium of a festival which provides a critique on relaxation ar
our current and primarily static architectural manifestations and
their relationships to our rapidly changing social environments.
The architectural artifact will reintroduce celebration, absurdity,
inversions, and play by the temporary rupture of a festival into the HARD SOFT
existing urban routine. permanent flexible
existing temporary
01 02
steam emitti
Carnival _”an explosion of freedom involving laughter, mockery, masquerade and revelry”2
03 04
The Guises of Festivals
“Carnival celebrated temporary goal is complete renewal. As Lefebvre argues, festivals provide
an opportunity to mend an existing state. As temporal entities,
liberation from the prevailing truth festivals exist not merely to provide critiques on existing
conditions, but to provide suggestions for reinventing and
and from the established order; re-appropriating space.
it marked the suspension of all Festivals simultaneously operate within and exist by their
manipulation of the built environment, social conditions, and
hierarchical rank, privileges, norms power structures. Beginning as forms of societal expression
and prohibitions. Carnival was through the performative demonstrations of cultures and
identities, festivals have always been a type of social manifestation.
the true feast of time, the feast of As temporal constructs, time and space became momentarily
dissolved allowing for brief personal or group transgressions.
becoming, change and renewal.”11 This movement between various social states inherently
constructed a new environment, a dressing of joy and liberation
on all surroundings. Festivals existed as the only temporal
manifestations that would allow for changes in social perspectives
and the liberation of identities subverted within the strict
In the post World War II society there was a disappearance of the rules and customs of everyday life. Consequently, cities were
mass ready to act and riot together as a collective body. Today temporarily reinterpreted as theaters and performance sites. The
crowds mainly form in stadiums, for mass media spectacles; large built environments were inherently challenged to provide for the
sporting events and the Olympics. Our posthuman society has extreme social states achievable by the festival.
also brought about a decrease of physical urban environments
where individuals can act and create collectively. “The laws, prohibitions, and restrictions that determine the
structure and order of ordinary, non-carnival life, are suspended
While the modern movement of architecture searched for unified making the carnival the place for working out a new mode of
utopias, in our current state, we are in an age of multiplicity. interrelationship between individuals, counterposed to the all
Festivals are rituals, cultural events, leisure, and temporary powerful socio-hierarchical relationships of non-carnival life.”12
architectures which highlight the composite of multiple identities
of the city. They are an embodiment of multiplicity in a physical Bakhtin’s idealistic view of carnival life defines the dominance
environment. of political structures in the creation of a festival. The site of
celebration became one of popular expression rather than of
Henri Lefebvre argues the rehabilitative properties of the the official spaces of of everyday life. Festivals are not everyday
festival onto the existing society. Under every utopia there are occurrences and therefore cannot exist in the same spaces and
contradictions, problems, and there is what had existed. Under under the same regulations of the normative. To design a festival
every festival there is what still exists, the everyday. Festivals able to create spontaneous interactions and social engagement
simultaneously engage and disengage with their surrounding must operate within the spectrums of the built environment, social
environments while constructing, expressing, manipulating, and conditions, and power structures.
exploring the multiplicity of space and identity. Thus festivals both
purify, while simultaneously, renewing the existing conditions
of the built environment, social perspectives, and power
structures. Existing at two ends festivals can either take shape
from a community, performing expressions of cultural identity,
or can uprise as an arm of the government, using the construct
of a festival to enhance a city’s global status and gain economic
prosperity. Existing in these various guises, festivals have both
been used to overthrow or celebrate existing conditions. There
is nothing to learn from a festival that exists only as a showcase
of the city. Simultaneously, festivals are not productive if their
05 06
The Built Environment
Built Environment
Revolution
The existing conditions are completely overturned and negated
as a contrary entity (the festival) occupies the same space. Yet the
festival transforms the space by creating a new environment, a
desired condition which has and can only arise from critiques on
the existing.
Re-writing
The festival exists as societal expression and to celebrate a
common ideology, belief, or interest. It does not provide a
utopian or imagined state, but highlights the use of temporary
ludic events to negate everyday routines.
07 08
Social Conditions
Conditions
LEADERS
SACRIFICE LEADERS
work SACRIFICE
RULES RULES LAWS LEADERS
LAWS SACRIFICE
LEADERS RULES
leaders LAWS
play SACRIFICE sacrifice
refusal coexist
Refusal
When we strip away laws, rules, authority what happens? If the
concept of work exists under these conditions, then play is the
opposition to these, having no leaders, no sacrifice, and not
following rules; the ability to carry out desires. Therefore, play
emerges as a reaction against these existing states. It exists as a
freedom from the state of work.
Coexist
How play emerges is not important here. However, what is
important is the impact play has. Play exists outside of the
confinement of the normative. For example, a game (a temporal
condition) removes people from the existing conditions and sets
up new parameters and rules to exist in a state of laughter and joy.
09 10
Power Structure
PROGRAM
type
LAWS
PROGRAM
TYPE
opposition compliance
11 12
A Comparative Analysis Location
flexible strict
Organizationflexible
open restricted
strict
compact spatious
open
flexible restricted
strict
compact spatious
flexible strict
compact spatious
Density flexible
compact strict
spatious
compact spatious
compact spatious
15
LOCATION
16
DESERT:
Burning Man Black Rock Desert, Nevada, U.S.
The Playa
2006-2007
2000-2005
Surrounding Mountains
1999
1998
2 miles
Shepton Mallet
Town of Pilton
Glastonbury
2 miles
19 20
CITY:
Mardi Gras
2 miles
21 22
Burning Man
the Monday prior to Labour Day until
Labour Day
Glastonbury
on average the festival lasts 4 days
Mardi Gras
the festival begins 46 days
before Easter and ends on the
Tuesday before Easter (Fat
Tuesday)
DURATION
1 = 1 day
23 24
Site Scale
(square feet)
Ratio per Person:
(square feet)
Participants
Glastonbury 273,800
222.5
177,500
DENSITY
1,200,000
25 26
Burning Man
Desert Ownership:
Bureau of Land Management
Federal Land
“leave no trace” policy
Laws:
no cars
leave no trace
no buying or selling goods (except at the cafe)
can only burn is a bin
can only burn wood or cardboard
no dogs
no illegal use of drugs
no firearms
no plants Laws:
Glastonbury
Farm Ownership:
Michael Eavis through his company Glastonbury Festivals Ltd.
environmental “leave no trace policy”
Mardi Gras
Streets: owned by the government
permits required to hold parades
OWNERSHIP
Venues: private ownerships
27 28
Burning Man
Evolution of Black Rock City Design: 1989 - 2010
http://www.burningman.com/preparation/maps/10_maps/index.html
Scale: 1:24,000
29 30
CONTAINMENT: ORGANIZATION:
“Every dimension of Black Rock City is derived from a singularity, from one point in space: where the Burning Man stands”
BRC LLC
(6) Senior
Staff
Executive
(18)
Committee
(5)
Scale: 1:24,000 Maximum Size of Possible Expansion in the Black Rock Desert
33 34
Glastonbury Festival
http://www.glastowatch.co.uk/glastonbury-map/
1990 2008
2000 2009
2007 2010
Evolution of Black Rock City Designs
Scale: 1:24,000
35 36
CONTAINMENT: ORGANIZATION:
Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival
Forrest
SOCIO-GEOGRAPHIC ZONES
more commercial
family / relaxing
alternative
scared
dystopian pleasure-city
Scale: 1:24,000 Maximum Size of Possible Expansion on Worthy Farm
39 40
Mardi Gras
ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY
streets are closed from automotive traffic and become pedestrian environments
parades are organized by the 28 Mardi Gras Parade Krewes
non-profit organizations
they are funded by their members
permits are required from the city of New Orleans to host parades
SPATIAL DIVISIONS
streets (parades)
bars / restaurants
banquetting halls (balls)
Scale: 1:24,000
41 42
CONTAINMENT: EXPANSION:
Mardi Gras Mardi Gras
BARRIER: EXPANSION:
The buildings act as barriers of the parades, creating a total infusion of the city’s streets. Mardi Gras can continue to be celebrated dominently in the streets and can create more parades to activate
these spaces. Or the festival can further use the city’s existing infrastructure to expand the event’s space.
43 44
The Multiple Individual Subject
“The governing artistic posture of selves in various environments, is advancing the ease and desire
to generate and slightly or significantly alter multiple identities
collectivism after modernism, as it of a singular individual. Therefore, we must understand that our
contemporaneous state is not that of a single self in a single body,
might be called, has rarely claimed to but rather a construction of multiple identities that constitutes a
singular self.
find its unity as the singularly correct
Festivals are manifestations of pluralism which allow for the
avant-garde representative of social emergence of the multiple individual subject who can freely
progress. Instead new collectivism float between spaces masking and unmasking desired identities.
Bakhtin sees dialogism as a fundamental aspect of the carnival,
gathers itself around decentered and being, “a plurality of ‘fully valid consciousnesses.”16 Each conscious
has a unique perspective and different identities that become
fluctuating identities that leverage apparent in the constructed space of this ephemeral, ritualized
environment.
heterogeneous character of any group
“‘Two voices is the minimum for life, the minimum for existence’
formation.”13 (Bakhtin, p. 252); if dialogism ends, reveals Bakhtin, ‘everything
ends’ (Ibid.). Bakhtin argues that by being outside of a culture can
one understand his own culture. This process is ‘multiply enriching’
(Ibid), it opens new possibilities for each culture, reveals hidden
‘potentials’ (Ibid.), promotes ‘renewal and enrichment’ (Bakhtin,
In Segmented Worlds and Self Yi-Fu Tuan illustrates the creation of p. 271) and creates new potentials, new voices, that may become
the concept of the individual subject which has been produced realisable in a future dialogic interaction. Thus the outsidedness of
from the privatization of social and architectural space. His groups marginalised by a dominant ideology within non-carnival
research begins with the Middle Ages with, “the increasing number time not only gain a voice during carnival time, but they also say
of family and self-portraits; the increasing popularity of mirrors; something about the ideology that seeks to silence them. Thus
the development of autobiographical elements in literature; the two voices come together in the free and frank communication
evolution of seating from benches to chairs... the ramification of that carnival permits and, although ‘each retains its own unity and
multiple rooms in small dwellings; the elaboration of a theater of open totality they are mutually enriched’ (Bakhtin, p. 56).”17
interiority in drama and the arts...” 14 The materialization of self
in turn led to a decrease in attention and desire of public space,
as our built environments, new technologies, and consequently
social developments focused on the individual. Allucquère
Rosanne Stone in The War of Desire and Technology at the Close
of the Mechanical Age is not arguing that the movement towards
individual isolation, mainly in the Western hemisphere, has been
a negative occurrence. Rather, she disputes that in the prominent
discourse, “the self appears to be a constant, unchanging, the
stable product of a moment in Western history.”15
47 48
Programmatic Distribution
PROGRAM ZONES
Commercial and Office Buildings
Mixed Residential and Commercial Buildings
Multi Family Residential
Public Facilities and Institutions
Transportation and Utility
Industrial and Manufacturing
Highlighting the high concentration of Commercial and Office Buildings in America’s capital center
of Lower Manhattan. The Financial District is a dense agglomeration of “working” buildings with
minimal residential spaces a fewer parks and public spaces existing within the core of this area.
49 50
The Issues of the Financial District
Productivity and change do not occur through overthrow The City Fabric
or celebration. Likewise, productivity and change do not
occur through removal or nonexistence. Therefore, an absurd
juxtaposition between Wall Street and Burning Man culture has existing proposed
the potential to invoke change and renewal of our existing urban
fabric and how it forms and informs social and political structures.
The Wall Street worker moves through the city daily in a highly
ritualized mode. The same train is taken from the suburban
periphery, connecting onto the 4,5, or 6 subway leading them
to the Wall Street subway exit. They find their way to the closest transform transform
Starbucks for morning coffee and head to their office for the
beginning of the work day. This spatial movement consists as city city
a series of routine circulation patterns moving them between
distinct rooms of the city. This movement, focused on the event event
beginning and the end results and spaces, rather than the journey space space
of movement and encounters through the city, produces the
ritualistic behaviors and regularized days. festival festival speculative architec
streets as connectors streets as hyper-active and dynamic event spaces some portion som
transform transform of street space sur
Festivals redraw the space and politics of permanent cities and in needs to be fac
doing so provide critiques on the existing urban conditions. More retrofit for be
productive than the festival which overturns all existing notions sleeping pro
pos
and that which simply celebrates existing systems is the festival artw
that is able to achieve a balance between these extremities. To
do so will provide a temporal representation and imagination of The City Fabric The City Fabric
how a space can be reformed and manipulated. The introduction
of a temporal condition, that of the festival, on the Wall Street
worker’s paths of movement will reintroduce ludic environments
some street som
of absurdity and celebration into their ritualized world. Thus the space needs to spa
workers carrying out their daily schedules will be forced to move be retrofit for be
relaxation areas com
through these temporary environs, choosing at will where and if dis
when to engage with the festival. are
Henri Lefebvre argues that festivals provide the opportunity to HARD / existing HARD
SOFT SOFT
HARD: permanent SOFT: flexible / temporary
move from the dominance of consumption to the consumption
permanent permanent
flexible flexible
of space. Rather than moving between rooms of the city, to make
existing temporary
existing temporary
more money, buy more goods, and ultimately to consume objects,
by reclaiming the streets we can design a consumption of space,
of activities, events, and dialogue. As achieve by Burning Man,
the streetscape needs to become a dynamic landscape to attract steam emitting gut
people to this part of the city at all times of the day and night from the retr
manholes can pro
to create vibrant social interaction and the opportunity for the provide to t
community to design their own environments. nighttime light goe
to festival goers
51 52
The Routine / The Spontaneous
“Our intention is to generate a society A festival is a form of activism in which a collective body acts
together to change the built environment. The conglomeration
that connects each individual to his or of identities in the space of the festival constructs a place where
diversity creates an environment of intensity and generates the
her creative powers, to participation in unexpected. Both social and architectural space has evolved
community, to the larger realm of civic from the emergence of the concept of the interiorized cultural
individual. We read the Wall Street culture as a conglomeration
life, and to the even greater world of of a singular identity; that of the college graduate becoming a
high profile business worker, with a lifestyle dominated by work to
nature that exists beyond society.”18 earn high profits ultimately to act as a consumer of luxury items.
This culture has conformed to the Enlightenment concept of the
sovereign subject and by the dominance of static architecture
and highly regularized schedules these workers have not been
able to evoke their subidentities. I am interested in creating an
More radical festivals, such as Burning man, celebrate anarchy
architecture to advance and accommodate the notion of the
and diversity with a goal of creating an alternative culture and
multiple individual subject. Festivals create environments of
community, to those which currently exist, in a temporary eight-
plurality; in events, people, identities, and structures. By situating
day metropolis. Created by Larry Harvey in 1986, the festival
Burning Man in the Financial District of New York City, a new
arose from the celebration of the summer solstice. His critiques
landscape of multiplicity, formed within a landscape of similarity is
and desires to be removed, if only temporarily, from the current
provided, to re-envision what Lower Manhattan can become.
consumptive culture generated the festival’s current mission and
principles. The event is closely related to and understood through
the Russian philosopher, literary critic, and semiotician, Mikhail
Bakhtin and his philosophy of carnival. Bakhtin looks to the folk
ideals of “the many” and “openness” in defining his theories of The Ten Principles of Burning Man:
language and carnival. He argues that the lack of authority of “Radical Inclusion: Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist
festivals creates a multiplicity of voices and meanings. “...Nothing for participation in our community.
is fixed in Bakhtin’s carnival world, and everything is in a state of Gifting: Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a
becoming.”19 The site of a festival is an environment of adaptability return or an exchange for something of equal value.
that generates constant possibility. Decommodification: In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are
unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such
exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
These ideas parallel with Burning Man’s four of ten principles of;
Radical Self-reliance: Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
radical inclusion, radical self-expression, communal effort, and Radical Self-expression: Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the
participation. Each participant without limitations designs and individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should
constructs the space of their camp and this conglomeration of respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
structures forms the temporal metropolis. While the immediate Communal Effort: Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and
site of the festival is confined to a roughly five square mile protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
pentagon, the location, as of 1990, in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, Civic Responsibility: We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for
enhances the feelings of separation from society and of freedom. public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility
Visually seeing no boundaries therefore, seeing no constraints. for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
The camp sites are then organized around a singular object, the Leaving No Trace: Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our
activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a
Burning Man. This symbolic gesture implies the importance of
better state than when we found them.
the individual, rather than the market, as the center of our world; Participation: Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change,
and the Burning Man, as a constructed artifact, represents this whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve
community theory. The body of the community, the circular ring being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions
consisting of streets and camps, is then divided into a gridded that open the heart.
masterplan with equal plots to further illustrate the theory of Immediacy: Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek
equality and the consequent multiplicity of identities and ideas of to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us,
the individuals. participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this
experience.”20
53 54
The Production of a Festival
The Production of a Festival
Location
Location the existing city
removed within
Containment
Containment The festival will be contained within the exterior public areas of the district.
System of Scaffolding
Expansion
Expansion
Access Existing Spaces of Transportation to the Festival: Existing NYC Spaces of Transportation:
Access Automobile Streets
Airplane Highways Designing a new route for these modes of transportation
Bridges Designing new modes of transportation
Subways
Organization
Organization The Man
The Man
Art Zone
Camp Sites
Center Camp Re-Organization
Theme Camps
Theme Camps
Center Camp
Camp Sites
Art Zone
Open Space
Ownership
Ownership
Program Program Sleeping = 4 Spa / Healing = 8 Christmas = 1 Fashion = 4 Food / Drinks / Bar = 136
Panorama Views / Parks = 8 Spiritual = 18 Radio = 4 Music = 14 Martial Arts / Sports = 16
Sober = 4 Services / Vehicles = 86 Photography = 10 Lighting = 2 Clubs / Dancing = 52
Queer = 12 Smoking = 4 Film = 10 Performance (Workshops) / Parade= 24 Fire = 5
Relaxation / Discussion = 80 Education / Inventions = 24 Design / Art = 54 Love / Porn= 8 Games = 70
Duration Duration
55 56
1 : Designing Scaffolding to Deploy
57 58
2 : Intervening on Existing Infrastructure Precedent: Steam Tunnel Music
The architecture consists of a new and interesting series of “According to the Municipal Art Society, Pratt’s steam-powered plant “is the oldest privately-owned,
architectural interventions within the traditional city fabric of continuously operating, power plant of its kind in the country”—and, once a year, it gets turned into a gigantic
the Financial District. These interventions will use the existing musical instrument. One of the whistles used has even been repurposed from an old steamship, the S.S.
infrastructure of the city (streetlights, manholes, facade systems, Normandie.
highway infrastructure) to emphasize the importance of producing
strings of dynamic spaces between existing built and static The implication here, that you can attach pieces of musical instruments, and even old ship parts, to your city’s
architecture. Using the principles of Burning Man I will design existing infrastructure and thus generate massive waves of sound is pretty astonishing; this might be a very
an architecture that allows Burning Man to function in an urban site-specific thing, to be sure, and something only Pratt has permission to do to its own steam tunnels, but the
environment. mind reels at the possibility that this could be repeated throughout New York. For instance, on any point of the
existing steam network as documented last month by Urban Omnibus:
Again, the premise is to create distinct rooms of participatory
event-based experience allowing for extreme participation and Every winter, a typically unseen machine becomes visible in the streets of Manhattan: Con Edison’s
heightening identity fluctuations of the festival participants and District Steam System. Seen from the street as steam leaking from manholes, or more safely vented
the business workers. through orange and white stacks, leaking steam hints at an underground energy distribution system
Narrative
speculative architectural artifacts
that is the largest of its kind in the United States and offers a chance for the public to become more
aware of and more involved in how the city works.
some portion some vertical fire stairs can some portion some portion some vertical the apertures
of street space surfaces / provide vertical of street space of the street surfaces need of and into
speculative As Urban Omnibus adds, ‘the steam system is largely ignored by the public until things go wrong’—or, of
needs to be architectural artifacts
facades need to movement needs to be space needs to to be retrofit for buildings
course, until that system is turned into a city-scale musical instrument through a maze of well-placed reeds,
retrofit for
some portion be retrofit
some for along
vertical thecan
fire stairs retrofit for
some portion be
someretrofit to
portion public perfor-
some vertical (windows) can
the apertures
sleeping projection,
of street space surfaces / building
provide vertical dance parties
of street space provide skate
of the street mance
surfacesareas
need create bridging
of and into
valves, and resonators.”21
needs to be posters,
facades need to facades.
movement They needs to be parks, bike to
space needs to be retrofit for architecture
buildings
retrofit for artwork can create
be retrofit for along the retrofit for ramps
be retrofit to public perfor- over the street
(windows) can
sleeping projection, second,
buildingthird, dance parties provide skate mance areas for perfor-
create bridging
posters, fourth,
facades. They parks, bike mances
architecture
artwork streetscapes
can create ramps over the street
above
second,the third, for perfor-
existing
fourth, mances
streetscapes
some street some street some
aboveartifact
the the facade street lights can some portion some street
space needs to space needs to needs existingto be scaffolding provide of the upper space needs to
be retrofit for be retrofit for designed to could be direction to bay water can be retrofit for
relaxation
some street areas communal
some street provide
some artifact retrofit public
the facade festival goers.
street lights can be
someretrofit to
portion food
some street
space needs to space needs to communal
discussion needs to be sleeping
scaffoldingcamps The
provide of color
use provide a
of the uppersite accessibility
space needs to
be retrofit for areas
be retrofit for drinking
designed to or
could be and
acting or size of ato
direction for
bayburning
water can be retrofit for
relaxation areas communal portals
provideusing street
retrofittheater
public newly
festivaldesign
goers. activities
be retrofit to food
discussion the existing fire
communal sleeping camps system
The usecanof color provide a site accessibility
areas hydrant
drinking or acting and regulate
or size of a for burning
infrastructure
portals using street theater specific zones
newly design activities
the existing fire of
system canor
activity
hydrant can denote a
regulate
infrastructure specific time
zones
during theor
of activity
festival
can denote a
specific time
steam emitting gutters can be cranes at during the
from the retrofit to construction festival
manholes can provide music sites can be
provide
steam emitting to the festival
gutters can be used
cranesasat
nighttime
from the light goers
retrofit to amusement
construction
to festival goers
manholes can provide music rides or vertical
sites can be
provide to the festival transportation
used as
nighttime light goers devices
amusement
59
to festival goers rides or vertical 60
transportation
devices
Precedent: An Ancient Comedy of Urban Errors
“For his final thesis project this year at the Cooper Union in New York City, student Andrejs Rauchut
diagrammed and modeled ‘a constellation of architectural set pieces’ meant for ‘a day-long performance of
The Comedy of Errors’ by William Shakespeare. Rauchut’s project presentation included an absolutely massive,
wood-bound book: it started off as a flat chest or cabinet, before opening up as its own display table.
The diagrams therein are extraordinary: they map character movement not only through the ancient city of
Ephesus, where Shakespeare’s play is set, but through the ‘constellation’ of set pieces that Rauchut himself later
designed...
The bulk of Rauchut’s work went into producing a series of timelines and graphic depictions of character
movement in Shakespeare’s play...
He then went on to experiment with overlaying these character paths onto Staten Island, part of the New
York City archipelago, as if trying to draw an analogy between the seafaring, splintered island geography of
the ancient Mediterranean—with its attendant heroes and unacknowledged gods—and the contemporary
commuter landscape of greater New York.
This transposition of Shakespeare’s characters’ movements onto Staten Island, Rauchut explains, became
‘the backbone for the design of a series of architectural set pieces inserted into the suburban fabric of Staten
Island. At each of the points where characters interact, an architectural set is built.’
Ultimately, the project aimed for the indirect choreographing of a public, urban event—it was to be a ‘guerilla
instigator of public space,’ as Rauchut describes it:
The final design is a constellation of architectural set pieces that would be used for a day-long performance of
The Comedy of Errors. Actors would travel along their scripted routes through the city dressed in plain-clothes
crossing paths and delivering lines. The audience would consist of interested citizens, gathering, following,
growing, leaving, and occasionally returning as they continue through their daily routines.
‘After the play is over,’ he concludes, ‘the architecture would remain and would be used by the locals of Staten
Island’—the remnants of a play incorporated into everyday urbanism.” 22
61 62
End Notes Bibliography
1 Henri Lefebvre, Critique de la vie quotidienne [Critique of Everyday Life], 2nd ed., trans. John Moore vol. 1 (New York: Verso, Conrad, Ulrich, ed. “Constant: New Babylon.” Theories and Manifestos. 1960.
1991), pg. xxviii.
Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. New York: Zone Books, 1994.
2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/FlyerJ18.jpg
Emerson, Caryl. The First Hundred Years of Mikhail Bakhtin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
3 Merriam-Webster Dictionary, s.v. “Dictionary,” http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (accessed December 08, 2010).
4 Ibid. Festivals, Tourism and Social Change: Remaking Worlds. 8th ed. Edited by David Picard and Mike Robinson.
Tourism and Cultural Change. Tonawanda: Channel View Publications, 2006.
5 Ibid.
Lefebvre, Henri. Critique de la vie quotidienne [Critique of Everyday Life]. 2nd ed. Translated by John Moore.
6 Ibid. Vol. 1. New York: Verso, 1991.
7 Ibid. Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Cambridge: Blackwell
Publishers, 1991.
8 Henri Lefebvre, The Urban Revolution (Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2003).
9 Ibid.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Urban Revolution. Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2003.
10 Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1991), pg 12. Lootsma, Bart. “The New Landscape.” Mutations. Barcelona: Actar, 2001.
11 Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), page 10. “Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975).” Vanderbilt University. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth206/
mikhail_bakhtin.htm (accessed September 27, 2010).
12 Ibid. page 112.
Mitchell, William J. Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2004.
13 Nato Thompson, ed., The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life, trans. Gregory
Sholette (Massachusetts: MASS MoCA, 2004), 150.
Roche, Maurice. Mega-Events and Modernity: Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture. London:
14 Allucquère Rosanne Stone, The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age (Cambridge, Mass.:
Routledge, 2000.
The MIT Press, 1996), page 19.
Sassen, Saskia. “The Global City,” Edited by Koolhaas Rem. Sanford: Mutations. Actar, 2005.
15 Ibid. page 19,20.
Shanti Elliott, “Carnival and Dialogue in Bakhtin’s Poetics of Folklore,” https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bit
16 Caryl Emerson, The First Hundred Years of Mikhail Bakhtin (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), page 9. stream/handle/2022/2327/30(1-2)%20129-139.pdf?sequence=1
17 “Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975),” Vanderbilt University, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth206/mikhail_ Stone, Allucquère Rosanne. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge,
bakhtin.htm (accessed September 27, 2010). Mass.: The MIT Press, 1996.
18 “Mission Statement,” Burning Man, http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/mission.
html (accessed October 2, 2010).
Thompson, Nato, ed. Sholette, Gregory, ed. The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of
Everyday Life. Massachusetts: MASS MoCA, 2004.
19 “Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975),” Vanderbilt University, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth206/mikhail_
bakhtin.htm (accessed September 27, 2010). Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1996.
20 “What Is Burning Man,” Burning Man, http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/principles. Tschumi, Bernard. Event-Cities: Praxis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.
html (accessed October 2, 2010).
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