Faceless, Nameless Bodies: Camouflage and/or assimilation into the urban material culture
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| Mannequins line the showcase at the front of an upscale urban clothing store on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain |
Urban realities: Mobile bodies
The Commuter Experience
Some
mornings it’s a bit overwhelming… It’s fascinating how we move in formation;
adopt the rhythm of the urban as soon as our feet touch those city streets.
Some assume position instinctively whereas others...not so much.With
my sleep-deprived, sometimes over-caffeinated brain, the objective is to keep
balance whilst walking against the throngs of commuters that “the City’s Gate”
unleashes into the capital. They’ve probably just disembarked from a “Red Band”
and must disperse to their various destinations across the city. My commute to
the university during the peak morning hours is east-bound and so I must trudge against the mainly westward flow of persons
coming into Port-of-Spain for business, work, school...
There
is one general rule when navigating against the herds that converge at the
City’s Gate: Keep momentum! To stop would mean being toppled over and probably
(to add insult to injury), become the recipient of some hard glares or choice cuss
words. For someone like me who sometimes has two-left feet syndrome, moving
against the general flow of the crowd, feet-eye co-ordination is crucial to prevent collision.
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Commuters
at the zebra crossing at the City Gate entrance, Port -of-Spain, Trinidad
Where
have we come from? Many of the persons that traverse the urbane don’t live in
the city themselves. We’ve originated from the surrounding areas- the ‘burbs,
the upscale communities, the country. According to the Google Maps description: City Gate is the main terminal for the buses and maxi-taxis in Port -of-Spain, Trinidad. It is located in the Former Trinidad Government Railway Terminal on South Quay.
I
began to question how much City Gate meant to a society such as Trinidad’s and
on reflection, it was apparent that it is an essential part of urban life as we
know it because it is a transport hub
that services almost the entire of Trinidad. This is evidenced by the uproar
and dishevel that is caused when it doesn’t function smoothly which is usually
due to flooding or strikes by the PTSC (Public Transport Service Corporation). Despite
my grumblings, I would like to congratulate past governments for having the
insight to recognise the necessity of a transport centre like City Gate.
Urban
Primacy
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The Call of the Wild...The Queen's Park Savannah. The redefinition of cultural urban space and greenspace in the city
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| "Sweating in the Savannah"... |
The Call of the Wild...Coming Soon.
Everything in its place...
I think
that through my wanderings for this photo blog I have acquired a new
fascination with city “cages” and walls (barricades). “Cages” I call them, (since they house the urban animal) in the form of fences, gates, burglar-proofing or wrought iron fixtures on the perimeter of stores, empty lots, houses, parking lots or buildings. They serve a multiplicity of functions. Physically,they may act as landmarks for the boundaries between plots that have been allotted to landowners (thereby indicative of ownership) over the vast area that the city occupies.
They are part of a city’s plan since it pertains to the measurement and control of space and
upholding of order and power. These barricades have many styles. Some “cages" are plain as the diamond pattern of regular mesh fencing or can be very ornate
with skilfully bent metal shapes or some are dangerous like the barbed and
razor wire meshes placed atop walls. Walls have a wide range of heights and can
be constructed with say… stone or concrete.
Moving
away from the physical however, these barricades have a purpose that is
sometimes ambiguous and lost to my consciousness,but are reflective of
the strained interactions between persons who live and traverse the urbane. Are these structures meant
to restrain us from venturing "out of line", to protect us from endangering ourselves or
do they perform both duties at times? Clearly put, the same barricade that protects us can endanger in an emergency (imagine being trapped in a heavily burglar-proofed house in a fire).
Understanding the motives of the persons who erect these internal borders and also the feelings of the persons who stand on either side of these
barricades can also be explored in terms of the message the structures send
about ownership.(Try window shopping when all the city's stores are closed after work hours or when you have no money...what feelings does it elicit for you? It is rather depressing.) With that said, we may see why during times of civil unrest, there looms the threat of mass
looting as people scale and cut through property boundaries to forcefully and illegally acquire what they desire…the
unleashing of a primitive urge perhaps?
The presence of cages and walls then can be a
sign of existing or impending conflict and tensions within a space. It is not a
far-fetched idea…two persons who have a disagreement and share a space may
section off that space not only to shield themselves from contact with the
person(s) whom they find unpleasant but to demarcate personal jurisdiction. Recall the cry of Beetham Garden residents prior to the
grand Fifth Summit of the Americas which was held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in
2009. Due to the location of the impoverished community (alongside one of the main routes into the city) and its reputation for nefariousness, residents
found themselves being “holed in” in their community as the government erected a
huge wall along the Beetham Highway. Administration was probably anxious to
hide the living conditions of these people from the eyes of the heads of state
and high ranking officials that were due to pass by the community on their way
to the opulence of downtown Port-of-Spain. Hurt that they would be denied the
opportunity to witness this grand spectacle and particularly the entourage of
the United States’ first black president, the Beetham residents voiced their
displeasure. Although I have my views on
the case, I am not questioning the ethics of the administration’s move, only
the symbolism of erecting a wall and the message of exclusion and discord it
was conveying- that these people were not “fit” to be a part of this event because
their presence was not beneficial to the country’s development image.
“The five-foot-tall wall is simply a beautifying touch, say
government officials, who have spent months prepping for the arrival this week
of 33 leaders including President Barack Obama at the largest and most
important gathering of hemispheric leaders. But to those who live behind
the wall, the structure means something else: It’s a symbol of years of broken
promises, government neglect and the widening gap between the haves and the
have-nots.”
The
Miami Herald via the Trinidad Newsday, 2009
My
above ramblings on cages and walls and their function may seem a bit “random”
or “looney” according to one of my friends (haha! Thanks Gin) but my reflection was borne from observing the photo below.
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| Caging the trees now...Frederick Street, downtown Port-of-Spain |
This photo was taken as I walked due north, up Frederick Street in Port
of Spain, in the vicinity of the Francis Fashions’ store. The image of the
trees in a metal barricade jumped out at me because in contrast to the rationale I gave earlier, I saw no purpose for the metal enclosure in this instance so it spurred my inquiry into the purpose of barricades in the first place. In this case,what is the purpose
of putting the metal fence around a tree on the pavement? Does the tree pose a
threat to humans? Do we pose a threat to it by wanting to cut or uproot it? Or has our need to demarcate all space just gone wild? We are
obviously using the tree for its aesthetic value- to beautify the pavement but to me, it is as if we’re telling the tree “You're here because you look
good but you must not get in our way by expanding too much lest you encroach on the space allocated for the
pavement path.” That is one interpretation whereas others might suggest that humans are naturally destructive and the tree must be 'protected' in order to grow.
So then, how and when we use cages and walls within the city is quite varied. Who is allowed to come and go as they please through the barricades and what are the consequences? That is another kettle of fish...
Blogger’s note: Before I venture…
Desmond
Morris wrote a best seller in the 1960’s lamenting what he saw as the inability
of humans to dwell comfortably in the confines of the urbane. As a zoologist by profession, he concluded
that we are still very much biologically primitive and are yet to learn how to
dwell in the crevices, cracks and passage ways, dug out of the artificial
concrete, metal and glass edifices that frame the city dweller's life. I have not read the book
but his theory sparked my interest and provided some inspiration for this blog. He likens the
city to a zoo… probably with its
cage-like structures; defining where we can
roam and where we cannot, where we may roam and where we may not or should not (for there is a subtle but important distinction). Like
the zoo inhabitants, we have set feeding times, sleeping times and play times
all contributing the use of the term the “urban animal”.
Prior to these planned settlements, history tells us that we were once hunter/gatherers-foragers of the land- thinking nothing of settling but content with the gifts that nature so thoughtfully gave to us. Pick berries and nuts today? Hunt wild meat tomorrow? Fish the next? A succulent tree root the day after? Manipulation of our environment to suit our needs was supposed to be the mark of scientific genius, to help us, not to cause scourges upon society as some people may argue. Our quest to eliminate dependence on the whims of the natural may have led us to a type of mental colonization...
Although I am not a big proponent of evolutionary theories, perhaps Morris is correct to correlate the increasing “sociopathic and antisocial” behaviours within the urbane with the steady increase in majestic skyscrapers that now block and hover across the city skylines while conversely we lament the cramped spaces that many call home in the city today. As urban populations explode, many have studied the effects of aesthetics on the human mind with very little positive to say about the urban, talking of it as a cockpit of trouble. Even as we push forward through the stages of physical “development”, our minds often still have to play catch up with the tangible changes that swirl around us.
We have long abandoned this hunter/gatherer-utopian sounding lifestyle…or have we? Perhaps how and what we hunt and gather has changed but basic instincts and needs are still present and have to be met respectively…we have simply adapted. The built environment houses both our physical being and the intangible self- our consciousness-which we express in numerous ways. With this in mind, I will present a series of photos and personal reflections on urbanity in action and how our inner hunter-gatherer has learned to cope (or not) with its new environment, both negatively and positively.
Prior to these planned settlements, history tells us that we were once hunter/gatherers-foragers of the land- thinking nothing of settling but content with the gifts that nature so thoughtfully gave to us. Pick berries and nuts today? Hunt wild meat tomorrow? Fish the next? A succulent tree root the day after? Manipulation of our environment to suit our needs was supposed to be the mark of scientific genius, to help us, not to cause scourges upon society as some people may argue. Our quest to eliminate dependence on the whims of the natural may have led us to a type of mental colonization...
Although I am not a big proponent of evolutionary theories, perhaps Morris is correct to correlate the increasing “sociopathic and antisocial” behaviours within the urbane with the steady increase in majestic skyscrapers that now block and hover across the city skylines while conversely we lament the cramped spaces that many call home in the city today. As urban populations explode, many have studied the effects of aesthetics on the human mind with very little positive to say about the urban, talking of it as a cockpit of trouble. Even as we push forward through the stages of physical “development”, our minds often still have to play catch up with the tangible changes that swirl around us.
We have long abandoned this hunter/gatherer-utopian sounding lifestyle…or have we? Perhaps how and what we hunt and gather has changed but basic instincts and needs are still present and have to be met respectively…we have simply adapted. The built environment houses both our physical being and the intangible self- our consciousness-which we express in numerous ways. With this in mind, I will present a series of photos and personal reflections on urbanity in action and how our inner hunter-gatherer has learned to cope (or not) with its new environment, both negatively and positively.
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| View of Port of Spain from Paramin |
The
greatest thematic trend and point of reference for my blog entries may be my
bias towards the un-urban for I do
consider myself a bush child, borne and bred (#Paramin2daworld#)- where things
are slower, the air is cleaner, things look greener and fewer cages. Perhaps
your comments will broaden my perspectives. I can see the city so clearly from
my home; perched miles above in Trinidad’s Northern Range (which is slowly but
surely doing a disappearing act…hmmm) and far away from the Port-of-Spain
craze. A small peep from my “gap” tells me many things before I even venture into
the capital: if there’s a building on fire, if there’s flooding in the Caroni,
if it’s raining in Port-of-Spain or even in the south lands. By
virtue of my place of origin, a “here” versus “there” way of thinking has been
unconsciously inculcated but that is the way of humans, isn’t it? To make
distinctions between people and times and places to generate identity?
I walk through the urban almost everyday, sometimes aware of my surroundings, sometimes no more than a robot. I hope this journey opens my mind to a new dimension of thought; to feel my reactions as I walk the streets and not singularly trudge on to the taxi stop and fuss for the next taxi to arrive so I can get home!
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