So the season of Halloween is here and Hallow's eve is right around the corner. Fall permeates the strangely warm air (for autumn) we've been having with cinnamon scented candles from the windowsills of nice, gingerbread-house-esque cottages along Santa Monica boulevard past the ominous ziggurat-like Church of Latter Day Saints
This week, in accordance with the Halloween spirit, I
decided to go to the creepiest, most spook-tacular, most horrific of all
backyard bone-towns. A place sure to send chills up your spine as it travels on
the broken backs of crunched leaves; wafting their thousands of confetties
along the jetstreams of October. A place both foreboding and terrifying like a
rabid junkyard dog of the capitalist, fright-cities of tomorrows nightmares
bearing his diamond encrusted teeth at your sweaty attempts to look away. A
place where modernity’s bedazzled, dead heels wreak with Betsyville perfume and
toole as they protrude from the graveyard dirt of utilitarian value. Positively
the most mortifying presence to have ever graced this city in its myriad embodiments,
but condenses here—in our backyard in the form of: BUM BUM BUM! (cue lightning)—THE
WESTFIELD MALL! (a faraway scream is faintly audible).
Yesiree,
I went there and do I have a tale to tell/show you or do I have a tale to
tell/show you? You may be thinking to yourself: “Tommy, but I’ve been to the
Westfield mall before. Isn’t all of this superfluous introduction a bit
reactionary? I mean, it’s not so bad right?” Well, to each their own, but I get
the distinct feeling in such built environments that I somehow need something,
something I don’t have…. And right when I turn out the light in bed, when I
think I’m safe, I hear a breathing…. Heaving… from the corner. I think to
myself: “Should I turn on the light? It’s just these old westwood apartments heh
heh.. nothing to worry about…” so slowly… ever so shakily do I reach for the
lamp. I turn it on: “click” and BAM!! I just bought twenty dollars worth of
tea.
My sympathies lie in all of you who have ever been
influenced by advertising; anyone who feels living in a city where a constant
barrage of ‘sweet suns’ and Paul Frank everythings and billboard dudes with
their chests rippling in my face as if they were there, next to me in my shoddy
echo from 2005 makes you think: “hey, this is at best, marginally unsettling
and completely unnatural” and then three weeks later wondered why you lost your
ability to look anyone in the eye on the way to class.
What's with those scars? Am I supposed to be turned on? Why am I supposed to want to consume that? Hmmmm.....
It was all at once disarming: the parking lot was nothing
short of a copy and pasted Tokyo thoroughfare except underground and deconstructed so
that its traffic-moving semiotics were useless and distracting instead of
order-promoting.
I turned all of two times and already forgot where I came in.
I realized this parking lot (like all multi-level parking lots) was built to
induce getting lost in; probably to give you that initial blow to your sense of
self-preservation as if to say: “don’t worry, you have no fortitude to battle
what you are about to be tempted with."
Heyo!
LED Jumbotron Studs: A memoir.
The first thing I saw when I exited the escalator was great
news of what was to come: a new coffee bean was about to be installed right in
the only eyeline possible upon getting off the moving stairs. This was awesome
because I’m always short changed to find quiche coffee shops in enormous
super-malls. I walk around the whole time looking for a way to get my caffeine
fix in order to continue my ruthless shopping onslaught but now I can get my
fix right at the beginning! Fueled up for the good fight!
“Also check
out Claaaaaire’s….. 3 prayer beads for the price of twoooooo…. The colors…. Accessoriiiiiiiiize….”
They help me pray when I need a distraction from the
blatantly vaginal American institutions like the subtle and respectable Pink
Taco (which incidentally has really good cocktails. Not kidding). Who’s trying
to get in there anyway? The Barbarians? The Mongols? I think they need a bigger
door. Oh wait…
…I’m sorry, Rock Sugar needs said protection. After all;
they have inside the culinary secrets of THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF ASIA. That stuff needs some golden-gilded guardians
and some even taller doors. That’ll keep ya
pan-Asian.
Problematic institutions aside, lets direct our attention to
other avenues of blatantly forward (but admittedly kind of awesome) product
design.
He certainly is… For your green, green soul.
Also—genetic experiment gone awry?
Gene-splicing between the
terrestrial and the oceanic? Zebra-Dolphin costume fodder? Or is that the
strange, ridged chin of the noble blue whale? Can’t tell. Must move on.
Constructed mini-cities would be nowhere without their own form of private militia.
Stores like blomingdales have these types of guards: kind of like the ancient enclave guards at exclusively senior-citizen-inhabited gated communities. Are they in place because substantial shoplifting occurs? Or is it because there are groups of ruffians just waiting to stick it to bloomingdales? Either way, he has a bike. That's serious business. The good news is he gets paid to stand there and look marginally intimidating. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
The reason this picture is so blurry is because he was literally running and I had only moments before he made his valiant close in this incredible and tantalizing ten-minute tale of "Brinksman and the Skater Kid: Brinksman Humiliates."
You get 'em duderino. He'll never skateboard again.
You know how small dogs will point their head looking in one direction but be looking at you in a different direction when you play with them, as if you can't see them just looking right at you? Well, people do it too and they do it a lot in places where they know they'll be seen i.e. Westfield Mall and yoga studios and grocery stores and anywhere in West L.A.
The Apple Store was filled to exact capacity as per-usual. Booming, bustling, making stacks. Way to do it Apple.
I can't help but notice that they don't even need to put words on their sign. How many businesses do that? Its a very effective icon. Really though, like a cross, people know exactly what they're getting into when they come in here. It's an area where you get connected with the facilities that allow you to connect with another plane; a necessary inclusion in this little city.
Not to say it's overtly religious I just think it's an interesting comparison.
Artificial avenues got designed as they often do in huge malls like this. All of the sardonic observation aside, mega-malls and other built environments try to replicate some kind of nature; some kind of comforting home where you can sit and sit all day and then get up and shop.
Like a cosmopolitan city in Italy, outdoor seats encourage walking and shopping and people watching but only inside the grounds of the mall.
Umbrellas give you shade, air conditioners give you cool respite from the hot day. Coffee keeps you going, cupcakes give you sustenance while eliminating excess weight from you wallet to make you a lean, light shopping machine.
There's everything you could possibly want in one place; all your desires filled, even safety (provided you are of a certain demographic). A mini-Rome with its own marketplace and areas of repose and soldiers employed by the higher-ups of society to regulate the strictures of the environment.
The only two people I saw on the street were outside of Westfield as I was leaving, presumably going into Westfield and were actually true loves to one another but would never know it, because they were looking at their iPhones.
I am reminded of David Harvey's article (a major reason for me going to Westfield) about built environments. He talks a good deal about Fordism and the separation of places of work from places of residence. These factories were of course, found in America during it's own industrial revolution but this idea of places of work separated from places of residence have caught my interest.
The ways in which we assign meaning to space are deeply rooted in cultural semiotics; male vs. female restrooms, restrooms in general, a bath room a kitchen, a breakfast nook, a mall, enclaves within the mall, the way you are expected to act when you enter Sephora (a company that is fascinating because it's employees are physical manifestations of the company's fashion aesthetic; so much that their outfits are designed to the nines). Why some bars have different energies than others on a spectrum from increasingly public to increasingly private to parochial spaces are all within the realm of how we assign meaning to what is previously meaningless space. In fact, the very construction of spaces is a study in and of itself which I encourage you to look into because it is so interesting.
Creating spaces, I've come to realize is a large part about what it means to design a mall. Malls themselves seem to be minimum security enclaves. You saw the designer stores, the security guards, the blatant intolerance for behaviors that are thought to be fueled by delinquency and all to the effect of getting you to spend money. Demographics can empirically observed as having less money than other demographics by census takers (as we heard in class). are meticulously noted and taken into account when designing a place where the only purpose for the space is to spend money. The most efficient use of the environment is necessary in order to maximize profit and effectiveness of the space (as Harvey alludes to) and so the poor and homeless are encouraged to not enter because they don't have enough money to make effective use of the space. The presence of the "defiled" as mentioned in last weeks reading Mapping the Pure and the Defiled as it were, deters the desired clientele and also decreases income. What we are left with is a strange space: it is neither residential nor a workspace. Malls, are consumer spaces designed to make you feel at home, as if the actions you perform there are natural and abide by codified laws of this new built environment. The entire time, I felt like an outsider because I wasn't dressed to the nines which suggests certain types of behaviors are preferred in this space over others.
The Westfield mall is a perfect example of what happens when a well-to-do area like this particular slice of West L.A. is met with a demographic that desires an even more exclusive environment. One where they can be both near home and also away from the perceived evils of even their neighborhood. Or conversely, the mall is a place where one goes to be considered part of such a demographic without having to really conspicuously spend.
Hi there Tommy! To start off, one of the reasons why I wanted to make a comment on your post was that I found myself strangely drawn to your descriptive introduction (the other was that I actually just visited the Westfield Mall with a friend this afternoon for fun, haha). At first, I wasn’t sure where you were going with your writing and this eerie ghost story like tale until you stated that your location of topic was the Westfield mall.
ReplyDeleteOne major thing I would like to address is the humor in your post. In the beginning, I was laughing at the jokes you made, finding them clever and catchy and ultimately adding a unique and personal style to your writing. However, as I continued reading several of your jokes stopped making sense and the amount of it became distracting as some aspects of your post felt superfluous and/or irrelevant. It was also very unclear what your point was in different aspects and the first large portion of your post sounded something more like a comedy blog than of one expressing observations in an analytical way. In other words, I mean that it was, in my opinion, far too heavy in the hilarity and extremely lacking in analysis and other observational elements such as demographics (just to name one).
It isn’t until the end of your post that you lay down relations and references to a couple of our readings (which I will be giving my own input about later). My suggestion is to lessen the amount of jokes you present and make more short analytical comments. For example, when you brought of the security guard and gave some brief insight on how no large malls, in seems, are without them as well as maybe why they are present. I would have liked to see more of this (maybe even in a bit more elaboration) and less with the comedy so that you don’t lose your readers’ attention (and it would also make the several jokes you do make, sparingly, funnier). In the briefest of words: blend your humor with professional and insightful analysis.
On another note, I loved what you said about malls being “consumer spaces designed to make you feel at home, as if the actions you perform there are natural and abide by codified laws of this new built environment”. I never really thought of it this was and now that I look back, every mall I’ve been to certainly does feel as if everything we do (shopping, loitering where permitted, wandering around with friends) is natural and expected. Those of us who have the money to spend are able to move about and spend money freely in contrast, as you mentioned, to the poor who are discouraged from the start from even entering the consumerist area. I’m glad to see that you took note of this and referred briefly back to Sibley’s Mapping the Pure and the Defiled because we see this harsh segregation between the mid to high income and low income individuals and groups practically all around us. The mall and any other location where capitalism is at is finest and maximizing profit is the goal, is a perfect example of this separation in which the idea of it in itself (a place to spend money) is the force that drives these two economic groups apart.
Hey Thomas!
ReplyDeleteSo after reading your post “Alveolar Solidarity-Enclaves within Enclaves”, I have to say was really good. To begin with your form of writing is unique and enjoyed it. Your introduction has a story telling set up which made reading your blog that more exciting and different to read! So I think your format was a great set up for the blog. Just like Sara stated Thomas your humor in the post was a great addition to the story telling of the post it really grabbed my attention and didn’t let me go. After I read a bit I thought you had nothing to the post relating towards the text or lectures but as I went on I saw that down below you had a more in depth explanation of your trip.
I see that you focus on the Westfield Mall in Westwood where I have been so posting to your post is very easy for me to relate to. You start off by talking about the billboards in the area but didn’t elaborate on it much. I think your whole trip to the Mall could have strongly been related to the Marxian view on how a city supports capitalism. The billboards can represent how they city comforts society/lower class by causing us to want to watch these films therefore we work and allow ourselves to be exploited by the higher class. Just as stated in class movie theaters and even malls are ways that the higher class finds a way to keep us control and allows them to keep exploiting us. As you go on you take pictures of the parking lots and as we go on your explain how David Harvey’s article explains a bit about Fordism which I think was a great subject to touch upon. I think you should have touched upon it as you were driving to the mall. LA’s mobility is because of the Fordism movement I believe, that’s why there are so many cars in every direction you see in LA. So I think this could have been included and even so you should have included the article (The Emergence of Postsuburbia by Olin, Kling, and Poster) and demonstrate how LA is not built like Orange County in the sense to withhold many cars. My reasoning behind this is because when I drive around Westwood in particular the streets are in bad shape and most large streets such as Westwood Blvd is only a 4 lane street (2 for each side) where in certain parts of Orange County there are 6-8 lane streets helping to reduce the traffic and clutter. Of course LA was built many years prior to Orange County but I think could still be a topic touched upon just to note similarities and differences.
Another thing I would include would be ideas in regards to the security and demonstrate how that can perhaps be barrier in one way or another. Perhaps since you’re in Westwood they have security within the mall because of the wealth of people and perhaps the types of stores found within the mall. The reason why I bring this up is because in one of my post I went to the Montclair Mall (east of LA), which is a middle class /lower class mall. While I was in their there were no sight of security within the mall, I had only view 1 security patrolling the parking lots but not a single one within the mall. This demonstrates class difference and how the environment of an area depends largely on the income or wealth the residents of the area have. So I think you should have touched on this a little bit just to include more text/lecture information to your post.
ReplyDeleteOnce again I will agree with Sara on your last paragraph 100% “On another note, I loved what you said about malls being “consumer spaces designed to make you feel at home, as if the actions you perform there are natural and abide by codified laws of this new built environment”. I never really thought of it this was and now that I look back, every mall I’ve been to certainly does feel as if everything we do (shopping, loitering where permitted, wandering around with friends) is natural and expected. Those of us who have the money to spend are able to move about and spend money freely in contrast, as you mentioned, to the poor who are discouraged from the start from even entering the consumerist area. I’m glad to see that you took note of this and referred briefly back to Sibley’s Mapping the Pure and the Defiled because we see this harsh segregation between the mid to high income and low income individuals and groups practically all around us. The mall and any other location where capitalism is at is finest and maximizing profit is the goal, is a perfect example of this separation in which the idea of it in itself (a place to spend money) is the force that drives these two economic groups apart.”
All in all Thomas I think you did a great job just work on structuring more text and lecture information from the beginning of your post and please don’t stop with the humor and storytelling idea because that is probably one of your greatest strengths when writing your blogs.