The Cruise- Key words to the questions

1. What types of things (visible and invisible) does his tour “map”? 

What kind of knowledge about NYC does this produce?

Record of history- builds up and they overlay to composite a thickened historical landmark. City itself is the thickened space of history

Levitch gave information on about artists and historical figures such as George Washington, Edgar Allen Poe, Dylan Thomas, and himself who were involved in certain spots they dwelled in or passed by. He told the visitors that Poe finished his work, Raven, at one street, and six blocks from there, another historical figure did something else. He talked about a coffee place he stopped by. It’s the record of daily activities and history that the passers or dwellers built in the city.

2. Levitch has an on-again off-again love affair with NYC. What kind of language does he use to describe this relationship? What specific parts of the NYC are the focus of his “amorous” attention?  What does this tell us about how he understands himself in relation to the city’s identity (and vice versa)?

Exhibition, constant fluctuation, line of cyclops, "more psychotic and riveting than banal creatures of human race", intimate when one shows their beauty and having the other admire it. the terra cotta  building that reveals its beauty and express its excitement through the curves among the straight structure. 

3. In what way does Levitch representative of  New York? How does Levitch embody the characteristics of New York City?

  He's a particle of New York. He represent and respond to New York. Winter was cruel to Levitch the year before- he felt inferior among the tall buildings, like smaller buildings. 

4. What is the effect of the high-contrast black and white in which the movie is filmed? How does this contribute to our view of NYC (and Levitch himself)?

Impression, history, just the outline of it it’s not about the outlook but the meanings behind it. black and white helps the tour guide merge into the landscape with the background. He belongs to NYC in the black and white range of landscape.

5. Levitch says, "I am cruising because I have dedicated myself to all that is creative and destructive in my life right now.” How does  creativity and destruction define New York City as presented in the film?

Turmoils – glory is fleeting there I was at this moment, frantic chaos of universe

 cruise means seraching everything worthwhile in existence, flesh ways ondulating, "being able to exhibit that I'm thrill to be alive and sstill respecting it"

6. What does Levitch think of “the grid” and why? How does Levitch’s version of NYC contrast with NYC as grid?

Civilization is the amputation of what everything that happened to us… civilization is the molestation… of everything that we ever could be a giant repression that melts into giant depression so you never say what you mean. Civilization is breathing down our neck, secreting us apart… civilization knew who you were before you were born. Civilization forgave you when you needed forgiving. And you never once surprised this civilization and you never once felt that sensation

Inclusion of the sun into the NYC’s unique landmark

Moment- catching the moment- 4 o’click fish market is better than in the morning0 it turns into oder than landmark

Keywords for Smithson's "A Tour of The Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey"

monuments, high ideals, realistic, manufacture, artificial, stills, limited movements, outmoded world, unitary chaos, prehistoric, extinct, mechanical, suburban, hidden technological orifice, immortality, oppressive grandeur, ruins in reverse, out of date, rise into ruin, discredited idea of time, rational past, abandoned future, timelessness, increase of entropy, irreversibility of eternity

Georges Perec- The Street- the bus route

Why do the buses go from this place to that? Who chooses the routes and by what criteria? -p.52-

A bus passes through the main street. The route is chosen by the popular sites, such as downtown, big market, or another station. Sometimes the flow of traffic determines the route as well. For instance, the bus waits when it has ample amount of time before reaching the next stop, but if it's in hurry, it can even pass a less popular designated stop. Bus drivers skip the whole street sometimes. Then the waiters increase and they stay longer on the street. By the next bus reaches the stop, it is already filled with postponed bus riders who were 13 minutes behind their schedule. The buses are categorized by the riders' professions and time too. What is considered as the important places of street, are some other spots, such as office buildings and law court. They are only popular during the certain times, especially in the mornings and early evenings. Bus numbers determine the routes too. In Gainesville, Florida, shorter the number indicated shorter, local route. 1, 12, and 34 went around the campus and popular grocery stores for students. Shorter numbered buses were more frequent, and came in 5 to 10 minute interval, dividing and picking up about 300 different students from 80 different classes that end their classes at the same time. Sometimes same numbered buses came three in a row and they would carry the crowd to same designations, aligned like a train. On the other hand, 125 and 240 went all the way to downtown and hospitals.

Robert Smithson’s A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey (1967) Close Reading Essay- Mapping Entropy of Passaic

Robert Smithson, an artist and a writer of “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey (1967)”, observes geologic change and acknowledges nothing is permanent or everlasting. He describes this change as entropy, an accidental or situational happening that naturally occurs as time passes. Through this writing, Smithson explains the ideal beauty is the false future, and the true reality is seen through connecting the ideal to the imperfections of ruins. To help with the explanation, Smithson maps entropy by deterritorializing the artificially controlled area and reterritorializing with the natural occurances. The monuments he sites symbolizes the artifacts and nature’s coexistence.

Artificially controlled monuments are against the law of entropy and subjects for deterritorialization. When describing a painting by F.B Morse, Allegorical Landscape, in Canaday’s column, Smithson debases Morse’s presentation of soft floating clouds as “sensitive stains of sweat”(Smithson, p.69). What was included to bring awe seemed to Smithson as an imagined form of nature we idealize. The Clouds seem smeared into the sky rather than actually occupying the space and flowing. The calm lake, foggy buildings, frozen statue of a man with his hand held up high, and the “unnecessary” tree are nebulous fantasy of idealization. Nature made artificial is what Canaday describes as “high ideals that universities foster.” However, idealization of the place takes out the reality, and it takes away from the true beauty. “The sky over Rutherford (the real place Smithson is observing) was a clear cobalt blue… but the sky in Earthworks (signet paperback Smithson bought) was a “great black and brown shield on which moisture gleamed””.(p.69) Again when he encounters the first monument, the bridge over Passaic River, he denotes the already-made, sculptured situation. To make a gateway for a barge, the bridge opens in which one part rotates to north while the other part to south. (p.70) Its socket movement allows only limited movement and it turns the landscape into controlled, inert space. The monument is still that it resembles a pictured photograph, and the sun illuminating the bridge feels like a “glass” because the place seem foreign and inhabitable, because it does not interact with the current of static river. It pursues permanence that is impossible and it is this awkward juxtaposition of controlled monument and motionless river that creates false depiction future. Kodak Verichrome Pan cautions the camera users that the picture stills could be false, as there is possibility of “defective in manufacture… caused by negligence or other fault.” (p.73). It proves Smithson’s point that what we see could be false landscape. Mechanic tools like cameras and our eyes can see the landscape with false view, and such stability can lead us to see our surrounding as the “self-destroying postcard world of failed immortality and oppressive grandeur”. (p. 74)

The monuments such as the pipes, crator, and sandbox can be the real examples of entropy. They are the best representation of the Passaic, the traces of human work in earth. It is the “Everyday life, unexplored, and the repressed,” (Corner, p.232) what we refuse to recognize as a part of the landscape. The pipes for example, have active flow of water and its remnants. The great pipe that we see as relatively permanent was “secretly sodomizing some hidden technological orifice.” It is the pleasure of movement and the pain of erosion that creates such excitement, a live view of nature interacting with artifacts. Smithson turns to the ruins, not to contrast with the ideals, but to look at the fundamentals of what provides the current landscape. “Buildings rise into ruin before they are built”(74) The incomplete resurrection of the developing town, Passaic suggests what came before the process of New York City and such big city. It could also be seen as the missing link between the Rome and New York City, the process of evolution between the two cities. Somewhere in the disintegration of digging bare nature and embedding human artifacts, the landscape undergoes accidental happenings and creates a more dynamic, entropic landscape. Prehistory is the foundation that allows another process to, not overcome, but merge into. (Interview with Pettena, p.298) The ruins therefore are still undergoing evolution to something else in timely manner. “Discredited idea of time and “out of date” things” (74) thus returns to Smithson's mapping.

Smithson maps the area through drifting, siting the interaction of artificial activities and Earth's reaction, what he calls monuments.  He let the steel lead him to explore and observe the area, hence “destabilizing the fixed” (p.233) path by “incorporating the nomadic, transitive and shifting character... into spatial representation”(p.233) The Passaic is dissected through Smithson's subjective excavation and the resultant called monuments  reterritorialize and create a comprehensive map.  

Acknowledgement of temporality and entropy connects the two opposite personalities of nature. Smithson mapped the area by viewing the two seemingly different artifacts and nature in one situation, and recording the process of their interaction. 

The Crystal Land by Robert Smithson- Questions

1. Robertson values developing land, that are friendly to middle class- where we can feel people's countryside-friendliness. Traveling to abandoned area. "The highways crisscross through the towns and become man-made geological networks of concrete" (p.8) Highway- what defines New Jersey- car culture, in contrast to NY's subway culture. "What vegetation there was seemed partially demolished" (p.9), "Fragmentation, corrosion, ... everywhere in evidence" => Destruction of nature by nature and humans' integration to the destruction. A sense of waste is defining the space. *ENTROPY*

2. He values the ordinaries: "we went to Bond's Ice Cream Bar and had some Awful-Awfuls..." He also values nature, and human architecture molded with nature such as railroad. He considers earth science things- mud, decomposition of waste(p.9), Jersey Swamps (p.9), minerals. Orders and patterns, organizations of the nature, visualizing the naturally laid objects as art.

3. The listing helps the readers to get the sense of the place. On page 8, Smithson lists '"middle-income" housing developments"and it adds to the reality of the space he is describing and how different the place is as opposed to the city where you do not observe that many estates. From the names like Babbling Brook Ranch and Colonial Vista Homes, we get the idea that the place is a small developing suburban area. The different color names adds to the familiarity and a homely feeling to the houses. A sense of conformity with multiple reproduced new houses, pointing out the things that are not in order to accentuate, or take out the less ordinary from the ordinary. We get the density of the objects as Smithson lists things.  

4. There's a few geologic descriptions. Smithson lists the names of the rock in their geology names on page 8, and the metaphor of Great Notch Quarry to Moon.(p.9) There are detailed description of decomposition, "spilled sediment, crushed conglomerates..." etc(p.9)
5. To make the comparison between New York and New Jersey. more room for intervention, more engaging with land

Robert Smithson's Definition of Monuments

  Monument could be any building or sculpture that can define the area. They could be a tool to remember the notable past or a person, or according to Smithson, it could be a structure that shows progress of a major activity that grounded the place. Smithson includes pipelines and residue of a construction place as monuments. A "pumping derrick with a long pipe attached to it"(p.71) was one monument he found, and this one was continuously flowing water and debris inside it. Smithson compared this as human's sexual activity. He visualizes these things to humans or animistic activities and find the relevance between the landscape and the dwellers. So pipelines are the reflection of a human activity, the thing to remind humans that the land is the same living thing as humans.
  Smithson noted, "the suburbs exist without a rational past and without the "big events" of history"(p.72). Monuments don't have to serve as separate beings that only relate to human's past; they could also be links that accentuate the resemblance of landscape to humans, and commemorate the land itself as the place where the dwellers live in. Smithson said, "The future is lost somewhere in the dumps of the non-historical past; it is in... the false mirror of our rejected dreams." (p.74) The non-historical past is where we have to look to find our future, and that is the process of developing the area- where humans and nature had interactions, and worked together find each other a purpose for being in the area. In the process of defining its future, we are side-tracked and forget that our rejected dream is the "living" part. After all, monuments are constructed to define the area as a historically distinguished place from the rest. The fact that we are living in the area could define the place with historical importance. So monuments such as the pipelines could be used to celebrate cultivating the land and living in it.

Pipes: Inorganic objects mimicking organic beings and occupying their space. -> entropy- movement for chaos

1.  On page 72 Smithson states, "Passaic seems full of "holes" compared to New York City, which seems tightly packed and solid, and those holes... are the monumental vacancies that define... the memory-traces of an abandoned set of futures." How could monuments could successfully define "the abandoned set of futures"? If there was a "hole" in Brooklyn, which aspect of the city would we look at to construct a monument for the Brooklyn hole?

2. What are some similar ways Smithson and Gibson view of undeveloped land?

An Idea for Mapping Neuromancer

   The map displays an overlap of geo and ageo places into one single layer. It shows the characters and the crowd they are with, and the technologies that were included in. It would look like a subway map with different color coded lanes. On the geographic map of different cities would be shown very close to each other since the physical distance does not matter much for the characters, and the cities would be connected with the lanes. The lanes include technology and real physical transportations. Technology includes the electrodes (the gateway to matrix), rider skill, hologram, artificial vision, and ROM or memory construct of another person. Physical transportation includes walking/running, getting on the plane, and alternative of technology-drug. We could have intersecting and alternative routes when the characters switch their mode of technology or switch from cyberspace to geo space. So for instance, the map can show Case getting off of blue lane that represents matrix after his mission is finished, and switching the lane to yellow lane that represents him walking, then taking another route when he is on drug. For scenes where more than two technology are involved, like when Case rides on Molly on cyberspace or Molly using her night vision while walking, two lanes will fuse into one.  The length of the lane would be in accordance with the time specified in the book or the amount of pages between it. Each stop would have the chapter and page number to show the composite view of our map. It could also be seen as a time graph incorporated with a map. In this way, we know where to find certain scenes and get a glimpse of the story of the book in wholesome just by looking at the map. 

Neuromancer and "The Agency of Mapping"

The Agency of Mapping

  The essay is about different ways to map through layering and composing, and how people uses map. It first explains how mapping is the excavation of the things that are not shown in real world. Instead of just a rendering of the physical outline, the map can focus on a main theme and show us the one functional purpose of the place. For example, it could be a political propaganda through the hierarchical scale of continents. “This remarkable image reminds us of the ways in which habitual conventions condition spatial hierarchies and power relations.” p. 218 Economic and history could be other themes that play as the theme. 

Mapping’s purpose is to show the invisibles and the hiddens where complicated are made simple and extended.  We can have a social hierarchical scaled map for Neuromancer according to its importance. “Thus, mappings do not represent geographies or ideas; rather they effect their actualization.”

-Thickening of our experience of space

P. 223, 227

Connection between Geographical and Ageographical Space through Case’s Navigation Final

Both geographic and ageographic spaces in Neuromancer operate as a ground for Case’s self-excavation. Case desperately seeks a place where he is included but both high-tech and authority centered society in their spaces are too inconsistent and hazardous to accept Casewho lacks both technology and power. In search for acceptance and in denial of the reality, Case wanders between the two spheres,and resolves his inner conflicts through his constant transition between the two worlds. He realizes he belongs to neither the one world nor the other, but in both spheres, and learns to exist in the two spaces as one.

Geographic space is a burden and an imprisonment for Case, where he has to face his reality. In the physical space, he is at the bottom of economic and social hierarchy, and his lack of artificial techno-implants differentiates him from the society. All the worse, his nerve system is slowly numbing from toxin sacs in his pancreas. As a lowlife, Case blames the cause to the pressuring demands from higher and powerful beings. He describes the Night City as “a deranged experiment in social Darwinism.”(Chapter 1) He is aware of the fast growing, wealthy and powerful groups such as zaibatsus, and is constantly under the fear and stress to survive in this high class-centered society. “Stop hustling and you sank without a trace, but move a little too swiftly and you’d break the fragile surface tension of the black market; either way, you were gone…” What makes the hierarchy apparent is how people treat one another. There is no emotional exchange, affection or tender feeling between humans. The main characters are defined by what they do than what they think. Case is attached to Linda and Molly, but his relationship with these girls is only physical, instinctual activity; it does not go any deeper into affectionate, thought exchanging level of relationship. Molly says “Anybody any good at what they do, that’s what they are, right?”(Chapter 3) A person’s worth and value is only determined by what they can do with their body, and we can observe that Case regards his value very poor, as he describes his body, meat, or “the prison of his own flesh”. (Chapter 1) He viscerally knows his limits. In attempt to escape the society where he does not belong, he uses drug and illegal hacking skills to survive, which puts him into an unstable and hazardous circumstances.

Perhaps that is why Case is so attached to ageographic space of Sprawl, or matrix, a virtual cyber space where body is no longer involved. He views matrix as the place where he really expresses his freewill without anyone’s command. He performs his unique skill as a cowboy and when he gets into it, he forgets about the cruel reality and the apathetic humans. He achieves his freedom and finds his comfort in it. He would rather refuse the reality and be at his full self, where his meat no longer restricts him.

However, in actuality, the cyber space serves not as a hiding shelter from reality, but as a guide for Case to solve his problems in reality. First, whether it was with his own will or not, Case works in matrix under Armitage to remove the toxin sacs from his body. Armitage’s offer leads Case to the solution to treat his body, and this is when he accepts the reality and tries to find the solve it rather than escaping it. Later when Riviera kidnaps Molly, Case enters Molly’s body through simstim and rescues her in real time and space. In one of his simstim experience, he also learns about Molly’s past, about her past boyfriend, Johnny. “I was real happy. You ever been happy, Case? He was my boy…He killed that way…Never much found anybody I gave a damn about, after that.” and they commune and sympathize while in cyberspace. This is an odd feeling Case is encountering. Through this experience, Case is exposed to the true human feelings, such as sympathy, and the pain, and values such as honesty and loyalty for one. His discovers Molly’s actions are with purpose, and Case sees Molly as a human after all. Later, when Case meets Linda Lee’s construct in cyberspace, he can understand Linda because he had the understanding of Molly’s pain, and instead of responding with violence and anger, he caresses her guilt and consoles her soul. At last, Case is able to find the humane side in himself.  Earlier when Wintermute questioned Case of his love for Linda, Case could not find his answer and struggled to find the answer for himself. “Love. So you'd give a shit. Love? ...You couldn’t handle it” (Ch11, p.84) However, later when he meets Linda’s construct in cyberspace, he realizes that he truly loves her. He shows his affection by taking off his jacket and giving it to her (p.144) Although Linda does not exist with a physical body, and she won’t feel the cold breeze, the object matter does not matter to Case, because the relationship between the two has evolved to the spiritual connection. A sense of humanity that Case searched for in geographic space is finally found and applied in the cyberspace. Once he found that he could trust his own will in both geographic and ageographic space, he leaves Linda, the cyberspace, and leads 3Jane, Maelcum and Molly to complete the bonding of the two AI’s in the geographic world.

After finishing Wintermute’s mission, Case learns to live his life independently and responsively. First, his body adapts to the real world; without Wintermute’s help, the toxin sacs were removed by Case’s enzymes that have adapted to the toxicity. Case ends his drug addiction as well. When Molly leaves him, he does not search for her, and move on with his life with a different girlfriend. At the end, while packing his things to move back to Chiba, he finds the shuriken he bought before working for Armitage. He picks it up and throws it: “No… I don’t need you.”(Ch.24) Shuriken was a symbol of Case’s fear, uncertainty of the journey that he has chosen, and a self-protective tool that he found it necessary and lacking. However, because he does not feel vulnerable of living his life, he can let it go.

What happens in geographic space, Case finds out from ageographic space, and what he learns from ageographic space, he applies back to the geographic space.  Case incorporates the two spaces as the supplements of each other and brings both worlds together to one reality. At the end, the matrix is the place where Case finds his humane nature and confidence of living. The geographic place becomes the place for appliance. It is not the matter of belonging to one place or the other, but becoming comfortable of being himself. The two spaces provide the practicing field for Case’s self exploration, and he successfully applies both spaces together for his self actualization.

Citations:

1. Gibson, William (1994). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books.

Connection between Geographical and Ageographical Space through Case’s Navigation

         Both geographic and ageogrphic spaces in Neuromancer operate as a ground for Case’s self-excavation. In the beginning, the two spaces exist as two completely separate universes. Case desperately seeks for a place where he could be included but both spaces are too inconsistent and hazardous to fully include Case in their world. In search for acceptance and in denial of the reality, Case wanders between the two spheres. However, through his constant transition between the two worlds, Case resolves his conflict. He realizes he belongs to neither the one world nor the other, but in both spheres, and learns to exist in two spaces as one.

Geographic space is a burden and an imprisonment for Case, where he has to face his reality. In the physical space, he is at the bottom of economic and social hierarchy, and his lack of artificial techno-implants differentiates him from the society. All the worse, his nerve system is slowly numbing from toxin sacs in his pancreas. As a lowlife, Case blames the cause to be the pressuring demands the higher and powerful beings puts upon him. He describes the Night City as “a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button.” He believes the only way to survive is the keen awareness of the fast growing, outstanding groups. “Stop hustling and you sank without a trace, but move a little too swiftly and you’d break the fragile surface tension of the black market; either way, you were gone, with nothing left of you but some vague memory in the mind…” He admires beings that are not restricted by physical limitations, such as zaibatsus, who are abundant in wealth and power, and thus immortal. (P.203) Case is just an insignificant piece of “meat” in real life.

Perhaps that is why Case is so attached to ageographic space of Sprawl, or matrix, a virtual cyber space where body is no longer involved. Matrix is where Case really expresses his freewill and performs his unique skill as a cowboy. In it, he achieves his dream and finds his comfort. He would rather refuse the reality and be at his full self, where his “meat” no longer restricts him.

However, in actuality, the cyber space serves not as a hiding shelter from reality but as a guide for Case to solve his problems in reality: Case works in matrix under Armitage to remove the toxin sacs from his body, goes into Molly’s mind and body to locate and rescue her from Riviera, and he meets Linda Lee’s consciousness and understand and caress her guilty consciousness. Case’s inner conflicts such as low self-ego, helplessness, and misunderstandings of his lost love are resolved. Also, Case finds the humane side in himself.  Wintermute questions Case of his love for Linda in the chapter 11. “Love. So you'd give a shit. Love?...You couldn’t handle it”(p.84) Case struggled over Linda’s death but he does not show it until later when he encounters Linda’s consciousness: ““Well, fuck you, whatever you’re called… So why’d you do it to me this way?” he was shaking again, his voice shrill.”  Later when he leaves Linda, he takes off his jacket and gives it to her. “Maybe you're here. Anyway, it gets cold."” (p.144) Although Linda does not exist with a physical body, and she won’t feel the cold breeze, the object matter does not matter to Case. The scenes where Case meets Dixie in a ROM mode and hears about Molly’s past while riding her also show Case understanding the individuals as true humane beings. A sense of humanism that Case searched for in geographic space is revealed through the cyberspace.

What happens in geographic space, Case finds out from ageographic space, and what he learns from ageographic space, he applies back to the geographic space. Once he found that he could trust his own will in both geographic and ageographic space, he leaves Linda, the cyberspace, and leads 3Jane, Maelcum and Molly to complete the bonding of the two AI’s in the real world.

 Case incorporates the two spaces as the supplements of each other and brings together both worlds to one reality. The matrix is the place where Case faces the reality and self-actualizes himself. The geographic place becomes the place for appliance. The two spheres eventually become the factors for Case to excavate his true self.

Citations:

1. Gibson, William (1994). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books.

2. Olsen, Lance. Neuromancer. 1992. Web. <http://www.lanceolsen.com/neuromancer.html>.