Ruminitions on Dudley Square

Final thoughts.

laidig — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:00:03 +0000

This class has been a wonderful experience for me. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to look at myself as a photographer, which I haven’t done since High School. In the intervening time, my photos have been shown around largely unedited, with few exceptions like the following:

Via Bramante, Milan, Italy

I’ll leave it up to the reader how much better the following image (full frame) would look better with a crop:

Alleanza Nazionale protest, December 2005, Via Nazionale, Rome

The one fault I place on myself is not being able to devote all the time necessary to get the work done. I am a little embarrassed for this to be the one class I took for fun and allowed it to fall a little by the wayside– especially when it came to the journal entries. I spent quite a while trying to drudge up memories of calculus, statistics, and algebra, which obviously had to take precidence.

If anyone would like to see a couple galleries of work that I’ve done previously, you can take a look at the following links:

Europe 2005-2006
Part I
Part II
Part III

Cuba, 2007

Invincible Cities, looking back.

laidig — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:49:41 +0000

I was given a copy of Vergara’s American Ruins several years ago and was enthralled. The style is very much like my own, as I (obviously) enjoy modern ruins.

Since then, I have kept up on his work. I had the chance to attend the unveiling of the Invincible Cities– Richmond in 2006 . Having grown up right next to Richmond, I was interested in his take on it. Vergara came out to UC Berkeley at the invitation of the Department of Geography. The crowd of less than 100 was varied, from academics to activists to regular Richmond residents.

The morning began with introductions, a first presentation of the Richmond photos in question, and launched into the Q-and-A period. Both the academics and the activists began to hound Vergara about not “doing more” to help these areas. His response was quick, “I am only one man, and I am growing old.” The response did not surprise me, but the hostility did. The same hostility I’ve seen Liberal Arts PhD students (who haven’t finished their dissertation) have for certain authors because the analysis didn’t consider “intersectionality” or some remote corner of the topic to their liking. Those with that comment, however, did not notice that it was Vergara’s work which had brought together the conference and the resulting discussion.

On the Polemics of Dudley Square

laidig — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:28:06 +0000

Creation and destruction are an ever-continuing dichotomy, present almost everywhere, of course the site I focus on during this semester, Dudley Square, is no exception. In 1895, the square was already built out:

Fire Insurance Map, 1895

As the 20th century progressed, the Washington St El was constructed (1901), replaced and subsequently torn down (1987-88). Many of the buildings in the above map also came down, either forcefully by demolition or natural processes.

Guscott Building (1922) above demolished by the City sometime between Oct/Nov 2007 and May 2008. Declared unsound after being uninhabited for 30 years.

grade change, visible in empty lots between Harrison and Washington, Dudley Sq

I assume that this grade led to runoff collection and deteriroation.

The deterioration has been countered by creation, at scales large and small.

(ugly) New construction south of Blue Store on Warren St. Why face a limestone landmark with a brick facade?

Lookin Good, before and after.

These last changes make me want to cite Marshall Berman’s critique of Modernity in All That Is Solid Melts Into Air . Berman’s argument is that the modern and new has a powerful attractive– some might say ‘sexy’– quality to it. This quality drives moves for modernity without analysis of the costs, and at all scales– from Robert Moses’ highway megaprojects crisscrossing New York City to the almost inconsequential painted sign on a discount clothing store in Dudley Square. Furthermore, Berman notes that ”everything is pregnant with its contrary,” the desire for modernity prompts a reactionary backlash. Independence National Park, with its destruction of all post-1800 buildings, is an example of this anti-modernity.

General Captions, poetics set.

laidig — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:16:57 +0000

Cliche

Your best photos in this set are amazing (see my comment on your last one) and they definitely function as a set. The lesser ones have a sprinkling of beat cliche in them. This is the worst offender. I am not impressed by a vodka bottle. It feels trite. I love how much you are going for it though.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Address, part 1

I happened upon a parking-lot revival hosted by the Holy Tabernacle Church of Dorchester (70 Washington, right on bus route 23, next to Jeremiah Burke High School, near the Burger King, the big white church with the blue roof!) The preacher was addressing the crowd. He later approached me and shook my hand and wished me a good afternoon. I was repeatedly asked by the missionaries in the crowd if I had accepted Jesus into my heart. I lied and said I had. Was I really going to tell the truth and explain my agnostic Santero Crypto-Jew upbringing? Not really.

Address, part 2

After inviting several members of the congregation to testify, the preacher returned to the mic. He began the call and response.

“The most powerful, ancient word in the English language… Hallelujah.. Can I get a Hallelujah?!?”

At this point, A man at the periphery of the crowd raised his hand over his head and shouted Hallelujah… The preacher thanked him, but the man repeated it again, over and over again, in coprolalic fashion. Two deacons descended on the man and comforted him.

Antithesis

Dudley Square sits within the shadow of the highrises of Downtown and the Back Bay. The reflection of the Prudential tower within the John Hancock Tower evokes the distinction between have and have-nots. I wonder to what extent financial red-lining has had a role in the downturn of the neighborhood. Travelling west down Washington St from the South End, there are definitely signs of capital investment all around. Once you cross Mass Ave into Roxbury, the picture is much different. Few buildings are fully occupied, most only have activity on the ground floor and boarded up windows above.
Echoism, parallelism, metonomy

I return again to the facade of the Blue Store, rich in detail and metaphor.

Allusion, aposiopesis

The rear of the Blue Store alludes to the presence of things long since torn down. At one point, the store connected to an annex on its western edge. The Washington St Elevated tracks were right up against the north end of the building. The tracks, removed two decades ago after the completion of the Orange Line, are only now visible by the lower portion of unpainted brick.

Synecdoche and Metonomy in the Blue Store

laidig — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:00:42 +0000

I find Ferdinand’s Furniture– the “Blue Store– ” in its current state of renovation-in-progress to be both an example of both synecdoche– signifying the whole of Dudley Square– while the blue panels covering the windows signifying a metonomy– standing in for the store itself, as it once was the largest and oldest furniture store in New England and a living landmark.

Citation. Side of building facing no-longer-extant Washington St Elevated tracks.

I have not found when the store failed, and do not know what were the processes that lead to its downfall. I also have no idea of the reaction to the store failure, but I can hypothesize that it was a dark day for Dudley Square. The city, supposedly on the task of refurbishing the store, understands the significance that it plays within the community. If the photos on Google Streetview (taken late-afternoon, possibly early-evening) are any indication, the square today is far more lively than it was last year, before ground was broken on the Blue Store renovations. The apparent investment has brought the neighborhood somewhat back to life. In essence, the store is a synecdochal barometer for the neighborhood.

Conversely, the building stands in for the store that once was– a metonomical landmark. Given its size, Ferdinands was most likely the “anchor” store for the area. Most of the commerce in the area (by dollar amount) was probably driven by the sales of furniture from the store.

Grammar

laidig — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:05:41 +0000

While Spirn reminds us to not follow too closely the relations between linguistic grammar and the grammar of landscape, I endeavor to push the bounds. Chomsky, in his seminal work in the 1950s, theorized that human language is composed of three parts: subject, verb and object. These are all innate elements of the human mind, which are ordered in a “generative grammar,” on which almost all languages are based. It is the reason why language can be learned by children without much critical thinking, whereas other, more abstract concepts are difficult to grasp.

While one might argue that there does not exist the facility to learn a landscape like that of learning a language, I disagree. As I remarked earlier, Children learn spoken language easily. The same can be said for that of a landscape; through play and exploration, children are intensively involved in learning their local landscape. While it cannot be said that this is a complete understanding of the elements that make up a language, one cannot say that a 6 year old consciously understands the difference between subject and object.

So then, I wonder, what analogous elements would comprise the generative grammar of a landscape? This can be looked at from several different angles.

As elements (earth, water, air and their subclassifications– clay/loam/sand, fresh/salt water, etc) and the transitions between them.
As the results of processes– biologic, geologic, and man-made, again with a great number of subclasses for each.

Further defining the taxonomies of the above categories would probably require a major study, culminating in a hefty text.