ABSTRACT
Humanity has been blindly converted into automatons by the virus of techno global capitalism. Waiting idle, we watch on, as globalisation dehumanises us to the point where we will become impotent in a singular global dystopia - a monotonous world of clone towns, and clone individuals. Here I propose an agency capable of establishing a multiplicity of alternatives to modern life, an agency encouraging diversity – an agency, that provokes mayhem. In embracing mayhem, with play as a method, we can accept the possibility of failure and emerge from the crippling security global capitalism affords us. Combining mayhem and play leads towards the idea of ludic realms, where our individual desires and autonomy of sight can emancipate us from the spatial rules capitalism has created, enabling a diverse multiplicity of alternatives to modern life. This text considers mayhem as a method for our individual emancipation.
‘Freedom to create and construct, to wonder and to venture. Such freedom requires that the individual be active and responsible, not a slave or a well-fed cog in the machine. … It is not enough that men are not slaves; if social conditions further the existence of automatons, the result will not be love of life, but love of death.’
[Freine, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. pp.69]
‘There is no encoding of the possible, but the architectural ‘real’ – constructed, and appropriated, space – cannot be known without a reservoir of possibles.’
[Lefebvre, H. Stanek, L. (2014). Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp.151]
‘I salute the present generation. Hang on to one of your most precious parts of youth, laughter – don’t lose it as many of you seem to have done, you need it. Together we may find some of what we’re looking for – laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create.’
[Alinsky, S. (1989). Rules for Radicals. New York: Vintage Books. pp.Prolouge xxvi]
INTRODUCTION
‘I knew what I wanted: To go and live in some wild place. But I didn’t know how to do so… I did not know even one person who would have understood why I wanted to do such a thing. So, deep in my heart, I felt convinced that I would never be able to escape from civilization. Because I found modern life absolutely unacceptable, I grew increasingly hopeless until, at the age of 24, I arrived at a kind of crisis: I felt so miserable that I didn’t care whether I lived or died. But when I reached that point a sudden change took place: I realized that if I didn’t care whether I lived or died, then I didn’t need to fear the consequences of anything I might do. Therefore, I could do anything I wanted. I was free!’
Paul Kingsnorth presents the nihilist arguments of Theodore Kaczynski [above], better known as the Unabomber, in his article, Dark Ecology. Techno global capitalism thwarted Kaczynski’s nomadic escape from the western world. After twenty-five years of living a self-sufficient life in his ‘wild place,’ globalisation and the profit driven modern world transformed Kaczynski’s private utopia into a place of leisure for capitalist automatons. In response, he resorted to acts of terrorism, sending parcel bombs for two decades to those he deemed responsible for his failure to escape modern life. Kaczynski’s arguments led to his troubling actions, yet the validity of his presented arguments prove just as troubling. Such radical thought and a desire to live a life outside of the capitalist system isn’t unique. Kaczynski’s arguments aren’t unique. This is what is troubling. It is my personal appreciation of Kaczynski’s arguments that have given rise to my writing. Modern life is unacceptable and there is no escape.
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Having the option of escaping modern life has recently been brought to my attention by Patrik Schumacher’s contentious keynote speech at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin. In his speech, Schumacher, director of Zaha Hadid Architects, delivers his manifesto for solving London’s housing crisis. In his eight-point plan, he negates the need for social housing looking at every opportunity to increase the profits and capabilities of developers – one of capitalisms greatest agents. Starchitects, famed idols of the architectural world, such as Schumacher, act as capitalist agents, with the mass media presenting these people as role models of which architects should aspire to become. This is where the speech of Schumacher is most worrying; capitalism is now tightening its stranglehold on the profession. There needs to be a way to escape.
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The need to escape arises following the realisation, that as individuals, we have lost our humanity. My own realisation of my lost humanity stems from the notion of clone towns in England. Each city I visit confronts me with the same Starbucks, the same McDonalds, the same stores all with the same products and same interiors. Each city offers the same monotonous possibilities. The architecture of each city obeys the spatial rules dictated by capitalism. No city offers a unique escape. A recent worrying twist is presented in McDonalds new found ambition to deceive. McDonalds are now beginning to create pop up cafes under new-fangled names posing as local independent cafes. Yes, arguably these cafes can be deemed as new options to the given, yet these deceptive pop ups aid the profit driven economy by exploiting ‘hipsterism,’ one of few independent escapes, taking it into capitalisms control. Global capitalism is evolving, learning new tricks, mutating to control humanity’s scarce individuality, leaving us blinded to its increasing domination.
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This thesis will question the extent to which mayhem – with play as a method – can achieve our emancipation as individuals through the provision of a multiplicity of countercultures in opposition to the current domination of techno global capitalism. Mayhem here is defined as extreme disorder and frenzy towards a destructive aim. The destructive aim here brings to the fore the capacity for failure in architecture. At present, the majority of mankind seemingly has no desire for radicalism preferring the crippling safety offered by global capitalism. This essay will illuminate failure as having the potential to oppose capitalism.
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Through a thematic analysis of radical and utopian literature, this overarching question will be situated in contemporary and historical contexts. The element of desire will be considered in relation to establishing an agency capable of provoking mayhem while the capacity of play as a method will be evaluated to reveal its potential offerings in architecture.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Within the wider debate of radical and utopian literature this review forms a personal stance by thematically assessing both contemporary and past literature. Complexity of verse, multiplicity, abstract and concrete utopias, and negativity provide the themes to be considered when assessing the proposal for mayhem as a method for our individual emancipation.
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Utopian literature’s increasingly complex rhetoric has become inaccessible to mankind limiting its ability to contribute to our individual emancipation. The book, Can Architecture be an Emancipatory Project? puts forward an amalgamation of contemporary arguments from its numerous collaborators. The text notes that it was the liberal intellectuals calls for the ‘end of critically’ that sacrificed architecture to the neo-liberal order. Yet, despite this, in his afterword, Ockman, states that the nature of the discourse around utopia is the problem, that academics are held earnestly in a ‘round-robin’ of debate. Here, in agreement with Ockman, is where I find a severe limitation in the literature. Though the utopian debate is overwhelmingly engaging, it serves to entertain the theorists who uphold it. The literature, due to its complexity of prose and idiomatic terminology, has become inaccessible to mankind as a whole. Freine, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, offers a pertinent quote on the accessibility of information. ‘‘Why don’t you,’ said a peasant participating in a culture circle, ‘explain the pictures first? That way it’ll take less time and won’t give us a headache.’’ My proposal for individual emancipation acknowledges that emancipation is to come from within mankind; the nature of discourse on radicalism and utopia needs to be accessible to those who it aims to radicalise in the pursuit of our emancipation as individuals.
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Moreover, Utopian literature hints at the need for a multiplicity of coexisting utopias without ever fully acknowledging this demand. In achieving our individual emancipation my tactic of mayhem calls for a multiplicity of alternatives to the given. Through establishing a diverse range of concurrent countercultures mankind is presented with the individual choices vital in fulfilling their emancipation and re-establishing their individual humanity. The call for a multiplicity of utopias is often alluded to in this literature and, while never seemingly being opposed, it is never wholly acknowledged. The French Marxist philosopher Lefebvre, in both The Production of Space and Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, refers to his idea of ‘moments’ while demanding ‘right to the difference.’ In talking of the nature of moments, as multiples, that cannot be replicated by capitalism, Lefebvre confirms the argument towards multiple concurrent utopias. Further confirmation is provided by Rykwert, in his final paragraph of, The Seduction of Place, he concludes, ‘make little plans, say I – and lots of them.’ American Marxist theorist, Jameson, in Seeds of Time, talks of his enthusiasm for ‘illimitable pluralism’’ while talking of the importance of ‘ideological variety’ again alluding to the aim of multiple utopias. Evidently there is call for a multiplicity of concurrent utopias; this text looks to fully explore this call and bring to the fore the idea of multiplicity.
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Furthermore, debate on ‘abstract’ and ‘concrete’ utopias illuminates the need to address the current climate of economic and social conditions when opposing the domination of techno global capitalism. Debate on the nature of concrete and abstract utopias was first put forward by Bloch, with Lefebvre, in Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, reaffirming the importance of the debate. Lefebvre states that this opposition enables theorists the ability to distinguish between ‘utopists and utopians’ yet ‘the analytical difficulty arises from the fact that the abstract excels at assuming and giving the appearance of the concrete.’ The debate on concrete and abstract utopias puts forward the need for utopias and utopists to account for the current climate of social and economic factors amongst others. My own critical thinking on utopia has often wandered between the concrete realised projects and the abstract utopias of visionary architectures. The abstract, offers the escapist attraction akin to that of play; it’s in its escapist nature that the abstract excels and can create unthinkable alternatives such as the paper architectures of Archigram and Lebbeus Woods amongst others. The aim for the tactic of mayhem is to take the escapist attraction of the abstract into the concrete proving that architecture can oppose the spatial constraints of capitalism and developers.
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For the most part, the destructive aim of mayhem can turn negativity into positivity when opposing the domination of techno global capitalism. Alinsky, coming from a background of community engagement, informs this view in his book Rules for Radicals. In his eleventh rule for radicals Alinsky asserts that, ‘if you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.’ The rules of Alinsky prove an invaluable resource in this radical proposal with his sixth rule also stating that ‘a good tactic is one that your people enjoy,’ a rule that has helped to combine the negativity of mayhem with the positivity and enjoyment of play. Despite Alinsky’s endorsement of negativity the neo-Marxist Tafuri, in Architecture and Utopia provides a warning against naivety. Tafuri states:
‘‘Negative thought’ had enunciated its own project for survival in its refutation of the Hegelian dialectic and a recovery of the contradictions this had eliminated. ‘Positive thought’ does nothing but overturn that negativeness on itself. The negative is revealed as such, even in it’s ‘ineluctability.’’
Here Tafuri, while acting as a provocateur, warns that such contradictions in the same structure equal a sum of pluralities; in proposing one small break from the capitalist system we are in turn strengthening the system. I do agree with Tafuri’s view especially when considering, as previously mentioned, how Capitalism, in the form of McDonalds is now using ‘hipsterism,’ a contradiction in the system, to its strength. However, while embracing the warning of Tafuri this work seeks to follow Alinsky in seeking the ‘counterside’ of capitalism when using mayhem as a tactic.
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As an example, Bitnation, an emerging crypto-libertarian counterculture, opposes global capitalism through the platforms encouragement of individual emancipation. Operating both virtually and, to an extent, physically Bitnation is a ‘blockchain-powered government service platform’ that provides an opt-in virtual nation. With nearly 4,000 citizens across the globe there is growing interest in the platform again reaffirming my initial stance that there is a call for countercultures to modern life. Bitnation views people in the third world as its target market addressing the inadequacies in current nation-state jurisdictions. The platform, still with limited services in its infancy, has the aim of creating optional borderless virtual nations. It proposes that humans will no longer be geographical prisoners and will have a multiplicity of choice in life under DIY governance. Bitnation not only provides an example of a viable counter culture but an example of a platform for the multiplicity of countercultures this essay puts forward. What Bitnation offers this text is the realistic view of what a modern viable counterculture will most probably be. This text opposes techno global capitalism, the word techno is used in opposition to the technological era where the knowledge economy has strengthened globalisation. Yet Bitnation shows that the technological era is also where new countercultures are likely to come from in the form of virtual platforms.
DESIRE
‘Le Corbusier for instance, experienced ‘periods of exaggerated confidence when he sensed he must have some Olympian destiny.’’ [Sideris].
‘What Marx called ‘the real movement’ that will abolish ‘the existing state of things' is always there for the taking. That is what gaining the courage of our minds is all about.’ [Harvey].
Establishing an agency of mayhem requires an understanding of the desires that drive: the individual, collective individuals and the ‘architect’ to such levels of insurgency in the pursuit of their individual emancipation. Through consideration of the desires of mankind we can begin to draw conclusions on the potential for failure in architecture.
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The individual plays host to the virus of techno global capitalism; utopian thought is as much about changing the world as it is about changing the individual when looking for emancipation. Negarestani, in his book Cyclonopedia, illuminates capitalisms nature as a temporal virus:
‘In the wake of oil as an autonomous terrestrial conspirator, capitalism is not a human symptom but rather a planetary inevitability. In other words, Capitalism was here even before human existence, waiting for a host.’
This quote has led to the understanding of capitalism as a virus of which mankind hosts. This understanding makes the desire of individuals pertinent to establishing an emancipatory agency. Freine, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, elaborates on the nature of mankind as hosts of capitalism saying that the oppressed need to discover that the oppressor, in this case capitalism, lies within themselves to contribute to an agency of emancipation. Freine goes on to state that through the individuals ‘adhesion’ to the oppressor they cannot ‘consider him sufficiently clearly to objectivize him – to discover him outside themselves.’ Additionally, in relation to the individual, Harvey, in his chapter The Insurgent Architect, notes that, ‘the personal is deeply political,’ noting that utopian thought is as much about changing the world as it is about changing the individual.
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Equally the individuality of the collective must be upheld despite acknowledging that collectivisation of the desire for change is necessary. Harvey and Freine refer to the collective as a mass. In the collective terminology used, the individuality of the collective, key to mayhem as a tactic, is lost. Harvey advocates the long revolution stating that, ‘the perspective of a long revolution is necessary. But to construct that revolution some sort of collectivisation of the impulse and desire for change is necessary. No one can go it very far alone.’ The power of the oppressed lies in their numbers but also, the idea of a multiplicity of utopias, lies within their diversity. Yes, humankind needs to re-establish their individuality, but when that is achieved collectivisation of the desire for change is needed at which point it is imperative that mankind comes together as individuals and that individuality is not lost through collectivisation.
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Generally, architects have become paid agents of capitalism; architects must remember that they are civilians, re-establishing their individual humanity before contributing to an emancipatory pedagogy. Architects, according to Marx and Engels, have ‘lost their halos,’ and ‘become another paid agent of bourgeois power.’ Architects have forgotten that they too are workers; they are situated within the oppressed. Harvey envisions a metaphorical ‘architect’ that is more citizen than trained architect. In line with the community based activism of Daniel Dolci, architects need to remember that they too are workers; that they are citizens, rather than the privileged paid agents of capitalism they have become. Harvey states that architects should be persuaded to such ‘moments of universality’ and that one by one, these architects in turn can act as agents of change. The architect Peggy Dreamer, when talking on emancipation in her contemporary chapter, Architects, Really? places her ‘bet for the future on the students.’ It is my belief that the current generation of architectural graduates belong to that of the techno global generation; being brought up fully immersed in the technological era poses the question of whether, as a generation, we are more ignorant than ever to our dehumanisation? Or, whether the knowledge economy, has best equipped us, as soon to be architects, to realise our lost humanity?
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Consequently, we are often too afraid of failure to escape the crippling security offered by global capitalism in our pursuit of individual emancipation. Analysis of the desires of the individual, collective individuals and the architect leads to the view that in the western world, we live in crippling safety. Our geographical location poses no immediate major environmental concerns; our government provides for us in the worst-case situations, enabling survival. The struggle of mankind has been eradicated and under techno global capitalism mankind’s animalistic drive for survival have been removed leading to our dehumanisation. Having achieved this security, we now, understandably, prefer conformity to the pursuit for freedom. Alinsky, in Rules for Radicals, confirms this opinion stating, ‘we are not here concerned with people who profess the democratic faith but yearn for the dark security of dependency where they can be spared the burden of decisions.’ In acting it’s impossible to avoid unintended consequences, yet in inaction we will remain impotent in our current crippling security.
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Mayhem, as a tactic for our individual emancipation, can counteract this crippling security through the provision of a multiplicity of countercultures each with unique failures making capitalism work harder to maintain its domination. Dreamer in her chapter, Architects Really? puts forward an enlightening tactic for destabilising capitalism. She states:
‘The multiplicity of forms that capitalism has been forced to assume because of technology and the vagaries it has brought to both production and consumption indicates not only capitalism’s flexibility but its desperation. No, the revolution may not come, but we can make it [capitalism] dance harder, faster and in greater panic.’
In seeking to invoke mayhem through a multiplicity of alternatives we can cause the virus of techno global capitalism to panic and work harder. Mayhem is defined as extreme disorder and frenzy towards a destructive aim. In applying this destructive tactic of mayhem to provide a multiplicity of options in life, there will inevitably be failures. But it is in these failures that we can, in accordance with Dreamer’s quote, make capitalism panic and work harder. Failure can be an essential catalyst in the innovation process.
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In summary, the absence of opposition to our current lack of freedom is as worrying as the lack of freedom itself. Until we find the desire to act we will remain in our current state as automatons. Mayhem, in its destructive nature, has the capacity to create situations, moments, where we are removed from our security. It is in the removal of security where we will re-establish our humanity. As one by one we establish our humanity we can make capitalism panic and work harder. Embracing mayhem requires us to accept that there may well be failures. It is in these failures that lies the hope for emancipation. Here the call for a multiplicity of countercultures acknowledges this failure. Historically countercultures fail. It is this multiplicity of failures that provides a catalyst for development helping us to reach our individual emancipation.
PLAY
‘Civilisation is in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a babe detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.’ [Huizinga]
‘Inside the circle of the game the laws and customs of ordinary life no longer count. We are different and do things differently.’ [Huizinga]
In line with the way in which abstract utopias, as previously mentioned, can offer escape and enjoyment, play as a method can too offer the same results without the burden of being restricted to the abstract. Play as a method has the scope to elevate architecture into the ethereal realms; realms that seem too beautiful and graceful to be of this world. To substantiate this claim I will consider the characteristics of play put forward by Huizinga, in Homo Ludens, while the games based analysis of play provided by Caillois in Man, Play, and Games will look to reinforce Huizinga’s characteristics while also stressing some of its flaws. Huizinga defines play as:
‘…a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means.’
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Mayhem, specifically with play as a method, can elevate architecture into ethereal realms when achieving our individual emancipation. On the role of play in the arts, Huizinga categorises the arts as either the ‘plastic arts’ or the ’music arts’ with architecture coming under the plastic. Contrast between music and plastic arts is that the plastic is restricted by material constraints whereas music arts are boundless, capable of absolute free play. Through free play music arts can reach ethereal spaces. It is in being bound to matter and the limitations of form that forbids architecture from absolute free play. Here lies the capacity for play as a method; through play we can take architecture into the realm of the music arts achieving architectures flight into the ethereal spaces.
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In addition, play communities can create an output alien to those who have not participated in the game. Huizinga’s characteristics of play state that play, both geographically and temporally, lies outside of ordinary life. Here, the use of Callois’ play forms, Micicry and Ilinx, shows the potential for creating an architecture capable of ‘momentarily destroy[ing] the stability of perception.’ Play creates disguise, surrounding the players with secrecy in a temporal act of difference to the common world. In using play as a method in architecture, a singular ludic counter culture, outside of ordinary life, can be achieved; yet in this essay I am looking at play to create a dynamic multiplicity of counter cultures. In adding the repetition, necessary for multiplicity, we see the emergence of ‘play communities.’
‘A play community generally tends to become permanent even after the game is over […] the feeling of being ‘apart together’ in an exceptional situation, of sharing something important, of mutually withdrawing from the rest of the world and rejecting the usual norms, retains its magic beyond the duration of the individual game. […] It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or another means.’
Through repetition of play, where the resulting architecture is ‘alien’ to those not involved, the call for a multiplicity of unique countercultures is satisfied. Yet, play as a method can go beyond achieving this aim. At this point in the text mankind is still to be defined as Homo Faber, man the maker. Play as a method affords mankind the ability to become Homo Ludens, man the player.
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When using mayhem as a tactic for our individual emancipation, through architecture’s integration of play into its programme, mankind, can become Homo Ludens. Both Huizinga, and Lefebvre in Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, comment on architectures ability to integrate play into its programme. Huizinga talks about what he calls ‘visible action.’ He states that without visible action there can be no play. When action is incorporated into architecture we can begin to draw conclusions on assemblages of play where this constant interaction can generate Homo Ludens. Lefebvre defines his architecture of enjoyment by ‘places and instants of moments:’
‘The architect will value the multifunctional and the transfunctional rather than the merely functional. He will cease to fetishize (separately) form, function, and structure as the signifieds of space. In place of the formal, or rather formalist, idea of perfection, the architect will substitute that of incomplete perfection or, preferably, that of perfect incompletion, which discovers a moment in life (expectation, presentiment, nostalgia) and provides it with an expression, while making of this moment a principle for the ‘construction of ambiance’ (the work of Constant Nieuwenhuys, for example). It is not through form but content that the architect can influence social practice.’
It is through these ‘live experiences’ and ‘moments of play’ in which man becomes Homo Ludens. The best example of this ludic world comes through Constant’s New Babylon in which man has been freed from their work to live lives of leisure, free to wander through the sectors of New Babylon fully aware of the power they have ‘to act upon the world, to transform it, to recreate it.’ It is through the visible action and these moments that man can become Homo Ludens. Play as a method can allow this, creating dynamic buildings so vastly different from the current capitalist defined ‘decorated sheds’ where the architecture is defined by profit.
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Play as a method, for example, can replace the architectural elite, the ‘Starchitects,’ with a community of ‘Play Architects’ acting above the run of mortals in establishing our individual emancipation. ‘The play-element in art has been fortified by the very fact that the artist is held above the common run of mortals. […] Esoterics requires a play-community which shall steep itself in its own mystery.’ Here Huizinga begins to draw conclusions on a ‘play-community.’ Presently above the run of mortals in architecture lies the ‘Starchitects, a group directly opposed by Lefebvre, and under increasing scrutiny following Schumacher’s recent speech. The idea of a play community points towards the removal of the capitalist agency of ‘Starchitects,’ to be replaced with a community of ‘Play Architects.’ Situated above that of mortals with the agency of creating architecture capable of reaching ethereal realms, ‘Play Architects,’ can create an architectural elite faceless to the current climate of mass media and consumerism.
CONCLUSIONS
Modern life is unacceptable and there is no escape.
From the starting point that modern life is unacceptable, this text has considered the extent to which mayhem can be used as a tactic for our individual emancipation. This has been explored through the elements of desire and play in looking to establish a multiplicity of alternatives to modern life. It has been concluded that modern life is unacceptable but there is hope for an escape which lies in the acceptance of failure.
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Current architectural graduates have been identified as having the capacity to encourage our individual emancipation by creating a radical agency within the profession of architecture when morality is brought into the forefront of architectural education. Play as a method has the potential to take architecture into the ethereal spaces. The notion of ‘Play Architects’ operating above the run of common mortals without material constraints poses interesting architectural implications. In contrast, radical and utopian literature is not an effective tool in encouraging individual emancipation in the real world. The complexity of verse in the literature has continuously evolved over the elongated duration of this round-robin debate. This complexity renders the literature inaccessible to the common man in spite of the fact that many of the theorists identify that change and revolution is to come from the oppressed. Manifesting the useful messages of the utopian and radical schools of thought through inaccessible literature will not achieve the aim of individual emancipation.
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The positive to take forward from this text is the ability of play as a method to allow us to accept the possibility of failure. Play in its escapist nature can remove the fear of failure. When failure is accepted then mayhem can flourish. In embracing the frenzy of ideas and chaos; we can begin to carve out our individual utopias from a starting point of failure. Some may attempt to refute this conclusion by citing ‘ethical concerns’ over the harm this course of mayhem could cause to societies. The minority of civilisation with all the wealth will most likely thrive while the majority of mankind must live with the potential uninhabitable conditions that result. My counter argument is that I would rather live in that world knowing we have our humanity, knowing that I am free than live in this world of no escape with no humanity.
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