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Recycling Junkspace: finding space for ‘Playtime’ in the city

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602360500114874

1466-4410

Hilary Powell,

Urban Design and Spatial Analysis

Abstract This paper looks at Jacques Tati's 1967 film 'Playtime' and its constructed city set on the periphery of Paris as an example of the negotiation of urban space and its prescribed 'instructions for use'. It explores this city of façades and choreographed subversions in relation to Rem Koolhaas's 'Junkspace'. Linked through their interaction with and comment on the changing Parisian landscape of the 1960s the paper then goes on to look at the development of the Centre Pompidou, and the American artist, Gordon Matta-Clark's intervention on the site of its construction. Tati's film 'Playtime' was originally entitled 'Re-creation' and the notion of recreation permeates the case studies used, this paper and further research—finding and creating alternative spaces of play, a world apart from the allocated 'Leisure spaces' and 'recreational facilities' of an expanding Junkspace. Notes 1. Ivan Chtcheglovb, New Urbanism (Situationist International: in the situationist library at www.nothingness.org. http://library.nothingness.org/articles/S1/en/display/1 2. The working title for 'Playtime' was 'Re-creation', and has provided a model for this article. Recreation—The act of recreating, or the state of being recreated; refreshment of the strength and spirits after toil; amusement; diversion; sport; pastime. n. A forming anew; a new creation or formation. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (© 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.). 3. This is the title of a film made in Paris (1959) by the Situationist Guy Debord—a film he describes as capturing a few glimpses of an ephemeral micro-society. This film is documentary, actually opposed to the style of staged theatricality utilised by Tati which ironically seems to achieve more of the situationist aims of exposing the dictates of urban space and society. 4. Augé M., trans. by Howe J., Non-places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity (London, New York: Verso, 1995), p. 77. 5. An international business traveller to Tom Hanks shaving in the airport lavatories in Steven Spielberg's 'The Terminal', 2004. In Spielberg's film, Tom Hanks plays an accidental unauthorised visitor to the USA stranded at John F Kennedy Airport. A loop hole in the law allows him to exist in the in-between territory—the international transit lounge. Through the film he finds it is possible to live out the American dream without ever stepping on American soil. 6. Koolhaas R., 2002, 'Junkspace', in Chung J., Inaba J., et al., eds., Harvard School of Design guide to shopping (Koln: Taschen, 2002). 7. Jacques Tati, 'Playtime', 1967. 8. De Certeau, trans Rendell S., Practice of Everyday Life (University of California Press, 2002). 9. This critical conception of space re-affirms a notion of social lived space (habitus) and an understanding of space in terms of texture not text as outlined by Henri Lefebvre making a key distinction between conceived space (constructed, political, bureaucratic), perceived space and the lived space of everyday experience. 10. Wigley M., Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper Architecture of Desire (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1998). 11. The 'controller' in—Weir P., The Truman Show (Paramount Studios, 1998). 12. Chtcheglovb I., New Urbanism, op. cit. 13. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 14. Taken from the article 'Retailers book space on "Terminal" set', by Gail Schiller at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/marketing/article_display.jsp?vnu_ content_id = 1000502765 May 5, 2004. 15. This is taken from Guy Debord's film of the same name: 'The passage of a few people through a brief moment in time', 1959 screenplay in the situationist library at www.nothingness.org.http://library.nothingness.org/articles/S1/en/display/120. 16. Guy Ernest Debord in 'Theory of the Derive', available to read at www.nothingness.org. http://library.nothingness.org/articles/S1/en/display/314. Originally published in November 1967, as part of the Situationist International Anthology, one month before 'Playtime''s release. 17. Although even the title 'Playtime' could just as easily be a title of an essay in the SI magazine in their mutual poetics of distraction and play, the medium Tati dedicated his life to was just another separated central art form of the society of the spectacle to the situationists. The architectural and theatrical mode of early film was quickly abandoned in favour of a literary narrative style and its very potential for absorption made it the perfect tool for propaganda be it fascist or capitalist. This is echoed in the essay 'Junkspace' by Rem Koolhaas (op. cit.) where, united in segregation and regurgitation, 'the chosen theatre for megalomania is no longer politics but entertainment.' This was the situationist's aversion, as such absorption is opposed to the mode of distraction they and indeed Tati employ which is defined as a form of experience that occurs incidentally and disjunctively. 18. Cited in Cauliez, A., Jacques Tati (Paris, Seghers, 1968), p. 106. 19. Ockman J., 2000, 'Architecture in a mode of distraction. 8 takes on Jacques Tati's "Playtime"', in Lampster M., ed., Architecture and Film (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000), p. 171. 20. Tschumi B., in Complexity.jpva no 6, ed., Andrew Benjamin. Replying to Questions using recent texts, e.g. Tschumi B., Architecture and Disjunction (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 1994). 21. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 22. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 23. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 24. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 25. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 26. Chion M., The films of Jacques Tati (Toronto: Guernica, 1997), p. 14. 27. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 28. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 29. Sinclair I., London Orbital: a walk around the M25 (London: Granta Books, 2002), p. 265. 30. Sinclair I., London Orbital: a walk around the M25 (London: Granta Books, 2002), p. 265. 31. Augé M., Non-Places, op. cit., p. 74. 32. David Bowie, Space Oddity. David Bowie's first hit single: the album 'Space Oddity' was released in 1969, producer Toni Visconti. 33. Smithson R., 'Entropy and the New Monuments', (1966), in Flam J., ed., Robert Smithson: The collected writings (Berkeley, London: University of California Press, 1996), p. 10. 34. Smithson R., 'Entropy and the New Monuments', (1966), in Flam J., ed., Robert Smithson: The collected writings (Berkeley, London: University of California Press, 1996), p. 10. 35. Augé M., Non-places, op. cit., p. 79. 36. Hay J., 'Allegory and Invention', in Shiel M., Fitzmaurice T., eds, Cinema and the City (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001). 37. Matta-Clark, draft of letter to Nina Felshin, Director of American entries to the Paris Biennale, Washington D.C., June, 1975. 38. Gordon Matta-Clark, notes, Paris 1975, E G M-C, in Lee P.M., Object to be destroyed: The work of Gordon Matta-Clark (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001), p. 183. 39. Koolhaas R., Junkspace, op. cit. 40. Baudrillard J., trans. Glaser S.F., The Beaubourg Effect: implosion and deterrence, in Simulacra and Simulation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994), p. 61. 41. Concierge, paraphrased by Matta-Clark when interviewed by Donald Wall in 'Gordon Matta-Clark's building dissections', Arts magazine (March, 1976), p. 135. 42. Gordon Matta-Clark, notes, op. cit. 43. Anthony Howell, quoted in Childs N., Walwin J., eds, A split second of paradise: live art installations and performance (London: Rivers Oram, 1998), p. 121. 44. Gordon Matta-Clark, interviewed by Lisa Bear, 'Splitting: "The Humphrey Street Building."' Avalanche (December, 1974), p. 37. Such a relationship between human events and architecture is exemplified in the work of the performance group 'Station House Opera'. 'The Bastille Dances' involved performers and breeze blocks, constructing and deconstructing their set as they went along. 45. Thompson M., Rubbish Theory: the creation and destruction of value (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979). 46. Gilloch G., Myth and Metropolis: Walter Benjamin and the City (Oxford: Polity, 1997), p. 88.