Creating the framework for a consumer-oriented society

February 6, 2007 10:13 AM

Unintelligent Design. The History Imagesof Sze Tsung Leong. "Then there's the other type of history that is recorded in the fabric of cities. This includes the houses that are being destroyed; it has to do with the history of quotidian things, really, the layers of history that have slowly accumulated. The loss of this fabric the spaces and histories particular to different cities means that the particular cultural value and artistic qualities they contain, are lost." also here and here.
posted by arse_hat (8 comments total)

Wow, those pictures are tragic.
posted by delmoi at 10:38 AM on February 6, 2007

Thank you for the post.

It's really important to have things like this that put regional development in an international context for folks like me in the West.

It's remarkable to me that a growing number of North American cities are really (though often slowly) starting to come to grips with more intentional, community-based planning and development, seriously questioning the model we championed for a century... while the cities of other cultures are now launching in to it faster than we ever did.

The long tail of capitalism is going to be hell.
posted by poweredbybeard at 11:06 AM on February 6, 2007

Beautiful stuff. Thanks.
posted by carmen at 11:16 AM on February 6, 2007

The slow, inexorable destruction of the old buildings (and entire areas) of my adopted city Tokyo is a continual source of melancholy: so these photos from China (portraying an even more dramatic erasing of history than what I'm seeing here in Japan) really resonate for me. Thanks for the post.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:41 PM on February 6, 2007

Wow, I'm surprised this didn't generate more discussion.

Well, I'll just thank you again for the post. One of my favourites in a while. That Guernica mag looks interesting, too.
posted by poweredbybeard at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2007

Heh. Tis a bit quiet in here. Thanks poweredbybeard.
posted by arse_hat at 6:37 PM on February 6, 2007

guernicamag.com is one of my fave sites. Lots of great interviews, a blog, fiction, poetry, and so on...
posted by MDA38 at 10:00 AM on February 7, 2007

I just wanted to say thanks for this post. I'm still working on a post about Siheyuan and Chinese architecture, and the ongoing struggle between China's history and modernization, so this is definitely a topic that interests me. The fact that it's about photography and art as well is just icing on the cake.
posted by wander at 10:12 AM on February 7, 2007