Geography as Implant in the Anthropomorphic City
Geography as Implant in the Anthropomorphic City
This book is an edited version of a visual project looking at geography and infrastructural renewal as an implant on the anthropomorphic city. The series concentrates on the London Docklands to evidence a process of time-space compression, that serves to connect the area in ways that influence its perception both locally and globally. The visual work presented here is to be ‘read’ in a similar way to the accompanying text in the form of a dissertation. These images are a narrative of the (re-)development of the Royal Docks and the material signs this process manifests in. Similarly to a text, the project begins with setting the stage by providing a wider picture of the area. The so-called introduction portrays some of the dichotomies that shape the area, but also tries to retain a human scale percep-
tion of the processes of development and manufacture. This is a space paved and planned, yet also permissive of unexpected contrast. The archival images serve to punctuate and elaborate on the accumulative narrative. They harken back to the origins of the docks. Not in nostalgia, but an acknowledgement of continuity. It is apparent, that the space has always been one of change and flux. The local identity is contested and stratified. Hoping to locate some strands of enquiry that would lead to a sense of identity, the series proceeds to register representations of distinct realities that cohabit the space. A singular authenticity is elusive, rather various parallel (hi-)stories present themselves. It becomes more demanding to keep track of or acknowledge signs. Selective
place-marketing is at play, using some aspects of old industry to romanticise historic commerce. Yet there is also a nonchalant covering up of ongoing manufacture on the riverside, not regarded as particularly romantic. This conflict also manifests in the way fronts of houses are utilised to continually define local identities. Ultimately new structures get implanted over the existing, with the rail either passing under or above housing, old enterprise laid over with the new and the in-betweenness of temporary structures becomes rule rather than exception. The docks, made to move things, are themselves in continual motion. Yet there are still occasions for pause over and reverence for the old structures punctuating the fluctuating landscape. Sometimes this takes the form of a workers’ cafÊ, re-purposed old in-
frastructure or a gate, as the last structure bearing witness to a factory and the workers that once trod through it.
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