Integrative Explorations Journal
97
Expressions of Modernity: New York as Perspectival Mental–Rationality David Worth University of Oklahoma New York lives by its checkerboard. Millions of beings act simply and easily within it. From the first hour, the stranger is oriented, sure of his course..
.Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White 13 Since the 1600s, New York has grown from a fortified town to the model of high modernity as expressed in cities. New York has been modeled by cities around the world and is, in many ways, a feat of technology. With its huge bridges, buildings, structures, and systems, the city is a huge machine in which millions live and work. One may travel over rivers on bridges or under them in tunnels. Cultures from around the world are represented there and each is a part of the uniquely New York City environment. It is a city of the massive and of the tiny, of wealth and poverty, and of the old and the new. Cultural icon and setting for innumerable works of fiction, New York is much larger than its physical size, giving it meaning for many more than the millions who live there. Yet it is its physicality that is so defining for it as a huge complex of activity and existence for those millions, and as an expression of rationalism, as in so many other areas, New York is difficult, if not impossible to top. This essay is concerned with New York City and to some extent all mega–cities. Obviously, the suburban–city experience is much different. This essay will focus on the urban. The argument I will make is that, as an expression of space and as evidence of humanity's concern with space, the city is an expression of the perspectival mental–rational structure of consciousness. More specifically, sectorization and atomization are plainly product of and produced by the emphasis on space. These Gebserian concepts shed light on the major structural influences that affect millions every day. As such, an examination of atomization and sectorization in New York City is a useful and potentially revealing application of Gebser’s ideas. Gebser’s description of this structure is borne out by evidence that is detectable by even a cursory glance at the structure and systems of the city. This essay is based on just such a glance; it is intended as a preliminary exploration of evidence of Gebser’s structures in that city. The importance of such an argument lies in the implication of atomization and sectorization for the lived experiences of millions who live in New York and similar cities. The relationship between technology and humanity has been the focus of a great deal of study. Mumford, 14 for example presents a detailed study of the relationship between
Reproduced in Norval White, New York: A Physical History (New York: Atheneum)
13
1987.
