The Slum Pastoral: Helicopter Visuality and Koolhaas’s Lagos
Space and Culture 13(3) 256–269 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1206331210365257 http://sac.sagepub.com
Tim Hecker1
Abstract This article explores issues of aerial visuality through Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s recent work on urban planning in Lagos, Nigeria. In particular, it focuses on the prevalence of the lowoblique plane of vision in Koolhaas’s helicopter-based photographs of the immense, sprawling complexity of Lagos. This essay also examines the inherent political economy of such an aerial plane of vision. Furthermore, it raises the question of to what extent this representational strategy promotes a fidelity to the subject matter, in this case the citizens and the city of Lagos, by portraying a city through an aesthetics of immensity and the apocalyptic sublime. Keywords visual studies, Lagos, Koolhaas, aerial visuality, urbanism
Figure 1. Koolhaas—Lagos 1
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Corresponding Author: Tim Hecker, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University, 853 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada PQ H3A 2T6 Email: timothy.hecker@mail.mcgill.ca
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