Alter-Urbanism | Chernobyl, Ukraine
[Part of the alter-urbanism project]
In the aftermath of the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster, Chernobyl has been cast as a city reclaimed by nature. As to whether this portrayal is justified by the evidence, the jury’s still out … but whatever the truth, it certainly hasn’t been allowed to stand in the way of a good story. Take the first-person shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (based loosely on Stalker (1979), a film by Andrei Tarkovsky). The game and its 2008 prequel – S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – are both set in an alternate reality where a second nuclear disaster caused strange changes in the zone of alienation.
We’re talking a strange mix of historical fact, malevolent alien hive minds, and a multitude of mutant beasties. A reflection, then, of the symbolism lashed to Chernobyl in popular culture, public memory, and the collective unconscious?
So, what does this tell us about the alter-urban typology? This wild city isn’t simply anarchic, chaotic (as a “feral city”), or organised in a way which ignores / subverts the precepts of “Western” urbanism (as a “rogue city”) … instead, it actively endangers the bodies of those who would seek entry. Rather than amorality and ambivalence, the “wild” of the physical environment and its perverted forms of (un)nature approach the human intruders with absolute emnity. For a better sense of this reading of the setting, have a look at this trailer for Clear Sky.
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(Image courtesy of Vivo (Ben))
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Notes toward a genealogy of alter-urbanism
On the last Wednesday of November, I took a train up to London, meeting Paul at the Tate Modern, with the ultimate intent of attending a public Battlespace/s lecture, Feral Cities and the Scientific Way of Warfare. A tight bundle of peculiar and fascinating tangents from the mouths of Geoff Manaugh and Antoine Bousquet, the lecture was run under the aegis of the Complex Terrain Laboratory (blog) and publicised with the following description:
Contemporary political discourse on armed violence and insecurity has been largely shaped by references to spatial knowledge, simulation, and control: “human terrain”, “urban clutter”, “terrorist sanctuaries”, “failed states”, “core-periphery”. The historical counterpoint to this is to be found in the key role the successive technologies of clock, engine, computer, and network have all played in spatializing the practice of warfare. In this context, what implications do “feral” Third World cities, “rogue” cities organized along non-Western ideas of urban space and infrastructure, and “wild” cities reclaimed by nature, have for the battlespaces of today and tomorrow?
A substantial ramble follows beneath the cut. Brace yourselves!
Life since Guy Fawkes Night
Superstruct finished in a crazy webcast thing, which was the most (and the weirdest) fun I’ve had in ages. I wrote the 33,000 word beginning section of a surprisingly elegent sci-fi novel, and am now seriously struggling to maintain momentum and self-discipline. I submitted a speculative job application, and am at peace with the fact that there’s a 95% chance that nothing will happen as a result of this. I discovered The I.T. Crowd, and wondered why I hadn’t done so sooner.
I went to a Goldsmiths open day on four hours sleep, managed to sustain a cogent and upbeat conversation with a member of their Business Development Office, and thoroughly enjoyed the vibe and atmosphere of the place. That said, I have – thus far – failed to submit a Masters application, and am in the process of working out to compress my aims and academic interests into a page-long “personal statement” that doesn’t make me sound like a twat.
I bought a new jacket. I finally read Brasyl, by Ian McDonald. In Brighton, I was “turned” by vampires in SoHo, but didn’t find Mr. Smith. I went to Cornwall to see a friend from university. I learned why – as a woman – it might not be a good idea to accuse your housemate of shortening your menstrual cycle, and marvelled at the windswept desolation of the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus. I spent too much time on trains.
I discovered the concept of the cloudworker, and have embraced it a viable and desirable life goal. I attempted to talk my parents out of investing in property. I met Paul in London, and hit a public lecture at UCL about “feral cities“. I’m currently ordering some jottings for “notes towards a genealogy of alter-urbanism”, a tangetial ramble through history and fiction which really needs be to decide on a format … be it blog post, article, wiki, or pamphlet. I speculated on how capitalism is like nature, colonizing those volcanic islands that pop up from time to time in the North Sea. I bought a copy of Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village, which I fully intend to devour over the next couple of days. I cried at The Devil’s Whore in the same way as I once cried at Ken Loach‘s Land and Freedom, and thought a great deal about constitutional reform.
What have you been up to?
