capsular
In the words of Belgian Writer and Philosopher, Lieven De Cauter, ‘Fortress Europe’ is part of a global ‘Capsular Civilisation’; a controlled, secure and enclosed realm created and maintained by global capitalism. It is characterised by ‘generic’ cities, suburbanization and spaces of consumption, transit, tourism and habitation. Inside the capsule there lies an existential paradox; that of relative containment under globalised control at the expense of separation from the ‘outside’, which is relegated to a mediated spectacle.
These images are presented as visual metaphors to highlight the duality of and experience, inside and outside the ‘capsule’. The ‘borders’ here exist as the architecture, the glass and the screen. The ‘outside’ is presented through nature, to connote a sense of liberation but also invoke feelings of exposure, discomfort and fear. The ‘inside’ is presented as safe, clean, generic and homogenised but at the same time enclosed, protected and claustrophobic. As we become familiar with this constructed and artificial society, we are protected and distanced from nature and the actual world outside.
“The capsule is cyborg architecture. Man, machine and space build a new organic body which transcends confrontation….it creates an environment in itself….A device which has become a living space in itself, in the sense that man cannot hope to live elsewhere, is a capsule. And signs of such development are beginning to appear around us.” Kisho Kurokawa, 1969.
Source: De Cauter, Lieven ‘The Capsular Civilisation – On the City in the Age of Fear’ (NAi Publishers, 2004)
These images are presented as visual metaphors to highlight the duality of and experience, inside and outside the ‘capsule’. The ‘borders’ here exist as the architecture, the glass and the screen. The ‘outside’ is presented through nature, to connote a sense of liberation but also invoke feelings of exposure, discomfort and fear. The ‘inside’ is presented as safe, clean, generic and homogenised but at the same time enclosed, protected and claustrophobic. As we become familiar with this constructed and artificial society, we are protected and distanced from nature and the actual world outside.
“The capsule is cyborg architecture. Man, machine and space build a new organic body which transcends confrontation….it creates an environment in itself….A device which has become a living space in itself, in the sense that man cannot hope to live elsewhere, is a capsule. And signs of such development are beginning to appear around us.” Kisho Kurokawa, 1969.
Source: De Cauter, Lieven ‘The Capsular Civilisation – On the City in the Age of Fear’ (NAi Publishers, 2004)
