The article mainly talks about the world of CyberCities. It describes a city that is filled with networks and telecommunication that counters urban isolation. The modern, disciplinary societies are replaced by numerical one. Yet it also makes people lose their humanity and become indifferent. It really horrifies me that the world will end up as a continuum, or a utopia, where emotionless machines work day after day with high efficiency.
Also, the article also describes a city of artifice, that artifice can become a “spot of time”. As said in the article, in the 60s of Las Vegas, the architecture simply duplicated the commercial artifice, yet in the 70s and 80s, the spaces were ” structured as if a labyrinthine network were thrown over their surface.” It’s interesting to witness the chronological change in the city by only seeing the change in artifice.
— Li Yuelin, 3035948093
I appreciate how you responded to the idea of CyberCities more broadly before discussing the specific idea of City of Artifice. Perhaps you can further elaborate your points. Do you think some aspects of CyberCities can already be observed today? Can you think of any examples of ‘City of Artifice’ you can relate to?
Thank you for your reply. In the “City of Artifice,” as described in the reading, artifices are no longer fictional and are already in our city, our lives. It can be seen “in the poetics of greeting cards, in ingenious advertisements, in the sign inflection of billboards.” An example of this should be the Time Square in New York. I can never forget the first time that I been to Time Square. All I can see are the giant billboards, dazzling neon lights, novel advertisements, overwhelming information.