just Fuck off …..
I have recently written a few things about humanities incessant urban sprawl - and amid the current Covid Pandemic , it really has been worthy of taking stock of just what we are doing here ….
there is a lot of talk about the ' new normal ' - and everyone is very anxious to get back to how things were …. personally I cant imagine a bigger tradgedy to befall our generation than for us to pass up this opportunity to really re appraise just what we are doing - just what we have done - and just what we might hope to achieve in the brand new tomorrow and our ' new normal '
I Know I am not the only one that feels that where we were , was a state of self destructive pandemonium, a kind of self escalating mania of production and consumption - everyone playing hard ball, in the ever competitive cut throat international stage -
estate agents and administrators became the new wealthy - and the farmers and the renderers, the actual producers were getting screwed by ever increasing percentages to fuel the ever higher demand for more and more luxurious recreations - I have coined this the age of obsessive compulsive acquisition - its a derogatory phycological state that fits in with the mania complexes - and it seems to afflict quite a lot of people that don't actually render anything , especially these days
but I am not here to discuss my political leanings, or my notions on the complexity of attempting to curtail a complex and sometimes radical herd aspect in accordance of some grand design , instead of expanding the design to encompass all those, even predictably unpredictable nuances, but I digress ….
I have ventured the notion before that Margaret thatcher and Ronald Reagan ,inherited from their forbears a situation - an ever expanding population of middle class internationals - an ever increasing demand for greater and greater luxuries - and a simultaneous demand for higher and higher employment standards - governments of the world exist on the basis that a management structure is required to organize a society - certain standards need to be maintained ! communications and trade networks - basic services and comforts, and in order for that to happen, there is an accord between government and constituent that a percentage of value is levied as a fair ' tax ' , so that this government might be able to fullfill its function and , ideally improve the standards of lives for all in the ' agreement ' -
so for a long time the governments of the world would take a tax on the sale of shovels , tobacco , alchohol - cotton -rape seed etc etc it makes sense then that when economists started to realize just how much money can be spun in the releasing of say , a child orientated , well marketed toy campaign - that people really started to take notice of the potential value of all of the little transactions that a human might indulge in over a life time - and the commissions that can be made on each ! the largest ticket item you would once have to pay for , other than a house was a car - or a washing machine - and if we look at the quality of the product and indeed the endurability of the product, it is without a hint of doubt that I can say that we certainly aren't getting value for money on these appliances as we used too ….
the same is true of property ! I have noticed this over the course of my short life time , and it has been made all the more apparent because of the scale of perpertual transience that my particular vocation ( survival method ) seems to have wrought, that the spatial allocations we are being assigned , comparable to the amount monetary outlay we are being charged ….. is a rather terrible situation !
and again I think really it stems back to Thatcher and Reagan - well Nixon paved the way by demonstrating that really you can do what ever the hell you like while in public office and render zero accountability - of course what has followed has been a successive gallery of villains, and most of these guys have all been pretty pro you increasing your standard property purchase ten fold - all for a commission , I look around at a lot of the people that have gotten ' rich ' over the past 30 and 40 years, of course its not true of all , but for most , there are very few 'self made' people out there, trust me I know … most of them like to swan around in the art galleries I exhibit in , with disposable income in this grotesque age of idealogical austerity, and I often cringe when people tell me who they are and ' what they do ' …...
Now I have written before about Plymouth - I hate this place - it is such a shame too , because I love the people , the surrounding country side , the rivers and the coaslines and the moors .... but the city itself could be so much more than it is , it has just been forgotton about in central londons mad dash to spend eurpoean money - a handful of pocket money gangsters and the odd old toff run this place, with an army of administration that would make wylie cyote seem compotent - estate agentd and failed beauty therapists have been left in charge here , and it bloody shows !!!
but that aside, I had conducted a little study just a few years ago ( original research conducted from - The Valerio Institute of Alternative Learning ) and so used plymouth as my visual basis for comparison -
its really not the best photo I know , but my portfolio is currently spread out over around 5 countries and we are in the middle of a ' social distancing ' lockdown that does seem to make this spatial allocation consideration all the more pertinent
now above we have a cross section of the basic housing stock that is available in the city of plymouth - they have been selected by neighbourhood to reflect a reasonable ' standard ' within the available housing stock - the formatted ' square ' is the visual comparative to demonstrate how the property , or properties are sited within a single standard acre - I have done studies of neighbourhoods that are representative of successive decades - and I think that even a cursory glance will tell you , that at the turn of the 1900's, you could once get a reasonable sized family home - with suitable land provision to be able to keep animals - or grow for victory - jeesus they definitely had at least a view , the diagram above shows without question the sorry state that progressive greed for commission has rendered us too
its a sorry state indeed !!
personally I know for a fact that most of Plymouths housing stock is in a terrible state - well pretty much most of the structures here have seen better days ! but I think that my gripe goes beyond the confines of this sad little city
really I think I take offense at the very notion of a one bedroom apartment in general !! in this advanced and modern age of ours - really is the best our accumulative acquisitions and productions can hope for is a room big enough for a t.v and a bed , all for the princely sum of a life's futile labour - we need to do away with the idea that humanity is simply a commissioners cash crop on the basis of ever more extravagant expenditures - and every one needs the basic provision of , fresh air , clean water , balanced nutrition …. and a bit of fucking room to move around in !!!
so lets do away with the idea that a single room ' apartment ' or Victorian style tenement housing - shared student housing nightmare …. is even remotely acceptable in this day and age, lets get rid of the idea that affluent people that are completely unrelatable to the reality that most people live in , offer managerial consultations for a fee without reprisal for villainous self serving behaviours
sat here wallowing in the squalor that is this city , I am forced to consider some of the other areas of urbanisation that I have called home, or are at least recurring sceneries for me, and the visual comparison , just beween, Amsterdam , London , Prague , Plymouth and London .... is stark to say the least !!
if you look , just via google maps at a square mile or so f each of these cities, turn on satellite view - tell me what you think about the ratios of green spaces and waterways - yes we could have done a lot better here chaps :(
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