Landscapes of waste
**This first section ('landscapes of waste') is an edited version a journal post by me, as part of an independent study with Cynthia Hammond. Please follow this link for more info. If this use is problematic then please avoid this section. I'm reusing it here since it is directly related to my visualization and builds up the argument for the next section.
Alen Berger proposes an alternative way of thinking about waste: waste as a result of natural processes; as a product of human growth and human progress. Berger explains the term 'post-industrial' that is most commonly associated with landscapes of waste is problematic, because 'post-industrial' "defines [a space] in terms of the past rather than as part of an ongoing industrial process that forms other parts of the city" (Berger Drosscape 200). One of the major problems arises when private corporations take over these landscapes of waste (since by being a site of waste, their price is heavily reduced), and they start massive development projects with no regards to social, cultural and political implications of their intervention within the site. These projects are not an appropriate and sustainable response to waste landscapes because they further extenuate the problems of waste.
The canal during the 19th and early 20th century, 'while being' or 'because of being' a site of intense labor, social injustice and class struggles, brought many neighborhoods together. Gentrification of Lachine canal is problematic when development projects like Myst, become heavily concentrated on a specific site, and build without any regard to the site’s identity. They can limit access by privatizing a whole neighborhood. Therefore preserving sociocultural sites, and respecting the various demographics within wastelands becomes a crucial concern when reusing or developing.
**Section over
Alen Berger proposes an alternative way of thinking about waste: waste as a result of natural processes; as a product of human growth and human progress. Berger explains the term 'post-industrial' that is most commonly associated with landscapes of waste is problematic, because 'post-industrial' "defines [a space] in terms of the past rather than as part of an ongoing industrial process that forms other parts of the city" (Berger Drosscape 200). One of the major problems arises when private corporations take over these landscapes of waste (since by being a site of waste, their price is heavily reduced), and they start massive development projects with no regards to social, cultural and political implications of their intervention within the site. These projects are not an appropriate and sustainable response to waste landscapes because they further extenuate the problems of waste.
The canal during the 19th and early 20th century, 'while being' or 'because of being' a site of intense labor, social injustice and class struggles, brought many neighborhoods together. Gentrification of Lachine canal is problematic when development projects like Myst, become heavily concentrated on a specific site, and build without any regard to the site’s identity. They can limit access by privatizing a whole neighborhood. Therefore preserving sociocultural sites, and respecting the various demographics within wastelands becomes a crucial concern when reusing or developing.
**Section over
Image #2: a Different kind of labor
Midway through the project I began to look at these sites of leisure from a different angle. I realized that through the redevelopment of Lachine Canal a new kind of labor has emerged. When the canal was active as an industrial site, the labor that the factories offered allowed the working class to sustain a living, which in turn meant sustaining the working-class neighborhoods. However with the closing down of factories and emergence of development and construction projects all around the canal and surrounding neighborhoods, the construction jobs that these projects create become quite ironic, because in a way as the workers build up these condos, they do it by taking away the bricks from their neighborhoods. And when I imagine this process as a time-lapse what I see is a brick wall around the new gentrified canal district. This is the reason I wanted to include Alen Berger's Drosscape idea above. The transformation of the canal as a landscape of waste furthers the problems of waste because it turns a whole neighborhood that once sustained the housing of the area, to one that through the transformation and even the jobs it creates, strives to make the area economically inaccessible to poor and working-class families; families who are then forced to move out to the periphery for more affordable housing. In the long run, this urbanization process or 'urban sprawl' along with the deindustrialization of Lachine is what further extenuates these landscapes of waste.
This process is what I have tried to visualize in my second digital graffiti. Consumers Cordage was the factory that Myst torn down in order to build their condos. They specialized in making ropes, and were one of the first factories to move along the canal in mid 19th century. The truncated chimney is the only thing that remains from the whole structure.
This process is what I have tried to visualize in my second digital graffiti. Consumers Cordage was the factory that Myst torn down in order to build their condos. They specialized in making ropes, and were one of the first factories to move along the canal in mid 19th century. The truncated chimney is the only thing that remains from the whole structure.
"The style is the opposite of what you would expect in the canal district. No red brick. No dark beams. Nothing heavy. Myst is sleek and sexy. This is a relaxed way of life, just like an endless vacation in a chic seaside villa."
Myst Designer, Andrés Escobar (source)
What I have visualized in my rendering:
- A sinking industrial ship, symbolizing the fall of industry, and Consumers Cordage
- A construction worker who is replacing the red bricks of the chimney (symbolizing the bricks of surrounding neighborhoods) by the 'white, sleek and sexy' bricks of Myst.
- Ironically what ties him to this whole system is a noose made by the rope that the factory once made, that connects to the motor boat of a new high class resident who is accelerating this process, but the bottom of the rope is tied to the bottom of the ship, which is to say is making the whole process of accumulating waste flip once more again.
- A sinking industrial ship, symbolizing the fall of industry, and Consumers Cordage
- A construction worker who is replacing the red bricks of the chimney (symbolizing the bricks of surrounding neighborhoods) by the 'white, sleek and sexy' bricks of Myst.
- Ironically what ties him to this whole system is a noose made by the rope that the factory once made, that connects to the motor boat of a new high class resident who is accelerating this process, but the bottom of the rope is tied to the bottom of the ship, which is to say is making the whole process of accumulating waste flip once more again.