“How dare someone tell me where the cultural quarter is? How dare anybody decide where culture can be found, or what it is, or how it can be safely packaged in a sanctioned part of the city” – from Ragworts by Bill Drummond
“How dare someone tell me where the cultural quarter is? How dare anybody decide where culture can be found, or what it is, or how it can be safely packaged in a sanctioned part of the city” – from Ragworts by Bill Drummond
A discussion of zoned cities on Facebook reminded me of the essay Formulary for a new urbanism by Ivan Chtcheglov.
It’s one of the foundation texts in psychogeography and suggests cities could be divided into districts corresponding “to the whole spectrum of diverse feelings that one encounters by chance in everyday life. Bizarre Quarter — Happy Quarter (specially reserved for habitation) — Noble and Tragic Quarter (for good children) — Historical Quarter (museums, schools) — Useful Quarter (hospital, tool shops) — Sinister Quarter, etc.” Which is probably little different to dividing out a cultural quarter.
There’s a good quote in Merlin Coverley’s book about the situationists: “Like the imperialist powers that they officially opposed, it was as if the situationists felt that the exploration of alien quarters (of the city rather than the globe) would advance civilisation”. Maybe the two groups aren’t all that different.