Wednesday, January 6, 2016 10:30 am
-
10:30 am
EST (GMT -05:00)
Of
the
thesis
entitled:The
Generic
Spectacle
Abstract:
Thecompletion
of
the
CityCenter
resort
on
the
Las
Vegas
Strip
in
2009
by
MGMResorts
marks
the
single
largest
privately
funded
development
in
Americanhistory.
It
also
marks
a
departure
from
all-encompassing
themes
of
kitsch,masquerading
as
a
self-sustaining
city
with
condominium
towers,
an
extensivepublic
art
program
and
a
fire
station.
However,
the
development
ultimatelyfails
to
deliver
on
its
touted
claims
of
a
“pedestrian
focused
urban
plan”,devoid
of
the
essential
public
amenities
that
allow
cities
to
meet
theneeds
ofits
citizens.
Frenchtheorist Guy Debord prefigures this subsequent downgrading of ‘having’ into merely‘appearing’ within contemporary capitalist society with the release ofThe Society of the Spectaclein 1967. During the same time period, Robert Venturi, Denise ScottBrown andSteven Izenour would releaseLearningfrom Las Vegas, identifying the increasedprominence of the sign within the emerging “American commercial vernacular”.Rem Koolhaas followed with ‘Relearning from Las Vegas’ in 2001, a study of theLas VegasStrip comparing then-and-now along with an accompanying text in whichhe creditsLearningfrom Las Vegasas the first in a trend of booksabout cities. In the accompanying text, Koolhaas also states that the seminalstudy was “a manifesto for the shift from substance tosign...decipher[ing] theimpact of substance on culture”.
Thisculminates in what I am proposing as “The Generic Spectacle”, a hypothesis thatdescribes the widespread proliferation of Las Vegas Strip-style urbanism incountless contemporary city centers. The writings of Guy Debord and RemKoolhaas willcomprise a framework in which the development of the region willbe theorized, supported with contributions from the fields of economics,sociology, and geography. Subsequently, the history of development in the LasVegas region will be divided into three distinct partsin order to define thepre-existing conditions that generate The Generic Spectacle.
Thefirst includes the foundations of the spectacle as defined by Debord, with thealigning of State and economic interests alongside incessant technologicalrenewal. It will be argued that the modernist concept of ‘tabula rasa’ wouldunderscore these twofoundations. Secondly, the widespread liberalization thatoccurred in postwar America would reinforce Las Vegas as the center ofresurgent capitalism with a service-based leisure economy as its primaryvehicle. A powerful convergence of capital would give rise toincreasingmonopolization and result in an all-encompassing resort campus buildingtypology. Finally, the manufacturing of fantasy inherent in the themed environmentsof the Strip serve to obscure a troubling duality of freedom, one that isreinforced by the closeproximity of Las Vegas and the United States Air Force.A prevailing sense of destruction is apparent throughout the history of theregion with the constant razing of buildings for larger resorts and thesystematic dismantling of a collective public under the ongoingprocesses ofneoliberalism.
Through a reviewof the development of the Las Vegas Strip, this thesis will theorizeconvergence, the erasure of labour and historical context along with thebroader implications of the Generic Spectacle as it pertains to the fields ofarchitecture and urbanism.
The examining committee is as follows:
Frenchtheorist Guy Debord prefigures this subsequent downgrading of ‘having’ into merely‘appearing’ within contemporary capitalist society with the release ofThe Society of the Spectaclein 1967. During the same time period, Robert Venturi, Denise ScottBrown andSteven Izenour would releaseLearningfrom Las Vegas, identifying the increasedprominence of the sign within the emerging “American commercial vernacular”.Rem Koolhaas followed with ‘Relearning from Las Vegas’ in 2001, a study of theLas VegasStrip comparing then-and-now along with an accompanying text in whichhe creditsLearningfrom Las Vegasas the first in a trend of booksabout cities. In the accompanying text, Koolhaas also states that the seminalstudy was “a manifesto for the shift from substance tosign...decipher[ing] theimpact of substance on culture”.
Thisculminates in what I am proposing as “The Generic Spectacle”, a hypothesis thatdescribes the widespread proliferation of Las Vegas Strip-style urbanism incountless contemporary city centers. The writings of Guy Debord and RemKoolhaas willcomprise a framework in which the development of the region willbe theorized, supported with contributions from the fields of economics,sociology, and geography. Subsequently, the history of development in the LasVegas region will be divided into three distinct partsin order to define thepre-existing conditions that generate The Generic Spectacle.
Thefirst includes the foundations of the spectacle as defined by Debord, with thealigning of State and economic interests alongside incessant technologicalrenewal. It will be argued that the modernist concept of ‘tabula rasa’ wouldunderscore these twofoundations. Secondly, the widespread liberalization thatoccurred in postwar America would reinforce Las Vegas as the center ofresurgent capitalism with a service-based leisure economy as its primaryvehicle. A powerful convergence of capital would give rise toincreasingmonopolization and result in an all-encompassing resort campus buildingtypology. Finally, the manufacturing of fantasy inherent in the themed environmentsof the Strip serve to obscure a troubling duality of freedom, one that isreinforced by the closeproximity of Las Vegas and the United States Air Force.A prevailing sense of destruction is apparent throughout the history of theregion with the constant razing of buildings for larger resorts and thesystematic dismantling of a collective public under the ongoingprocesses ofneoliberalism.
Through a reviewof the development of the Las Vegas Strip, this thesis will theorizeconvergence, the erasure of labour and historical context along with thebroader implications of the Generic Spectacle as it pertains to the fields ofarchitecture and urbanism.
The examining committee is as follows:
Supervisor:
AdrianBlackwell,
University
of
ݮƵ
CommitteeMembers:
Marie-Paule
Macdonald,
Universityof
ݮƵ
Lola Sheppard, University of ݮƵ
Lola Sheppard, University of ݮƵ
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Wednesday
January
6,
2016
10:30AM
ARC
2003
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.