Funny, when things seem to come together.
The way life can connect seemingly disparate things. Giving the
impression of a greater meaning, I think that this is sometime referred to as synchronicity.
A recent experience of this phenomenon involves my current (paid) job, a novel,
the current social-economic situation and a performance lecture.
That lecture by Adam Chodzko took place in an abandoned
above ground reservoir in Toxteth. Now Liverpool
gets its water from elsewhere it stands as an monument to Victorian engineering
and bravado.
So where once were tonnes of water stands Chodzko and his
seemingly modest presentation. Though the reverberation of his voice throughout
the space lends his voice a certain booming gravitas
Fitting as Adam is talking about some huge subjects,
literary. One of the things under discussion are super container ships. Modern leviathans
that cross oceans and seas, making sure that you and I have things like iPods,
Lego and training shoes.
This is where the first ‘connection’ comes into play. I have
recently read Simon Ings novel ‘Dead
Water’ a multi-layered narrative, which features a character Eric Moyes who
creates these shipping lines and uses them to hide a terrible secret.
Both Ings and Chodzko touch on the strangeness of these sea
born giants which despite their size are as invisible as air. How these thing
follow a unique idea of fluid dynamics, operating to the imagined pressures of commerce.
The creation of a constant flow of things and stuff which threatens
to overwhelm us and fill the spaces we inhabit. Which brings me to the third ‘connection’
recently I have found myself employed (by a company known for tiny pens, that’s
not IKEA) this puts me rather neatly at the end point of this epic voyage of stuff.
One of many who facilitate the ‘last mile’ of that journey. Helping
everyone fill their homes with stuff, in the lecture Chodzko speculates that
this collection of stuff will lead to the instigation of people creating and
dealing with smaller and smaller spaces. He provides this by showing us his
prototype living space created from a IKEA wardrobe.
All this may just be preparation for a future, a future that
will take place on the giant super-boats. These will become the cities of a
flooded world, a world flooded with water and stuff. Once aboard this floated
cities we will be surrounded by all of our stuff that we would arrive at some
kind of nirvana.
A capitalistic equilibrium, a utopia on the ocean waves.
When where on our never-ending cruise, what will happen to
the mega-docks that where once home to these behemoths? Well Chodzko suggests
that the ultimate role for these docks, such as the proposed Liverpool 2
superdock is as massive earth-works, as land art. Their destiny is to become
supersized monuments to entropy like Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ or even
oversized versions of J.G Ballard’s empty swimming pools.
The archaeology of this future is to be built through
commerce, we are building it.
