Placing Words: Symbols, Space, and the City

by William J. Mitchell

The meaning of a message, says William Mitchell, depends on the context of its reception. "Shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater produces a dramatically different effect from barking the same word to a squad of soldiers with guns," he observes. In Placing Words , Mitchell looks at the ways in which urban spaces and places provide settings for communication and at how they conduct complex flows of information through the twenty-first century city. Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information -- from one device to another in the urban scene -- creates a digital network that also exists in physical space. Placing Words examines this emerging system of spaces, flows, and practices in a series of short essays -- snapshots of the city in the twenty-first century. Mitchell questions the necessity of flashy downtown office towers in an age of corporate Web sites. He casts the shocked-and-awed Baghdad as a contemporary Guernica. He describes architectural makeovers throughout history, listing Le Corbusier's Fab Five Points of difference between new and old architecture, and he discusses the architecture of Manolo Blahniks. He pens an open letter to the Secretary of Defense recommending architectural features to include in torture chambers. He compares Baudelaire, the Parisian flaneur, to Spiderman, the Manhattan traceur. He describes the iPod-like galleries of the renovated MoMA and he recognizes the camera phone as the latest step in a process of image mobilization that began when artists stopped painting on walls and began making pictures on small pieces of wood, canvas, or paper. The endless flow of information, he makes clear, is not only more pervasive and efficient than ever, it is also generating new cultural complexities.

Genres: Architecture, Urbanism, Art Design, Essays, Philosophy

234 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up Mitchell's book purely for the title - "Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City". The title, blurb, even the intro, sounded fascinating - how cities provide the canvas and the context for words and symbols to (re)create, convey and change meaning. I didn't realise that the book was really just a collection of Mitchell's monthly columns for the Royal Institute of British Architects Journal from Feb 2003 to May 2005 (with one article originally published in the Scientific American). The problem with such collections, in my view, is that they don't age very well. A regular column has a flavour of the week kind of feel, a rapidly-dashed off response to some incident or development. Reading it hot off the presses, it can come across as witty, clever, insightful even. But a few years down the road, these commentaries look a little shallow - dare I say it? - fluffy even. They lack intellectual depth and heft. Having read a few of these over the years (on a range of areas), I've come to the conclusion that they're little more than a money-making venture. Bundling a bunch of already-published essays into a book allows the author to wring every last drop from his writing and in the case of academics, it doesn't hurt to have another book to your name. Jeffrey Steingarten did the same thing, publishing two collections of his food reviews for Vogue - The Man Who Ate Everything and It Must've Been Something I Ate. Food reviews don't age well - restaurants close down, chefs move around, etc. Steingarten's books only work because he does write rather well and foodies love reading about food, even if the places Steingarten discusses have long since lost their lustre. But in Mitchell's case, I don't think he's as engaging a writer as Steingarten. Moreover, Mitchell's pieces are very short, limiting his ability to make any genuinely insightful comments on architecture and space.

There are a couple of interesting essays in the collection - I rather liked Beyond the City Limits, Smelling the Brie, An Eye for an Eye, and Less is More is Back. (Hence two stars rather than one.) But more often than not, I found essays that were duds; pointless, frivolous pieces that made me think Mitchell's deadline to file his column was drawing near and he needed to write something, anything! (Architectural Principles to the Torture Chamber is one that springs to mind. So is the Munchkin Modular.) But bundle them together and smack on a broad, fuzzy and intriguing title like "Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City" and hopefully you can fool people into buying the book. Thank goodness I got this one from the library.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short essays, mostly written as monthly columns for the RIBA Journal, Mitchell here seems to emulate the prose of the late Stephen Jay Gould. His weaving of popular culture and current political references to enhance (or construct) certain observations about architectural/urbanist culture is, ultimately, less convincing than much of Gould's evolutionary-science-for-the-lay-person contributions to Nature magazine (though, as one with a propensity to listen to rap music, I was surprised to learn of the origin of the now ubiquitous term "bling" from a Mitchell essay about Frank Gehry, of all places). Admittedly, this seeming lack of a comprehensive fusing is likely due to the 1000 word limits imposed by the RIBA format. Otherwise, I found this to be an enjoyable book as there were some interesting insights - and not all related to his trilogy of computer-nerd-urbanism books (also enjoyable reads, by the way). Though, perhaps the most memorable statement is his interpretation of the cast of Desperate Housewives as including a "Latin Hot-Tomato and California Camp-Slut Blond"... whatever that means...

[Christo de Klerk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some strong hits and a few stray misses in this collection of essays about urbanism, network technology, fashion, and architecture. I enjoyed the variety in the essay styles - the perverse satire of Architectural Principals of the Torture Chamber to the comparative essay of the prison experiences of Marquis de Sade and Martha Stewart in Camp Cupcake Blues. The collection reminds me of the cultural analysis of Roland Barthes in Mythologies mixed with the techne society criticism of Marshal McLuhan. Less concerned about any inherent problem with technology, and more with how we place it in the city. Mitchell repeatedly warns against the use of technology (computer and architecture) to trade in a polity of freedom, equality, and democracy for a prison, Athens for Auschwitz.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

in theory, i should love this stuff, but as it's a series of essays, it merely touches on a lot of interesting ideas without really exploring them. there are some solid insights, but it never goes beyond casual observer, and i expect more from the dean of mit's architecture school. i'd still like to go and study there though...

[Matty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, sometimes humorous, sometimes perverse, essays on social behavior and the role of architecture both in the physical and digital.

"We make the buildings, then the buildings turn around and make us."

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

atrocious self-deception. when a jingoist like this calls farenheit 9/11 understated, you know the man lives to convince others, not really comprehend knowledge. the technocrats might all be guilty like this.