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Future Babylonians and Their Landscapes of Participation?

It seems that much of the participatory planning and libertarian social movements that formed themselves in the late fifties and sixties were created in response to uncomprimising modernist architectural discourse. Much of the avant-garde of this period spent a lot of time contemplating the city as a "socio-architectural organism" that could not be rationalized and planned every step of the way; there had to be room for movement, mystery, and myth.
All of these factors led to an emergence of a resistance to the status quo, both in arhitectural circles and social phenomena as well. Still dedicated to the modernist dreams of utopia and social harmony, new discourse in the realms of social and spatial exploration combined with the possibilities for a nomadic existence all existed in Constant's New Babylon project.
"We are bored in the city" is the beginning line from one of the first texts by a member of the Situationist International. This sentence is fundamental in contemplating an existence based on leisure and play. The intellectuals and artists from this period are demanding more, the landscape being designed around them was proclaimed as a failure even before construction was complete.
This presentation will be an examination of these trends and their contemporary possibilities. It will be argued that Constant's vision may be just as relevant today as fourty years ago.

artist

Alob Switt

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When not found climbing South American peaks, Alob can be reached digging for treasure in the lost tombs of ancient Egypt.