Apr
12th
Sun
12th
But what also seems clear at least to me, is that very many ways of doing things, of designing things, of consuming things, of consuming design are very likely, to sample Paul Krugman, zombie ideas. Design as money laundering bon-bon. The destiny of the post-Bilbao coke high of Dubai, seems be a psychotic desert ruin. Ozymandias as themed space. Dubai died before it was completed and is scheduled to deteriorate into some Islamic J. G. Ballard scenario. One expects new species of desert wolf to take over the fleets of abandoned Mercedes strewn about the airport, and roving gangs of unemployed architects, mid-level finance flunkies and scion jihadists to turn the empty malls into bunkers for their secret private wars of revenge and purification. In the desert where no city should logically be (like LA) they attend to an inverted cargo cult now of orphaned luxury goods hoping for the tribes of customers to come back. It’s not so much that the party is over, but that now the party goes feral; even and especially if those cranes come back to life.
