Synthesis of a Synthesis - Essay Example

Synthesis of a Synthesis In many ways, malls are synthesis of what we need in our environments. In this synthesis I draw upon the several articles presented to me, taking some information from each. This is because my own perception of malls and their function in our society agrees with some of each of these articles, but not all of any one. The most striking point made, in my estimation, was concerning the physical layout which draws us to malls. However, it is also interesting to note that both the needs of the owners and occupants of the mall and the needs of the public are being met to a certain degree. That they are controlled environments, and in many ways illusions of a reality that never was, is true, but I doubt there is anyone who doesn't actually know this, and like any other art, the illusions of the malls serve a definite purpose in our society. While the author of this book, along with some others, believe that Victor Gruen, who left late in the century for Europe, deeply disappointed by the way he malls have evolved, would be horrified at today's malls, I disagree. Many of the larger malls are going in the direction that Victor Gruen foresaw. Activity centers, community services and other social centers, even centers for arts and entertainment, are now being incorporated into the largest malls, or on the other hand, many of the community arts centers are expanding and becoming malls. While it is true that certain social elements are still excluded, and certain actions important to communities are prohibited, by virtue of malls being private property, this also may not be a bad thing. As Lewis shows, one of the attractions of the local malls are their relative safety. This safety includes not just personal safety, as in the area being safe from personal attack, but also the emotional safety provided by the controlled environment. If things like picketing and rallies were allowed inside malls, and beggars and homeless people roamed everywhere accosting the public, the malls would not be an attractive place to go. While David Gutersen bemoans the fact that malls are not providing all that the traditional marketplace provided in the past, that too is not a bad thing. Traditional marketplaces did, in fact, provide a rich environment, which also included thieves, vandals and con artists. There are still plenty of old-style marketplaces, or we can find this, such as the local flea market. The mall owners and occupants would prefer to exclude many elements that the public wants in order to maximize profit. However, by providing for some of the other needs of the public, mall owners and occupants draw traffic to their centers. The general public, on the other hand, which uses the mall for more social needs, also spends money there. So the social contract is met between the mall owners and occupants and the visitors. What Lizbeth Cohen sees the exclusion factor aren't malls as a threat to minorities, that just simply is no longer so. In fact, the malls of North America and Britain offer some of the most diverse cultural experiences found anywhere in the world. Products from every corner of the low are available here, and the crowds are a mixture of every possible race, color and belief system. Spend an hour watching the crowds go by, from a vantage point in a local mall, and tabulate how many different modes of dress you see go by, and how many different ethnic minorities are represented, and the numbers will prove this point. James Farrell's statistics were interesting and somewhat surprising. Being quite fond of strolling the mall myself, I had no idea of the scope of their influence. It seems that geography of human environments has been mutating once again over the past 50 years. First we build huge cities, then migrated to the suburbs, working in the city and living in the safer, more tranquil environment outside. Now we are bringing the city back into the suburbs, but enclosing it in little bubbles, isolating it from where we live. It is interesting to see that there is also a good in this isolation. We do not have as many glaring signs everywhere in our non-city and environments, and putting all those services in one place certainly cuts down on traffic. While many of these writers pointed out the isolation factor as a bad thing, that factor in malls is also protective of our living environments. Victor Gruen and Larry Smith, make an excellent point that we are in need of planning for our environments. Individualism does not have to mean chaos. The chaotic environment of things like the boom towns which sprung up in the gold fields and uncontrolled developments around resource locations eventually became nearly uninhabitable, unless controls were finally applied. Society is our means of applying the controls to create the environments in which we feel safe and comfortable. It has always fulfilled this need. This is why we join together into tribes and towns and cities and countries. Joining together allows us to impose control over our environments. The phenomena of the development of large malls across the globe shows that people want these safe enclosed spaces. We're going to shop anyway, so why not shop in comfort. Gruen and Smith rightly identified the need that such shopping malls fulfill. By incorporating other activities and social functions into the shopping mall, we have in a sense, created little town squares in the suburban landscape. So malls serve a practical and a social function. Depending upon the mall, and the people who patronize it, what the balance between the two will be. The article by Richard Francaviglia was intriguing, and is something that I guess most people have never really noticed. Probably the reason that mall design is essentially based on Main Street USA in Disneyland is due to the genius of Walt Disney in the creation of that space. Having been there, I have to agree that I get the very same feeling inside the better malls. This is a feeling of belonging, yet being safely within your own group with which you came, or with whom you meet there. That this Main Street pattern never actually existed is probably due to the fact that most main streets were never actually planned. Commercial centers and social centers sprang up to fill the needs of local residents, who were generally fairer for some economic reason. In fact, the main streets of the past were much less homogenous than the malls of the present. They were generally ethnocentric and culturally isolated to include only the culture of the surrounding residents. Now that the culture of the surrounding residents is radically changing in most developed countries, shopping centers have evolved to serve the needs of the multicultural community. Even in places where the surrounding community is mono-cultural, many shopping centers still provide multicultural environments, made popular by mass media. The circular construction of modern shopping centers cited by Ira Zepp Jr. is a particularly fascinating subject. As society has become more secular, we still have spiritual needs. Most constructed on this past term certainly do have a feeling of sacred space. We do like circles, probably because we have perceived them as the main structure of the universe in which we live. While we know now that the earth is not the center of the universe, it still feels like it. Shopping malls, or centers, providing enclosed environment on the same pattern. This makes it much more than comfortable, but actually draws people who simply like to wander. Window shopping inside a mall is much more satisfying, partly due to this structural element, with the added attraction of not being vulnerable to the elements. Zepp is correct that we perceive the environment of a mall as safe, comfortable and spiritually refreshing. Anyone who has gone to the mall when most of the commercial businesses are closed, can perceive this spiritual quality in their geometry. George Lewis points out that this is an illusion, and his assessment of the space is well thought out. He does admit that the mall environment serves a certain purpose for the two most isolated groups of our society: elders and children. Teenagers, especially, are caught in between childhood and adulthood, and are often drawn to congregate in malls in groups. That he identifies elders as isolated and not cared about by our society is a sad truth. Malls are serving a transitional purpose in this case, between life and death. It is probably more pleasant than the isolation at home, but the fact that it exists points out the need for our society to provide a place and a function for this valuable group. It is a social phenomenon were beginning to see that many people who retire do not retire. They simply find other jobs or become entrepreneurs. If life disintegrates to the level where one's only social attitude that he is visiting the mall, and one's value is centered around what people in the mall think of you, it cannot be very satisfying. The author mentions that teenagers grow up, and their need for this transitional place falls away. My thoughts on this are that for seniors, this time period can be extremely longer than it is for teenagers, and at this time, the transition is not towards a goal, but towards an end. Malls as a social phenomenon in modern society are seen from many different perspectives as represented in these various articles, filtered through my own perspective. I believe they are good invention, because they provide a safe space for people to socialize and take care of practical needs like shopping. Because we are serving much larger populations, Main Street USA is no longer possible, unless we protect it. That protection is found inside the mall. It provides a comfortable, energizing environment where people can now find not just commercial services, but social services, community services and artistic services. It takes the best of what can be found in the city, isolates it inside a closed space, and plants it in the residential areas. Our malls good or bad? Like everything else, they are good for some things and bad for others. References Francaviglia, Richard, Main Street Revisited Gutersen, David Lizbeth Cohen Victor Gruen and Larry Smith Farrell, James J., 200?, One Nation Under Goods: Malls and the Seductions of American Shopping Zepp Jr., Ira, 200? Sacred Spaces Read More