This Vampiric Symbol of Capital is Hungry for Sacrifices
You didn't think The Vessel was just a building, did you?
The Vessel is a sentient Demonic-Resonance-Attenuator that is hungry for sacrifice. It has claimed another victim. The headlines call this death a “suicide” but do not be fooled.
This “vessel” (void/gap/abyss/emptiness) is the distilled symbol of the cyclic void, the empty black heart of Global Capital as it circulates endlessly with no apparent direction or final goal. It is a Ley Node, but the currents it channels are not telluric. In place of Ley Lines (vectors of force emanating from the Living Earth) it condenses the psychic energy of dead-labor-as-commodity. The vibes are fucked bro. Trust me bro.
“An architecture of pure circulation,”1 its networked branching pathways frame a pure connectivity of neoliberal subjects. Their wandering up and down its staircases completes the art work, presenting a live display model of ActorNetworkTheory. It is Bruno Latour’s wet dream brought to life.
The deaths it has been instrumental in bringing about prove that there are those who see a different use for this structure than that intended by its designer, Thomas Heatherwick — What did it call out to them?
If OOO and ANT are real, what agency may we assign to this edifice, what role did it play in these deaths? A share of agency, evenly distributed among all objects and objectified-subjects in a Latourian cosmology, must surely rest with it.
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When I went to Hudson Yards the day after the fourth death enabled by this structure, they were still taking photos. “Why are they still doing this?” I thought. Then I thought “They never stopped doing this.” They were taking pictures with it as the deaths were happening. Maybe some people stopped but probably not for long. Most likely there is a photo with a falling body in the background. This will probably surprise and upset the person who posed for this picture, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to remove with any number of image editing softwares.
The constant feed of images posted to social media featuring this abyssal erection add to its power, extending its reach within the collective imaginary. This obeisance and offering is required of its pilgrims, unwitting acolytes of an unholy power. It has already been established that users do not own these offerings, that The Vessel’s human agents may appropriate these to extend its reach within the network.
The Vessel is a successful piece of art in that It aligns perfectly with its environment, and reinforces the ideals thereof. It functions as an ideal figure of the circulatory functioning of techno-capital. Its cupric exterior mimics the wiring that supports this circulation. It is the Heart of a Heartless World. The problem is that It is making people kill themselves.2
Douglas Spencer, Critique of Architecture, p. 90.
an expanded critique of Hudson Yards, The Vessel, and architectural “experiences” more generally will soon appear on donotresearch.net