[Urbanstudy] Posting IV: The Neo - Appu Ghar

[yash srivastava]

Bhaya and Kartik,
 
With reference to your last paragraph, I wonder if you have read Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York. In this book Koolhaas hypothesises that  Manhattan's urban forms are inspired by the artifice of Coney Island. Worth a read if you haven't already read it.
 
Your work looks very interesting so far.
 
Regards,
 
Yash



Yashdeep Srivastava
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Brunswick East VIC 3057
Australia
 
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> Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:19:42 +0530> From: bhavya.dore at gmail.com> To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net> Subject: [Urbanstudy] Posting IV: The Neo - Appu Ghar> > Posting IV> > > > Perhaps it's appropriate that as we approach the end of this six-month long> relationship with Appu Ghar, our new posting shifts gazes towards the city's> ostensibly new, latter-day Appu Ghar. Rising from the gloaming debris of its> now ancient and dilapidated ancestor, Adventure Island is a shiny and solid> repudiation of the mortal impulse rapidly come to claim Appu Ghar.> > Almost as expensive to enter, but with fewer rides open to the public as of> now, the park is in no uncertain terms an *update*. The staff is dressed> homogenously and trained well; nowhere the casual busman's holiday of Appu> Ghar but everywhere the clean and cool efficiency we've become familiar with> from the neighborhood McDonald's. In design the park is an artificial> lagoon, its 'perimeter of amusement' contained by water—an island getaway,> if you will. A freshly-paved yellow brick road (literally) leads us into the> kitschy non-place of Adventure Island, in which Candyland colours> predominate and metal surfaces exude a masculine sense of control.> > The only approach to Adventure Island, the amusement park *proper*, is> through an extended and unavoidable semi-enclosed mall or arcade (by> comparison, Appu Ghar had a lonely Reebok store). One is bombarded by> invitations to consumption—material and sensory—even before entering the> park. And once one enters, one remains consumed by the park, where retreat> from its bowels is once and for all; the perimeter of amusement is strict> with its amuesees.> > Once inside—now citizens of this island—we roam its massive outlay (we walk,> everyone has to walk, there's a faux sense of leveling in the park's> pedestrianization of us all), witness to several uninaugurated rides and> rookie tech problems. There is no roller-coaster yet. Another ride took a> few hours to get back on track.> > And who is the patron of this shiny new park in shiny new India? At 500> rupees for the currently functional 12 rides it is the upwardly mobile that> patronise this new amusement destination, leaving the lower middle class its> forgotten haunt Appu Ghar. One mother aptly and ironically reached out to a> familiar signifier to describe this amusement park experience, "This is like> a new Appu Ghar". And these are as yet early days for Adventure Island. One> staffer at a food store commented that in three years the entire park would> be up and running, presumably by which time its amusement ancestor would> have finally lurched to its demise.> Even so, Adventure Island represents a kind of quantum leap for amusement.> Ambient screams serve as advertisements for rides dotting the landscape.> There is a vigorous nexus between pleasure and possibility in this> installation series. In particular, *Flip Out*, a gigantic crane-like> structure which picks you up and lets you plummet to certain death, only to> pick you up again and spin you around, testifies to the kind of thrill that> made Coney Island famous a hundred years ago. A successful amusement park> ride combines the virtuoso display of technological prowess with a nary hint> of the fallibility of that prowess: *therein lies the thrill*.> > Bhavya Dore & Kartik Nair
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