MONUMENT
RUIN
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ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1967, ROBERT SMITHSON WENT TO THE PORT AUTHORITY BUILDING ON 41ST STREET AND 8TH AVENUE. BEFORE BOARDING THE NUMBER 30 BUS OF THE INTER-CITY TRANSPORTATION CO. TO PASSAIC, NJ, HE BOUGHT A COPY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND A SIGNET PAPERBACK OF EARTHWORKS BY BRIAN W. ALDISS, AND WENT OUT IN SEARCH OF THE MONUMENTAL.
“I SAT DOWN AND OPENED THE TIMES [...] [O]N PAGE 29 WAS JOHN CANADAY’S COLUMN. HE WAS WRITING ON THEMES AND THE USUAL VARIATIONS. I LOOKED AT A BLURRY REPRODUCTION OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE’S ALLEGORICAL LANDSCAPE AT THE TOP OF CANADAY’S COLUMN; THE SKY WAS A SUBTLE NEWSPRINT GREY [...] A LITTLE STATUE WITH RIGHT ARM HELD HIGH FACED A POND (OR WAS IT THE SEA?). ‘GOTHIC’ BUILDINGS IN THE ALLEGORY HAD A FADED LOOK, WHILE AN UNNECESSARY TREE (OR WAS IT A CLOUD OF SMOKE?) SEEMED TO PUFF UP ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE LANDSCAPE.”
A CODE IS A VARIATION ON A NATURAL LANGUAGE.
EVERY CODE IS KEPT ALIVE BY ITS DESIRE TO BE UNDERSTOOD
EVERY CODE DIES WITH THE FULFILLMENT OF THAT DESIRE.
OFF AND ON. DOTS AND LINES. ZEROES AND ONES.
SAMUEL MORSE PUT AN END TO VASTNESS. WITH THE TELEGRAPH, IMMENSITY BECAME A RUIN.
Samuel Morse's interest in allegories and codes: in both, one thing stands for another.
What is coded in Smithson’s use of the word "__ ___ _. .._ __ . _. _"?
Code comes from the latin caudex. Trunk of a tree.
A city truly becomes a historical site once its language has changed.
This is evident in the capitals of faded empires and in places like Passaic.
Smithson writes: "The suburbs exist without a rational past and without the 'big events' of history.
"Oh, maybe there are a few statues, a legend, and a couple of curios, but no past—just what passes for a future."
How strange that Smithson, the monument finder, would not see the past everywhere.
We inhabit Smithson's future. The "'big events' of history" since his 1967 visit are quite visible in Passaic.
But they are not present as monuments or ruins.
The big events of history are coded in new ways. This, in itself, is a big event of history.
As a concept, the monument is a ruin.
As a concept, the ruin is a ruin.
¿Qué es lo que queda cuando no hay ruinas?
