Apr 23, 2016—52.463° 13.359°
T/rain Lines
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Natur-Park Südgelände functions—is designed to function—as an
ecological clock………… …… …… …… …… …… … ………
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………… ………… The clock was set according to railroad time.
Powerful men inscribed the linear logic of capital and the ruthless efficiency
of war on the land. Parallel lines of steel, spaced exactly 1.435 meters apart,
still dissect the land……………….. The railroad was a technology for
standardizing time and space in order to commodify nature. The trains ran
on time in order to move troops and materiel and, later, Jews according to
the plan. When the plan went off its tracks and the yard fell into neglect,
rain opened scars in the hard-packed dirt and wooden sleepers. Instead of
following tables, time now unfolded in the slow melting of concrete, the
development of plants, and the succession of species. And yet, the
infrastructure of capital continued to pattern the
landscape……………………… With spring showers, emerald moss
colonized steel rails, running in uncanny straight lines as if it had
somewhere to go. The first pioneer birch trees flowered, and their seeds
fluttered down and took root in the cracks rain opened in railroad ties. As
yard became Natur-Park, the two-dimensional grid grew into three-
dimensions…………. …………. …………. Organic nature grafted onto
the machine.
From high above, this hybrid forest’s pattern recalls the cellular
structure of the trees themselves. Cellulose, as rigid as steel, runs in
parallel lines—But wait! How easily we have tripped on the tracks and
slipped past abstraction into organicist mysticism. What analytical
purchase would this visual analogy provide? What critical purpose does
noting the homology serve? It satisfied our interdisciplinary ambitions to
recognize patterns across scales, but we’re witnessing similar events.
No: the technosphere is not reduced to the biosphere. We set out to show
how capitalist projects literally structured landscapes long after their
obsolescence. We almost ended up in ahistorical, functionalist time, which
makes assigning collective responsibility seem petty—and thus imagining
alternative responsible collectives impossible. (And yet, says our complex
systems botanist, there is that functional pattern…)
