TERM [monument].
In this text, Smithson explores the "monuments" of Passaic, New Jersey, though the rationale of what qualifies a monument from another moment or artifact remains up to the reader's discretion. How is a monument defined? What makes it relevant and under what circumstances? If an object or moment is monumental, it must take on some relevance to the observer. Yet, from another vantage, this same object or moment can be irrelevant against monumental qualifiers. It is a question of perspective and scale. The space between relevance and irrelevance perhaps is what ultimately qualifies a monument. What the object becomes in the "in between", a space devoid of the observer's judgement, speaks of its essence as a monument. Can/should a monument therefore exist without human appropriation?
TERM [historic absence].
Smithson describes the suburbs as a place that, "exists without a rational past... just what passes for a future" [pg. 72]. Being without a historic context implies that an object or place exists only in the present moment, without regard to previously established systems, historic calamities, or deep cultural underpinnings. Can an object or place have a future without a past, or will it be perpetually stuck in the present? The perpetual present is "of the moment" but over time will continually evolve to give the object or place at least a shallow measure of past and future. "Historic absence" therefore can only be defined as a temporary condition, one that will give way to at least a glimpse of historicity and the potential for future growth.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
The stream of consciousness dialog style of this text further exasperates the ideas of living in the perpetual present and of the space between relevance and irrelevance as described above. The reader must sift through the presented information to find what is monumental not only in terms of the author's physical journey, but also in the greater theoretical context around which this tour of Passaic travels.
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