Post St.Joost 2005, Superfacial Kruisplein: A New Advanced Method

9.
Debbie van Berkel
Both the initial Kruisplein Comfort project and the investigation leading
up to Lost in Transition, the final thesis, are about patterns of movement
at the Kruisplein. Maybe more precisely put, they are about the sense of
disorientation and the way to escape from there into a state of... A state
of... A state of poetic reassurance. Kruisplein Comfort turns the act of
walking of a single woman into dance with a partner. Replaces insecurity
with ritual. Couples the banal to the sublime. Anxiousness is turned into
enjoyment by the shear change of pace and motion. Single becomes couple.
Vulnerability dissolves into intangibility.
The second case of disorientation is derived from the actual situation
at the entrance of the Kruisplein. Building activities have not only obscured
the views towards the city for all those passengers arriving at Rotterdam
Central Station, they have also destroyed any predictable pattern of
movement from there on.
For the next five years this part of the Kruisplein will be a wasteland
of fences, ditches, machines and other obstacles that will cause permanent
discomfort and disorientation. Temporary signs and notices are meant to
|direct vast amounts of people to their destinantions, but their impact is
low. The aim of manipulation is obscured by the irregularity of the official
routing system. Because signs have to be modified or re-hung practically
every single day an ever more confusing pattern arises.
Unintentionally it seems to give rise to a new approach to this kind of
battlefield signage. Why not cash in on the confusion? Accept that no system
at least in situations like these will be able to direct travellers from A to B
in a proper way and instead explore the possibilities of helping people to
get lost in this archeological site. A change of perspective might help people
realise that walking astray will not only lead to lost time, but maybe also to
new insights. Signs will no longer predict the answer, but rather pose the
question. They will not satisfy their need for certainty but examine why
certainty appears to be such a valuable asset to the modern traveller.
Great findings have resulted from derailed scientific research. And what
about derailed walking? For the next five years the Kruisplein area could
be a laboratory, a poetic circus and a fair excuse for being late.