The paper aims to investigate its consistency and describe its forms, along two main lines, one aimed at exemplifying a possible configuration of the mall and the other intended to reconstruct its internal and external dynamics, of overall transformation. On the one hand, it is to survey the "shopping mall" form and its modes of use and operation. First (§ 2), making use of the fictional and documentary material made available by Paul Mazursky's film, Scenes from a Mall (1991), the mall at the apogee of its fortune, coinciding with the optimistic phase of the globalization process, will be described and the specific perceptual-sensory relations constituted with its frequenters will be traced, along with an illustration of how the salient features of the commodity places that preceded it and that it syncretically encompasses are recapitulated in it. Again in a reconstructive function, an attempt will then be made to set up (§ 3) a typological and aesthetic definition of the "mall principle," with the help of Joseph Kupfer's and Reinhard Knodt's elaborations of philosophy of technique, and using conceptual tools such as "device" and "techno-natural performance," "technology of perception" and "technological cave," "oikos" and "substitute world," "aesthetic hypertrophy" and "artificiality closed in on itself," "public space" and "private space." While retracing social analyses on the processes of generalized aestheticization and the role of malls in urban contexts, the typology of the mall as a place of goods, construction and "city within a city" will be focused on (§ 4), emphasizing its distinctive features as opposed to the department store and hypermarket - linked to theatricality the former and the craggy functionality of economic profitability the latter - which, if anything, set its perception in the manner of the movie screen and entail a transformation of its user into a compulsive buyer. On the other hand, in order to follow the internal movements of the "mall" device and the dynamics to which it is subjected in its development, we will first refer to how it acts on the multiple dimension of the senses and the relationship between bodies and commodities (§5). On the strength of writer Annie Ernaux's annotations, attention will be able to turn to the life that takes place inside shopping malls, not limited to buying but capable of provoking thoughts, emotions and memories. The physiognomy of places is thus accompanied by sensitivity to the nuances and differences-social, gender, cultural-of the social space constituted there, in constant tension between communities of desire and the pervasiveness of control. Along with the use of physical space, Ernaux's narrative ethnography will allow, secondly, for a focus on time - denied, lost, extorted - as a revealing element of the limits of this experience that prompts questions about its possible transformation (§ 6). Therefore, by following the dynamics of the form as a whole, it will, finally, be possible - starting with the developments that have occurred in the last two decades after the financial crisis, the redrawing of the global collocations of production and wealth, the growing propensity for e-commerce, the pandemic - to account for the process of the "collapse of the American mall," the revival elsewhere of the shopping mall formula and its recent partial and hybridized return (§ 7).

Il contributo si propone di indagare la consistenza e di descriverne le forme dello shopping mall, secondo due direttrici principali, una volta a esemplificare una possibile configurazione del mall e l'altra volta a ricostruirne le dinamiche interne ed esterne, di trasformazione complessiva. Da un lato, si tratta di rilevare la forma "shopping mall" e le sue modalità d'uso e di funzionamento. In primo luogo (§ 2), avvalendosi del materiale narrativo e documentario messo a disposizione dal film di Paul Mazursky, Scenes from a mall (1991), si descriverà il mall all'apogeo della sua fortuna, in coincidenza con la fase ottimistica del processo di globalizzazione, e si tracceranno le specifiche relazioni percettivo-sensoriali costituite con i suoi frequentatori, illustrando come in esso siano ricapitolati i tratti salienti dei luoghi delle merci che lo hanno preceduto e che esso sincreticamente ingloba. Sempre in funzione ricostruttiva, si cercherà poi di impostare (§ 3) una definizione tipologica ed estetica del "principio mall", con l'ausilio delle elaborazioni di Joseph Kupfer e Reinhard Knodt sulla filosofia della tecnica, e utilizzando strumenti concettuali quali "dispositivo" e "performance tecnico-naturale", "tecnologia della percezione" e "caverna tecnologica", "oikos" e "mondo sostitutivo", "ipertrofia estetica" e "artificialità chiusa in se stessa", "spazio pubblico" e "spazio privato". Nel ripercorrere le analisi sociali sui processi di estetizzazione generalizzata e sul ruolo dei centri commerciali nei contesti urbani, ci si concentrerà sulla tipologia del centro commerciale come luogo delle merci, di oggetto costruito e di "città nella città" (§ 4), sottolineandone i tratti distintivi rispetto al grande magazzino e all'ipermercato - legati alla teatralità il primo e alla funzionalità stretta della redditività economica il secondo - che, semmai, ne impostano la percezione alla maniera dello schermo cinematografico e comportano una trasformazione del suo fruitore in acquirente compulsivo. D'altra parte, per seguire i movimenti interni del dispositivo "mall" e le dinamiche a cui è sottoposto nel suo sviluppo, faremo prima riferimento a come esso agisce sulla dimensione multipla dei sensi e sul rapporto tra corpi e merci (§5). Forte delle annotazioni della scrittrice Annie Ernaux, l'attenzione potrà rivolgersi alla vita che si svolge all'interno dei centri commerciali, non limitata all'acquisto ma capace di suscitare pensieri, emozioni e ricordi. La fisionomia dei luoghi si accompagna così alla sensibilità per le sfumature e le differenze - sociali, di genere, culturali - dello spazio sociale che vi si costituisce, in costante tensione tra comunità di desiderio e pervasività del controllo. Oltre all'uso dello spazio fisico, l'etnografia narrativa di Ernaux consentirà, in secondo luogo, di concentrarsi sul tempo - negato, perso, estorto - come elemento rivelatore dei limiti di questa esperienza che spinge a interrogarsi sulla sua possibile trasformazione (§ 6). Seguendo quindi le dinamiche della forma nel suo complesso, sarà infine possibile - a partire dagli sviluppi avvenuti negli ultimi due decenni dopo la crisi finanziaria, il ridisegno delle collocazioni globali della produzione e della ricchezza, la crescente propensione all'e-commerce, la pandemia - rendere conto del processo di "crollo dell’American mall", della rinascita altrove della formula del centro commerciale e del suo recente ritorno parziale e ibridato (§ 7).

Andrea Borsari (2022). Il mall e oltre. Tipologia e dinamica di un luogo delle merci. Milano : Meltemi.

Il mall e oltre. Tipologia e dinamica di un luogo delle merci

Andrea Borsari
2022

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate its consistency and describe its forms, along two main lines, one aimed at exemplifying a possible configuration of the mall and the other intended to reconstruct its internal and external dynamics, of overall transformation. On the one hand, it is to survey the "shopping mall" form and its modes of use and operation. First (§ 2), making use of the fictional and documentary material made available by Paul Mazursky's film, Scenes from a Mall (1991), the mall at the apogee of its fortune, coinciding with the optimistic phase of the globalization process, will be described and the specific perceptual-sensory relations constituted with its frequenters will be traced, along with an illustration of how the salient features of the commodity places that preceded it and that it syncretically encompasses are recapitulated in it. Again in a reconstructive function, an attempt will then be made to set up (§ 3) a typological and aesthetic definition of the "mall principle," with the help of Joseph Kupfer's and Reinhard Knodt's elaborations of philosophy of technique, and using conceptual tools such as "device" and "techno-natural performance," "technology of perception" and "technological cave," "oikos" and "substitute world," "aesthetic hypertrophy" and "artificiality closed in on itself," "public space" and "private space." While retracing social analyses on the processes of generalized aestheticization and the role of malls in urban contexts, the typology of the mall as a place of goods, construction and "city within a city" will be focused on (§ 4), emphasizing its distinctive features as opposed to the department store and hypermarket - linked to theatricality the former and the craggy functionality of economic profitability the latter - which, if anything, set its perception in the manner of the movie screen and entail a transformation of its user into a compulsive buyer. On the other hand, in order to follow the internal movements of the "mall" device and the dynamics to which it is subjected in its development, we will first refer to how it acts on the multiple dimension of the senses and the relationship between bodies and commodities (§5). On the strength of writer Annie Ernaux's annotations, attention will be able to turn to the life that takes place inside shopping malls, not limited to buying but capable of provoking thoughts, emotions and memories. The physiognomy of places is thus accompanied by sensitivity to the nuances and differences-social, gender, cultural-of the social space constituted there, in constant tension between communities of desire and the pervasiveness of control. Along with the use of physical space, Ernaux's narrative ethnography will allow, secondly, for a focus on time - denied, lost, extorted - as a revealing element of the limits of this experience that prompts questions about its possible transformation (§ 6). Therefore, by following the dynamics of the form as a whole, it will, finally, be possible - starting with the developments that have occurred in the last two decades after the financial crisis, the redrawing of the global collocations of production and wealth, the growing propensity for e-commerce, the pandemic - to account for the process of the "collapse of the American mall," the revival elsewhere of the shopping mall formula and its recent partial and hybridized return (§ 7).
2022
I luoghi delle merci
219
249
Andrea Borsari (2022). Il mall e oltre. Tipologia e dinamica di un luogo delle merci. Milano : Meltemi.
Andrea Borsari
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/896360
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