Urban Signs/Signs of the Urban: Of Scenes and Streetscapes

Abstract

The window on the street is not a mental place from which the interior gaze would be following abstract perspectives.A practical site, private and concrete, the window offers views that are more than spectacles.Perspectives which are mentally prolonged so that the implication of this spectacle carries its explanation.Familiarity preserves it as it disappears and is reborn, with the everyday life of inside and out.Opacity and horizons, obstacles and perspectives are implicated, for they become complicated, imbricate themselves to the point of allowing the Unknown, the giant city, to be perceived or guessed at.With its diverse spaces affected by diverse temporalities-rhythms.(Henri Lefebvre 1996: 224) Let me set the scene for this thematic section of Culture Unbound, a collection of essays dedicated to signs in the city/city of signs, by drawing on a personal reflection on aspects of two streets I've lived on: Montréal's Boulevard St. Laurent and Berlin's Kastanienallee.In both cases, they speak to issues that are germane to the semiotic power of the city, and do so in ways that frame many of the issues this section explores in number of different ways.Between 1997 and 2003, I lived on Blvd St. Laurent, the "Main", just north of Pine Ave, which put me at the lower end of the Montréal's renowned Plateau.For those unaware of this part of Montréal, this particular intersection can be read as a symbolic and material incarnation of the social and economic life in Montréal for a number of reasons.During that time, the shape of the neighbourhood changed gradually but dramatically.I witnessed these changes through my office window, from which I could gaze down onto St. Laurent.From there, I watched the steady rotation of shops, with old stores replaced by new restaurants, discount computer shops, book stores, and clothing shops.I lived in an area (briefly) nicknamed "Little Asia", an appellation that referred to the many Asian fast food joints that had appeared on the Main in recent years.Some people lament the disappearance of the mom and pop shops, delis, kitchenware stores, and bakeries while others see a street reinvigorated by new waves of immigrant entrepreneurs which have moved in to stake their claim to the mythical promise the Main has consistently offered newcomers to the city.Whether negative or positive, these sentiments reiterate the rich history inscribed into the both the built and imaginary landscape of St. Laurent.From my vantage point, further lingering over the streetscape gave up more evidence of the changes begin wrought on the Main.Although I couldn't see them from my window, the three buildings just south of where I lived spoke to the street's history and its myths as well.Abandoned as apartments, their first floors--

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