The drones in the "city"

Certeau’s concept of the city is nothing short of a statement that we are all drones.

Certeau makes it clear that we as a society, or more specifically in the example of the city, that we have a structure or better yet a discipline that we aren’t even aware of half of the time. “The ordinary practitioners of the city live “down below,” below the thresholds at which visibility begins. They walk—and elementary form of this experience of the city; their knowledge of them is a blind as that of lovers in each other’s arms (Certeau 1344). This seems to refer directly to the structure of society. We, the people on the ground, the “walkers,” we pave the road as in we keep things going; money, jobs, construction, etc. We are the people that expand the map, yet we are not aware of it. There are things going on that we just don’t know about, a part of that is that we, in fact, the “walkers,” serve as the map-makers.

We are governed, we are suppressed by laws and classifications. “Administration is combined with a process of elimination in this place organized by “speculative” and classificatory operations. On the one hand, there is a differentiation and redistribution of the parts and functions of the city, as a result of inversions, displacements, accumulations, etc.; on the other there is a rejection of everything that is not capable of being dealt with in this way and so constitutes the “waste products” (Certeau 1345). This is a representation of the classifications that people are put into in the city, more so, how people are dealt with if they don’t conform to the structure. An example, we have certain districts in cities that are for certain jobs, like Wall-street, stocks, business, etc.; then we have districts that are “for” shopping, art, tourist attractions, project areas, etc. These are all sections, places that have been designated to people and people of certain trades, jobs, income, etc. These “waste products” are people that have “gone of the path” and that may be given a second chance, or may not, if they can’t be dealt with. We watched in class a 3D model of Rome in ancient times, more specifically a collage of separate ancient Roman architecture. What we see is the beauty of the city, but what that beauty is actually intended to do is so the standard of Roman culture. Statues and beautiful architecture show a society that is governed to uphold an image of distinguished, civilized, beauty. The citizens are expected to maintain a certain standard, thus, sculpted statues of sculpted men, pun intended, show that if one does not maintain this standard within themselves, then they will be shunned.