septiembre 30, 2011

El artificio del automóvil revelado por el cine llega al sí mismo del paseo.

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El interior de un automóvil.

El habitáculo del automóvil, un hecho en el cual ya no reparamos, se nos ha vuelto habitual. Entramos en él y nos trasladamos todos los días. Su interior no es propiamente un espacio, es un objeto inmediato al cuerpo.

Esta cápsula móvil nos hace percibir la extensión de otra manera, desde la continuidad.

El automóvil le introduce a al ir en la ciudad un factor de continuidad que es distinta a la marcha a pie, donde está presente el esfuerzo y la fatiga. Esta continuidad es desplazarse sin esfuerzo físico, donde la distancia es un factor del tiempo, por ejemplo se dice: este poblado está a media hora en auto.

Lo que se mira desde el interior del auto, aunque cambie vertiginosamente con la velocidad no resulta desventajoso. Al contrario, si esta marcha es acompañada por la presencia de la música, que es cada día mas habitual. Se mira hacia afuera un paisaje, sea urbano o natural, que va cambiando bajo el aire de una melodía. Esto es ya un cambio de espacio, no es la residencia con sus responsabilidades y apremios, ni tampoco es ir en una cápsula del tiempo en una nave sustraído al medio por el cual se va, como el metro.

Vamos en una visión frontal donde lo que tenemos a las espaldas ya pasó y solo cuenta lo que viene hacia adelante  junto a esto la música. Entonces nos  encontramos muy cerca del espacio del cine, el ir en el automóvil es estar en el espacio del cine sin un preciso argumento. Detrás del parabrisas por efecto del movimiento lo que vemos se vuelve una imagen.

Hoy una imagen se la puede asociar con una melodía, siempre calza. Seguimos en el auto, detenido cerca de la orilla del mar, unas personas haciendo una fila ante unas casetas, por unos instantes es algo digno de verse, es lo que acontece en la ciudad. Si la imagen no es lo suficientemente intensa es simple acontecer, la estructura musical garantiza la continuidad así como el desplazamiento del auto.

Así el ir en esta continuidad del cine ha hecho del trasladarse en automóvil un hecho en sí mismo, es decir, con tiempo se puede dar una vuelta en auto. Este es el equivalente a un paseo donde la distancia de ser un inconveniente pasa a ser un bien, se dispone de la distancia como distancia en su extenderse, en este espacio-cine que puede disfrutarse.

 

English version by Mary Ann Steane.

The artifice of the car revealed by cinema approaches the paseo* itself.

The interior of a car.

The cockpit of the car, a fact we do not notice, one which has become commonplace. We enter it and travel about everyday. Its interior is not properly a space, it is an object adjacent to the body.

This mobile capsule lets us see extent in another way, as continuity.

The car introduces to the business of travelling around the city a factor of continuity that is distinct from travel on foot, in which strength and fatigue is present. This continuity is movement without physical force, where distance is a factor of time, for example it is said: this village is half an hour away by car.

What is seen from the interior of a car, although changing rapidly with speed, is not disadvantageous.  Quite to the contrary, if this motion is accompanied by the presence of music, something more common everyday. A landscape is seen outside, whether urban or natural, that changes with the tune of a melody. This is already a change of space, it is not residence with its responsibilities and pressures, nor is it travel in a time capsule in a vehicle withheld from the means by which it operates, like the metro.

We travel with a frontal view where what is behind us has already passed and the only thing that counts is what is coming at us with the music. Then we encounter a more cinematic space; going in a car is being in cinematic space that lacks a precise argument. Behind the windshield, the effect of movement is that what we see becomes an image.

Today it can be an image associated with a melody, one that is always a match. We follow in a car, lingering by the shore, where some people are forming a queue in front of a kiosk. For some moments what is happening in the city is something worth seeing. If the image is not sufficiently intense it is simply happening, the musical structure guaranteeing continuity, as it does the movement of the car.

Motion in this cinematic continuity has therefore made car travel a fact in itself, which is to say, with time, one can take a drive in a car. This is the equivalent of a stroll where distance changes from being an inconvenience to a positive advantage, distance becomes available as distance in its extension, in this cinematic space to be enjoyed.

 

 

* Paseo is a term meaning stroll or parade. ‘Dar un paseo’ means ‘to take a stroll’ or ‘stretch one’s legs’. In Spanish culture the paseo is the daily neighbourhood stroll in the late afternoon in which one greets one’s fellow citizens by making a round through the local streets. I once knew a man in Priego de Córdoba in Andalucía who could be ‘found’ in the paseo every day because the route and timing of his stroll was so regular. Such expressions of community solidarity take other forms in the UK. ‘Beating the bounds’ is an ancient custom still observed in some English and Welsh parishes. Once a year, typically on Ascension Day, a group of old and young members of the community walk the boundaries of the parish. Usually led by the parish priest and church officials, this walk shares the knowledge of where they lie, and prompts prayers for protection and blessing of the land they contain.