AS IN OS:

AN EYE ON THE ROAD.

A Sensibili1y Primer.

This is a diary of car-movement recorctnu the 6\1'olving sensibility 01 a passenger in a car to the post-industrial landscape.

To the eighteenth century's inherited consciousness of nature and landscape Jane Austen's novels added her g-eneration's perception of dlatance and lime; a response 10 the news of movement of ships and armies in the Napoleonic Wars and. within England. to the ease o.f communication on trunk roads.

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, we have inherited a literature of man and rnacbtne in nature out there is as yet no equivalent' of1he eighleenth century'S unCle~standjng which penetrated all to levels of SOCiety through "the work of writers, artists. landscape designers, and architects.

This Primer is a document reaching out towards such an understanding

P.S. September '82

THE CAR: CtTRO~N DS

Ali~QIl and PetarSm~h:>oo c.trovofour Gitroens:-lICitrOoer! JD, a Cltr:oM OS, a Citr-oel'l ro Bre;lll, and a Citroen ex, The- following [5; -Ii briei ~~~icol1 ot jmpcrtant CltrnEl-n ~IT]{II,;:

THE OWNER AfIID DIRECTOR$

Andh!: Citroell, founder qI'the- firm, The famous IClg;) w ittt Its double angll.lS ts an lmprrnt 0' tile C01iged wheels whlch the firm Inilially prCKJooed, based upon, I'L AU51sian patent, In 1919, CitrQl]n e nteree the actcmcene business and in 19.34, launchcc:l ttl9 rerncus TfU.c:tkl.~A .. ant II WlO,:;; th-e first Industri. 8.lIjI' prcduced cor with frorrt '0'lIl1&61 drtve, but its de",elllpml;lm com.ple-taly evertaxec tho firm. Andre Cltro9n clled in 18::35, a linHllcially ruined ml;lll

The Michelin 1::1fO;:rthl!lrs, primary snarahoroera in iHe firm, look OVE. the factory ~n 1934 .. Along with the new enreere, F'illrre B.oulangaf (wile he~c:I tha pcsnen ulltll his ucatn 1n a car accident in 18150) antt Rob-B-I"l Pl1is.euJ:. t,r,0flJafte( lu!'lt~1 '95-9). they GonUnue-d tho oompMy'll progrilssi ... e, mncvetlve polllics.ln c:allaboratKln with tho best ang~nl;.'"er~ and dcalgnars,thOllm.adofllJtcmo-bilel1i$.!or)',

111 19M, Citroen and PeugM<lt mc-rged, and tOCiIr Ol:lflirol of Maserat!intt1e,mld-!levlIlHtles.

THE DESIGNE~S

Flamin/o Bertuni, deelqner, sculptor ;!11K! arci'1llot:dj lJOrll in ~OO3 near vereso, d'S<lln 1964 in F'ari'$;. On the invit?i:i-O!l oj D French enginetJr, he vffilted Paris forthl;! nrst ume in i5l2J aM moved there perl1'l~ll e ·ntlv In 19:'il.

In his capacity ali! des:~ner, he designed and moeeiee the terncus C~II'[)cn, "Traction Avant" in a slngll'lo nigh~ ~n 1934, Ol(;()ortiing III illS biography. Flaminlo S.;.rtoilil'laG to d?slgn three other pionoorlng cara tor cnroen: li1"l12CV (1'9481, fallowed by the remous Ci1roon DS {195.5J and flnall'llhe Ami 6- (19&1) witllits unl.tsiJiil [inijli.'ld re.arwln:dshi~d

The Citroen DS (In French, "la DIl<e5saH, ll1"wlill~ "the God~ deSB"} il'! a muesrouo or car ~"'I;"I~fm of Ih(l1!J'50s Cirid flOs_ In !hoe ramoue essay "LIl nouvelle CIS" (Ml'ihologies, Pene 1957). Rolend Barthas PC"sc.:lbes 'WIth- errtnuelasrn tne autcbody'S perreencn n is not figured lldc;jitively by 115: im:lMdUCIl parts - the hood, ti1;f) fEll"ldere, the ~ltadligl'lts, the n.mff~n9 boord,. etc. 1r1:!\tlad, it is Ihe Joinery of these parts ln phlna, afipnment wlih on ... ancther whicil results 1n a uflifis-d whole, IIk~a sp;a.ceshifl.

As a s.eulptor, Flamlnio Sl'lrtoni 8110W!l his work In a nember IJf-exhlbition.s, for wcamplc, 11'1 Pana in 193C in I!I group show cf !mllan artists whi<:1'1 Included de- Chirco, His sc.ulptures IrCl'l1lha 195013 raea" eertnin pie-ces by Brancuai.

A~ en erchltect, he comprstsd .a number 01 renov a ti[)n!l in Par'51 In the·eatlv 195D:;; and, among other preleets, (I Pesign for II house In Boulognl;lln 1'9.5.2:.

I-ie.nry Chaboron, dellorgrJer and ear boliV mechanfc, tiuill'lIIB DB eon\lertib~e for (:itr-oen Ii-Cl:ording tc the 1;l-o~igl1 by Bertcnt. He etsc dld speciat body work: for verteuons on nte etaadard CI1ro.1!n mor:l~ts, including various pHlsldenlialllm- 01,lS!~:S.

Robert O-prOfl, designer, W<I3 Flaminio 8l'1ortoni'$ ;;;U(':Ce-1!i50r atCJtm!in. TI;l~th e r; the),'Wcrked on Ihemadificaiioo5 01 theCS'1r-ont ecruen, with itSfamOUB movallblofl ile~dl~Qh'!i (8sm 1"96-81· Rllburt 'Oprcn reier dm;ignecl the GS i15170) .and Ihe ex (1974), INhkh WAS the DS'legitimate SUCCt;ls:~or,

The ecuabcreuen "I Citroiin and MasI;I-Il::IV produced the IAiIlrn.lii SM 119701, also dlil.sign(ld by Opron

StudiQ Bertona in T(lrino reinstated the- hafcl-MgI;Id form a_J1!;J i;lesign-edtha ex ('IiS2) as the succeseor to tte GIS, end tile XIIYI (19-B9) as the El~MeS~Qr r;4 the ex.

THE ENGINEERS

Andre LefebvfA, englnl!i'e'r and tatancetcr, rnu ... ~d from tile fal'1lOlJs airpr"lle rabncetor ~~rie1 Voisin to ~enm.jI! In 1929, and two YS-!!f$ later, to Cffroiin, Trained 88 an aerespeee

ASPECT 1: A NEW KIND OF FREEDOM OFFERED BY THE CAR:

The mobility that the car has given to everyone has helped 10 change our social patterns and, progressively, our social needs; for example, 'We no longer need 10 go 10 the centre we move to many centres .... and out of the city .. and out of the country altogether. Our

social activity has adjusted; Instead of sitting in a public auditorium or walking a city street, we are as ether people In a similar vehicle: social contact is by implication we are told about it: watch it, occasionally re-ad about it; but our pnystca: experience of communn)l adhesion is that 'we drive it'. 'We get in the car and go .... stop the car and get out'.

This new kind of freedom; achieved in the lifetime of our generation is now sufficiently immediate history that it can be considered

to discover the nature 01 tho sensibilities we must have unconsciously developed . and to see jf fresh appraisal of them can

bring these senalblljrles through to generate a rethinking ot the many basic assumptions related to our 'inherited' way of seeing landscape and towns .... establishing a fresh understanding 01 what sort of places we wish to build towards.

moved by the car along an ordinary OXFORD TO

curvilinear ex-tene through fields; all WORCESTER

vegetation on either side the usual strong

green, viewed under the most typical sky of grey~overcast causing conditions of considerable glare .... it is ,SUddenly oovtous that a passenger's view is worth describing ..

a tum aside into the town recentfy

bye passed. . .. on geWng our, rhe air - it is realised _, is chili .a beautifuJ weeping willow screens the traffic etltt using the old main road which located this 'diner' ... ' a blooti track leads to broken plaregJass

. . .. the car _ in the meantime of the pause has taken in a wasp . . .. requiring a raCe to find a Chemist's shop at Camberley.

LONDON TO FONTHILL:

UWe- C~ef &'gsl'lol!

LONDON TO OXFORD~ Henley

j

Mf_·NOATH

a most perfect smaIJ town .. _. a series of doors; gentle ways-in, ,barriers of quality to open-up to callers; squaf proportions rhar have ample width to receive deliveries of hampers and suggesting Ihat inside are passages of similar proportions ....

tall pines and other distinguished trees

behind a rose-brick wa!i. with

grey-flint-panels a 10'19 wall

.. with trees . . .. and otose-cehina the green up-slope of the tun-stde for 8 back-drop ....

a red sing/e-de.cker bus amid the oncoming traffic ....

constricted to iwo Janes this traffic jmmediatefy queues-up behind lorries passing each other ....

of the cars joining the o tber lane and the many moving within sight on focal reeds, only a spring green, wefi-enamefJed foreign car stenas out among the slurp-shapes and dusr-mixed colours passing.

turquoise blue cars at speed On a country road whose old route - seen from this piece of motorway - aligned as if coming at the motorway ... , at last visual moment, circumspectly diverted; turquoise cars to be seen looping behind tr8€S to cross over the speeding traffic, between mesh parapets whose wire patterns watermark the sky as this car moves forwards to pass under. ..

a puffed-up mackerel sky ....

opalescent weather ....

a washboard sound, for the car is running in a concrete channel, an urban sluice beginning a motorwey .

as fringe-country met with. mist ties like steam exuded by the city.

first Service Station lies close in .... cars on ftyover crawl like flies .. necessary to move in to stow lane for a large while Mercedes to pas. and pull ahead.

this stretch of motorway the first portion built, where the dark green Volkswagenmedium size rear window, new in 1956 - was tried out, ..

sun over right shoulder roocnes all the new houses ....

traffic streaming in to tne city ....

mesh of a parapet on a ttyove: striates in dazzle patterns, offering~up variations rssr, as the tiyove« approached.

sunshine now floods across all, at a level with the ground, skimming all the traffic and the srubble in the fields with golden light; and warmth

yeflow~leafed poplars in a lefl-Iying hollow

patch or mist in another hottow, . .. black smoke from under lorries floats Sideways, merges with the numerOus pockets of hollOw-held mists ....

on-coming traffic comes out of a .sun silvered by mist ....

did they site this Service Station because of a propensity to pockets of mist here?

or out of pure chance does the possjbi1ity of escape encourage so many drivers to ta.ke a coffee-break? .. moving round on concrete service routes ~ 'are these two- way?' - to regain the petrol pumps.

weI! remembered uus - profiles rum soft, mist-screened greys .... hills remain close now; high profiles harsh blue, 'the pinnacles even brutal against the skyline;

but near to, greens vibrate their evening tones, and browns show well . .. the canal left behind. . .. mad running witt: rhe railway - playing touch-fast - come

ana g'o the dusk passes for space

around eecn field-tree of brown leaves

frees stand absolutely motiontess, as if waiting for nightfall - wifl something

happen? a pause in nature where

nothing moves ... _ from behind the hUls

bright enough to be emmet's eyes, ahead. the afterglow; sides of vehicles shine faintly, while their head-lights are reflecting .... a golden headlight now

lights stone walls, shows drifts of leaves

against them _ . .. the hills step that much

closer

Settle

tall chimneyed, the place stayed at t. before has warmly -'it windows awailr other guests .... rhe town su

street lights, and

buildings, headlights are

."""~,,,,.,,,,," bright, shop lights fall greasny on the black moisture of stone paveme~

long down-slope. mainfy heavy

lorries - tarpa.ulin'd loads - scooting up mots rure to such heights it is as if their industrial loads squirted out poJ1ured-spray, rust-coloured againsl the road which IS wet, the colour of sheet steel

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a repettent grey sky; light strikes the road to ma-ke it new lighter in tone than the sky . . .. beige clouds of spray biIJow beneath each car.

in the present sunlight water splashes appear explosive as jf each tyre sent sideways water rockers.

a ribbed aluminium bodywork van passes, green letters on its Side say dashingfy:

Houston. . . f ,-- -

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NORTH TO LONDON

SouTHAMPTON TO FONTHIlL: nigh!

a dark night.. .

headlights wind through Ih. nlghl seemingly without throwing beams or JighUng the air. r • blackness complete beyond each immediate light source

a oer): glimpse of a certain lodge reminds that the rQad now runs for a while a.longslde a high brick wall. , if cenno: be seen beside the Gar tonight ...

only hedges make discernible the car's lights because their dusty twigs reach out to show grey against 'the black sky and are situated relatively near the plane the car windows describe ....

car catches up with a bus to become !if by Its lighls. .. forlorn and lonely look of night travel reminding of Kings Lynn to Hunstanton road: such a time of night

. . .. the car IS on a road that continuaUy curves out of' sight to the Jeft movement has the effect that the left is spun past and tna! the right road boundary hardly appears to be moved

past. tne motion of previous vehicles

still disturbs the tett bank's weeds . . .. the grasses waving so, makes it seem as if the disturbed mass of vegetation Is a seaweed-like fringe to some giant, horizontal whee1, On to whose outside circular track, the length of rime of

turning suggesls tbe car has blundered

RDmsey-

SOUTHAMPTON ..•. rose coloured sky first seen

fa LONDON: bare branches; then over a rise in

!.'!lI'fmlng • all around a rose air that matches

the early evening taillights so that these seem perforations in the rising land ahead, or stars of the same rosest firmament ....

\

the light Is very good for lOOking at FONTHILL TO

the countryside patch worked by the OXFORD

ripening season _

sun behind the car, rain-fun-grey sky ahead; the landscape resonates in all the green-based range of tones. . .. before the rain lashes the road .. , .

rhe C8r travels due north. perpendicular to its usual way back, having {eft the way at an tmportent roundabout. . .. to head up

'Cobbett's Way· . Bull/ng'on Cress

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journey-time gives rime in which to recover and 'fonight's spirited atmosphere would pretend it could support a body

while the air etiout is visible by being clouded, still thicker air hangs in patches, in 'chaise-longue' drifts.

as the car passes, some groundlevel-light belonging to the airporl searchlights-up into a dense column af whitened air ....

it is also a wet night. . surface water looks dangerous as the car joins the second motorway . . .. maybe because the car joins at slow speed .... the wet surface glistens . . .. wet shines evilly with great depth on the shoulder, smooth black tarmac undisturbed .. as the motorway actualfy starts at point joined, any surtsce waler is not shifted as it wDuJd be by speeding tramc . an adjoining car, in moving ahead quicker, speed-boats away on this car's right

LEAVING lONDON VIA AIRPORT

excess moisture cloudJly supported in the air ai/ around tonight cars' headlights are softened. . .. some have great swansdown~muffs of light .... others mere g;ow-worms hardly moving towards the moving car .... depending on the angle of oncoming, headlights can play searchlights ...

car windscreen-wiper needs oil!'ng; it gives a single short squeak. bleeping sound ... rhe red retrecting-strips on posts to iett . . .. white reflector-strips on posts to right. white car's-ej-es aot ahead ... , the sound of tyres running on concrete is a runway sound. . .. ttie car's speed In relation to both lights and sound is just balanced for starting the run to take-off ... tne bleep ss signals

green cat's-eyes indicating

ingress/egress happen to complete the illusion . yet the car never takes-oft

after a rest', the windscreen-wipers have a rwo-oear squeak and no illusion Signalled

the air here opaque in regular puffs 10 the left of the headlights as if blowing back from some engine and the passenger looks curious!y.at the rear of the (Jar just

ahead for collusion in the phenomenon, but none ....

'/ here the air is steadily thick .... !heather

.._ / -' i lane, vehicles are joined by their beams of

\t\ !f'. ';l' light laid evenlY along the road from

\,~ /i~ verncte to vehicle .. , . "

'""X ."JlI0 a r.,abb. if, motionle.ss. '. '.' shows how mild tt is . ,

• cllmbmg headlights light the sky; they

, beam up wards shOWing, as in etencmea

t>.

profile, the bushes that this new lane - bifurcated from the old route - retained.as central reservation. . .. the pit of light to the Jeft ts glowing orange _ ...

second rabbit, faCing left this time, yet again on the left verge, motionless .... those in the comers 0' the back seat are respectively folded in laughter and ;ncensed by the stuffing-up a trouser-leg - by the now surprised middle one - of an extremely sticky paper ....

the red car's-eyes and the white

ear's-eyes not In phase, maybe

deliberately . . .. the two rows

measure-aut their set intervals and pass severally to the sides of the car without a strobing effect ..•.

third rabbit, eyes red ....

car hitching perceptibly as it picks-up speed on the wet surface. .. down-lighters on their poles resemble a circus big40p In the night. . .. strange

. .. Stonehenge that - in the 'tnirues - attracted un screened army camps - in the 'seventies' gets these oversized lights (and more and still more tasteless blocks eccruea to army camps) .. , , are the older religions stHJ combatted by newer cult-rites? .... short of tire down·lights, a new roed texture in stripes ettemete matt and shiny .... this car is moving over the first Of applied unreflecting surface. . .. it is square, .. next patch ts the or;gin81 shiny-surface road-tarmac . . .. twice more ttits lane only freated, as

, . ,. to be potntea at so soft an ethereal atmosphere produces a rococo sensation of drifting-up. , , ,

on the top of the Plain; air so milky and trridescent as to be gJory-come-upon-us

Into an elm-arched way, formed by passage of traffic. .. the darkened view shows thin sheets of sunlight failing; an open texture of the road's surface by the sun's striking low-angled, faint lorry smoke; framed ways worthy of matt-printing on creamy, deckle-edged photographic paper, German- 'thirtles'style . the speeding lorry - the car mov8S-up to pass - bounds and rocks - smet! letters on cab-door read Hockinqharn ....

fields are displayed in depth and distance is established by trees definitely ooemooeo in receding planes

speeding cars pleasanrly glint.

sometimes the journey-Orne

interminable, as if the road adhesive · .. such g.'utinous journeys - nothing rational to do with traffic or weather - tarnish the ideal of the goaJ snother

rime can be as simple as 'this return journey; the car slips into progressing 80

last 85 to be well on the way be/ore anyone could have looked around once,

or tWice, to appreciate the view or note the season this season is urging the

vegetation towards greater green and cowslips.

a particularly fine line 01 pines shows well sqsins spring ploughing on chalky ground . . .. then the line of pines rises and hackles to a crest 8S If is moved past

FONTHILL TO LONDON

one day of hot sun - journey undertaken - and the windscreen is splattered with green marks ....

here by chance the notebook centre has fleen used by a back-seat passenger to dra w a car game, ...

· . ,. to be going home to someone means the car is not simply aimed at" a target but some pull is exerted on the meaning of its movement.

very particular, emotive, seasonal quality of the countryside viewed in passing conspires with the car's being weighted down at the tail, heavy WIth apples, whose faInt perfume penetrates the car-space sufficiently to bring Keats' lines to mind

dropping-out Of the mist just wrapping the higher ground, SOme fine conical shapes ending a line of trees; pure shapes, sporting the pale grey and smooth side of geometrical models; their pretence a f abso1ute solidity conived at by the obscuring quality in the far air

approaching nearer, the outline becomes ha;ry , . .. then, fine twigs, in minute detail; the end tree is close · . ,. the is row seen in contiguQus depth - .;3 moment - before the car is passing down ,the length

the usual micro-climate pattern is of high ground cseur of mist, each drop in road level taking the car swimming in misty hollows; this day, the pattern reversed to produce - a few feet higher in the Plain - a much finer snow dusting;' a sparkIJng, even texture, as to seem an applied, artificial, make-believe; Ssnte-in-Arcsoe effect, .

FQNTHn.1.. TO LONDON

lor;;!1 !dUmA:!:

Road 10 Mere

ASPECT 6: CHANGE

As something of a stocktaking ten years after the flrsl writing of THE EYE ON THE ROAD: A DIARY OF A PASSENGER'S VIEW OF CAR MOVEMENT, 'his. selected text covers the improvement of roads in the decade nineteen-seventy to nineteen-eighty.

We know we need to mutate places by building towards an image of towns-in-the-landscape that will satisfy the new sensibilities and allow freedom from pressures of ali kinds.

pines rest very easily on the mind: a person does not even have to think about the problems of agriculture, , , , incredibly mild weather means t'he yelfow of elms is wonderfully perpetuated,

holly and such shiny evergreens glisten darkly in the rain until obliterated from sight by the rain becoming' a downpour

BlACKBUSH

gorse in bloom has furry cases against the rain ..

the car slides endlessly forward, past specimen trees of the English landscape, the car movement a.Uows the viewing of each specimen in three-quarters round; jf not a mite more ...

odd thickets, perhaps allotment-land intended for poor cottagers to gather faggots in ~ certainly that sort of weak-trees of ages-past - seen in rain-and-sack-cJoth-we.ather ....

misry sky touches the ground now and then as the contours rise ....

on the t,,,macadam the steely glint varies as road-tilt alters towards the sky-glare , . ,_ and the road angle allers wildly, changing continually in passing the car through the coun uvside under the sky

the car moves forever forwards, chasIng some taH-lights '" , some, but fewer, headlights approach, and pass

grass bright-wef ,_,,' hedgerows alternately line the way, " either make the car's progression an avenue way or slip in a glimpse of a ploughed piece ot topography, , , ,

I "" discemiote against a same-grey

--,_=~ ... background, under such overbearing skies the white painted dashes at the sides to roads dot past busily, annoyingly

FONTH1LL ro LONDON;M4 night

, , " sodium-lamp lanes open-up, speed apart. and free the car from dose proximity to oncoming traffic , , ,. endless pretty jewelled snake, bending, descending to penetrate the city

overhead lights string together into • mounting, dipping curve; paSSing through uset: ... orange coloured dashes in retreaUng perspective like some two-by-two flight ,... on the right, oncommg traffic headlights: et! is animation composed 01 lights. orange and white that sperkte and flash,

alternaring light and shade of summer day and heavity leafed roadside trees sunlight allowed by withdrawal 01 verdant shade - passes across a van's back as it traveJssome way ahead sudden withdrawal of shade, frequenlly repeated, makes it seem each time - at a glance - as it the van shunts sideways: the van's dusty surtece, glancingly sunlit, makes it appear as if the bulk is made of some materia! other than sheet metal; perhaps felt? .... ttoc« paper? , ..

. , .. the broad green band on the double-decker bus combines with the advertisements to make the bus appear to either have a wide-hipped bustle or to be to wing a windowed box. , , ,

the tall hedges to the left appear to have bleached amazingly. or be splashed by some outside force so that the splashes die-out towards each bush centre,

a gesture made out of the car in front - to the right - is darkly seen in the night before its purpose effects a marveJlous explosion into a comet of red sparks

a tobacco firework ..

the evening star behind the left shoulder now joined by another, , " then another

yet also to the left a tss: remaining lucid glow on the horizon; a result of two days' wind clearing the sky, soon - in car time - tree-lined stretches show the sky blue, continuous in the gap above , , " car running with ever ,so many bobbing cars, fat/owing down never-ending serpentine roads in the night

the kerb line gleams white stripes. dots, or continuous lines of the centre ind,cate various silent instructions, or directions occesioneily there are staccato slowings and among these cars: no knowing why this far back from the originating impulse,

two milk tomes in succession, their drivers mus t get fed-up with nights such as this and still a whole summer to be driven through. the milk lorry in front proves to be again two on being passed

CAMBRIDGE TO LONDON

SOUTHAMPTON TGLONDON_' early summer daytime

SOUTHAMPTON TO LONDON: eilr!y:wmmer night