only capitalism has created eerie spaces
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@sun it feels far more common in the ex socialist states largely because of the sheer amount of repetition and little variation making for more "liminal" looking spaces than the often variety you see in capitalist countries, especially when abandoned
@ube there's an undeniable soul-crushing aspect to hypercapitalism but I mean damn the ussr had straight up rules requiring your art to suck
@sun yeah like both can have nice elements and soul crushing elements it's not unique to either. and i'd argue it's subjective as well, like most seem to feel like the identical commieblocks are soul crushing and american style suburbs aren't, when for me the american style suburbs, cookie cutter ones especially, are terrifyingly soul crushing, and the identical commieblocks really aren't and have their own sort of beauty to them especially when contrasted with bits of bits of nature around them in a way that an american style suburb wouldn't contrast with it but would instead still be soul crushing? it's all subjective
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@ube I have noticed that commieblock photos are curated to be only taken on grey winter days so they look as bad as possible
@sun to be fair in a lot russia and the northern socialist states more generally that is what a third of the year looks like, but that's regardless of structures. but yeah, some of my favorite photography is commieblocks contrasted with actually beautiful nature maybe even on a nice day, that's what made living in them really nice for me, the contrast of this gray brutalist block and the forest and fields around me where i lived, or even the beautiful clean snow in the winter before it melts into sludge later on, it was just so beautiful how could i hate it? and outside of small farming villages and such, most urban or semiurban commieblock layouts, actual housing districts, were layed out in a way to give people a lot of nature still around them, and natural lighting, and just a very pleasant walkable area around the buildings, and its stands to this day. one of my favorite places to walk in rīga was in the commie block area of purvciems (attached), and honestly unless the day was extremely shit already, it was just really fucking pretty all the trees and grass around with just commieblocks and concrete trails. sure there was a bus connection to a proper nature park too, but this is where i went more often, commieblock housing areas can be quite beautiful and often are by design.
