An easier read this week! It's more of a descriptive story than a factual analysis. Written by art critic who talks about his 'home', Las Vegas. Dave Hickey has a completely different background to any of the previous authors we have looked into, Hickey was a drug user who liked to travel (not in a desirable fashion) and has used his drug use to survive through life in his home of Las Vegas.
He talks about Las Vegas being his home in a way that not many other people would, Vegas to most people is a place to go to get away from your own 'reality' of what we all call home, a place to go for fun, gambling, partying and mystery. Dave Hickey saw all this, but it was this setting that allowed him to feel comfortable in, a place that represented his values and didn't feel alienated, this was his home in the desert. He describes Vegas as a social scene, a place where people became free spirits, a place where outsiders can get work. People wouldn't feel alienated in a place like Vegas as it is not a typical city where standing out is seen as alien, standing out is a formality in Vegas. He talks of Vegas as his home before all of these corporations came into town and put their big flashing McDonalds signs in, once Vegas turned into this commercial advertising canvas, Hickey left as Las Vegas had lost its real values and Hickey therefore didn't have the same connection he once had with this once 'unique' area.
There is no obvious wealth hierarchy, you could be sitting around a poker table with high rolling celebrities and being treated as an equal, whereas anywhere else in the world, there would be a social divide if you were to share a space with a celebrity. This represented Hickey's values and this is why he called it home. He liked that Vegas abided by two rules, which seem very fitting to the gambling capital of the world, 'know the odds' and 'treat everybody equally'. Vegas is all about chances, and mystery, and as an outsider when he arrived, he fitted in because there was no social categories to define yourself in, as long as he knew his odds before hand, he was happy to live his life.
I think that the social equality and the lack of hierarchy is what drew Hickey to Vegas and its an interesting way to think of a home, its all about the individuals values and that determines your home. Hickey believed in his own philosophy of how and where to live, similar to that of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was brought up into a Unitarian family where he believed in the wonders of nature, he would go on to design buildings around how he believed we should be living. Hickey had his own beliefs of living and the concept of a 'home' and so did Wright. In the 20's Wright would move back to America and start a new chapter and style in his architectural career, the Mayan Revival. Implementing a new style of architecture to Los Angeles, a style he believed would help the city find an identity, Wright loved the fact he could design in his style whereby nobody would judge or expect him to have a collective idea but an individualistic idea. I believe there isn't much of a difference between Hickey and Wright in terms of their ideologies and beliefs of what the home is and how it show be experienced.
He talks about Las Vegas being his home in a way that not many other people would, Vegas to most people is a place to go to get away from your own 'reality' of what we all call home, a place to go for fun, gambling, partying and mystery. Dave Hickey saw all this, but it was this setting that allowed him to feel comfortable in, a place that represented his values and didn't feel alienated, this was his home in the desert. He describes Vegas as a social scene, a place where people became free spirits, a place where outsiders can get work. People wouldn't feel alienated in a place like Vegas as it is not a typical city where standing out is seen as alien, standing out is a formality in Vegas. He talks of Vegas as his home before all of these corporations came into town and put their big flashing McDonalds signs in, once Vegas turned into this commercial advertising canvas, Hickey left as Las Vegas had lost its real values and Hickey therefore didn't have the same connection he once had with this once 'unique' area.
There is no obvious wealth hierarchy, you could be sitting around a poker table with high rolling celebrities and being treated as an equal, whereas anywhere else in the world, there would be a social divide if you were to share a space with a celebrity. This represented Hickey's values and this is why he called it home. He liked that Vegas abided by two rules, which seem very fitting to the gambling capital of the world, 'know the odds' and 'treat everybody equally'. Vegas is all about chances, and mystery, and as an outsider when he arrived, he fitted in because there was no social categories to define yourself in, as long as he knew his odds before hand, he was happy to live his life.
I think that the social equality and the lack of hierarchy is what drew Hickey to Vegas and its an interesting way to think of a home, its all about the individuals values and that determines your home. Hickey believed in his own philosophy of how and where to live, similar to that of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was brought up into a Unitarian family where he believed in the wonders of nature, he would go on to design buildings around how he believed we should be living. Hickey had his own beliefs of living and the concept of a 'home' and so did Wright. In the 20's Wright would move back to America and start a new chapter and style in his architectural career, the Mayan Revival. Implementing a new style of architecture to Los Angeles, a style he believed would help the city find an identity, Wright loved the fact he could design in his style whereby nobody would judge or expect him to have a collective idea but an individualistic idea. I believe there isn't much of a difference between Hickey and Wright in terms of their ideologies and beliefs of what the home is and how it show be experienced.
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