Lecture notes: toilets are not interesting, but they're more interesting than Duchamp's fxxking urinal

THE WATER CLOSET:
ON THE ART AND TECHNOLOGY
OF SANITATION SYSTEMS
June 28th, 2008, Enjoy Gallery

1). Introduction.
The term ‘Readymade’ was defined by Marcel Duchamp in 1938, in Dictionnaire Abrégé du Surréalisme, co- written with André Breton, as “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist ” (Obalk, 2000). Yet this claim presupposes that mass- manufactured consumer artifacts have no dignity until they are ‘made’ into artworks (through the institutional power of artists to enact such actions) and that all resulting artworks have dignity (lacked by the initial object). Neither claim is particularly true. Without wishing to dwell on the exotic ontology of installation art, I merely suggest that there is no such thing as a merely “ordinary object,” and that to insist on the “dignity of the work of art” is to ignore the significant dignity of manufactured objects, in particular water- closets, their history and cultural implications, and the network of systems and infrastructure that they are connected to.

2). Historical Background: The Ancient World
Main points:
• The emergence of toilets, latrines, sanitation systems etc. is coincident with the shift
from nomadic ways of life to concentrations of society in urban centres.
• First toilets known: Egypt, 2100BC.
• First written ruling on latrines: the Torah, Deuteronomy 23.
(Deuteronomy 23:10 -23:13) clearly instructs the Jews to maintain hygiene standards, even at war, and to keep the latrines far from camp: “And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee ”:

• Water borne toilets appeared in China during the Western Han Dynasty, around 206 BCE- 24 CE; Crete, 1700BCE; the Roman Empire marked the peak of sanitary and waterworks engineering
(Deuteronomy 23:10 -23:13) clearly instructs the Jews to maintain hygiene standards, even at war, and to keep the latrines far from camp: “And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee. ”

3). The Hygienic Decline of the West
• As all the great Ancient Civilizations fell, so too did their sanitary engineering.
• Bathing, basic hygiene, soap, all highly unusual in Europe until the 18th
Century for all but the ruling classes (if then).
• The Nietzsche hypothesis: cleanliness associated with the Romans, and vanity
• Perfumes and powders covered the stench.
• Streets of Europe frequently open sewers.
• No toilet paper available until the 19th Century.

4). The Triumph of Science over Superstition.
• Appalling hygiene standards a major factor in the Black Plague of 1350, which
killed one third of the population of Europe.
• People gradually realized that disease was transmitted through water and waste.
Earliest proclamation on sanitation of 1388, banning dumping “Dung and Filth” into
rivers and towns.
• Three distinct shifts in culture that led to the modern sanitary systems:
• a). shift from Medieval superstition to science and evidence- based health policy
• b). a shift from Medieval power structures (serving their own interests) to the
modern nation- state that seeks to improve the lot of the populace
• c). With the development of legislation enforcing hygiene standards, and covering
such details as the type of toilet used or the water pressure required, we see an
increasingly complex network of power relationships in place to ensure standards
and compliance.
• Public health policy often requires a mass casualty event for momentum. First ordinances on sanitation followed the Black Death; 55,000 Londoners dying from cholera in 1849 was required for authorities to provide a 24 hour water supply in London, and the development of a ball- valve to prevent wastage of water.

5). Cultural attitudes towards the site of excretion: Martin Luther, Jewish
custom, Junichiro Tanizaki.
• This movement towards sanitation effectively ended a long tradition of rustic attitudes towards basic hygiene, and (perhaps) the idea of the place of excretion as a site of repose.
Junichiro Tanizaki In Praise of Shadows. (In'ei Raisan, 1933): “The toilet is the perfect place to listen to the chirping of insects or the song of birds, to view the moon, or to enjoy those poignant moments that mark the change of seasons. Here. I suspect, is where haiku poets over the ages have come by a great many of their ideas” “… how very crude and tasteless to expose the toilet to so much illumination” (Tanizaki, 2001).
• Martin Luther’s locus hypocastum : the cloaca
• Synagogue toilet signs.
• Folk remedies and coprophia
• benjo- kami
6). The Flush Toilet: on its invention and implementation
Main points:
• An explosion of decoration with the appearance of the first truly reliable
flush toilets: the Victorian period.
• Usefulness and Aesthetics. Hume writes of the aesthetics of the useful: “A machine, a piece of furniture, a vestment, a house well contrived, for use and convenience, is so far beautiful, and is contemplated with pleasure and approbriation. An experienced eye is here sensible to many excellences which escape persons ignorant and uninstructed. Can anything stronger be said in praise of a profession, such as merchandise or manufacture, than to observe the advantages which it procures to society; and is not a monk and an inquisitor enraged when we treat his order a useless or pernicious to mankind?” (Hume, 1948:182).
• an invention may achieve perfection; modern alterations may be superfluous.
(Consider the “wash- down closets” at the Thistle Inn in Wellington).


• The best design may be very simple; complex design solutions may be
inefficient and difficult to use.
The simplest designs (or ideas) are often the best; sophisticated systems (or ideas)
may be full of excrement.
• The greatest breakthroughs are frequently not in the invention itself, but in
the perfection of a tiny part;
it may take years to perfect that tiny part, and once it is discovered, it may seem
trivial.
• The New Invention must integrate with existing systems, or the creation of a
completely new infrastructure.
The flushing toilet was invented in 1596, by John Harrington, but there were no water supplies in place to feed such an invention. It would be 200 years before the invention would reappear. Toilets need running water and sewer systems, and sewer systems require the total realignment and rebuilding of cities. In this sense, the modern toilet is the product of city- wide reconstruction. Paris’s sewerage system was largely constructed during the rebuilding of that city during the 19th century by the great town planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann (March 27, 1809 – January 11, 1891), who described the as “underground galleries, which are organs of the big city, working as organs of the city, without being revealed.” Like the relationship between computers and their networks, toilets are of limited use if they are not integrated with this greater system.
• The new invention must cohere with people’s expectations in order to find a
market. If the people are too uncoordinated or irrational to see the invention’s merits, it must be forced into use by government and law.

Conclusion:
The toilet is the end- result of a centuries- old struggle against disease, filth and disorder. In terms of design, it is of marginal interest, but in terms of what it represents (the invisible subterranean infrastructure that make civilization possible) it is a major and surprisingly fragile achievement. Conceptually sits at the centre of the relationship between ourselves and the natural order (with its attendant dangers).

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