““No pussy with my sushi, please!”: No pussy with my sushi, please!”: Branding I amsterdam’s Red Light DistrictBranding I amsterdam’s Red Light District

Joyce Goggin, Universiteit van AmsterdamJoyce Goggin, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Photograph, Tess JungblutPhotograph, Tess Jungblut

• […] the prostitute transforms the client’s jouissanceinto money and therefore phlegmatically converts the perverse libido or simply its use, the surplus of pulsional energy scattered in society, and dangerous to it, deadly because it is capable of setting it off in every sense without regard for its organic unity - it converts therefore these perversions or diversions of energy into money, and then into commodities (into capital indeed), thereby taking care to safeguard the social whole, assuming the sacred malediction of genital sterility, but simultaneously bringing about the return of these “lost” expenditures into the circuit of social exchanges. (Lyotard, Libidinal Economy, 157)

• On the one hand, the Red Light District makes it possible to financialize sexual expenditure and profit from it, but on the other hand….

Amsterdam: Sex, drugs and Amsterdam: Sex, drugs and civilized livingcivilized living

[Visitors] find themselves endlessly looping back- just like randy randy sailors did in the 17sailors did in the 17thth century century when the city was the richest port in richest port in the worldthe world – to Amsterdam's near geographic centre, the Red Light geographic centre, the Red Light DistrictDistrict.

It is true that Amsterdam still has a certain reputation. But the recent “I amsterdam’ city-branding campaign has done much to “I amsterdam’ city-branding campaign has done much to distract the global imagination away from the sex and drugsdistract the global imagination away from the sex and drugs and towards the “creative capital”,“creative capital”, once home to RembrandRembrandt, now abuzz with designers and advertising companies. Meanwhile, the city is gentrifyinggentrifying quickly as the authorities are committed to making what is already the safest Red Light District into an area more conducive to wine bars and sushi jointswine bars and sushi joints (Time Out: Cities, 24).

In association with HSBCIn association with HSBCThe world’s local bankThe world’s local bank

City BrandingCity Branding

• Customers use their “cognitive map”- and their expectations - to guide them from one axe or hub of interest (i.e. a red light district) to the next.

• Once internalized, these help us to navigate any city with the confidence of a sleep-walker feeling same and at home.

• Axes, hubs, mnemonic points and districts are part and parcel of every experience world.

Brand Lands, Hot Spots & Cool Places

– Christian MikundaManchester’s Gateway to China Town

Photographs, Tess JungblutPhotographs, Tess Jungblut

Why don’t I want pussy with my sushi?

The visual organization of this space is aimed at the gratification and pleasure of the male spectator and organized to meet the needs of the predominantly male consumers who visit the Red Light District.

Photograph, Tess Jungblut

Reporting on Gelatin’s Arc de Triomphe, Salzburg Festival,

2003.

Spectators have mixed reactions. Salzburg, 2003.