The uses of a national wound : Reflecting Absence , trauma and the global war on terror

At the World Trade Center site in New York City where the terrorist attacks happened on September 11, 2001, the memorial called Reflecting Absence is now standing. Instead of covering up the physical and psychological wound of 9/11, Reflecting Absence structurally incorporates the trauma of 9/11 as the memorial’s framing structure. In this paper, I focus on the link between the trauma of 9/11 and Reflecting Absence. More specifically, I examine the latter as the expression of the former to reveal this link. In so doing, this paper also identifies what kind of role Reflecting Absence is potentially playing in the post-9/11 American society. By teasing out the ways in which this memorial evokes the trauma of 9/11 for visitors, this paper discusses the politics in which Reflecting Absence has been engaged as an apparatus of memory.


Introduction
On September 11th, 2001, the United States was thrown into great turmoil.Four passenger planes were hijacked by the terrorist group al-Qaeda at about the same time on this fateful day, and two of them were used for the suicide attacks targeting the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City.These two planes, American 11 and United 175, were respectively crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. and the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.Careening into the towers, these planes, both of which were coast-to-coast flights from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport, and thus heavily laden with fuel, burst into flames and set off massive fires.The resulted heat weakened the steel beyond its critical threshold and collapsed the South Tower at 9:59 a.m. and the North Tower at 10:28 a.m.
A huge void called "Ground Zero" was created in Lower Manhattan as a result of a series of terrorist attacks later remembered as 9/11. 2 The twin towers were crushed and gone, and the space that they had previously occupied was left empty as the wound of 9/11.In response to the creation of this empty space/wound, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), joint City-State corporation that had been created in the aftermath of 9/11 "to help and coordinate the rebuilding and revitalization of Lower Manhattan," decided to construct a national memorial for 9/11 at the WTC site. 3Through the design competition, Israeli-American architect Michael Arad's Reflecting Absence was chosen as the design for the National 9/11 Memorial and is now standing in the midst of Ground Zero.As will be discussed later, contrary to some critics' expectation that the memorial would physically and symbolically cover up the wound, Reflecting Absence incorporates as its framing structure the absence of the twin towers, or the wound exposed in the form of their footprints. 4s such, this memorial is intricately related to the wound, or the trauma of 9/11, and this intricacy is what will be investigated in this essay.To be more specific, I will suggest that Reflecting Absence is a product of trauma in a not only physical but also psychoanalytic sense and I set out to discuss what kind of role this memorial is potentially playing as a memorial of the trauma of 9/11 in the post-9/11 American society.Through this discussion, this essay will show that Reflecting Absence is more than a space for the commemoration of the victims of 9/11.

Trauma and Reflecting Absence
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, a national project was initiated at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan: the reconstruction of the WTC site as a new complex including the National 9/11 Memorial.Tthis project can be divided into two parts:.the planning for the new WTC complex by which the location of this memorial is designated, and the process of selecting the design of the National 9/11 Memorial.In both parts of the project the design competitions were held under the initiative of the LMDC.For the former, seven internationally renowned architectural teams -Foster and Partners, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Meier Eisenman Gwathmey Holl, Peterson Littenberg, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, THINK Team, and United Architects -were asked to propose a master plan for the reconstruction of the WTC site; the latter's design competition was internationally announced, with 5,201 proposals submitted from all over the world.
Throughout the rebuilding project at Ground Zero the LMDC expressed the unexplained and thus not consciously rationalized obsession with the footprints of the twin towers.For instance, during the design competition for the new WTC complex in 2002, the LMDC informed the aforementioned architectural teams of its "strong preference for preserving the footprints of the twin towers for memorial or memorial related elements" without giving any specific rationale. 5In addition, the LMDC maintained its favorable stance to the footprints in the case of the construction of the National 9/11 Memorial itself either; in the guideline of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, which was held in 2003, it was stipulated -again, with no guiding rationale -that the memorial's design had to "[m]ake visible the footprints of the original World Trade Center Towers." 6his obsession expressed by the LMDC is self-destructive: as the footprints of the towers are the trace of 9/11, or, to borrow Charles Sanders Peirce's term, the "indexical" sign, they signify the attack on the U.S. on the morning of September 11th, 2001.Therefore, in this case, by insisting the necessity of the incorporation of this trace/indexical sign into the National 9/11 Memorial for whatever reason, the LMDC ended up demanding the construction of a memorial that would inevitably evoke the trauma of 9/11.In other words, instead of covering up the trace of the wound, the process insisted on returning spectators to their trauma.
Psychoanalytically speaking, this kind of self-destructive obsession is considered one form of "repetition compulsion," which is a symptom of trauma itself.In a Freudian sense, this is a state of mind in which one is driven to repeat a traumatic event or its circumstances over and over again.According to Dominic LaCapra whose argument is built on Freudian psychoanalytic theory, "people who undergo a trauma … have a tendency to relive the past, to be haunted by ghosts or even to exist in the present as if one were still fully in the (traumatic) past, with no distance from it."7During the reconstruction process of the WTC site, the LMDC was arguably in this state of repetition compulsion.
Arad's Reflecting Absence, chosen out of 5,201 proposals, is perfectly in line with the LMDC's obsessive, traumatic attachment to the footprints of the twin towers.In fact, this memorial consists of two massive pools carved into the footprints with cascading waterfalls pouring down each wall.Made of black granite stones, each pool is 192 x 192 feet square and set 30 feet down into the underground.The footprints are, in other words, made use of as the framing structure; they are turned into the National 9/11 Memorial.
The naming of Reflecting Absence is very appropriate and astute.As a play on words, the name "Reflecting Absence" indicates that this memorial reflects/mirrors the image of the absence created by 9/11 to the eyes of visitors.Simultaneously, this name implies that Reflecting Absence is a memorial that facilitates the reflection/contemplation of what was lost and thus became absent because of 9/11.In either case, the name "Reflecting Absence" suggests that this memorial is expected to function as an apparatus of memory, inviting visitors to remember something about 9/11.A question thus arises: "What is this something?"Or, to be more specific, "What is intended to be remembered about 9/11 by Reflecting Absence?" In order to answer this question, let us once again turn to what the trace signifies in terms of architecture.Rosalind Krauss argues that the architectural work structured by the trace is filled with "an extraordinary sense of time-past."8According to her, since the trace "produced by a physical cause" is "[a vestige] of that cause which is itself no longer present," when architecturally incorporated in the built structure, the trace inevitably brings back the memory of that cause and introduces "into the consciousness of the viewer" of the building the past moment that is absent yet still telling.9Reflecting Absence uses the footprints of the twin towers, or the trace of 9/11, as its framing structure and is thus possessed by the trace of a past moment.In other words, Reflecting Absence is designed to keep evoking in the minds of visitors the sense of time-past returning to September 11th, 2001, or to the past moment of being injured.
In fact, this is what the selection jury members of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition saw in the design of this memorial.In an interview about the choice of Arad's Reflecting Absence, James Young, one of the jury members, answered: [Arad] made the footprints themselves the memorial, in their geometric form, and that was very important.We saw that as the most authentic reference to the site, even more authentic than bringing remnants back.The downward flow of the water seemed suddenly to remind you of the towers' implosion.It was all suggested in the design. 10o Young and the selection jury members Reflecting Absence would re-present what had happened on the day of 9/11, or the injury caused by 9/11.11

Reflecting Absence and the Global War on Terror
As a matter of course, Reflecting Absence is a memorial that opens up a space where victims of 9/11 may be grieved, their names engraved on the rims of the black granite pools, inciting visitors to sense the personal losses caused by 9/11.In addition, visitors would occasionally see flowers put into some of the engraved names.Those flowers are given to the victims of 9/11 on their birthday to commemorate them.
And yet, Reflecting Absence is a memorial that not only provides a space to grieve the victims of 9/11: it is also a product of the traumatic reactions of those involved in the WTC site reconstruction process, and as such should be expected to function as a mnemonic apparatus through which that could potentially serve to "remind you of the towers' implosion," or the actual trauma of 9/11.
In this sense, Reflecting Absence is well befitted to the "new normal" of the post-American society.9/11 ushered in a new era characterized by terrorism and the fear that the U.S. is vulnerable, as was demonstrated by 9/11.For instance, in the address that then-President George W. Bush gave at Congress only nine days after 9/11 he said, "Our nation has been put on notice: We're not immune from attack."Reflecting Absence, which is expected to function as a reminder of the trauma of 9/11, can be considered a memorial that would serve to fuel such a sense of vulnerability by presenting to visitors the trace of 9/11, indexically signifying the attack on the U.S. on the morning of September 11th, 2001.
What is important to note here is that it is this kind of vulnerability that has driven U.S. hegemonic policy in the post-9/11 world: the global war on terror.In fact, in the aforementioned speech, Bush declared and legitimized this war by arguing that the U.S. was attacked and would be always already in danger of being attacked again by terrorists who would "kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life."12According to him, those evil terrorists "stand against us, because we stand in their way." 13To maintain the "way of life" that is targeted by terrorists, Bush continued, they culprits would have to be driven out of every corner of the world and eliminated.Thus the global war on terror was initiated: Bush declared that "[W]e will direct every resource at our commandevery means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence and every necessary weapon of war -to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network." 14his sense of vulnerability is the key for the continuation of this war, as is repeated in the the National Security Strategy issued by the Bush administration and succeeded by the following administrations without any major modification.In this document, while the fear for threats to "American people and American interests" is expressed, "to anticipate and counter" those threats, or to preempt them is defined as "the first duty of the United States Government" and as "our inherent right of self-defense." 15This fear does not even have to be empirically proven.When it is felt, an anticipatory military action should be taken, "even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack." 16The global war on terror is, in other words, a war against the feeling of fear elicited by a sense of vulnerability. 17eflecting Absence thus serves as a memorial that fuels visitors' the sense of vulnerability.Here, the link between Reflecting Absence and the global war on terror becomes apparent: this memorial potentially keeps reminding visitors of the sense of vulnerability, the key component that drives the war on terror.
Scholarly discussion of Reflecting Absence, however, tends to overlook such a link.For instance, Erika Doss defines this memorial's minimalist aesthetics as "dispassionate" and argues that Reflecting Absence is "perfunctory in … the message it projects." 18Analyzing Arad's work, she compares Reflecting Absence with America's Response Monument subtitled as De Oppresso Liber, a public monument dedicated to Liberty Park overlooking Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan in 2011.This is "a sixteen-foot-tall, five-thousand-pound bronze statue of a Special Ops soldier riding an Afghan pony," which is intended to "[commemorate] the 'horse soldiers' of Operation Enduring Freedom, covert combat troops" deployed in response to 9/11 in the initial stage of the global war on terror in Afghanistan. 19Doss analyzes De Oppresso Liber -"liberate the oppressed," the motto of the US Army Special Forces -in the following manner: the stallion's raised hoof, flared nostrils, alert ears, and agitated tail and mane suggest he is raring to go; the commando's taut body, aggressive glare, and cache of weapons imply martial heroics and resolute purpose. 20fining this statue as a memorial that fills the absence created by 9/11 with such jingoism, she criticizes this statue because it "reifies violent retribution and American imperialism" and affectively demands of visitors their consent to the global war on terror. 21In contrast, Doss indicates that Reflecting Absence whose aesthetics she defines as dispassionate takes no part in this war.
It is, however, precisely through the so-called "dispassionate" aesthetic incorporating the footprints as the framing structure that Reflecting Absence is playing a role in the facilitation of the global war on terror, and perhaps more effectively than those memorials which more candidly reify American imperialism.After all, evoking the trauma of 9/11 through the architectural materialization in the form of a memorial can lead to the constant justification and continuation of the counterattack in response to 9/11.In this sense, Reflecting Absence is potentially functioning as one of the bastions for this war. 22

Conclusion
This essay suggests that Reflecting Absence exists not only for grieving the victims of 9/11: while a product of the traumatic reactions expressed by those involved in the reconstruction process of the WTC site, it also incorporates the footprints of the twin towers, or the trace of 9/11, as its framing structure.It is believed to bring back and empathically perform the trauma of 9/11 for visitors.This performance is especially significant in the post-9/11 American society, as the U.S. has been engaged in a global war on terror.This war was initiated and has been continued as a war against the feeling of fear elicited by the sense of vulnerability that arose when it became clear that the U.S. is not immune to external attacks.This sense of vulnerability is what Reflecting Absence is potentially fueling in the minds of visitors.Therefore, it can be argued that this memorial is, in some ways, facilitating the justification and continuation of the global war on terror.As such, this war is being fought not just outside the territory of the U.S. but also in Lower Manhattan.