Guiding Questions to Robert Smithson

1. What are monuments? How do they work to define a city? Based on the essay, "A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey," how does Smithson re-conceptualize monuments and their function?

When I think of the term 'monument' the first thing that comes to mind is historical buildings that are created to be reminded of such as the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, Time Square, etc. In wikipedia, 'monument' is defined as "a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture." A monument could be architectural buildings, sculptures, tombs, tools, ruins, etc.
But in Smithson's term of monuments, they are ideas that represents the importance of the surrounding of the monuments. They're not monuments of big buildings or something that everyone in the world knows such as Paris' Eiffel Tower, they are small monuments that he discovered while traveling around Passaic, New Jersey. Bridges, sand box (model desert), parking lots, pipes is what he defines monuments as because they have had a great impact to the city or the land surrounding it. On page 70, Smithson describes the monument of the bridge that connects the Bergen county with the Passaic County as "photographing a photograph" like as if he's "walking on an enormous photograph that was made of wood and steel, and underneath the river existed photograph that was made of wood and steel, and underneath the river existed as an enormous movie film that showed northing but a continuous blank." These unknown monuments can be described in such details and images even though they are just junks or small tools laying around the area which has been there for years. They work to define a city by telling a story to the area. Even though the area might not be special to others outside of the area, it has histories to those that marked the place which creates ideas to the city. It creates more to the surrounding area of the monument which develops more to the city.

Question 1: Can monuments be replaced but be the same monument? (pg. 74 2nd paragraph)

Question 2: Is it still a monument if the surrounding area changes around the monument?