If cities are not built for people, then what for? Alex Steffen’s article “Deep Walkability” points out the importance of a walkable and people-oriented city. He defines “deep walkability” as “the quality of having a feast of options available when you walk out your front door….”
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It is well known that post-WWII urbanism in America has become more and more centered on suburban living and the car. Sprawl has become, for the most part, the rule and trend of modern American urbanism. People have been relegated to drab sidewalks along large avenues and boulevards dedicated to the car, an environment in which pedestrians and cyclists are seen as more of a nuisance than anything else. In this slow but powerful force of development, the plans and designs of cities have begun to ignore people.
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Posted in Anthropology, Architecture, Built Environment, urbanism
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Tagged cities, cyclists, hidden paths, low density, pedestrians, public transit, transit options, urban experience, urbanism, walkability
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Josh Owen has designed and developed a portable Stoop Bench for use in varied urban environments. He writes, “Philadelphia is a city of stoop dwellers. Stoops entered into the vernacular of American architecture during the colonial times…The Philadelphia stoop functions as a fundamental social meeting place.” He goes on to point out that the stoop is a place of transitions and of pause, serving as a social anchor for friends and neighborhoods. This project frees the stoop from the front door to other urban areas will be an interesting experiment. Many modern public areas are designed without the human scale in mind; without spaces and places to sit, relax, talk and watch. The stoop gives an opportunity for social behavior and interaction in urban locals that are currently devoid of such design features.
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Posted in Anthropology, Architecture, Built Environment, Social Norms
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Tagged Add new tag, Design, Josh Owen, Philadelphia, Public space, Social Sciences, Urban area, Vernacular architecture
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In a creative example of how surveillance cameras can be used as a new media tool, Pitchfork Media has begun to film music videos using CCTV. The films capture the performers from a unique and voyeuristic perspective while also splicing in surveillance footage of the surrounding environs for added effect. The videos, although simple, are captivating and interesting to watch. It will be interesting to follow this project and see how it continues to unfold.
This is an interesting article by Glenn Greenwald that looks at the effectiveness of the many surveillance measures employed by the government for anti-terrorism purposes. This is particularly relevant with the recent events on Christmas Day. It has been repeatedly stated by President Obama and others that a lack of information was not the problem. Rather, a lack of “connecting the dots” led to these lapses in security.
Greenwald points out that there is simply so much data to fish through and so much gathered through broad and indiscriminate collecting that there is too much information to handle. Even with suspicious connections, communications and other warning gathered, no one was able to clearly see the whole picture. In an age of unprecedented surveillance perhaps we are learning to rely too readily on overwhelming technological efforts than on our own senses.
Nick Gogerty has put together an interesting and brief post on the coinciding events of economic bubbles and skyscrapers. The latest example of this is of course the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which began five years ago in a boom. The newly completed tower now stands in a very different Dubai that is suffering economically. So why do we continue to make the decision to build these monolithic and amazing structures in such a competitive and one-up manner?
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In another example of how surveillance footage can be used for new media art and entertainment purposes, Fox News made a short film compiled of some of the most interesting CCTV footage captured during the year.
An upcoming presentation at the club Sinema Old School in Singapore will feature a film by Mike Kowalski about sound and storytelling. According to the brief:
“This presentation will explore how sound can be used creatively in film to expressively tell the story. One of the main themes of the presentation is that by applying an understanding of the principles of psycho-acoustics and human perception to the sound design process we will not only create better sounding films but also films that are more expressive and engaging.”
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“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.”
Hunter S. Thompson —”Extreme Behavior in Aspen,” February 3, 2003
In similar veins of exploration to previous posts on storytelling and surveillance, this post will seek to examine how the stories told in our 24-hour media culture affect our vision of the world; our perceived reality. As previously discussed, storytelling plays a large part in cultural transmission and learning. So what affects are seen when we embed ourselves in an environment of stories about disaster, disease, death and terrorism?
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A recent Pew poll has been released concerning opinions of technological and social changes and how positively people view the different changes. Surprisingly high on the list was the increase in surveillance and security, with 58% of those polled viewing it as a positive change. That was a higher positive than for iPhones and Blackberrys, genetic testing, social networking sites, blogs and reality TV, which of course are other technological creations that are wildly popular among many segments of the population.
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Austrian artist Manu Luksch recently completed and is now showing the movie Faceless, comprised entirely of CCTV footage from London. The UK Data Protection Act gives individuals the right to access personal data held in computer filing systems, including CCTV footage. At 50 minutes in length, it is the first film that has been made entirely out of CCTV footage. According to the synopsis:
“In a society under the reformed ‘Real-Time’ Calendar, without history nor future, everybody is faceless. A woman panics when she wakes up one day with a face. With the help of the Spectral Children she slowly finds out more about the lost power and history of the human face and begins the search for its future.”
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This is a fascinating example of how one may sidestep the usual privacy/control/security debate and look at the inherent opportunities of surveillance, particularly huge systems like the one found in London. My architectural thesis project similarly sought to take advantage of surveillance technologies and cultural obsessions of the media image for new explorations in new media art. It will be interesting to see how Faceless is received and what future projects it may inspire.
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