Fred Dervin and Yasmine Abbas are co-editing two books (One in English, the other one in French): New technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)constructions of identities. Please find more information about the books here.
We are looking for two unique and different designs/graphics… that respond to the themes addressed. The prize? The winner, who will need to grant us the rights of use of his work, will see his design published as the book cover. You may submit 1 to 2 drawings/graphics… (one for each book). Please write few lines to explain the concept and send us a short biography.
Format:
.jpg or .pdf
300 DPI
A4
Deadline: August 3, 2008 at midnight.
*
Appel à contribution pour 2 couvertures de livre
Fred Dervin and Yasmine Abbas co-éditent deux ouvrages (L’un en Anglais, l’autre en Français): Nouvelles technologies du soi, mobilités et (co-) constructions identitaires. Veuillez trouver plus d’information sur les ouvrages ici.
Nous attendons deux dessins/graphismes… uniques et différents qui répondent aux thèmes adressés. Le prix? Le concept gagnant que vous nous authoriserez à l’utiliser (droits d’auteur) deviendra la couverture du livre(s). Vous pouvez contribuez de 1 à 2 dessins/graphismes… (Un pour chaque livre). Veuillez accompagner vos contributions de quelques lignes écrites pour expliquer votre concept ainsi que d’une courte bibliographie.
I had the privilege to be invited to a fabulous dinner at the textile designer Priya Mani… More to come on her fantastic work. Her website is under construction: Fennel. For now, here is en avant-première her map-scarf that I have been graciously offered! 100% silk, hand crafted, available for purchase in shops all over Copenhagen and online very very soon. Copyright Priya.
Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960)
Dissecting Prof. Lynch’s ethno-methodology to look at cities… few notes:
Prof. Lynch developed his system of rules for analyzing cities by looking at three urban case studies, Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles. He used two methods, interviewing for about an hour and a half a sample of citizens and observing their habitat – “interviews” and “field analysis”. The goal was to test his concept of “Imageability” – of which he distinguishes five elements: “paths,” “edges,” “districts,” “nodes” and “landmarks“.
Find here a YouTube video describing the concept of “Imageability” of Kevin Lynch (and his bottle of Gin :):
INTERVIEWS: Researchers interviewed thirty people in Boston, about fifteen in Jersey City and Los Angeles. Lynch taught of this sample to be “Inordinately small.” He writes that “Clearly, a retest with a larger sample is needed, and this requires more rapid and precise methods.” (P. 152) Respondents were primarily from a middle class background (Hence omitting some areas of the city), which might have skewed the results.
During a first interview, respondents were asked to sketch a map of their city, describe in detail some of their city travels (For example the trip they normally take from home to work and inversely), and tell what their strongest connection to the urban environment was.
The interview was recorded on tape, and then transcribed (Carefully recording pauses an inflexions). Some of the respondents were willing to be interviewed a second time.
During the second interview, researchers showed respondents photographs of their cities and of other cities (The photographs of the respondent’s cities covered “The entire district in a systematic way, but given to the subject in random order.”). Respondents (The “subjects”) had to identify and classify the pictures: “The photographs recognized were then reassembled, and the subject was asked to lay them out on a large table as if they were placing them in their proper position on a large map of the city.” (P. 142)
Researchers went with some of these respondents to the field and enact the city travel they described during the earlier interview. This was also tape-recorded. “The subject was asked to lead the way, to discuss why a particular route was chosen, to point out what he saw along the way, and to indicate where he felt confident or lost.” (P. 142)
Researchers organized the data collected. They checked it by running informal interviews (Asking directions) of four to five passersby in each of the chosen places in the city – 7 destinations and 5 origin points.
The sketch map had a strong correlation with the “verbal interviews” yet bears differences when it came to connection and organization.
FIELD ANALYSIS: The researchers who covered the field survey were conditioned, taught the concept of “imageability” before hand, prepared accordingly a map of the area to study. They hence came back with a structured set of information. During the field analysis (three to four working days), researchers tested the concept, assessed what were really landmarks and what were not for example.
The field analysis corroborated with the interviews conducted for the cities of Boston and Los Angeles, less so with the city of New Jersey.
“The field analysis done on foot developed two faults: a tendency to neglect minor elements important for automobile circulation, and a tendency to pass over certain minor features of districts that are especially important to subjects because of the social status they reflect. Our field method therefore, if supplemented by automobile surveys seems to be a technique that can predict the probable composite image with some success, allowing for the “invisible” effects of social prestige, and for the more random fixing of attention in a visually undifferentiated environment.” (P. 144)
The methodology described was meant to develop urban design directions. Prof. Lynch thought on complementing the study of the five single elements of “Imageability” with an understanding of “Element interrelations, patterns, sequences and whole”. (P. 155) Prof. Lynch even suggested using the method for city area of different scale: buildings, landscapes, and transportation systems etc. According to Prof. Lynch, the study could also be used to understand how strangers or children build their personal image of a city, so to anticipate urban city design. He also writes, “As our habitat becomes ever more fluid and shifting, it becomes critical to know how to maintain image continuity through these upheavals [external changes].” (P. 158)
“Chishen Chiu is a young designer based in Miao Li, Taiwan. His design thinking has been heavily influenced by his urban surroundings, consisting primarily of small, family-owned factories that produce everything from paper tubes used for rolls of tape to metal parts that find their way into computers and electronic devices.”
“FlexibleLove™ experimental furniture incorporates an ‘accordion-like, honeycomb’ structure to create durable furniture pieces produced from widely-available, low-cost recycled materials. FlexibleLove™ furniture pieces, such as FlexibleLove 16™, are made wholly from recycled paper and wood products, and are produced using pre-existing manufacturing processes in order to reduce their overall impact on the environment.”
Just received a copy of the book of trends of JCDecaux for which I wrote an article: Morceaux choisis de ville (P. 60). Thank you B. Marzloff for the invitation! Among all the great contributions, find these of Nicolas, Bruno and Adam.
Also, an exciting news, the 17 of June 2008, Ci’Num will show the output of 3 years of work at Bilbao (Présentation des travaux de Ci’Num et débat “Les Civilisations numériques : maîtriser leurs défis !” au musée Guggenheim de Bilbao). I was an invited expert of Ci’Num 2005 and 2007. So was Edith in 2007! Thank you Daniel Kaplan for this… and of course the AEC team.
“The term that has come to be widely used to define and conceptualize this growing confusion and fusion of the realandimagined is hyperreality. There is an interesting relation between the prefixes of the terms hyperreality and postmodernity. Both post- and hyper-, as well as the related prefixes meta- and trans-, carry with them the notion of a movement beyond an existing state, although each takes on additional meanings with regard to this movement. Post- and Meta- connote “after” and also a significant change in location, position, condition or nature. Trans- is more stricktly “across” but can refer to a change in condition as well. Hyper- adds to this a sense of speeding up, often with the hint of excess. In the debates on the new modernity of the contemporary period, each one of this prefixes has been used (postmodernity, metamodernity, hypermodernity, transmodernity) to connote subtle variations on the same theme. Similarly, arguments can be made to use such terms as post-reality, metareality, and transreality instead of hyperreality. But like postmodernity, hyperreality has entered into popular and academic usage (and misusage) and remains the generally preferred term.”
Edward W. Soja, Postmetropolis. Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2000); p. 325
It is neo-nomad love and not Barbarella. The installation by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar I want you to want me is displayed at the MOMA, in exclusivity for the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit. Info via the RoomWare.
Urban Typhoon Workshop in Koliwada, Mumbai: March 16-22, 2008
Participatory Urban Design & the Future of Alternative Communities
“The Urban Typhoon brought together artists, architects, activists and academics from all over the world with the residents of Koliwada, Dharavi to collectively generate ideas, visions and plans, and archive biographies and histories. The workshop’s philosophy is based on the idea that communities should be allowed to determine their future and that everyone, no matter the age, language or qualification should be allowed to participate in the process.
The Urban Typhoon workshop is a global experiment in participatory design. It is directly connected to the various communities of Dharavi and its grassroots community groups.
The workshop is multicultural, multidisciplinary and multimedia. Students, urban planners, architects, designers, artists, sociologists, media artists, political activists, utopists, and other nomads to come together for a week to imagine the future of Koliwada.
The objective is to produce creative alternatives for the future of a neighborhood threatened by a redevelopment plan of the government as well as a multimedia testimony to the unique spirit of Koliwada.”
Found this while hypertexting… looking at the organizers of UBIQUITOUS CITY:
