May 22nd, 2011
“A number of recent American writings indicate that the nostalgia for the small town need not be construed as directed toward the town itself: it is rather a ‘quest for community ‘ (as Robert Nisbet puts it) – a nostalgia for a compassable and integral living unit. The critical question is not whether the small town can be rehabilitated in the image of its earlier strength and growth – for clearly it cannot – but whether American life will be able to evolve any other integral community to replace it. This is what I call the problem of place in America, and unless it is somehow resolved, American life will become more jangled and fragmented than it is, and American personality will continue to be unquiet and unfulfilled.”
Lerner, Max. ”America as a Civilization”
Quotation taken from the beginning of “Chapter One: The Problem of Place in America” in Ray Oldenburg’s “The Great Good Place”
Tags: America, community, Max Lerner
Posted in Great Good Place (The), Sociology | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2011
“The problem of the planet is first and foremost a human problem. To reverse the devastation of nature, we need to reverse the devastation of culture. We can better the environment by bettering ourselves….Every industry has a responsibility and an opportunity to promote this goal.”
Hosey, Lance. ”Toward a Human Environment: Sustainable Design and Social Justice.” Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism
Tags: Expanding Architecture, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Lance Hosey, Social Justice, urban design, urban planning
Posted in Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Sociology | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2011
“When we pull our collective head out of the sand, we can no longer deny the undeniable: space and its making are political.”
Gámez, José and Rogers, Susan. ”Introduction: An Architecture of Change.” Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism.
Tags: architectural design, Architecture of Change, Expanding Architecture, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Introduction, Jose Gamaz, politics, Susan Rogers, urban design, urban planning
Posted in Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Sociology | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2011
“Political blindness is not new to architecture, nor is it rare in society. To stake a political claim is to run the risk of clashing with a divergent set of cultural values and alienation of potential clients, prospects that few find enjoyable. Discussions concerning the political and issues such as equitable representation in real and imagined spaces are potentially painful and are therefore frequently avoided. The political thus remains an invisible and often unspoken subtext to otherwise well-grounded discourses and practices. The disciplinary vacuum within which architectural ideologies are often investigated further fosters a social and political blindness that a post-critical stance can only reinforce. If we adopt a position that ignores the advancements that postmodern thought and critical theory provided us – a utopian goal of equity, fruitful diversity, and a critically engaged process of cultural production – we may find ourselves indulging in a naiveté similar to that of early modernism, which promised societal change almost solely through architectural practices and failed to recognize that space and its production are controlled by the dictates of capitalism and politics.”
Gámez, José and Rogers, Susan. ”Introduction: An Architecture of Change.” Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism.
Tags: Architecture of Change, Expanding Architecture, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Introduction, Jose Gamaz, naivete, politics, social responsibility, Susan Rogers, urban design, urban planning
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May 22nd, 2011
“Space has become the final frontier of capitalist expansion, and the political continues to be eviscerated from the architectural. Both modernity and post-modernity have failed to deliver on their repressive regimes, to improve our social standards, and equitably to distribute access to our social and physical landscapes.”
Gámez, José and Rogers, Susan. ”Introduction: An Architecture of Change.” Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism.
Tags: An Architecture of Change, Expanding Architecture, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Introduction, Jose Gamaz, social responsibility, society, Susan Rogers, urban design, urban planning
Posted in Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Sociology | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2011
“Good design has the potential to benefit many more people than it currently does. Design can play a direct role in addressing critical social issues that we face. The process of creating the built environment can allow communities and individuals to improve and celebrate their lives. It can help solve their struggles by reshaping their existence.”
“But currently the opportunity to create a built environment is reserved only for the very few, the elite, the highest income bracket served to excess by market forces. Designers have let these market forces alone determine whom we serve, what issues we address, and the shape of all our design professions: architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design, planning, and interior design.”
Bell, Bryan. ”Preface: Expanding Design Toward Greater Relevance.” Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism.
Tags: architectural design, architecture, Bryan Bell, community planning, Expanding Architecture, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, social responsibility, urban design, urban planning
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May 22nd, 2011
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
Mackay, Charles. ”Preface.” Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Tags: Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, preface
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December 31st, 2010
“The conversational superiority of the third place is also evident in the harm that the bore can there inflict. Those who carry the despicable reputation of being a bore have not earned it at home or at the work setting proper, but almost exclusively in those places given to sociability. Where people expect more of conversation they are accordingly repulsed by those who abuse it, whether by killing a topic with inappropriate remarks or by talking more than their share of the time. Characteristically, bores talk more loudly than others, substituting both volume and verbosity for wit and substance. Their failure at getting the effect they desire only seems to increase their demands upon the patience of the group. Conversation is a lively game, but the bore hogs the ball, unable to score but unwilling to pass it to others.”
Oldenburg, Ray. The Character of Third Places. “The Character of Third Places”
Tags: bore, borish, conversation, lame, Ray Oldenburg, The Bore, The Character of Third Places
Posted in Great Good Place (The) | No Comments »
November 27th, 2010
“And Stephen noticed, not without irritation, that as he ate and drank his civility was growing less artificial, his deliberately urbane expression more nearly a spontaneous smile, and that he was in danger of enjoying himself.”
O’Brien, Patrick. ”Chapter Seven.” Far Side of the World.
Tags: Far Side of the World, Patrick O'Brien, stephen maturin
Posted in Far Side of the World, Literary Excerpts | No Comments »
November 16th, 2010
ex•ploi•tun•i•ty
A hybrid of “opportunity” and “exploitation.”
Most every artist is familiar with this type of experience: wherein an artist is “offered” an “opportunity” to present his/her work with the understanding that this “opportunity” benefits the artist, rather than the party that makes use of the work. This is predominantly the case in commercial settings, wherein businesses attempt to obtain discounted services or free usage of artwork, for any period of time, by convincing artists that the exploitation of their work somehow enhances their status as an artist, or that it leads to the possibility of future compensation.
Of course, the real opportunity, in these circumstances, is for businesses to improve upon the aesthetics of their establishment through a diplomatic conquest of another’s vision.
Tags: Art, artist, artists, artwork, empty promise, exploitation, Exploitunity, free work, New Word, no compensation, opportunity, presentation
Posted in New Word | No Comments »