Category Archives: Reading Summaries

Reading Summary 6

Posted on by
Reply

In this article, Melissa King writes about content moderation online, such as block and ignoring, trigger warnings, and privacy options. King states that content control faces “constant cultural opposition”, although using these tools is completely acceptable and useful to many.

May people disagree with the use of content control because they believe that people “blow the abuse and harassment they receive out of proportion” and that content control use is an overreaction. People also believe that when being cyber bullied, harassment stops on the internet and that internet bullies do not pose any real threat to someone’s safety and wellbeing, which is untrue in multiple cases.

In the past few years, tools like blocklists have risen in numbers because of the rise of bullying over the internet, which in certain cases can cause things such as anxiety or PTSD. In fact, online harassment is one of the major causes of PTSD. Women are more likely to be victims to this type of abuse than, more specifically women who are present in male dominated areas of work.

The internet and technology use today has increased greatly from ten or fifteen years ago. With that increase came an increase in cyber bullying and internet harassment. Because of these increases, there has been a rise in the use of content control tools. Even though these problems have increased, many still refuse to see internet bullying as a real issue and deny the usefulness of content control.

 

King, Melissa. “Better Online living Through Content Moderation.” Model View Culture. Web. 09 March 2016.

Reading Summary 5

Posted on by
Reply

Open Your Mind

Phia Bennin and Brendan McMullan from Radiolab write about trying out a “delightful experiment” called color walks. Color walks were originally thought of by William Burroughs and presented at the Colors show. Color walks include walking around an area, like downtown Atlanta and following one or multiple colors. Bennin and McMullan tried color walking in lower Manhattan, giving themselves and hour of uninterrupted time to explore. They finished the walk viewing each color in a totally refreshed light.

To be successful in a color walk, it is important to keep your mind open and let your creativity take you where it may. By picking different colors you feel drawn to, you will soon find yourself on a new kind of adventure you have never experienced before. During your walk, you may be inspired by the new found beauty you see in everyday objects. Color walking has the ability to open your eyes to how unique and alluring the colors in everyday objects are you never would have noticed or given a second glance- if you clear your mind and let it. After color walking, you will never view the outside world the same again; you will view it in a much more open minded and appreciative way. If you are craving a fresh view of the same old daily routine, give color walking a try!

colorwalk(Houston).

This photograph represents color walks in that it paints whatever is behind the glass in a new shade. Without the glass, everything is ordinary. But with the glass, everything looks the same, just a slightly different shade. This is how color walks work, by helping you discover a different shade of the world.

Bennin, Phia. “Color Walking.” Radiolab Blogland. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.

Houston, Jessica. “Color Walks.” Jessica Houston. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

Reading Summary 4: “Making Bathrooms More ‘Accommodating'”

Posted on by
Reply

In Bazelon’s article, “Making Bathrooms More ‘Accommodating’”, states that as transgender people are becoming more common, their decision on which bathroom to use has not gotten any simpler. Because of the long history of separate bathroom facilities, it has proven difficult to change society’s way of thinking in their design.

Transgender people and their supporters are rallying for the redesign of male and female bathrooms. This movement, however has created a large opposition. It has been proven difficult to people to begin to truly view transgender women as women and men as men. In Houston, a campaign has been going on called the “bathroom ordinance”, which strongly opposes the mixing of gender bathrooms and locker rooms. Some oppose the change because they view the female bathroom as a “relaxing ‘all-female enclave’” and do not want to give that up to share with men.

Although many people do not agree with this movement, places such as public schools have met the needs of their transgender students by allowing them to select the gender they most identify with and allow them to participate in all school activities as their chosen gender.

In the debate about bathrooms, many have used the word “accommodate”, which has been taken as a derogatory term to some because it points out that these people are different or not normal. Others take the word to mean that society is beginning to change and starting to meet the needs of the country’s transgender people.  Resources are available to transgenders to help them show others that they are indeed in the right restroom, by using tactics such as showing off certain features on their bodies.

Bazelon states that any kind of accommodation is a positive move forward for transgender people and even the discussion of “accommodation” is healthy. Slowly changes are being made in the right direction for transgenders, and all they can do right now is prove that they belong where they believe that they do.

 

Bazelon, Emily. “Making Bathrooms More ‘Accommodating’.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Nov. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.

Reading Summary 3: “His and Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society”

Posted on by
Reply

In Tick’s article “His & Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society”, she states that we are living in a “gender revolution” and that the once thought to be traditional man and female roles are slowly changing. This is because of changes in technology, science, sexual politics, and the media. The role of women in society is starting to increase in the traditionally male positions. Transgender people are becoming more and more common and some people are refusing to choose a certain gender. Although things are changing, society is still primarily male. Males still hold a majority of high office jobs and jobs in technology.

Tick states that gender roles have become increasingly muddled. Males and females do not look like the traditional boy or girl you would expect. People are also refusing to identify themselves as a male or female. This change in thinking has led things in society to change. For example, now certain companies have started to adopt “gender-neutral bathrooms” which allow people to not have to choose a gender while using the restroom. Changing gender roles have altered the thinking of many, and while the majority of the population welcomes this change and are ready to accommodate it, some are still getting used to the idea.

Tick has travelled throughout the country in order to spread the word about today’s changing gender roles. The world has never seen anything quite like this, and Tick wants to ensure that we, as a society, work to build environments that welcome these changes, not stifle them.

 

Tick, Suzanne. “His & Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society.” Metropolis Magazine. N.p., Mar. 2015. Web. 1 March. 2016.

Reading Summary 1

Posted on by
Reply

Reading summary 1: Architectural Exclusion:  Discrimination and Segregation through Physical Design of the Built Environment

In Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation through Physical Design of the Built Environment, Sarah Schindler questions why lawmakers who are supposed to create and enforce anti discrimination laws fail to recognize architectural exclusion.  Even though it can be hard to see in everyday life, Schindler points to street grid designs, one way streets, lack of sidewalks and crosswalks, highways, transit stops and even parking permit requirements and how they can shape the demographics of cities and neighborhoods.

Architecture creates exclusion in many ways.  Certain amenities which are featured in residential developments are generally expensive which means most low income families cannot afford them, in turn only giving higher income families access. Physical barriers like bridges can also limit access to places.  In Long Island bridge overpasses were designed to be low enough to prevent buses used at the time from traveling under them.  This limited access of racial minorities and low income individuals using public transportation to Jones Beach.  These bridges were the design of Robert Moses, the city planner who is considered to be the “master builder” of New York (Schindler).  Moses even vetoed a proposed extension of the Long Island Railroad to Jones Beach.  Robert Moses’s biographer suggests the decision was due to “social-class bias and racial prejudice” (Schindler). By building those bridges so low, he excluded individuals from areas that he did not want them.

Another physical example of a barrier is the wall built in 1940 in Detroit known as the Eight Mile Wall.  This wall was constructed to separate an existing black neighborhood from a new white neighborhood. Even the Federal Housing Administration contributed to this by financing only projects that were residentially and racially segregated.  Additionally, high and long fences were shown in the article as examples of these barriers between black and white housing.  Examples of barriers and walls mold traffic patterns as well.

Communities also can have a dramatic effect on the mobility of individuals by the design of public transit stops. Rejected proposals to bring Atlanta’s MARTA transit network into suburban communities limits black city residents’ ability to obtain access to more suburban areas and things offered there such as jobs.  Highway routes and road infrastructure have often placed highway off-ramps in order to filter traffic away from wealthy communities.  In many instances highways are built to make places more accessible to cars, but the work was done in areas where poor communities had to be eliminated.  The article also claims that communities rely on confusion techniques to keep people out.  These techniques include one way, dead end and curvy streets, along with confusing signage.

Historically, communities used legal zoning methods and later on covenants to keep minorities out of certain areas. It is still very hard to prove architectural exclusion. It is hard to find solid evidence or prove their intent was to discriminate against a certain group of people. Architectural exclusion is still very common through zoning and public transportation, but it is unlikely the courts will do anything about it because of their current political and judicial environment. Schindler’s article is an attempt to educate those living in and using architecture used to exclude every day in hopes that they will raise a voice to the cause.

Reading Summary 2

Posted on by
Reply

Reading Summary 2:  Tapestry of Space:  Domestic Architecture and Underground Communities in Margaret Morton’s Photography of a Forgotten New York

In Irina Nersessova’s review of Margaret Morton’s work, she studies the effects of the geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals.  The article states that identity is tied to where you call home. The homeless building shelters with fragments what others have thrown away helps to give them their own sense of identity and in turn giving them a home.

The article relates the stories and photography of the homeless to Situationist International’s critique of mid 20th century advanced capitalism.  This group did not believe that the successes of advanced capitalism and its technological advancement and increased income or leisure could ever outweigh the social dysfunction and degradation of everyday life that resulted from it.  The group had a goal to eliminate the division between art and life and make them one. Today, everything is part of a certain image and images show what people desire to have. The world is becoming more and more materialistic, giving people a stronger feeling of power over those without such materials, such as the homeless. Unlike the settled, Morton’s homeless interviewees use space as a creative guide, building on it using found materials, rather than using the environment as a commodity.

One homeless interviewee named Bernard believes that he is striving to reach a level of consciousness that can’t be attained in mainstream society above the tunnel.  He believes that his environment is a “hell” to “perfect” his level of consciousness. Morton depicts the tunnel where Bernard lives as a psychological space for its residents rather than anything else.  The world there is a sort of refuge that protects him from outside harm but isolates and promotes further poverty, letting him and others essentially hide from their problems.

In Nersessova’s analysis of Morton’s photography, she states that the photography shows the human, emotional and individual sides of the subjects rather than painting them as hardened and cold. Morton points out that for mainstream society, the tunnel is an extremely undesirable place.  This in turn provides a refuge for the dwellers, as it prevents the tunnel from being disturbed for the most part, which is why most of the homeless choose to stay there instead of above ground on the streets.

The homeless often create art in the tunnels, including an imitation of Salvador Dali’s work and graffiti of famous sculptures shows that survival can be a creative undertaking. Morton believes this helps them maintain their sanity and peacefulness.

Since the homeless build their homes on public land, they face the fact that they could be forced out of their home any day. If the homeless is sent to shelters, they have forcefully taken away their individuality and identity, their most important sense of a home.

Negative images of the homeless as lazy, welfare recipients who are choosing this life does nothing to help these people. The stereotypes of the homeless community is challenged in interviews that reveal how the homeless take care of each other and even homeless animals.  The homeless population’s construction of small communities is not only about a need for shelter, but it is about the need to find their identity and where they belong.