Monthly Archives: February 2016

Actually An Annotation: Implications of Life in an Urban Setting.

Katz, Peter, Vincent Joseph Scully, and Todd W. Bressi. The new urbanism: Toward an architecture of community. Vol. 10. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.

 

Peter Katz works as a design and marketing consultant in California, San Francisco and Seattle, Washington. Katz studied architecture and graphic design at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, Vincent Joesph Scully is Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University and Todd W. Bressi is the leader of deisgn journal places and teaches Art in Architecture at the Penn and Pratt Institute. In their book The New Urbanism: Toward An Architecture of Community the esteemed authors write on the topic of New Urbanism: “A movement that seeks to put the basic amenities for communal living back into urban settings that otherwise lack said amenities like adequate transit, parks and recreational program, and others to allow for a comfortable home life in or on the outskirts of a major city” (Bressi, Katz, Scully). In this book the authors relied mostly on primary research such as collected statistical information, and data on the quality of life in inner cities developed by the three authors in their respective fields. The purpose of this book is to highlight the implications of having living communities within or just outside of a city and what that means for inhabitants in regards to having the amenities needed for living comfortably and to reveal the architectural solutions to this lack of amenities for urban living communities. The intended audience for this book are students and researchers looking to understand how architecture and other amenities effect quality of life within urban settings. This book is useful because it lays out a prospective plan to make living more comfortable for those within or on the outskirts of an urban setting.

Actually An Annotation: Transforming Contemporary Art in Urban Setting

Mikaili Armstrong

English 1102

Arrington

23 February 2016

 

 

Guey, Lynne. “A 12-Acre ‘Goat Farm’ Is Transforming The Arts Scene In Atlanta.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc., 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

 

Lynne Guey, Careers and War Room writer for the Business Insider’s website “BusinessInsider.com” focuses on the industrial contemporary art space located in Atlanta called Goat Farm in her article: A 12-acre “Goat Farm” Is Transforming The Arts Scene In Atlanta:  “Since its inception in 2008, The Goat Farm Arts Center, a for-profit arts incubator located in West Midtown Atlanta, has become one of the most densely packed group of artists in the nation, with more than 450 artists and and more than 100 programs held annually(Guey).”For her article, Lynne relies heavily on primary sources, such as exploring Cabbagetown and writing first hand accounts of her surrounding area in which she lives.  Her purpose in writing this article is to create an informative piece on Goat Farm Contemporary Art Center and highlight the achievements made by the center within the Atlanta art scene. The intended audience for this informative piece is members of the Atlanta art scene and visitors or inhabitants of Atlanta looking to experience some of the Atlanta Art scene. This article is useful in providing general information on the origin of Goat Farm Contemporary Art Center and further information on what services they provide to the Atlanta art scene.

Rhetorically Right Reflection

All throughout my education writing and English have been my strong suits. The switch from creative into academic writing styles as I progressed in my education is a change that I’ve had to grow accustomed to and alter my writing style in some ways in order to progress as a writer in general. This specific class is furthering my writing abilities in that not only does it teach a research based style of academic writing, but also focuses on the importance of digital literacy and how to properly construct a website and how to write in digital spaces. This new emphasis on digital literacy is very new to me and thusly requires of me to get out of the comfort zone of traditional academic writing- trading in MLA formatted essays for blog posts. This class has already taught me a lot about research writing and about the actual research that goes into it. Having assignments like annotated bibliographies have done a lot to not only teach me the process of acquiring good scholarly information such as secondary or primary research from a scholarly source, but also has resulted in me- and my peers- being able to use one another’s personal research for our own research projects, but also learn from one another’s mistakes. Due to the experimental nature of this class, the whole thing for me so far has been a learning process and has revealed to me some discrepancies about my writing such as my lack of brevity when needed and my need to make my thesis and writing overall more clear. Although there have been times in this class alone where my writing has not met up to my best standards I have utilized some of the extra credit opportunities such as edits to my blog to make it more navigable and appealing to a browser. I’ve put a lot of effort into getting out of my comfort zone in this class by learning a new style of writing and changing my mode of publication of this writing. However, because of my adversity to this change in the beginning of the class some of my earlier works could use some of the revisions that were suggested on my Google Document.

Although not even halfway through this class has taught me a lot not only in an academic sense on how to construct an efficient scholarly website, and how to do good research, but how to objectively and constantly analyze the world around you, how everything has rhetoric and communicates something, and how something as simple as the architectural structure of a building, city, or even website can have significant meaning.

Some Summarizing Stuff: Making Bathrooms More Accommodating: Implications of a Worldwide Gender Neutrality Movement

In the article Making Bathrooms More Accommodating by Emily Bazelon, the author focuses on how with the emergence of more political correctness and acceptance of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning) community, the emergence of problems with integrating and making accommodations for them (more specifically transgendered) to live their life as easily as possible in a society where what they identify as is a huge minority. The integration of public restrooms to accommodate the transgendered has caused huge controversy in the past years somewhat reminiscent of the integration of public facilities after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. Many of the opposing arguments to the gender neutralization of restrooms or other public facilities such as locker rooms where people feel vulnerable or privacy is a value (like locker rooms) utilize fear tactics like the images of men assaulting women. This acts to further marginalize these people who’s identities aren’t widely accepted in the first place. Another stigma that comes with the acceptance of transgendered people is the word ‘accommodating’ in itself. The word accommodation is to make room for and that in itself suggests that being transgender is outside of the norm and irregularities in the majorities everyday lives have to be placed for transgendered people to acquire some sort of right. Allowing something as individualistic, private and necessary as using the restroom be dictated by the masses.

In my opinion the gender neutralization of bathrooms is something that should be done in order to make those who do not fit within the confines of “woman” or “man” (as we understand in our society) comfortable. It should be an inherent right to go and use the restroom (and act that involves no other party but oneself ) in whichever bathroom you would like whether that be unisex, woman, or man. However there are people who could potentially utilize the gender neutralization as means of sexual assault or a breach in privacy.

Some Summarizing Stuff: “Fashioning” the Post Gendered Society

In the article: His & Hers: Designing for a Post Gender Society by Suzanne Tick the author argues that because of the human cycle in which social progression occurs naturally, we now live in a post gendered society and its time that our industries market accordingly. Corporate America and its industries have always been predominantly male, and therefore is primarily marketed for men and not women. This male dominated corporate hierarchy is also not conducive to including or marketing to those who don’t strictly in one kind of gender based demographic. Therefore, in order to progress with the social changes, an industrial change needs to occur also. The modes in which these changes need to occur are based on design, whether that be as general as architecturally or as personal as fashion. Some architectural changes Tick implores society to make architecturally for example would be public bathrooms and offices. Public bathrooms have always been gendered and as of recently due to the more widespread acceptance of gender fluidity and openness unisex bathrooms are being built. As far as fashion goes which is very individualistic, designs are being made to be more gender neutral in that designers are creating unisex lines or are taking clothing items that perpetuate gender norms such as skirts for women and military wear or suits for men, and turning them upside down. For example prominent young celebrity Jaden Smith wearing a skirt in an highly publicized ad for Louis Vuitton, and the creation of make up lines for men and women alike.  I think that in a fantastical world this way of thinking and this article would be conducive to enacting change. However we do not live in a post gendered society in the least bit. Gender norms are still inherently apart of our culture as much as enforcing aid gender norms are. The only differential from the early 1900s to now is not the amount of people who do not identify or specifically feel as if they fit into a gendered norm, or the level of acceptance of these people, but the fact that it is more apparent in day to day life. In a world where society was post gendered an article petitioning corporate or industrialized america to be more inclusive and market towards a demographic of people to whom which gender is completely applicable wouldn’t be necessary. This article, (although hopeful in prospectives) would be much more efficient if Tick showed some regard for the state of society as it is now, and then called for some sort of action based on where we are now. Although social change is naturally human and progressive change is upon us, these things occurs over years and in step by step processes.

 

Exterior Engaging Encounters: Built Environment Description of Cabbage Town

An alley in the very eclectic Cabbage Town Atlanta.

Its 2:30 in the afternoon and the sun is shining down on the concrete road. Cars drive up and down the two way street separating the shops, boutiques, and old ward Atlanta housing from the Oakland cemeteries brick walls. The sound of birds calling, the indiscernible chatter of humans. I walk past a coffee shop called octane, boutiques and technology companies line the streets, the entrances to each of the shops not facing out towards the streets but in a partially shaded alleyway. Streets are cracked and worn, and the paint discerning left from right lane are faded. The buildings lining Memorial Ave are all some sort of business offering a service and architecturally are urban contemporary save for the refurbished brick buildings.Directly behind these buildings housing businesses or offices, old, A-frame houses line the streets, met at the end by a chain fence separating the homes from a very loud freeway. Some of these old homes are remodeled, keeping the same air of the traditional, wrap around porch home, but painted over and refurbished. Other homes are visibly original in build as well as landscaping upkeep. Cabbage town houses a mixture of businesses and residential area.

 

Actually An Annotation: Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods

Keating, W. Dennis, and Norman Krumholz. Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods: Achievements, Opportunities, and Limits. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999. Print.
Highly renowned Emeritus professor of Urban Studies and Law  Keating, and Krumholz an esteemed tenured professor of Urban Studies  also at Cleveland State University write in Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods on the social implications behind communal revitalization and gentrification stating that: “The books in this series look at cities from a multidisciplinary perspective affording students and practitioners a better understanding of the multiplicity of issues facing planning and cities and of emerging policies and techniques aimed at addressing those issues”(xi). This book acts as an expose or on the insidious social implications for people in an urban setting, focusing on section 8 housing or living in ghettos made by rebuilding communities. This book, written by esteemed researchers in the field of urban studies solidifying this piece’s logos, thus is written for other researchers as a secondary source on the topic of urbanism.  This is useful for academic scholars to come to an understanding on the implications of communal revitalization in an urban setting.

Actually An Annotation: Neighborhood Commercial Rehabilitation

Levatino, Adrienne M. Neighborhood Commercial Rehabilitation. Washington: National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, 1978. Print.
Adrienne M Levatino an esteemed member of the Illinois Department Of Financial and Professional Regulation, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law graduate and author of Neighborhood Commercial Rehabilitation writes in her book about the methods of gentrification and neighborhood revitalization used by local governments in order to increase communal property value and revenue. She relies heavily on government documents and first person accounts of the changes occurring within a neighborhood. Levatino’s purpose of writing this was to educate scholastic readers on the gentrification and revitalization of communities and its result on its lower socioeconomic inhabitants. This book is useful because it gives an insiders look into the government process of gentrification and revitalization process in addition to the social implications behind it.

Tic Tac Tech: A Tutorial On How To Enable Comments On Your Blog

Hi aspiring techies, Im making this post in order to help you enable comments on your blog, if you so chose. This will allow people who want to comment on your content to do so uninhibited. To allow this, first you will go to your dashboard after logging into your site@gsu.edu. Next you will scroll down the menu bar on the left hand page of your screen until you reach settings; click on “settings”. After clicking settings an additional drop down menu bar should appear with “Discussion” as an option. Click “Discussion” and scroll down until you see “Enable Comments” with the description that now anyone can comment on your blog without having tone prepared by you.

Tic Tac Tech! Now you’re free to receive all of the awesome comments from your peers and classmates.

My Google Doc: A Pondering.

I received a lot of good feed back via Google document from my Professor, Ms. Arrington. Not only is the use of a Google document to allow real time correspondence and positive critiquing and feedback extremely efficient, but also very tech savvy which goes along with the curriculum of this class that emphasizes digital literacy. In regards to the feedback given to me specifically about my reading summaries, I found that the critiquing was very positive and very constructive. Not only was feedback given on how well i interpreted and then summarized the material, but I was also given step by step examples of how to improve (such as how to improve organization) but also resources like the face to face help from my Professor in order to really know what she’s looking for and be able to utilize her advice to improve my writing skills. Based upon this I plan to schedule an appointment with my professor to more in depth go over what I need to do in order to improve my summary writing.