Category Archives: Class Notes

Applying outside ideas to your analysis of the built environment: An example

Posted on by

T. Decatur square’s design seemingly invites the mingling of different races and classes, particularly given the central location of the Decatur MARTA station and the Dekalb county courthouse; but a close analysis of materials and walkways of the space comprising Decatur square reveals an environment built to carefully maintain division and the perception of a one “pure,” common culture.

"Old Courthouse..." by Laura Grace Bordeaux

“Old Courthouse…” by Laura Grace Bordeaux

Revision via application:

T. Decatur square’s design seemingly invites the mingling of different races and classes, particularly given the central location of the Decatur MARTA station and the Dekalb county courthouse; but a close analysis of materials and walkways of the space comprising Decatur square reveals an environment built to carefully maintain a culture that values “the consumption of commodities to be the supreme activity,” and promotes a system that is “hegemonic,” in which “property rights dominate all other claims to the space.”

I. Decatur square’s design seemingly invites the mingling of different races and classes.

II. A close analysis of materials of the space comprising Decatur square reveals an environment built to carefully maintain a culture that values “the consumption of commodities to be the supreme activity,” and promotes a system that is “hegemonic,” in which “property rights dominate all other claims to the space.”

III. A close analysis of walkways of the space comprising Decatur square reveals an environment built to carefully maintain a culture that values “the consumption of commodities to be the supreme activity,” and promotes a system that is “hegemonic,” in which “property rights dominate all other claims to the space.”

C. The sheer clarity of divides evident in the way people of different races and classes occupy (or don’t) the space of Decatur speaks to the success of its design as an implement of a culture’s dominance over others. This success is both fascinating and troubling, and evokes many questions.

Final Project Thesis and Notes

Posted on by

T. The signs and structures of West End Park impose upon the community a kind of ethics that seem at odds with the neighborhood itself.

I. Signs throughout the park indicate acceptable or expected behaviors.

A) According to Zi’neshia Ajuzie, Georgia State researcher, the park boasts, a “big tall green metal pole that held a sign that state[s] ‘pet waste station’…”

II. Structures throughout the park communicate desired relationships and activities, and imply other kinds of activities are unacceptable.

 

Sample Part II Response: Midterm Exam F16

Posted on by

Prompt: What kind of evidence does Lange use? Is it effective? In what ways and in light of what audiences?

T: Lange employs many types of evidence to support her implicit claim that the new “innovation campus” and the culture it promotes will benefit universities and their students, but the two most interesting ones include quotations from interviews of university administrators and financial figures regarding costs associated with high-tech “learning” facilities.

I. Unquestioned interviews of university administrators serve to promote the innovations described in the article without providing meaningful context that might inspire meaningful debate.

II. Financial figures present and un-cited in the article give the impression that the only complaints against corporate/tech culture and the design aesthetic it promotes as a net positive for everyone, including universities, are financial ones.

C. Although Lange employs other types of evidence, such as detailed descriptions of the tech environments of several specific university programs from diverse institutions, these two represent the dangerous failures of this article: what is the cost of celebrating new technologies and the values and aesthetics they promote without questioning the impact of such values and aesthetics on our humanity?

Example: Annotation of “The Innovation Campus” by Alexandra Lange

Posted on by

First, something must be said for the title, I think. It doesn’t suggest objectivity, that’s for sure. 

NYT article by Alexandra Lange (Aug 2016)

NYT article by Alexandra Lange (Aug 2016)

“Building Better Ideas”? This article reads more like propaganda than journalism. It’s easy to get caught up in the “sexiness” of new technologies and the youthful cultures that tend to accompany them, and this author seems to indulge. There’s so much missing in this article. A bias towards celebrating tech corporate cultures (under the assumption that the design cultures they promote are foundational to their successes) does nothing to help inform the public as to whether or not such cultures are good for us, are good for learning, are good for colleges (particularly liberal arts colleges).

“Where once the campus amenities arms race was waged over luxury dorms and recreation facilities, now colleges and universities are building deluxe structures for the generation of wonderful ideas” (par. 1). Notice the war metaphor. Particularly masculine, capitalistic. Sets the tone for the rest of the article; there’s no intention by the author to question the values system promoted by the corporate/tech design aesthetic. An aesthetic created by and promoted by a famously misogynistic and racist network. (See popular and scholarly discussions.)

In conversation with Mohammed and Charlie yesterday in class, I get the impression that there is a clear divide between those who kind of automatically feel excited by the design style of STEM and technology job-like atmospheres and those who feel skeptical, always. Do we associate success with a particular design style (Google-style, tech-start-up-style)? And if you’re a woman, are you a lot less likely to feel an automatic appreciate for that style of design? 

Kirkwood: Gentrification and Me

Posted on by

There’s no disputing it. The neighborhood of Kirkwood, east of downtown Atlanta and west of the city of Decatur, is

turning white. Not the houses. Well, lately, somewhat the houses. (Of the six new construction homes erected in the area around my house, four of them arescreen-shot-2016-10-03-at-1-41-33-pm.) But I’m talking about the people.

***

My street alone (a two-block street bookended by a bend into another street and a T intersection) has seen the demolition of six single story homes in the last two years. Replacing these? Two-story behemoths with open floor plans and price tags the size of Montezuma. Of the six new home owners on the street (there are two homes still under construction), only one family is black. Used to be the whole street was black. Now the only black folk on the street live in the small brick houses that need some serious care and investment. You can almost guess the race of the people who live in the homes just by their size and state of renovation. (And this is what institutional racism looks like.)

Screenshot: realtor.com 10/3/2016 Kirkwood

Screenshot: realtor.com 10/3/2016 Kirkwood

Screenshot: realtor.com 10/3/2016 Kirkwood

Screenshot: realtor.com 10/3/2016 Kirkwood

 

Across from me live Ronnie and Brenda. They’ve lived in their little brick number for over fifty years. From the shade of their screened-in front porch, they tell awesome stories of how the neighborhood used to be. Not long ago actually, when I walked over to take Miss Brenda some bacon-wrapped dates I’d made (she’d never had them before), they asked if Joe could bring his mother by to see our house. Joe’s mother was in her eighties now but raised twelve children in our little two-bedroom brick number on the hill. When Joe was a kid he used to play with Ronnie and Brenda’s kids in the street, running up into each others’ yards. Joe now lives somewhere in Gwinnett County but found himself in Atlanta for business, driving down our street, reminiscing. He saw the renovation they’d done on our house and thought his mother would be amazed to see it now. So Ronnie relayed to Joe that we’d be happy to give them a tour.

Twelve children. Impossible to imagine raising so many kids in our “cute” little house.

Screenshot: realtor.com 10/3/2016 Kirkwood

Screenshot: realtor.com 10/3/2016 Kirkwood

But though our house is small, it’s been renovated with high-end finishings. It wasn’t easy for us to afford our house, what with really only one income. We are staunchly middle class. These days, with each big house that goes up, even we have been priced out of our street; we’d never be able to afford to live here today.

Gentrification: a process of renovation and revival of deteriorated urban neighborhoods by means of influx of more affluent residents, which results in increased property values and the displacing of lower-income families and small businesses. (Click for some more interesting reading.)

Technically, there isn’t anything racial about gentrification. But this is how racism often works: in disguise. And what is lost is so valuable: exchange. Culture. Knowledge.Humanity. Empathy. Kirkwood is experiencing a white-washing for sure, and I’m sad to see my neighbors look more and more like me. I wonder, too, where people go when they’re priced out of their neighborhoods. Gwinnett County is so far away. It’s difficult to imagine how we’re supposed to “come together” to celebrate our diversity when were designed, via infrastructure and economics, to be separate.

“Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces”: thoughts and conversations

Posted on by

 

Screenshot from the online article: "Holistic landscapes" section

Screenshot from the online article: “Holistic landscapes” section

“…increased technology use within today’s multitasking society is likely to hijack a student’s attentional resource placing her/him at risk of underachieving academic learning goals and undermining success at a university (Fried, 2008; Tennessen, & Cimprich, 1995; Wentworth & Middleton, 2014)” (paragraph 3).

Is it possible that “older” people, who grew up with less digital technology have a harder time valuing the kind of attention required of the kind of rapid tech living we do today?

“Although university culture places demands on students’ cognitive abilities, campus natural open spaces have not been systematically examined for their potential in replenishing cognitive functioning for attentional fatigued students.” (paragraph 3).

Ah… exigency. This is the “gap in the research” these authors aim to address.

Kaepernick Protest: gestures speak

Posted on by
"Colin Kaepernick takes a knee during the national anthem at a preseason game in San Diego. (CBS)"

“Colin Kaepernick takes a knee during the national anthem at a preseason game in San Diego. (CBS)”

I appreciate this image of Colin Kaepernick’s initial “silent” protest especially given the image of people behind him with their hands on their hearts and the people in front of him in military uniform. The image seems to capture a good deal of the argument against Kaepernick. People claim that by kneeling during the anthem Kaepernick disrespects those who serve in the military. So the angle of photograph here is really poignant.

Kaepernick’s use of gesture as protest resonates with much of what we will talk about in class. The rhetorical situation is such that the speaker (Kaepernick) knows his audience (NFL fans) value loyalty and patriotism. By moving his body in a way that thwarts their expectations, he is communicating disagreement, disunity. Because we hear arguments against police shootings of black women and men all the time we’ve become rather deaf to them; they cease to create change. Kaepernick’s use of the gestural mode, given his popularity (by the way his jersey is selling out since he began his protest) and status as an entertainer/athlete, really kicks the conversation to a new level.

Kaepernick later iterated explicitly his reasons for protest: As relayed by NFL reporter, Steve Wyche, Kaepernick told the media, “‘I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color’…’To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.'”

What do you think about Kaepernick’s argument and the way he communicates his argument?