QUESTION OF THE DAY

2005-09-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Mail. Newspapers. Telephone. Radio. Television. Internet. Email. Cellphones. Picture messaging. What do you think will be the next instant-information-exchange system available to the consumer market? As we become increasingly more dependent on modern information systems, should there be a limit?

Concept of Network and Its Influence on the Built Landscape

2005-09-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

My Response to:
Describe at least one way in which the concept of a network (physical, social, digital, etc) has transformed either the physical form of, the approach to the design of, or the experience of, the built landscape.

Well the CTA train routes definitely operate on the concept of an organized network. Their looping and convergence in the Chicago downtown area emphasizes the "rhizome" of the network. It is from the Loop where train routes creep outward in all directions away from the lakefront. The loop functions as the body of the rhizome: collecting all sorts of passengers and spreading them out whether for them to continue their trip on foot, car, or another form of public transportation. The rhizomatic behavior of the train commute therefore extends from the Loop to the outward routes and essentially through the passengers themselves as they individually approach their destinations. The passengers contribute to the unpredictable, random, and undesigned aspect of the train commute. The trains themselves operate in a publicly predictable manner. High profile businesses, commercial and tourist areas are heavily concentrated in the Downtown Loop area of Chicago. Therefore the CTA not only directs you there, but loops you around both clockwise and counterclockwise encircling an area small enough to just as well walk the distance from one side of the loop to the other. But of course the network approach is to direct attention to and disperse in a manner of hierachal importance. The Loop is designed to be most important as it is an inevitable destination. From the Loop, train stops along the various routes stop at most neighborhoods along the way, but not all. For example, there is no stop between the Roosevelt stop and the IIT stop on the Green Line. Why? Obviously, the city does not see it as necessary. Is it because there wouldn't be enough paying passengers to board the train in that segment of the route? Whatever the reason is, that area becomes a stretch of land that we, as public commuters, remain oblivious to. The Red Line, on the other hand, regularly stops all along the north and south route, running parallel to Lake Shore Drive. This route of the CTA network conveniently provides access to the lakefront, a definite public attraction of the city.
The network of the CTA transit system therefore literally affects our experience of the city-what we get to see and those areas we typically remain unaware of.

Rhizome Assignment

2005-09-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Our assignment this week for web technology class is to create a rhizome. Also, we are to map our web surf. Since web surf is rhizomatic in nature, can the web surf mapping assignment be submitted as the rhizome creation as well? I'm lost as to the creation of a rhizome. My mind keeps jumping to the idea of maybe bringing in a glass box of ants crawling around. Or better yet, how about those potatoes we've been keeping in our pantry during those endless summer days? They've been sprouting in complete darkness, without a specific direction but only a common origin: the body of the potatoe. Since the sprouts originate from any point of the potatoe, then I guess the potatoe is a rhizome? Anyway, back to some serious thinking about this rhizome assignment for class tomorrow night...

First Post

2005-09-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hi. I'm liking this blog thing.

Bananas for Breakfast

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Concept of Network and Its Influence on the Built Landscape

Rhizome Assignment

First Post