Week 4: Space and Place
Manovich, "Navigable Space"
I like Manovich's description of id software as providing a "new cultural economy which transcended the usual relationship between producers and consumers or between 'strategies' and 'tactics'". Manovich views space from a software and manipulable perspective. He claims that space is a "new media type" (p. 218), though I'm not convinced by that. I am interested in his description of virtual computer space being at the "Greek" stage of development, and I'm curious as to what a "space of totality" would look like. One theme that Manovich brings up, which is repeated throughout the readings is the intersubjectivity of spaces/subjects. Spaces are subjective based on the people and flows moving through them. People, in turn, are intersubjectively related to the spaces which they inhabit and the people they are surrounded by.
Castells, "Space of Flows"
Castells proposes that "space organizes time in a network society" (p. 407) and considers the economic expansion and impact of communication, suggesting that new communication networks allow for the centralization of industries and decentralization of processes. Or is it the other way around? Furthermore, his space-and-economics prejudices are evident because he discusses economics/profit/information in terms of space. So, while we're more accustomed to thinking of economics across time, Castells reframes this per his space bias to discuss economics in terms of space. Castells later suggests that the mega-city of the future will be remotely-connected but locally disconnected. He describes his space of flows as being: materially constructed through electrical exchanges; constituted by nodes and hubs; and organized by dominant, managerial elites. He goes on to suggest that this elite will need special types of stable places in their travels through spaces of flows. These stable spaces try to remain architecturally homogenous and "outside history," which Castells concludes by suggesting they might be the future of our architecture.
Kellerman, "Places"
It's interesting that Kellerman begins the disucssion in this chapter by contrasting fixity and mobility, because--just two years out from this publication--there is what one might call a counter-mobility trend coming to fruition in the literature. This counter-mobility trend emphasizes concepts such as stillness. The slow food movement, for example, can be seen as a precursor/parallel/parcel of this movement. But I digress. Kellerman gives a pretty good summary of the work that's been done on place and social space. His perspective is a fairly middle-of-the-road cultural studies approach to the construction of social space: that our places are informed not just by their design but by the social practices occurring within them. Or, to flesh this out even further, we can refer to Lefebvre's (1991) spatial trialectics: space as perceived, conceived, and experienced. Kellerman concludes, as to others, that there is a relationship between increased mobility in a space, technology, and our social experience of space.
Meyrowitz, "The Rise of Glocality"
Meyrowitz's take on the self (through Cooley and Mead) reminds me a bit of the Jensen article from last week. Meyrowitz suggests that our self is something we mediate through other people's perceptions. He extends this notion of self to also apply to our conception/perception of place and locality -- that we are now more likely than ever to view our locality in relation to others. Our place, while still significant, is now foregrounded against a global backdrop. Our locality, in some ways, now has more context than it ever has before. Part of this is due to the information flows that allow us news and information about different locations around the world.