Observing and documenting public space
Readings:
Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City, eds. Dana Cuff, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Todd Pressner, Maite Zubiaurre, and Jonathan Jae-an Crisman (MIT Press, 2020)
Apr. 2
Observing and documenting public space
Readings:
Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City, eds. Dana Cuff, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Todd Pressner, Maite Zubiaurre, and Jonathan Jae-an Crisman (MIT Press, 2020)
Buckley’s paper points out some incredibly important themes that I have been attempting to discuss in other classes, but haven’t had the words. He highlights the importance of understanding the neighborhood culture through the eyes of those who lived there and shaped the neighborhood’s culture. Creating a cultural map of an area could hopefully help protect the institutions and people the create a neighborhood. I have been specifically talking about this with green infrastructure projects that seem to be the new wave of urban renewal and regeneration. Don’t get me wrong they are essential to mitigate stormwater and the urban heat island effect. Everyone deserves green spaces, but they should be done in tandem with the community and ensure that these communities are not displaced through rent control and/or community land trusts.
In the Lopez reading I was taken by the quotation “the built environment creates conditions that influence what is and is not possible for people to experience, become, and imagine”. These words emphasize even more to me the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of built environments. Built environments should not look the same and have all the same stores and restaurants they should represent the diversity of people and ideas that are found within our communities. It seems that field research is a way to begin to really understand a place, but I am curious what comes next? How can field research be incorporated into protecting the people and institutions that may make up a neighborhood or community?
This question was partially answered in the Sen reading which encouraged co-creating and committing deeply to the communities that you are working with. Longterm consistent attention to the place and people you are working with is an essential part of the field work process. The sentiments that field work is a collaborative process really rang true. We can’t do anything alone.
I was struck in the reading by the sheer physicality of Vergara’s work. Particularly in the passage where he describes his raucous adventurous childhood, Vergara seems to have deep passion for exploration, in the most physical and raw sense of the word. He clearly loves to seek adventure and is entranced by the world around him. But, when I read about Vergara’s passion for physical exploration I could not help but feel a tinge of sadness. I feel our digital world has lost so much of the tactility Vergara so beautifully captures in his work. We no longer take the time to truly notice the world in the way Vergara does. I fear there many never be another Camilo José Vergara because we are too invested in our phones.
Secondly, I feel that Vergara’s work has different resonance in our culture today than it did when it was first published. In today’s culture, we have maybe never been more nostalgic. Vintage shopping is incredibly popular, songs from the 80s become massively popular due to TikTok, and of course we just made America great again again. I can’t help but wonder if Vergara’s photographs, or rather a misinterpretation of his work, have played a role in cementing our nostalgic culture. To the casual observer, the photographs evoke a sadness for a time gone bye when these places and spaces were filled with life. But, Vergara’s work is all about the beauty and strangeness of the ruins themselves.