the city became embedded in the body. what the city carries has integrated into the body, resulting in the body represents the city, instead of a city represents the bodies as a whole.

Relating this to Brian Larkin's "The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure." Infrastructures expose forms of political rationality that emphasizes technological projects. They constitute of the architecture for circulation, providing the undergirding of modern societies, and they create the surrounding environment of everyday life, which becomes parts of the cultures in the societies.

This reminds me of the movie Repo Men, when people are sick or injured and need transplants to survive they lose natural body parts and gain mechanical ones. Thus, characters in this movie are hybrid creatures.

mind blown.

Is this to say our process of evolution is inevitably moving towards human/robot hybrids?

Interesting example of how society interacts with its built environment and how they influence it.

I'm not quite sure how architecture and furniture will become similar... are chairs going to be coming out of walls?

This is an important quote because yes, the cyborg metaphor is prominent in the discussion of the disembodied, dualistic, patriarchal understandings, and with the science and technology ways of rational thinking, it entangles itself with femist ways of theorizing knowledge - justified belief from opinion. But I don't know much about this, probably should ask professor Switzer in my Eco-philosophy class.

This quote stands out to me because it highlights the connection between the human body and the city. Humans have created infrastructure and use said infrastructure for technological networks.

recent research has proven that personal use technology (internet, smartphones, gaming systems) have decreased the skills of interpersonal communication and emotional intelligence (mostly of the millennials generation)... should we be pushing for technology to be involved in all aspects of everyday life?

Maybe this is to say we shouldn't be blurring the lines of the boundaries so much then? Sounds a bit like playing with fire..

Kind of a culmination of what we have been discussing this semester, it seems. - That our technology and infrastructure and how it relates to us and our bodies is the foundation of the conflict as well as the harmony we experience with our built environment.

The fact that life is not forever seems to give people a sense of care in what they do, because of the effects that it may have on their life. But with those boundaries gone, how far will we go, and could we still be considered human?

The above are mostly used in ways to maintain a sense of normalcy in our lives - to recreate nature, or how we perceive what nature would do. But, at what point does this transition into something as extreme as biological warfare- technology recreating something biological again, but is the intention the only thing that separates this?

Our bodies interact with technology all the time, where is the limit for when it becomes invasive/threatening?

It sounds like we're creating our own aliens and then essentially putting them inside of a subject/form that we recognize and are quite familiar with so our initial response to the subject will be favourable.. but we're being tricked.. overpowered.. Has anyone read The Host by Stephanie Meyer? Similar concept...

We're essentially creating things on purpose that are going to have the ability to make their own decisions, possibly be smarter than us, and also have a chance of malfunctioning... Why?

So if it threatens our understanding of what it means to be human.. is that beneficial to our ongoing research of essentially what makes us humans by constantly pushing our understanding to be deeper? or is harmful and uprooting of the interpersonal/cultural norms we've established?

This description gives me the creeps.. Makes me think of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" for some reason

Taking the built environment for granted, something many people do without a second thought until a shift in the built environment causes an upset.

Do you think it's possible for them to re-adapt to lower temperatures and acquire a new set of preferences for different climate characteristics?

(QOL)- general well being of individuals and societies. QOL has a wide range of contexts including fields of international development, healthcare, politics, and employment (Google/Wikipedia)

That's so interesting. The residents had become entirely habituated and adapted to a much hotter temperature that they actually felt cold at a standard indoor room temperature.. Sounds like people from Southern California (kidding.. or am I?)

I completely agree with this statement. They were unable to control levels of heat within their homes so when it consistently stayed too hot, they opened windows to let in cold air... hello.. That's like having your sprinklers on for your yard when it's pouring rain outside.. and there's a drought.

I visit my family in Chicago every winter.. I can assure you all it's nothing like this anymore. It's cold outside. Whether there is snow or not (due to storm variations every year) it's cold.. very cold.

Are these attachments made by adaptation to what's initially provided? or are they being developed as the subject is creating their built environment?

Citizens or the federal government felt like more needed to be done? I would appreciate clarification on this point.

Again, show two contrasting points. There either is 'project heat' (intense heating) or there is nothing. There is a gray area where someone can buy heat but they are limited on how much they can use. All or nothing concept?! Here the author is not truly highlighting on that gray area.

Can we talk about this in class?

Like Anand's discussion and description of the water in Premnagar.

The creation of this infrastructure facilitated the building of relationships, and when the people were displaced, so were those relationships. It shows just how much of an impact the built environment has on us and who we relate to.

This seems like a nearly impossible distinction for a government to make on the peoples' behalf. Which goes into the infrastructure of government and whether or not it is facilitating good change, or too bureaucratic to facilitate anything at all.

Pruitt and Igoe, right? this mismanagement of already under served populations,

This seems like an echo of the Anand piece. Where the built environment, more that just physically, puts people in "their place" in society.

In a time of transition these residents do not have adequate representation.

Out of date, no longer in use

Relates to Harvey's The Right to the City. The governments lack of recognizing this city as a city having rights.

"Part of the solution or your part of the problem" kind of article.

Abjection is a necessity in order for the production of hydraulic citizenship to occur.

Ethnography.

Everyone uses different environments differently. So different built environments and infrastructures can have different meanings identifications to different people. It just depends on the individual person.

At this point heat was not for ones own survival. It was a residents privilege to have heat. Heat was a 'comfort' and it was for their own 'happiness'.

Now that the heat is gone, that when the residents start to notice it. When intensely given something, people take advantage and almost forget they are even given a gift (the gift of heating in this case).

Symbolical Significance- two contrasting ideas standing together. Here the author is showing how a beat down and a new built environment are standing together, next to each other. This can be shown among people as well. People of higher status should be with people of lower class.

Rapid changing urban built environment looks to be shaping "a new citizen". A citizen without full access to heat. Now they need to pay for their heat and on top of that they are limited to how much heat they can use.

These residents are being forced to use their utilities such as heating in order to live in these 'new communities'? How is being forced to using heating giving the resident any sort of control (like it says in this quote) of how they want to or don't want to use their heating.

Trends? Realization of how they got rid of the poorer residents?

All pieces of the puzzle must come together in order for infrastructure to remain stable. If someone does not have the right tools or access to information, they are helpless to sustain the power of the infrastructure.

What is social waste?

So infrastructure is seemingly a negative thing here? Or is the authour pointing out that infrastructure can be abused by power?

Materiality causes differentiation in social classes.. the want of materialistic objects and those who have the ability (money) to get them will be higher. Can money buy happiness?

People go through life with a focus on making money for survival, which often seems to result in tunnel vision. At the end of the day many people do not have the time or energy to work on building relationships with surrounding individuals. From a human behavior standpoint, this is a shame because connections and relationships are incredibly significant to our health and success.

This feels like the society we live in as a whole. Where we might be pinned down based on our social classes, but also our own social infrastructure that we develop and how that then shapes us as we feel we shaped it.

Constant feeling of displacement right? Where do they belong? Also, what then is their impact on the built environment, is it really theirs?

Can we break this down further in class, please?

We saw this in pruitt&igoe right?

comfortably uncomfortable?

How infrastructure relates to race. Brings Harvey's, The Right to the City to mind with public housing serving as a way to segregate neighborhoods.

Do we ever look at it this way? People find so much identity in their environment and then their environment gets claimed or labeled because of their existence. I wonder if we ever fully separate ourselves and acknowledge its existence without us being a part of it. I kind of feel like this is an example of the question about if a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, does it actually fall?

love this word! ensconced: establish or settle (someone) in a comfortable, safe, or secret place.

Subway rhythm?

Seems like a look back at Harvey, human force reacting to and adjusting the bounds of thee built environment.

interesting choice of words here. The built environment as its own terrain, on the global terrain, based off of elements of social terrain. Cute.

Infrastructure serves different purposes for different people.

Walls can mark differences in location- your room versus my room- and can also exist solely to be broken down. Walls can be broken down in various respects- reaching a new height academically, athletically, socially, etc. Looking at the in between by analyzing different elements of the same system of infrastructure.

recursive.. repetition.. recurrence.. rhythm

Is this to say we need even more structure than what is already in place? Or will the things being contained eventually escape from that rule also?

because every culture could interpret the same smell differently, right? it would need to be very specific in it's organization .

a growing attraction? it seems like those amusement parks with the garden rooms that you walk into and feel so fresh after. People travel all over to visit nice smelling gardens. Is this to encourage tourism as wll in these cities?

That seems like it might not always be true, because we definitely don't see houses going up right next to landfills. ??

Does it? because we are smelling all the time, more than we talk, or even see, except when we are sick.

Couldn't this be true of any sense? I'm sure it would offer you greater indulgence in the other 4 if you lost 1, but is this one special in some way comparatively?

despite it being such a big part of our awareness, and so important to our well-being.

I relate this to walking into a house at Christmas time and there being fresh baked cookies coming out of the oven. The combination of that and the decorations really sets the holiday spirit into everyone who feels that.

it is sooo sad to think that in the less developed countries, some means of resources such as water in this case can put its own citizens into categories that depending on their status or how well-networked they are in reaching the resources

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

how is this possible?!

repetition of rhythms

circles. infrastructure creates and facilitates the flow of rhythms

The infrastructure was built as a stable base for the continued flourishing and prestige of the community. Thus the hierarchy was established in order to keep the stability of infrastructures.

Poetic Function Vs. Emotional Function...Couldn't poetic function use emotional function in order to get the message across? Just a thought.

Here Brian Larkin has described that infrastructures matter, having effects and affects far beyond their technical functioning, providing opportunities to constitute the political through different means. The infrastructure was then felt to be double-visioned. Political and Poetic.

What exactly does Larkin mean by "poetics of infrastructure"? Is there a specific definition or idea he was aiming for...or was he literally referring to the aesthetics of infrastructures and how we understand infrastructures?

Similar to the Panopticon?

The meter being a type of watch tower resulting in moral behavior as far as water usage.

Similar to Harvey's, Right to the City?

I have studied in my International Marketing course here how social media is a cultural institution in society and has an extremely powerful influence on societal structures regarding preferences, levels of acceptance of products/technology, and how consumers are influenced to use them.

If it weren't for industrialism they would just be there in that space without the ability that these developments have given them. Holiday gift shopping would be such a different experience in downtown Chicago if elevators didn't exist.. I honestly think people would spend less because they wouldn't want to climb the stairs to additional stores to "just see what's in there".

This just blew my mind. Reminds me of this scene in The Fault in Our Stars when Hazel is wearing a shirt with a pipe on it and tries to argue with someone that its not actually a pipe... it's only a drawing of a pipe..

Sounds like scheming for political gains.. This is easy to see in the work place or society when one befriends another or joins a certain group for political/hierarchal benefits rather than for the pure purpose of the action. African societies cannot be the only ones who follow these functional implementations of these infrastructural projects.

So... our inventions (technology) and how we implement them throughout society can make us god like? Makes me think of how we acquire different skill sets so that we can adapt to different tasks or work responsibilities (wearing different hats - if anyone has heard that metaphor)

It's never really about what is in front of us when it comes to politics.. there is always more to it.. His theory is a tool we could study to learn about a country/society's government by looking at the infrastructure they've created.

So it is not really about the technology, but more about how we are implementing the use of it throughout the different areas where these systems are constructed.

So even in a hands free scenario, the market and society are still being structured by the government..? Does that really leave it to be hands free? The way the government decides to structure it surely must have an influence on how the turnout is

Reminds me of social work's Systems Theory, which analyzes the various components of an individual's life and how they work together in a system in order to maintain homeostasis. Similarly, systems of infrastructure must work together for society to operate effectively.

Noun:

studies the nature of existence or being as such.

Looking at the impact of various elements of infrastructure rather than the actual act of building these systems.

Objective for the article.

Our built environment, the things we place around us, elements of infrastructure, reflective of our culture and society.

technology with citizenship? person or thing?

rhythm?

Actor–network theory (ANT) is an approach to social theory and research, originating in the field of science studies, which treats objects as part of social networks.

Again, aren't they also used to prevent movement? And in terms of technology and how it is used to control us, to a certain extent, isn't it more forcing a certain movement on us?

Is this similar to an interpretation of a panopticon? Where technology is the all seeing center?

Kind of the foundation of this class, right?

But by it's actual definition, couldn't it also be a built network that blocks certain happenings instead of facilitating them? both good and bad?

in·fra·struc·ture ˈinfrəˌstrək(t)SHər/ noun noun: infrastructure; plural noun: infrastructures

the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

Schedules and daily life revolve around the ferry timetable.

Speed, rhythms, and duration do not determine the way of life instead they play a role in behavior.

Through duration of time and repeatedly doing things and creating habits are people also creating rhythms?

What do delay durations say about our society?

Is this generational? Are your parents/ grandparents more or less patient regarding delays?

These disruptions are forces of arrhythmia within the ferry timetable.

This reminds me of environmental determinism and possibilism. Ferries allow for a certain pace or pattern in life, but do not dictate the manner in which individuals fall into those patterns.

Example of how deeply embedded ferries are in the island culture.

The idea from Lefebvre that rhythms must have comparisons for comprehension.

Through the option of taking the highway or the ferry we can see that saving time during travel is not as important on island time since people appreciate the comparatively slow pace of life.

Does this seem too restrictive? Ferries dictating when and where you can travel based on a timetable.

Again the idea of being "in time" as a scale. People living with the island state of mind must still take outside influences into account, such as flight departures.

Great example of how difficult it can be to slow down in life.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Did you recognize your thoughts as being impatient as this woman did?

Hard for me to imagine this style of living as more than a weekend vacation since the need to be productive is greatly internalized. Always being on a fast track towards something whether it be academic, athletic, or personal I usually feel that I do not have time to "smell the roses."

Is the idea of island time dialectic?

In the sense that the ferry's pace shapes the place (people have excuses based on island time), and the place (way of living) shapes their slower pace of living.

The selection of this ferry route allows for an analysis and understanding of island rhythms because people have a choice in taking the ferry or highway. Without an alternative route people on the islands would use the ferries out of necessity. As an alternative route, the Mill Bay makes it possible to examine transportation preferences.

An individual cannot be entirely "in time" or "out of time," it is more of a scale than binary opposites.

The rhythms of people's lives combined with the rhythm of boat arrivals and departures influences the ability to travel.

Thesis

expectations VS reality. Mixing the population was the intension of creating a city. However every individual has a different perspective and various levels of tolerance. But there is always an invisible pressure around us that expects us to think and behave in certain way, and live peacefully with one another, though that might not turn out in reality.

We are very used to being fast-paced on everything and needed responses/results asap. Will this level of anticipation decrease by any chance? Do you think we will ever slow down?

What are the kindness built into Whittier College? And is there anything we can do to bring more kindness to the college?

This is similar to what we talked about in the last class. Different kinds of social divisions created by the human-built environment

If you have a strong enough support system pushing for the same goals (and influenced and tied together by similar morals), you can do anything

Maybe society needs to focus on more short term goals that will be easier to assess on whether or not they are being reached.. It's important to set goals, but setting too high of goals can actually cause more discouragement than motivation

Okay, I get the idea behind the institution of the suburb and how government is "normalizing" spaces to push for a specific idea or vision of well-behaved and orderly citizens.. But how does this lead to everyday violence? Makes me think of "The Purge" movies... Creepy..?

civilization is a major cause of discomfort and provides situations that influences humans to be or feel hostile towards someone or something.. ? Really..

Is this saying theology is just talk? Just fluff essentially? That is does not allow for proper action in response to social or religious societies issues?

So this is basically the through process of analysis/division of how humans take in stimuli in the environment?

Technology is tying cities together, making them stronger, quicker to adapt to changes, and more able to respond to threats.

ubiquity - n.

the state or capacity of being everywhere, especially at the same time

aggression is everywhere and its just something that comes with living in a city?

Interesting thesis.. Media is known as one of the most influential institutions in society today... is he blaming media?

The end of the article rose many questions for me. Was love really what previous urban societies were striving for? What is the states opinion? What if the state doesn't want love or kindness, but rather obedience and labor productivity?

Thrift argues that kindness is not merely urban mores, but also something to do with the built environment.

Directly related to everything we have learned thus far. Don't you all think so?!

Here, Thrift is arguing that instead of a politics in bare civility or love/altruism, what we need is a politics of kindness. However, he has an interesting definition for "kindness". He defines kindness as “a social and aesthetic technology of belonging to a situation” rather than an "organic emotion".

This shows an interesting contrast that, where as, cities can be seen as bringing people, things, and the built environment closer together, they can also be seen as seperating the three since there may be some uncomfortability.

Affect is important to "human interactional intelligence" (139). Here empathy merely means being alive to the presence of affect. Not just being empathetic to positive affects, which is opposed to the negative affects (meaning that sociality does not mean "liking").

This quote ties with the quote "it would be possible to argue that cities are constantly adding new circuits of adaptability" found on page 136, which suggests that cities are not as unstable as they may appear, since their cycles of maintenance and repair introduces a form of adaptability.

The theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.

Extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

Is this saying that children are intimidated and dominated into learning sociality and sharing? Or that children intimidate and dominate others into sharing with them?

Examples of advertisements based on fear, intimidating people into taking care of their bodies.

The French philosopher and urbanist, Paul Virilio, coined a term “dromocracy”

The relationship between power and speed. ‘Dromos’ come from the Greek word for race. ‘Dromocracy’ therefore is the power to rule by speed.

Is this dependent on geographic location? How might the sights and sounds of repair and maintenance services be different in other areas?

Cassandra tendency: occurs when valid warnings or concerns are dismissed or disbelieved.

The term originates in Greek mythology. Cassandra was a daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. Struck by her beauty, Apollo provided her with the gift of prophecy, but when Cassandra refused Apollo's romantic advances, he placed a curse ensuring that nobody would believe her warnings. Cassandra was left with the knowledge of future events, but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions.

Related to Harvey's Right to the City, we refresh and adapt our environment to better fit our own changes as individuals and as a society.

the built environment as an extension of ourselves? is this confirming what we speak of in class about our environment reflecting us and therefore reflecting the time in which we exist?

enmity = feelings of hatred, animosity

If anything, doesn't this lead to us being more isolated in our day to day lives? And furthers the disparity between "1st" and "3rd" world nations?

metaphors

misanthropy = a hatred or mistrust of humankind

Urban Smellscapes

Cyborgs. See also Donna Haraway and Erik Swyngedouw

Conviviality. See Also Achille Mbembe

‘infrastructural work’

sensory politics

Think back to our reading of Foucault

This relates to Harvey's The Right to the City. This shows how black families do not have any rights to their own city. Instead it is stripped away from there.

Why is it that humans tend to turn to violence to get what they want? Is this a primal instinct still influencing our interpersonal communications with others? Or is it something taught to us as we grow up and witness what is effective in our world? Is violence an effective way of getting what one wants?

Ouch..

Travyon Martin as in the recent police victim Travyon Martin?

A fact of cultural nature? Culture is created by the society that shares a particular set of values, traditions, beliefs... People can change.. Are we capable of changing our culture?

exploitation should be illegal...

It's easy to imagine the white men being outnumbered by the amount of enslaved african americans.. now let's think about the white men's fear if suddenly all those african americans were set free..

They can't be blamed for not doing better economically because they have such limited choices/opportunities.

These are some intense statistics.. It'd be interesting to compare them to other cities in the area..

These lenders think this is all a game... It sickens me that another human would knowingly exploit someone's inability to establish a legitimate position in the credit system.

It amazes me that he so willingly accepts his unfair loss... Probably because he knew he would be hurt if he denied them his horse or caused an issue about it..

Just like that.. Knowing what kind of bond you can form with a horse, I'd be extremely upset if someone were to take one away that I'd had since I was a child just because they wanted it.

Sooo in order to make amends for a wrong doing, for a reparation, we need to tell people to fix their own self-image?!

It is really crazy to think that people are categorized in different levels because of their races. And surely the sub-categories are made to create supremacy and a larger segregation by the already privileged people.

How would you define "unsegregated"? And does skin color really affect one's wealth?

I find this rather interesting. Once he got "power", from the military, he was no longer bothered. Social status may be at play here?! Another interesting fact is that his background of low class no longer matters, its where he is at in his life right now which is part of the armed forces.

Is there even such a thing called "Elegant Racism"? Since when is racism good? I do not agree there is any way to "better" racism.

This reminds me of a scene from the movie Remember the Titans when someone threw a brick through Coach Boone's window as an act of racial violence. After looking through an interview with the real coach, I found that this event did actually occur but instead of a brick thrown through the window of his home it was a toilet.

Do you agree with Calhoun? Why/why not?

And what are the other social divisions exist in the American society?

The manipulation and extortion that took place, for example, in North Lawndale encouraged its own economy and profited many men who took place in this post slavery...slavery.

this doesn't sit right with me. People can only be allowed to be part of a society if they are "useful"? And useful how? to perpetuate stereotypes and further participate in segregation?

Why do we so rarely learn about organized efforts of minorities fighting back against the inequality and unfairness that has been so completely thrown against them?

Slave sales were more official than the North Lawndale real estate.

If you were in the position of those growing up in North Lawndale would the neighboring Juvenile Center motivate you to improve your life, or would you accept that your fate is already sealed based on where you are from?

Teaching English repays for slavery?

Poverty is concentrated among those with dark skin.

Noun: A destructive fire, usually an extensive one

Reparations:

the making of amends for wrong or injury done: reparation for an injustice.

compensation in money, material, labor, etc., payable by a defeated country to another country or to an individual for loss suffered during or as a result of war.

restoration to good condition.

Development of a ghetto.

Opportunity often influences the paths we are able to follow. The novel, Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell is a study of cultural anthropology that goes into depth regarding how opportunity impacts success.

http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930

Resembles the dispossession of the poor presented by Harvey in The Right to the City.

"'overfarming' was a problem in the early 1930s"

"The weakness of this argument is the permanence of an unwarranted urban shift compared to the flexibility which a judicious policy of land preservation would allow future generations."