This unit explores the ways in which social networks have created new types of “ambient intimacies” that are now finding their way into architectural theories

Monday
READING
– Finish Urban Computing and Its Discontents
– Clive Thompson, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”
– Penelope Green, “Yours for the Peeping”
WRITING
– post paragraphs on Urban Computing blog post

For Wednesday
Christopher Allen, “Intimacy Gradient and Other Lessons from Architecture”

Discourse Communities
– vocabularies/concepts/conventions specific to a given community
– membership
– not just communication but also indicating a sense of belonging
– we are all members of multiple discourse communities

ex. Architectural discourse community: “construction documents,” “truss,” “poché,” “entourage”

– writing for a popular audience vs. writing for an academic community — compare Clive Thompson’s “Location Location Location” to “Urban Computing and Its Discontents”

academic discourse: symposium, taxonomy

GROUP PROJECT
– Discuss the discourse community of “Urban Computing and Its Discontents”
– Who wrote this? (more than their names: where do they work? what kind of work do they do?)
– how would you describe this discourse community?
– what are some key terms and concepts that define urban computing as discussed in this essay?
– Each group should identify 5 terms used in the essay that express important concepts related to urban ubiquitous computing
– Each person in the group should take one of those terms and write at least a paragraph that quotes from the book and discusses the way in which that term is used.

Group 1
Maritza
Michael
George
Chris

Group 2
Anthony
Luis
Jair
Eric

Group 3
Demir
Eric
Theo

Group 4
Jiayi
Alan
Joaquin
David Castro

Group 5
Erika
Sandy
Victor
Magda

McLuhan — “Every extension is also an amputation.”
– become more dependent on technology, less dependent on native senses
– blind man/cane

– surveillance