Levie, Jared- 1.2 Reading
Data Dimension: Accessing Urban Data and Making it Accessible
Exploring this article showed me that data is our new superpower. With the advancements in sensor technology and wireless networking controls we can change the physical environment in extremely specific and dynamic ways. Conclusions drawn about space and energy usage can help us use both more efficiently. I especially appreciated the description of representing data graphically without a biased lens so that conclusions or findings could be made in ways that they might not otherwise be apparent.
Mobile cuisine in New York and Portland
I found the history of the emergence of food carts and their popularity boom to be interesting and that it follows a clear logic. One thing about all the food cart pods I have ever been too is that they contain food from across the globe. With an influx of immigrants who all know and want the food from their native lands, but do not have the startup capitol to open a brick and mortar, food carts are a clear and creative solution. Carts in Portland and carts in New York seemed to emerge for completely different reasons and operate in very different ways. Understanding how food carts fit into their specific environment and why is a study and reflection of the local subcultures. This reading highlighted the fact that we can start to understand how design better buildings and places when we deeply understand that place and can do so by measure specific phenomenon which can later give intel about that place as a whole.
SOCIAL “CODING:” URBAN PROCESSES AND SOCIO-COMPUTATIONAL WORKFLOW INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE
Though, I’m not sure I understood this article in its entirety, the content and emerging strategies are groundbreaking and in what seems uncharted territory. Understanding how our digital lives and interactions are manifesting physically and how to design in conjunction to support our current use or influence a shift in culture applies data to a phenomenon that we can no longer ignore. I for one have always believed that the more we can simplify our lives and be inline with nature the better, and often that means moving away from a life cluttered with stuff and “technology”. However, it seems engineers and creators understand this and are on a mission to integrate technology in a simpler and streamlined way. Tools like the GIS visualization tool ill enable us to understand the specific needs of our extremely dynamic and fast paced culture and account for these things in the built environment in real time.