May 2010

In discussing our research question, Greg has offered a new refinement:

How might digital screens alter how people use and perceive space in Amsterdam’s outdoor, public environments?

We are attempting to incorporate the element of creating our own digital screen (or projection) in Amsterdam into our project. Also, Greg has some interesting thoughts in his blog about how a screen might change the very nature of what we encounter in an environment in his blog. These ideas frame the current scope of our research question: we are interested in how people interact with public digital screens, and we’d like to come up with a way of testing this through our own creation.

However, I’ve noticed that it seems to be really tough to narrow and refine our research question at this point in time because what we are researching depends on what we discover in Amsterdam from our observations. This seems to be a tough block to overcome:

• If we develop an extremely specific research question using our pre-Amsterdam knowledge, we might limit what we are studying to something that is much less interesting or juicy than if we had explored our options (in Amsterdam) before selecting.
• However, if we don’t develop a specific topic to look for before heading to Amsterdam, we might spend too much time on observing and exploring a wide breadth of options, and have difficulty narrowing down our topic sufficiently in time for more rigorous research.

Conclusion? Stay posted for updates :p

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<an extra midterm response because I thought something was really interesting and wanted to write about it a little bit>

While listening to Lisa and Patty’s presentation on parks, and while hearing Rob’s comments about the use of public spaces in Amsterdam, several comments struck a chord with me:

• The use of public spaces in nonconventional ways
• There are places that the city hasn’t labeled as a “park” yet people use it as such
• The nature of people’s interaction with their environment

These statements exactly describe a discipline that I follow known as Parkour. It’s probably better known for internet videos in which young daredevils “freerun” by doing wild flips and dangerous maneuvers off and around buildings. However, the core philosophy, and the element of Parkour that I attempt to pursue, involves interacting with one’s environment in a way that utilizes the capabilities of the human body and three dimensions of the environment rather than the conventional walking in two. People vault, climb, roll, and maneuver around public spaces in an attempt to get from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible, using space in a very unconventional way and in many cases treating the city as literally an urban playground.

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate this idea is through seeing it in action:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98jCBnWO8w
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=515642196227308929#
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPIw3cv8Zls
• Also, definitely Google/look for videos by
  • David Belle (the founder)
  • Yamakasi (the main original Parkour group)
  • and websites like Urban Freeflow (sold-out commercially but tones of literature and media
  • and American Parkour

Anyway, this isn’t directly related to progressing anyone’s project or furthering research, but I thought it was cool and interesting and wanted to share. Thanks for reading!

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<a midterm response>

I enjoyed reading all of your blogs and hearing your different takes on the similar topic of immigrants living in distinct communities: John on Parisians, Sabra on Seattleites, and Derek on Italians.

I think that you’ve all agreed on what is a packed and deep topic to explore. I won’t advise that you all narrow your focus, because I know that you’ve heard that already and are well aware of the importance of developing a specific, pointed question to research. I would, however, like to do somewhat of the opposite, and provide you with some ideas and thoughts that I had while listening to your presentation, in the hopes that you’ll find some of it interesting and might be inspired to further your explanation in a certain direction. Not necessarily any direction that I present, but … well, you get the idea.

The first thing that I thought of while listening to your presentation was about the fact that Muslim communities exist in certain areas of Amsterdam. I was immediately reminded of Avery and Jenn ‘s presentation in which they talked about how public housing is integrated into communities rather than separated into distinct districts. I’m not sure whether you could say that this is a more sophisticated or better way of implementing public housing, or whether it is simply different and has an equal list of benefits and drawbacks, but regardless, it appears that differences in socio-economic status are handled distinctly differently than ethnic differences. I’m sure that the least of these issues is the areas of society that the government has control over, but it seems like this is one of those “uncommon” questions for exactly that reason (it isn’t a clear one to ask). You might find some interest in discussing this topic with Jenn and Avery.

Also, especially for John, who is interested in issues of immigration across different European cities, it could be fascinating and informative to check out the work on the wikis and blogs of the UW Honors in Berlin program for the past few years. I know that they live in a Turkish community and they take a trip to Istanbul during the program because immigration is one of the major themes of that program. This could be background research, a note of interest, or a further comparison to look into after drawing your own conclusion.

Sabra’s aspect of the presentation, with the pictures she included of the very distinct Chinese buildings in the International District, reminded me of some of the pictures we looked at for the first assignment (assignment 0…). In photos of the houses on the waterfront, we saw that though some variation was apparent in the buildings, the conformed to strict standards as far as the height and general structure. What ways might immigrants to The Netherlands express themselves in the way that immigrants have here, in the architecture, but while existing within the seemingly strict Dutch requirements of conformity? What other fascist of life do immigrants in Amsterdam use to express their heritage?

Overall, though, I’m actually quite excited to see where you three go with this project, and I’ll be looking forward to hearing about the results of your research in a few months! Best of luck.

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