Ali Madanipour, “Whose Public Space?” International case studies in Urban design and development, Routledge, 2010
This text talks about the public space and its role in society: “Public space play a significant role in the life of the cities everywhere, and that for cities to work, there is an undeniable need for a public space […] Spaces (that) mirror the way a society is organized, shaped by unequal distribution of power and resources.”
The author undergoes as well the privatization of public space and how that is controlled by only the powerful members of the society, public spaces turning into “luxury rather than a necessity.” This conflict raised the individualism idea in the different cities where public space was no longer for everyone but for several.
Since the beginning, the main objective of any public space was: “(to) Integrating (integrate) the political, economic, social and cultural activities of a small and relatively coherent urban population.
The author talks about accessibility and how without being accessible, a place cannot be public. “The world public originates from the Latin and refers to people, indicating a relationship to both society and state. A public space may therefore be interpreted as open to people as a whole, and/or being controlled by the state on their behalf.”
Michael Kimmelman, “In Protest, the Power of Place,” The New York Times, October 15, 2011
“We tend to underestimate the political power of physical places” Kimmelman writes about the importance of the physical places and how they have so much to do with the subject in conflict or in the gathering of the people. The example which is used to describe this at first is the Occupy Wall Street, “People taking to the streets.” Based on Aristoteles and the old Acropolis idea of reunion and public space, the author links the human voice with the civic order.
The magical part about gathering in a public space is that it brings communities together, people get to see each other´s faces and see the support they have. “Protesters don´t just show the world a mass of people. They discover their own numbers- people with similar, if not identical, concerns.” The protestors generated a change by occupying and showing commitment and unity, “on the ground is where the protesters are building an architecture of consciousness.”
Peter Hall, “Bubbles, Lines, and String: How Information Visualization Shapes Society,” 2011
This article talks about how data visualization is interpreted in different ways depending on the user and how it can be used in different ways. The article talks about data as means by which science progresses, legislation changes and society advances. “Data is the enemy of witch hunts, bigotry, and ignorance.” The author undergoes three users of the data visualization. The first one is the scientific practice. “Here the laboratories, supercomputers and vasr monitors arrays, enjoys the funding of the military industrial complex and a sense of societal importance. The Journalistic practice refers to reports and analyzing the weather for instance and coming up with conclusions. Its datasets with patterns. The Artistic Practice “reflects on cultural conditions. Its specific subject is our current preoccupation with data.” The author also mentions cartography and its importance in understanding our world. Hall talks about how maps changes during the postwar years.
