How dare they.

as always? I wonder what the world could look like if we stopped throwing in the towel so that future generations don't feel compelled to tackle everything everywhere and by all means necessary...

This is why we need trans-disciplinary design teams heh.

didn't they JUST say that they were impressed/surprised at people's ability to self-organize and create spaces from a module?

for the Feds??? Nice.

sounds like a GREAT studio project if you ask me...

regional military-dictatorships backed by the U.S. will do that to ya!

AND forced mass voting/voting is a mandatory tenet in most (?) Latinamerican societies.

yes.

reads like radical trace paper

nice visual, site lies in the intersection of many systems (petrol agriculture, suburbia, water provides recreation and food, etc)

What a simple example of a new concept: waywardness

THERE it is!

interesting use of the metaphor "chorus"; the OG choir of greek tragedies were seen as mediators of the gods' messages (depicted on stage) while also acting as the literal voice of the audience/people. Simply put, they would sing to the mostly illiterate crowd what to make of the events unfolding in front of them ("OEDIPUS IS VERY UPSET Y'ALL!")

future elective title?

the first section of this essay is so synesthetic; we're visualizing circles, intimacy, hearing sounds, etc

Hartman might've taught me more about research methodology that excites me than other courses...

quite beautiful to read; maybe instead of research, the action verb should be "to live" with these folks that are telling us stories that we then...interpret? showcase? I've never thought of a "primary source" as intimately as this.

ok, NOW I'm paying attention ;)

The theme of mobility stands out in this reading, or more specifically, the freedom that might come with mobility (social mobility of the working class, physical mobility of the "masterless", etc)

"a port, city, or other center to which goods are brought for import and export, and for collection and distribution."

one hell of an epiphany via this sentence! So good.

An organic evolution from the Nehemiah's Ark cultural sentiment of early settlement USA? J.B. Jackson's "Westward Moving House" posits the idea of taming the wilderness (evil, demonic) via holy order and fences (?). Complement that with agriculture, and you get...

is it now the same via the Petrochemical Lower Miss. Delta?

Ties back a bit to our previous reading's ideas re: poor people's alleged lack of design aesthetic and/or the ways The Single Family Housing Model does not let others fit into its specific mold. Then, through words like shanty towns, these folks are Othered via semantics; these sheds can't possibly be people's homes (they are) and thus the collective consciousness/morality will not care when they get bulldozed yet again (we don't?).

Love this.

Is what we would call "domestic life" an escape for folks whose life outside their home/house means hardship, oppression, racism? I think that the freedom to create safety had to be found (and offered) within their homes, their porches, their gardens.

As a former high school teacher, this is so so so important. Thank you Irene, for setting this radical but so necessary precedent.

When should spatial designers tackle this kind of negotiation? The design of spaces with equity and justice in mind must embrace difference and gendered/coded spaces are not that by default. I wonder: when we design spaces that are meant to be inclusive and equitable, do we design them thinking that they'll be embracing of our differences? Or do we design thinking that a space of equality should be a space where everyone can experience it in the same way?

It's exciting to read all of these words in quick succession. I'm very interested in the intersection of queerness/otherness + spatial design. It's an intersection that hasn't been explored in my academic design education as much (at all).

One of the big take-aways from a course I took last semester (The Intersectional City, taught by Robyn Reed, Landscape faculty) was the phrase difference is accommodated as long as it's kept out of site (from Queers in a (Single-Family) Space), and this reading's title just resonates in that regard.