Culture : Space

Navigation Technology

 

Henry Grabar's article "Smartphones and the Uncertain Future of 'Spatial Thinking'" hit home!  A recent experience navigating DC left me with a sense of unease as I was unable to recall any of the street names near a place that I visit often. I relate to the following: 

"But I've lately undergone a crisis of confidence: I find it hard to hit the road without consulting my phone. And while I'd like to think the recommended route (from Google, Waze, Hopstop, etc.) is just one influence among many—that I have other preferences their algorithms can't perceive—I'm not too proud to confess that I trust the computer more than I trust myself. The habits, hubris, and quirky predilections that once manipulated my movements are being replaced by the judgments of artificial intelligence."

Sitting in my car, I realized that not only do I not know the surrounding streets, but I also didn't have a sense of how to get home by car or foot.  I have become so dependent on the phone that I often use Google maps to orient myself while on foot!  

 

 

The Mediated Flaneur?

Source: Simpsons, Fox.com

Source: Simpsons, Official preview on Youtube.

Last week the Simpson's aired "Specs in the City" -- a funny and thoughtful commentary on Google Glass.  Mr. Burns gives all of his employees a pair of Oogle goggles as a "gift" to spy on his employees.  Homer becomes addicted to the glasses, even going so far as to use the glasses in bed with Marge.  In Homer's words:  "No one can live in a non-augmented reality!" Giving up his glasses to Marge, he spies on her as she follows her daily routine at home and in the town.  

The episodes addresses issues from privacy, mediated reality ("augmented" reality according to the Simpsons), to performativity.  

The full episode is available on Fox.com or Hulu.com if you missed it.  

 

Google's Personal Maps

Evgeny Morozov wrote an interesting article, "My Map or Yours?," for Slate critiquing Google’s plan to personalize maps.  I agree with Morozo that there are social implications that need to be considered.

From the article:

 “Google's urbanism, on the other hand, is that of someone who is trying to get to a shopping mall in their self-driving car. It's profoundly utilitarian, even selfish in character, with little to no concern for how public space is experienced. In Google's world, public space is just something that stands between your house and the well-reviewed restaurant that you are dying to get to. Since no one formally reviews public space or mentions it in their emails, it might as well disappear from Google's highly personalized maps.”

Geography, Hate and Technology

Image from Atlantic Cities: "Where Americans Tweet Messages of Hate"

 

Atlantic Cities posted an interesting article on a research project from Humboldt State mapping hateful tweets.  The interactive map can be found here. The maps illustrate the persistance of prejudice and hate in the US.

Where does work belong?

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to ban her Yahoo employees from telecommuting has sparked a media firestorm.  Her decision, especially as a working mother, has angered her employees, many working mothers, feminists, and policy makers working towards work-life balance.  She has also been praised by journalists and business insiders that argue that the boundary between work and home is becoming too porous.   Mayer's public declaration that she is not a feminist and decision to build a nursery (with her own money) next to her office has stoked the fire.

Why the strong and contradictory response to Mayer's decision? My dissertation research examines the social construction of the private sphere and the history of work in the home.  Working within the home has a complicated history and associations with issues of class.  Mayer's decision reveals the problem of class privilege and asks us to question where work belongs? The answers are not simple and too complicated to go into detail here.  However, I believe some important points can be addressed in this blog post. 

Marissa Mayer's position of power as CEO and financial means allow her to bring her baby to work, a privilege not available to her employees.  Mayer clearly believes that work should be first when considering work-life balance for herself and her employees.  Productive work belongs in the workplace.  In building the nursery, she has brought "home" or "life" to work.  However, the angry response to Mayer's decision also reveals the problem of work-life balance and privilege on the part of her employees.  For the middle and upper-middle class Yahoo employees working at home means flexibility and placing more emphasis on "life." Productive work can exist within the private sphere.  The ability to work at home is also a privilege that is increasingly more associated with socioeconomic status.  Mayer's decision threatens a new form of cultural capital that has become increasingly important to knowledge (or what Richard Florida refers to as the Creative Class) professionals. 

Technology--the good and the bad

 

 

I recently watched Surviving Progress (2011) which is currently streaming on Netflix. The film is based on the book A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright.  He introduces the concept of the "progress trap" to explain what he identifies as a repeated and ongoing problem with technological development.  As humans, we value progress, the match forward, no matter what the cost.  The same technological invovations we develop to solve problems often cause new problems we can't solve.  In his words "many of the great ruins that grace the deserts and jungles of the earth are monuments to progress traps, the headstones of civilizations which fell victim to their own success" (8). 

I believe the film is worth watching even though many arguments veer torward technological determinism.