I will be giving a talk today at the London Metropolitan University at the MA Cities, Design and Urban Cultures lead by Ines Weizmann.
The topic is Time Space focusing on how the space is influenced by the cultural convention over time. If we define time as a cultural convention, in the sense of Thrift, I will ask the question of what the meaning of space can be. My Hypothesis for this talk is that both are constructed through the elements of time and place, in the sense of Tuan. An important role also plays the visualisation of the problem and I will use the well know examples by Hagerstrand and Debord to illustrate the problems surrounding the politics of temporal patterns. We will look at aspects of repetition and cycles regarding the question of contraints in the sense of Hagerstrand. His Time-Space Aquarium has widely been critisised for a number of points, and his definition of the contrains is one of them. In terms of politics of the temporal pattern I guess this aspect is crucia. Hagerstrand defines three types of constraint. Capability constraints refer to the limitations on human movement due to physical or biological factors. Thus, for example, a person cannot be in two places at one time. A person also cannot travel instantaneously from one location to another.
Coupling addresses the fact that in certain situations individuals are connected to one another, as for example in the morning rush hour.
Authority is a ‘domain’ or area that is controlled by a group or institution restricting access for other individuals or groups as in a hospital, a military base or a private club.
In an overall sense the concept of constraints refers to the possibility of an unconstrained existence. This view is fundamental to the urbanMachine, the setting were we are all users of the city as a service provided.
Aspects of creation and capacity to shape the immediate surrounding could become important in a new way to look at urban planning. In the context of current technologies and emerging applications, where temporal information, services and participation play a dominant role, I believe it would be important to rethink these static concepts.
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Rabu, 21 April 2010
Selasa, 20 April 2010
Ashes, Roses and the Routine we Take for Granted
It is difficult to get fresh, organic, Kenyan roses these days in London. Beside the roses a number of other goods are getting rare or have already vanished from the shelfs in UK and other north European shops. It is not that customers would buy more of those goods, but it is impossible to import due to the closure of air traffic in large parts of Europe due to the vulcano Eyjafjallajokull spitting a massive cloud of ashes into the sky. Air traffic closure in northern Europe is now in its fifth day and symptoms are spreading beyond the airline industry. Affecting everyday life situation are most likely to be observed on the shelves of your supermarket. Special goods, such as freshly cut flowers as well as fruit and vegetable are among the first products to go missing, eg sell out. The UK currently imports about 40% of their goods. The bulk arrives by boat, but specific ones are brought in by air fright. Today across the EU official are positive to be able to terminate the complete air lockdown in the early morning. However latest headlines on the BBC (21:26 GMT, Monday, 19 April 2010 22:26 UK) quote the MET to observe new clouds drifting from Island towards the UK and mainland Europe.
Andy Hooper, a geologist who did his postdoctoral research at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences, pointed out in a blog post for Reuters on Monday that “it remains a very real possibility that the volcano will continue to erupt on-and-off for months to come, as occurred during the last eruptive period” at Eyjafjallajokull in 1821-23. Mr. Hooper added, “Like 1821-1823, this current eruption is likely to remain small in terms of volume, but in an age of mass aviation, a relatively small amount of erupted ash is having huge consequences.”
This event with complete flight ban compares only to the post 9/11 events and is now said to have cost the airline industry already more in terms of losses. The news report a £130 million loss per day for the industry.
I guess very few people have actually thought that something like this would ever happen. It caught everyone by surprise and in time for the UK school term start, after the Easter Brake, a number of teachers and pupils will be missing from the classroom. One million Britons are said to be abroad by Sunday 18 April. The latest development and the some history in maps back to the 21 of March can be found HERE. Latest news on real time flights and open or closed airports can be found on FlightRadar24.
An animation from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, showing the projected dispersion of volcanic ash from the eruption in Iceland. Blogger Jonathan Crowe explains that the ash cloud is represented by areas colored black; areas colored yellow show where ash has fallen to earth by itself; areas colored red show where ash has fallen as a result of precipitation. The color scheme may owe something to that of Norway’s most famous volcano-inspired painting, “The Scream.”
The optimisation in food delivery and storage in the concepts of large retailers now leaves them with difficulties to fill the shelves. It is not a massive cries for that people had to go panic raid the stores, but it is visible on a shopping trip to your local store. The Guardian writes "The UK imports about 90% of its fruit and 60% of its vegetables. While the vast majority come by sea – Fair Trade bananas from the West Indies, for instance, are regularly delivered to Southampton and Portsmouth – some of the more exotic inhabitants of the UK's shops come by air."
The Telegraph reports "The ban on air freight has meant that fruits such as figs, papaya and coconuts, fresh flowers and pharmaceutical products – all of which are delivered by air – are not reaching their destinations in the UK. Air freight accounts for 25pc of the UK's international goods movements by value." and that was on day two of the events.
The tight interlink between city activities and the provision of food tell its own urban tale. Not that we are relying on Kenyan roses, but even essential goods have to be delivered into the urban areas from storage or directly from its production place. This logistical puzzle is increasingly optimised and trimmed to run on a short term basis. No longer the supermarkets sit on hugh stock pies. Space for storage is a expensive and they all want to be flexible and not sit on unwanted products. The result is an increasingly real-time provision of goods. This is is obviously no difference to the consumers if everything goes according to plan. However in extraordinary circumstances this can rather quickly leave large urban areas without the essentials. Now it is the fact ta airplanes can't fly earlier last year officials feared that the pig flue could leave the delivery chains understaffed and also leave supermarket shelves empty.
Image taken from frozenJuice
Ash Cloud Animation for the UK Met Office:
This shows the ash dispersion up to 20,000 feet across Europe from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. Advisories are issued every 6 hours.
Andy Hooper, a geologist who did his postdoctoral research at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences, pointed out in a blog post for Reuters on Monday that “it remains a very real possibility that the volcano will continue to erupt on-and-off for months to come, as occurred during the last eruptive period” at Eyjafjallajokull in 1821-23. Mr. Hooper added, “Like 1821-1823, this current eruption is likely to remain small in terms of volume, but in an age of mass aviation, a relatively small amount of erupted ash is having huge consequences.”
This event with complete flight ban compares only to the post 9/11 events and is now said to have cost the airline industry already more in terms of losses. The news report a £130 million loss per day for the industry.
I guess very few people have actually thought that something like this would ever happen. It caught everyone by surprise and in time for the UK school term start, after the Easter Brake, a number of teachers and pupils will be missing from the classroom. One million Britons are said to be abroad by Sunday 18 April. The latest development and the some history in maps back to the 21 of March can be found HERE. Latest news on real time flights and open or closed airports can be found on FlightRadar24.
An animation from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, showing the projected dispersion of volcanic ash from the eruption in Iceland. Blogger Jonathan Crowe explains that the ash cloud is represented by areas colored black; areas colored yellow show where ash has fallen to earth by itself; areas colored red show where ash has fallen as a result of precipitation. The color scheme may owe something to that of Norway’s most famous volcano-inspired painting, “The Scream.”
The optimisation in food delivery and storage in the concepts of large retailers now leaves them with difficulties to fill the shelves. It is not a massive cries for that people had to go panic raid the stores, but it is visible on a shopping trip to your local store. The Guardian writes "The UK imports about 90% of its fruit and 60% of its vegetables. While the vast majority come by sea – Fair Trade bananas from the West Indies, for instance, are regularly delivered to Southampton and Portsmouth – some of the more exotic inhabitants of the UK's shops come by air."
The Telegraph reports "The ban on air freight has meant that fruits such as figs, papaya and coconuts, fresh flowers and pharmaceutical products – all of which are delivered by air – are not reaching their destinations in the UK. Air freight accounts for 25pc of the UK's international goods movements by value." and that was on day two of the events.
The tight interlink between city activities and the provision of food tell its own urban tale. Not that we are relying on Kenyan roses, but even essential goods have to be delivered into the urban areas from storage or directly from its production place. This logistical puzzle is increasingly optimised and trimmed to run on a short term basis. No longer the supermarkets sit on hugh stock pies. Space for storage is a expensive and they all want to be flexible and not sit on unwanted products. The result is an increasingly real-time provision of goods. This is is obviously no difference to the consumers if everything goes according to plan. However in extraordinary circumstances this can rather quickly leave large urban areas without the essentials. Now it is the fact ta airplanes can't fly earlier last year officials feared that the pig flue could leave the delivery chains understaffed and also leave supermarket shelves empty.
Image taken from frozenJuice
Selasa, 19 Januari 2010
The Speed of Things - BBC Life Series
We are living in a really fast world these days. At least this is what people tell you. I am not sure, haven’t experienced anything other than this before you might think to yourself. The routine is in place and you follow it, however it might speed things up a little. To know the sequence of actions and the context they take place will help to execute them quicker. But probably only if the destination is clear. Take your commute to work. It is a routine and you are really good at it. Fast here, up there with a few steps, into the bus, out and across and your there. However there is very little your interested in between. It is about going from A to B. There is not much roaming around. The routine together with the clear target speeds things up. Time runs quick, everyone around you is in the same situation, they follow their routine target and therefore move quick too. The passage of time is here measured in relation to the activity of the fellow travellers. This makes the time go really quick and everyone seems to be in such a hurry. The perception of time changes and it seems to speed up and you end up being late, because everyone else seems to be quicker.
Being trapped in such a short term time experience mode, it becomes really different to relate to longer term time phenomenon. Already the structure of the day is difficult to grasp. It will get dark at some point but will realise when we get there. Time frames beyond this are out of reach without proper assimilation. Take the tide for example. It changes twice a day and still it is almost impossible to relate to as a ‘fast’ living citizen. This phenomenon featured earlier in posts, see HERE.
Other timescales moving at a different pace are way beyond and all we see are key frames. Take the plant on your windowsill. Does it look the same everyday? I bet it does, to you. At least I only realise something happened when it flowers. I most likely wont see the tiny first bud, maybe realise when their quit big and the next time the flower has opened. But something is happening in between, the plant moves and changes, grows and moves.
TimeLapse can be a brilliant tool to visualise this kind of change. Where better to look than at the BBC. In their Live Series they produced these astonishing visualisations capturing this change at a different pace. In an only 60 second shot they compress the growth of a range of flowers in a stretch of wood over a whole season. It took them a year to to produce this short clip. THe result is astonishing and most likely the most complex scene in natural filming.
The rest of the parts are accessible here: Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five
This is documentation on how it was produced.
Being trapped in such a short term time experience mode, it becomes really different to relate to longer term time phenomenon. Already the structure of the day is difficult to grasp. It will get dark at some point but will realise when we get there. Time frames beyond this are out of reach without proper assimilation. Take the tide for example. It changes twice a day and still it is almost impossible to relate to as a ‘fast’ living citizen. This phenomenon featured earlier in posts, see HERE.
Other timescales moving at a different pace are way beyond and all we see are key frames. Take the plant on your windowsill. Does it look the same everyday? I bet it does, to you. At least I only realise something happened when it flowers. I most likely wont see the tiny first bud, maybe realise when their quit big and the next time the flower has opened. But something is happening in between, the plant moves and changes, grows and moves.
TimeLapse can be a brilliant tool to visualise this kind of change. Where better to look than at the BBC. In their Live Series they produced these astonishing visualisations capturing this change at a different pace. In an only 60 second shot they compress the growth of a range of flowers in a stretch of wood over a whole season. It took them a year to to produce this short clip. THe result is astonishing and most likely the most complex scene in natural filming.
The rest of the parts are accessible here: Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five
This is documentation on how it was produced.
Rabu, 06 Januari 2010
Every Year
Every year again the winter season comes round and brings the cold weather. Only eleven month back in February 2009 London was snowed in and it resulted in one of the biggest travel chaos in recent years. There was no bus service and little train service. Only very few people actually managed to get in to work and it made for a perfect monday out in the snow. You probably remember the posts on this blog HERE and HERE.
The snow is back and it really hit the whole of the UK. Forecasts warned about dramatic conditions already days back and unlike last time everyone jumped on it. Sales of winter goods soared. People around the country panic bought everything of the selves of supermarkets according to todays METRO with some goods there is a 1000 percent rise of demand, as for example with thermal underwear at ASDA.
However, the amount of snow in central London today is rather disappointing. The streets are basically free of snow, the public transport runs ok and I am at work. There are signs of disruption elsewhere. Outside London there is quite a lot of snow and commuters from outside do face difficulties to get into work and a lot will not be able to come in. This results in empty streets and little traffic. My bus journey was as smooth as never.
Image by single-blogs / not much snow on the crossroad at Euston Station and empty streets down Gower Street this morning.
Airports around London, like Luton and Gatwick are having problems and Gatwick closed temporarily over night. A lot of flights are being cancelled.
It is really for the UK not a routine event. Snow hasn’t really been part of the seasonal cycle to this extend, but occurring for the second time it might become a ‘feature’ of the winter month and the country has to get used to it?
It is still snowing now here in central London and around 5cm of fresh snow are expected over the course of today.
The snow is back and it really hit the whole of the UK. Forecasts warned about dramatic conditions already days back and unlike last time everyone jumped on it. Sales of winter goods soared. People around the country panic bought everything of the selves of supermarkets according to todays METRO with some goods there is a 1000 percent rise of demand, as for example with thermal underwear at ASDA.
However, the amount of snow in central London today is rather disappointing. The streets are basically free of snow, the public transport runs ok and I am at work. There are signs of disruption elsewhere. Outside London there is quite a lot of snow and commuters from outside do face difficulties to get into work and a lot will not be able to come in. This results in empty streets and little traffic. My bus journey was as smooth as never.
Image by single-blogs / not much snow on the crossroad at Euston Station and empty streets down Gower Street this morning.
Airports around London, like Luton and Gatwick are having problems and Gatwick closed temporarily over night. A lot of flights are being cancelled.
It is really for the UK not a routine event. Snow hasn’t really been part of the seasonal cycle to this extend, but occurring for the second time it might become a ‘feature’ of the winter month and the country has to get used to it?
It is still snowing now here in central London and around 5cm of fresh snow are expected over the course of today.
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