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Environment, Space, Place - Volume 2, Issue 2 (Fall 2010)Editor: Gary Backhaus
TABLE OF CONTENTS Troy R. E. PADDOCK, Bridges: Technology and the SocialABSTRACT: Central to Martin Heidegger’s critique of modern technology is the transformation of “things” into “objects.” This article will apply some of the insights gained by Actor-Network-Theory to the several bridges in Budapest, with a special focus on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, in order to argue that modern technology and the creations of that technology can also be “things” in the Heideggerian sense of the term. The result is a view of bridges that is firmly grounded in the physical and geographic impact that bridges can have on space and place. The use of ANT also reveals that Heidegger and one of his main critics, Bruno Latour, are not as far apart in their thought as the latter might contend. Phillip ROBERTS, The Wall: Control and Space in the Byker RedevelopmentABSTRACT: This article is concerned with the political implications of Ralph Erskine’s redevelopment of the Byker estate in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. In it I attempt to provide a theoretical analysis of the architectures and environmental planning procedures operating in Byker, using the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to consider the impact of the re-development on the spaces within Newcastle and upon the bodies of the residents of the area. Ralph Erskine had been concerned with using the redevelopment to improve the quality of life on the estate and to introduce a positive political relation to the spaces and buildings on the development, however, as this paper will show, the upheavals in the social organisation of city life in Britain at large have negated the positive effects of his redevelopment philosophy and led to the reterritorialisation of a regressive and isolating politics of social organisation across the city spaces of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Roger PADEN, The Technological Production of a Space for Art and Environmental AestheticsABSTRACT: This paper argues against evolutionary accounts of aesthetics by defending the idea that our fundamental aesthetic categories have undergone great changes in the last two millennia, in particular, during an “artistic revolution” that lasted from 1680 to 1830. This revolution was made possible by the development of a number of technologies of art that created a separate cultural space for this new invention. The attempt to extend this revolution to include the aesthetic appreciation of the natural environment is aided by a new set of technologies that help make an aesthetic object out of natural environments. This even more recent development is further evidence against an evolutionary explanation of art. Robert ROSENBERGER, The Spatial Experience of Telephone Use ABSTRACT: Ideas developed within the philosophical tradition of phenomenology can be used to describe the experience of talking on the phone. In particular, I build on a contemporary brand of phenomenology called “postphenomenology,” a school of thought which specializes in the analysis of the relationships that form between users and technologies. Three central concepts are reviewed and developed: transparency, sedimentation, and what I call “field composition.” These concepts can be used for the description of the way that the content of a telephone conversation can come to stand forward and capture a user’s overall field of awareness. I suggest that this account of the experience of the telephone can be useful for analyzing issues in scientific research and public policy regarding the topic of using the phone while driving. Charlie HAILEY, Treillage'd Space: Tuning Person and Place in the Porches of Alison and Peter SmithsonABSTRACT: Late in their architectural career, Alison and Peter Smithson designed an eighty-square-foot, indoor-outdoor space for a man and his cat. The Smithsons described this modest space in methodological and phenomenal terms, noting that the addition to Axel Bruchhäuser’s Hexenhaus could be read “as an exemplar of a method by which a small physical change—a layering-over of air adhered to an existing fabric—can bring about a delicate tuning of persons with place.” The Hexenhaus’ tuning elements—second skin, tree screen, and double-acting mesh—create a “treillage’d space” that supplants mediation, reframes attunement, and elicits an active weaving of person, place, and phenomena. This paper seeks to understand what the architects meant by “tuning” and in the process to outline operations for spatial weaving.
Zeta Books
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
new issue: Environment, Space, Place - Volume 2, Issue 2 (Fall 2010)
Friday, February 18, 2011
If you continue to follow your big dream and continue to fail it is time you listen to what Lisa tells!!!! Trust me
| If you continue to follow your big dream and continue to fail it is time you listen to what Lisa tells!!!! Trust me – A Book Review (Dream Big/Lisa Hammond. 2005.-Mumbai:Jaico.) -LbnRaj February 19, 2011 Whenever I felt low in life whenever disappointments and failures drowned me to neck levels few times suicidal thoughts cropped up and many a time pushed me either to hear to an enlightened souls to lay hand on a book that attracted me by its very look and feel and title. Lisa's Dream Big is one such titles that caught my instant attention when I was engrossed in browsing books at ASBM's Chanakya Central Library. Incidentally I earn my daily bread by managing this beautiful and gigantic knowledge house. Dream Big is a book apart, it is one of very few books that aim to outclass contemporary business science and intelligentsia. Lisa's writing is so much passi9onate, personal and above all so much unreasonable. She puts passion before plan, dream before reality. It is this un reasonable character of her's that spearheaded to see the emergence of an unique comp0any known as Femail Creations. We are so much behind science, logic and management that we forget the basics of genesis of a dream or business of profession. Lisa is quite successful in bringing out the fact that all great businesses get born years before they were actually were conceived. She appeals in no uncertain terms to dream big however unreasonable and impractical it might seem at the outset. She continued and continues to be a simple barefooted passionate lady who loved her little family and people around passionately and desperately. Her genuine love for people around especially women and her stake holders hand holded her any where and every where. Her's is a life worth lived, life that encompasses her concern for all those women who wanted to be on their own and who sincerely believed to follow their big dreams. Dream Big running into 189 pages is divided conveniently by 16 chapter. Every chapter unfolds her ever evolving personality desperate convictions. The support caption, "Finding the courage to follow your dreams and laugh at your nightmares befits the contents of the book. As she continues wit5h her so much personal and affectionate way of expression every sentence looks like a guote. Initially I jotted down few lines here and there. It was so difficult for me to proceed further as every sentence looked like a quotation. The bo0ok honestly has impacted me a lot. I don't know how many of my friends I have already advised to read the book. Impacted by one of the thoughts from the book I wrote a blog post in my blog, http://indialibrarian-intl.blogspot.com and a friend of mine by name Charu (librarian) was deeply moved and commented as if I wrote those specially for her. I instantly replied her comments asking her to read, "Dream Big". Many thoughts and quotes of Lisa moved me …. One or two are reproduced here to give a little glimpse … : 1. Some times it is better not to know what you don't know 2. No one else will do it for you. No body else can put you at the top of your own list. 3. What often looks like a disaster at first can be sometimes turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Bad news can really be good news in the long run. 4. Some times on the way to your dream you get lost and find a better one. It is ok to change our minds and it is never too late to start. 5. There is no pleasure in having nothing to do , the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. 6. If there is one thing I have discovered one thing, it is that it is small things that can lead to the big shifts in thinking. She ends her emotionally crafted book with the following words : "…It is never too late to be what you might have been. Take a deep breath and take the leap, Dream Big. Those who always feel that there is something missing in their lives , those who have stumbled to discover their dream, those who have lost their way towards their dream, those who could not break the barriers of reality, could not break the established rules and failed and circumstances….. Dream Big is a good life time read. This read could succeed in turning the tables around. This read could sensitize those who have lost or losing faith in their passions and intuitions. It will re-energize those who have continued to fail Inspite of their best efforts and intentions …. Inspite of their being passionate about their Big Dreams. Lisa will live alive in the hearts of many women who dare to dream big … who dare to be different, who dare to outclass contemporary business science. Lisa continues to write from her Mail Order Catalogue website viz : www.femailcreations.com . She may be contacted by her email address : lisa@femailcreations.com Book reviewed by Rajashekhar Devarai, Chief Librarian, Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar, India. lotus5673@yahoo.co.in ; http://indialibrarian-intl.blogspot.com ; Librarianship is a noble profession http://indialibrarian-intl.blogspot.com/ 1816gbgv |
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The luminous life of Chanakya.2006/Shyam Dua (ed).-Delhi: Tiny Tot publications.-2004.-96p. A Book Review by Rajashekhar Devarai.
| The luminous life of Chanakya.2006/Shyam Dua (ed).-Delhi: Tiny Tot publications.-2004.-96p. A Book Review by Rajashekhar Devarai.
This book on Chanakya, also known as Kautilya a king maker par excellence published under the series, "The Luminous Life Of", by Tiny Tot Publications offers an intellectual read through. The book is a pictorial run through of the outstanding contributions of this great scholar, author and political scientist. By nature this timeless thinker was aloof, strict, disciplinarian and shrewd person. As every one knows he authored the famous works titled, "Arthashastra and Nitishastra. The editor is successful in bringing out the essence of his teachings , philosophy and ideologies. But unfortunately does not address the tiny tots, keeping their level and capacity to comprehend. A more simpler exposition would have suited the younger readers. May be a second or third reading under guidance may make tiny tots to understand what is deliberated in the book. May be it is an useful read for those who are passing out from their high schools. It is equally suited for general adult readers for general knowledge and understanding of Indian history and Magadh empire.
All said and done this kind of pictorial biographies raises the curiosities of readers in general to get to main texts / original texts. This pocket book running into 96 pages is quite handy for a quick read and its cost i.3., Rs.25.00 is quite affordable to one and all.
Rajashekhar Devarai Chief Librarian – ASBM November 11, 2010
http://lisreviews.blogspot.com/ Librarianship is a noble profession http://indialibrarian-intl.blogspot.com/ 1816gbgv |

