Weekly Post 11
1: The Sassen article raises a question for me regarding cities. While cities, without a doubt, exist in a certain space and time, as Sassen points out throughout the paper, cities also are a place where “space” is not always the most relevant of factors. Is it possible, though, that cities themselves are spaces in which “place” becomes mutable and separation from certain spaces becomes largely marginal and even irrelevant? Maybe the notion of cities as “centers” of regions and nations rings more true in the digital era than many people believe.
2: The way in which de Certeau describes the functions of the city seems rather similar to the panoptic principle that was established by Foucault. He doesn’t do so explicitly, but it makes me wonder what a look at “the city” through the lens of panopticism – taking into account not only its own regulation of its own people, but also the role of the city in trade and politics beyond its borders – would look like and what theoretical principles it would yield.
3: Honestly, I have a lot of questions about the Baudrillard reading, which I found to be rather overdramatic and sensationalistic. Maybe that was the intent, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. One part that did get me thinking, though, was the segment on holograms. The article claims, as an example (of something) that by passing your hand through the hologram, your hand becomes unreal. I dispute this, and the premise of one becoming unreal through the medium of television. I think things like holograms and the ongoing theme of television are important to establishing our own “reality” against what happens on the screen.
Definitions:
Gentrification: While this definition is not hit directly in the articles, I’ve brought it up once before and think it bares relevance to the current readings and specifically de Certeau’s. In a city defined by its functions, it would seem that gentrification is a manner in which “undesirable” elements are removed from the city in favor of those which meet its ideal “function” better.
Panopticism: As it relates to de Certeau, panoptic principles could be argued to be driving the manner in which cities are evolving both in their self-administration and in how they relate to the wider world in the digital era.