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Jeff Cohen, The History of Location
Day 3, Science and a Sense of Place 2007
(Jeff Cohen, Growth and Structure of Cities)
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Resources:
Places in Time:
Historical Documentation of Place in Greater Philadelphia
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Anne's notes from Jeff's talk:
- our environment is more defined by what human have done, than by nature
- place is an artifact of what humans create
- there is a "toy store" of resources for figuring out the stories of places
- think of a place as a "palimpsest," with layers of meaning poking through from different parts of history
- civic spaces are palimpsests, assemblies of different human interventions through time
- "imagine that you are a mole": what would you see if you stuck your head up every 100 years in the same place?
- "this is not the pattern you would see in science: humans are more wilful than molecules are
- "a really attentive mole" would notice that people are going in different directions these days: there is more work on the periphery, and so more commuting from periphery to periphery, into areas not served by public transportion
- community is "less centrifugal"
- "transportion can be a social filter"
- make a mental map of the Philadelphia region, then place yourself in it: what are its organizing features?
- "beyond development is where philanthropy happens"
- "maps are our friends"
- "photography usually comes with a motive"
- "how resounding the decisions of developers can be"
- "wonder with me: how did the places you are in take the shape they did? who were the agents of these changes? what were their motives?"
- "think about the reliability of each of the resources you are using: why was it made? to what degree can you trust it? did it have a particular agenda? filter your understanding through those original purposes...."
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Comments
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Location, Location, Location
History of Location - Mary Ellen McGinnity
The discussions today were fascinating for a number of reasons. I love going back to locations that have special memories (former homes, neighborhoods, schools I attended, places I've worked, etc.), and I'm very interested in learning about architecture because my children are working in/studying the fields of graphic design and architecture. It's stimulating to have a variety of new lenses through which we can look at where we are and how we've come to be there.
In first grade, I try to integrate the use of maps into everything we do because I feel it's very important for children to have some understanding/perspective about where we are (school in Bryn Mawr) in relation to the places we're reading about or discussing. The mole poking up through a particular space periodically is a clever way to hone our observation skills, something that children today need help in doing. Taking time to notice the effects that people have had on the environment, then engaging in critical thinking and conversations about how and why something was done will have ramifications for our world as we know it now and hope it will be in the future.
Jeff's enthusiasm for his field came across very clearly. By the end of the morning, I began to intertwine the previous days' discussions with today's and now have a much clearer idea of the curriculum plan I'll be submitting.
My, how the world has changed
"It was a great trip but a too long adventure."
On constraining willfulness and understanding limits.
I am more than a little in doubt that our environment is more defined by what human have done, than by nature.
From adolescent scatter-brains to the patternless structure of cities I am beginning to suspect that things are not always what they seem. “I don’t understand why my students act so crazy.” “I don’t see any predictable patterns in the structure of Philadelphia.” Does this mean these phenomena are unknowable? What could possibly explain the observations? What we see today may not have an obvious explanation based on today’s observations, but with the right perspective those explanations are not beyond our discovery.
Take for example, one of the first activities of the institute when we looked for patterns in human settlements and we identified several influences of population density. We recognized that not many people live in deserts. People need water – predictable. Then we recognized that the majority of human populations are located on coasts and large waterways – makes sense. Then we wondered about Las Vegas – not predictable. What else is at play? Considering what we have learned from Jeff Cohen one might say humans once were constrained by nature and geography, but since the steam engine and subsequent libratory technologies humans are now less driven by nature and more influenced by other human forces – enterprise, greed or perhaps philanthropy – human nature?. So, driving forces change over time, but the range of possibilities is constrained by nature.
What about patterns of behavior in the children we teach? Why, as Kim Kassidy put it, does a child one day turn from a competent angel to a “pseudo-stupid” alien? Again, change over time. Can we know the driving forces? From the point of view of the teacher it may seem that our students have dubious motives for their actions. But how does nature/cognitive development inform us about adolescent behavior? Elkind’s theory would lead us to re-examine assumptions about our students’ motives. Where a teacher once saw a randomly acting alien, there now is a very confused inchoate adult mind trying to emerge. Students are not necessarily acting out of spite or questionable motives, but may just be confused as they are trying out new ways of thinking abstractly. Again we see nature constraining or limiting the range of explanations.
So, the environment may be an artifact of humans but it is constrained by nature, not to say anything about human nature.
Day 3 Location
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