“The new urban design task is not one of

configuring buildings, streets, and public spaces

to meet the needs and aspirations of the civitas,

but one of writing computer code and deploying

software objects to create virtual places”

CITY OF BITS

GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONSSource: unesco.org/silkroad

Source: datacenterknowledge.com

PHYSICAL NODES

THE BIAS OF COMMUNICATION

BABYLONIAN

TABLETbritishmuseum.org

EGYPTIAN

PAPYRUSbritishmuseum.org

"Until writing was invented, men lived in acoustic

space: boundless, directionless, horizonless...

The goose quill put an end to talk. It abolished

mystery; it gave architecture and towns"

THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE

“Merchants outgrew the confining framework of

the towns and in the form of companies linked

themselves directly with the state"

THE PUBLIC SPHERE

THE DEATH OF THE REAL?

THE DEATH OF THE REAL?

Civil inattention: “the slightest of interpersonal

rituals, yet one that constantly regulates the

social intercourse of persons in our society”

Newspapers and magazines "[allow] us to carry

around a screen that can be raised at any time to

give ourselves and others an excuse for not

initiating contact"

BEHAVIOUR IN PUBLIC PLACES

Civil inattention: “the slightest of interpersonal

rituals, yet one that constantly regulates the

social intercourse of persons in our society”

Newspapers and magazines "[allow] us to carry

around a screen that can be raised at any time to

give ourselves and others an excuse for not

initiating contact"

BEHAVIOUR IN PUBLIC PLACES

STAGED COMMUNICATIONS

EVENTS

STAGED COMMUNICATIONS

SPACES

STAGED COMMUNICATIONS

SPACES

LOCAL STORYTELLING

STAGED COMMUNICATIONS

SPACES

LOCAL STORYTELLING

“The presence of others who see what we see and hear what we

hear assures us of the reality of the world and ourselves”

Hannah Arendt (1958)

The key element is that the neighbourhood is the referent. They

are stories about ‘us’ in ‘this geographical space’. Such stories are

the building blocks of the ability to ‘imagine’ an area as a

community

Yong-Chan Kim and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach (2006)

LOCAL NETWORKS

Twitter discussion of #Brockley

LOCAL NETWORKS

LOCAL NETWORKS

@BrockleyCentral followers Stephen Law & John Bingham-Hall

LOCAL NETWORKS

LOCAL NETWORKS

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