jenniferdebeer

infrastructure and urbanization

Today we have a lecture with Agustín E. de Asís Roig (). What a plesant surprise, since we haven´t received the programme for Feb yet, and so had no forewarning. I like the theme that he´s dealing with, the intersection of technological infrastructure and urban development. What a coincidence, in that it was just this last Saturday that I bought the book Mutations http://www.actar.es/castellano/003a.html, re Rem Koolhaas and the Harvard Project on the City http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/koolhaas/research.html
I am also thinking a lot about these things of late: about why (still) geographical displacement should necessarily mean professional displacement, in spite of all the theories about digital village, and of how we telecommute, etc. Okay, we know what the theory says. And yet, why is it when people contact me to ask about involvement in a project, and I happen to mention that I am in Spain, I get a response of "Okay, we´ll talk when you get back in October"? C´mon! These are folks who are active in tech. I don´t get it. Very frustrating. As you can tell :)
So, is Castells (and what Asís de Roig) are talking about, and what I firmly believe, just BS? Or is it that only a select few "inhabit" this no-place-space?

PS: The photo is of me in a cybercafe in Oxford Street, London, over Xmas.

posted by Jennifer A. DeBeer @ 16:39