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Monthly Archives: 09/2014

Using Sensors to Feel, Then Decide

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures.


September 25, 2014
Sensing San Leandro: Capturing Cityscapes Through Sensors
Greg Niemeyer (Art Practice) and Ron Rael (Architecture and Art Practice)

Presentation available here.
Video of the conversation available here.
Niemeyer and Rael discussed how using sensors to collect data allow “reality-based” decisions about places to be made, using projects that they and their students have undertaken in San Leandro as examples.


by Faith Hutchinson

"Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

Professor Greg Niemeyer describes two frameworks of data collection: "hard eyes" and "soft eyes." The former is closer to the scientific method, relating information back to an explicit hypothesis and emphasizing focus over risk. On the other hand, "soft eyes" invoke the approach of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who proposed that nature must be appreciated with a transparent eye; that is to say, we become more connected to the significance of our world by seeing it and not looking for it.

In common practice, data science is a pursuit of quantified evidence in support of a hypothesis: the domain of hard-eyes. To be sure, many purposes can be served with a focused, solution-oriented approach. Companies like The Climate Corporation and Propeller Health enable citizens to protect their natural and bodily resources by retrieving organized environmental data. Rather than collecting information for the sake of later analysis, Professors Niemeyer and Rael utilize sensors to promote action in the present. Sensors tend not to visually announce their affordances, but these sensors emerge in the city of San Leandro housed in colorful casings, a presentation that requires curiosity and direct, tangible interactions from passersby.



It is also significant that these sensors, via placement and record, are vested in the public. Were the "Hi" sensor featured in a gallery instead of in public at transit stops, the attending audience would reflect a specific type of resident, and their reactions or data would not necessarily be representative of the broader community. Niemeyer describes data as a means to "feel all the people walking across the city," a statement which beckons back to the previous lecture in which Georgina Kleege compared her walking stick to long fingers that skirt over the surface of the world. This similarity in Niemeyer and Kleege's description of experiencing a city implies greater intimacy results from using the scope of human senses to read beyond the visual record.

Faith Hutchinson is a candidate for the Master of Information Management and Systems degree at the UC Berkeley School of Information.


“Opening One’s Eyes” to What It is Like Sensing a City Blind

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. September 18, 2014 Reading the City as a Blind Person Chris Downey, Architect and Georgina Kleege, Department of English Presentation available here. Video of the conversation available here. Downey and Kleege spoke on their experiences navigating cities as a blind person, with perspectives shaped by their professional backgrounds. By Matthew Goodman What would you say makes a city livable? You might list a couple of key attributes – walkable, diverse,…


Writing the City

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. September 18, 2014 Reading the City as a Blind Person Chris Downey, Architect and Georgina Kleege, Department of English Presentation available here. Video of the conversation available here. Downey and Kleege spoke on their experiences navigating cities as a blind person, with perspectives shaped by their professional backgrounds. By Jaime Gómez In 1945 the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote “The Aleph,” a short story describing a man who spent…


Designing with the Blind in Mind

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. September 18, 2014 Reading the City as a Blind Person Chris Downey, Architect and Georgina Kleege, Department of English Presentation available here. Video of the conversation available here. Downey and Kleege spoke on their experiences navigating cities as a blind person, with perspectives shaped by their professional backgrounds. By Robyn Perry Those who attended Georgina Kleege and Chris Downey’s talk on reading cities without sight received a rare gift on…


A City for the Blind

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. September 18, 2014 Reading the City as a Blind Person Chris Downey, Architect and Georgina Kleege, Department of English Presentation available here. Video of the conversation available here. Downey and Kleege spoke on their experiences navigating cities as a blind person, with perspectives shaped by their professional backgrounds. By Swetha Vijayakumar The story that instinctively comes to mind when thinking of blind people navigating spaces is the tale of the…


Reading Without Sight: A Blind Experience of the City

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. September 18, 2014 Reading the City as a Blind Person Chris Downey, Architect and Georgina Kleege, Department of English Presentation available here. Video of the conversation available here. Downey and Kleege spoke on their experiences navigating cities as a blind person, with perspectives shaped by their professional backgrounds. By Jon Pitt If the navigation of a city is a narrative movement, a linear progression from point A to point B,…


A Symbol of Diversity

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. On September 11, 2014, Lauren Kroiz spoke about Berkeley—The City and Its People, a mural by Romare Bearden that once hung in Berkeley City Hall, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, and is now indefinitely in storage. She asked viewers to consider the intentions of the city leaders of 1973 in inviting a well-known African-American artist from the East Coast to portray their city. Kroiz is Assistant Professor…


The Surprising Origins of a Familiar Logo

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. On September 11, 2014, Lauren Kroiz spoke about Berkeley—The City and Its People, a mural by Romare Bearden that once hung in Berkeley City Hall, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, and is now indefinitely in storage. She asked viewers to consider the intentions of the city leaders of 1973 in inviting a well-known African-American artist from the East Coast to portray their city. Kroiz is Assistant Professor…


Bearden’s Berkeley–A Mural by a Visiting Artist, Curated by Committee

Posted on by Genise Choy

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures. On September 11, 2014, Lauren Kroiz spoke about Berkeley—The City and Its People, a mural by Romare Bearden that once hung in Berkeley City Hall, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, and is now indefinitely in storage. She asked viewers to consider the intentions of the city leaders of 1973 in inviting a well-known African-American artist from the East Coast to portray their city. Kroiz is Assistant Professor…


Road-Testing Psychogeography on Oakland’s International Boulevard

Posted on by Susan Moffat

As part of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative Colloquium called Reading Cities, Sensing Cities, we have asked students and visitors to write responses to each of the weekly guest lectures.  On September 4, 2014, Darin Jensen invited listeners to consider the narrative and spatial aspects of two experiential mapping projects he created with his students: Mission Possible: A Neighborhood Atlas about San Francisco's Mission District, and Intranational International Boulevard about Oakland. Jensen is staff cartographer and lecturer in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. His presentation is available here. Video of the first portion of his presentation is available here. By Scott Elder While not…