Nature Blending with Engineered

Final Presentation

For my final presentation I proposed new paving at Kennedy Plaza in the form of mini-TV screens that would post pictures from peoples camera phones. The pictures would be of citizens documenting incidents of police brutality in the city of Providence.

I will soon be posting pictures of my design on this blog, or you can try going to http://hexdump/org/~gentrj/Cortney

Three Protest Groups

To narrow the focus of my project and develop a potential narrative, I have decided to look into three protest groups to use Kennedy Plaza: Providence Youth-Student Movement, Providence Public Library Defense, and Human Rights Watch Providence.

Providence Youth-Street Movement
http://www.prysm.us/about.htm

Providence Public Library Defense
http://www.provlibdefense.org

Human Rights Watch Providence
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo123.htm

198 Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion

The next step I would like to take for my project is investigating the 198 methods of non violent protest and persuasion listed here and choose a few that I would like to test in relation to Kennedy Plaza.

198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION

by Gene Sharp

FORMAL STATEMENTS

1. Public speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public declarations
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions

COMMUNICATIONS WITH A WIDER AUDIENCE

7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting

GROUP REPRESENTATIONS

13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections

SYMBOLIC PUBLIC ACTS

18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures

PRESSURES ON INDIVIDUALS

31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils

DRAMA AND MUSIC

35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and music
37. Singing

PROCESSIONS

38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades

HONORING THE DEAD

43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places

PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES

47. Assemblies of protest or support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
50. Teach-ins

WITHDRAWAL AND RENUNCIATION

51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honours
54. Turning one's back

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

OSTRACISM OF PERSONS

55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict

NONCOOPERATION WITH SOCIAL EVENTS, CUSTOMS, AND INSTITUTIONS

60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social institutions

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE SOCIAL SYSTEM

65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. "Flight" of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (hijrat)

ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

ACTION BY CONSUMERS

71. Consumers' boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers' boycott
77. International consumers' boycott

ACTION BY WORKERS AND PRODUCERS

78. Workers' boycott
79. Producers' boycott

ACTION BY MIDDLE-PEOPLE

80. Suppliers' and handlers' boycott

ACTION BY OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT

81. Traders' boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. Merchants' "general strike"

ACTION BY HOLDERS OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES

86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money

ACTION BY GOVERNMENTS

92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellers' embargo
95. International buyers' embargo
96. International trade embargo

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOOPERATION

SYMBOLIC STRIKES

97. Protest strike

98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

AGRICULTURAL STRIKES

99. Peasant strike
100. Farm workers' strike

STRIKES BY SPECIAL GROUPS

101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. Prisoners' strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike

ORDINARY INDUSTRIAL STRIKES

105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathy strike

RESTRICTED STRIKES

108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting "sick." (sick-in)
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike

MULTI-INDUSTRY STRIKES

116. Generalised strike
117. General strike

COMBINATION OF STRIKES AND ECONOMIC CLOSURES

118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

REJECTION OF AUTHORITY

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

CITIZENS' NONCOOPERATION WITH GOVERNMENT

123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from governmental educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported institutions
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

CITIZENS' ALTERNATIVES TO OBEDIENCE

133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
141. Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws

ACTION BY GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL

142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

DOMESTIC GOVERNMENTAL ACTION

149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL ACTION

151. Changes in diplomatic and other representation
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organisations

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION

158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast (fast of moral pressure, hunger strike, satyagrahic fast)
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment

PHYSICAL INTERVENTION

162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation

SOCIAL INTERVENTION

174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theatre
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system

ECONOMIC INTERVENTION

181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions

POLITICAL INTERVENTION

193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

This is available in Gene Sharp's book: "The Politics of Nonviolent Action"

Reflection On Texts, Week of April 20-27

The following will be a post to pull out pertinent information from various texts I have read over the semester.

Acoustic.Space: Trans Cultural Mapping, Issue #5, 2004

"Spatial Perceptions-Spatial Politics" by Nina Czegledy

*1960's E.T. Hall people from different cultures structure and experience space differently and as a consequence inhabit distinctly different sensory worlds (108).
*Intimate spaces we inhabit include visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory biosphere, spatial perceptions allows for us to reach for an object, find out way when lost, recall and visualize remote location and informs reflexes (108).
*Processing and storage of spatial info forms a central element of human intelligence (108).
*Recent studies have shown that our perceptual experiences are formed by manifold, complex interactions between sensory modalities (108).
*Psychogeography experiments are usually facilitated via non-scientific methods such as aimless drifting through an urban environment while trying to record the emotions given by a particular place; and using the mental mapping towards the construction of mood-based maps (109).

"Aura: The Stuff Around The Stuff Around You" by Steve Symons

*Augmented reality involves the overlaying of digital information onto real space. By moving through the real environment users experience the digital information at the location to which it refers, aura rejects physical interfaces in favor of directional augmented reality to create a seamless naturalistic experience (170-171).

"Negotiating Rautatieasema" by Andrew Paterson

*Text of an amalgamation of processes and practice engaged in by workshop participants, distilled as a creative and performative text (178).
*Rautatieasema 'boundary object' framed as a common point of reference for conversation, a means of coordination, alignment, and translation. It was the common locus for activity and interaction, to engage, document, and problematise notions of site-specificity and place. However, it was also a gathering for point for the overlap between emerging media, performance and archaeological practices (179).

"Spectrum Space and The Extensions of Nations" by Zita Joyce

*Radio spectrum is the organizing principle for frequencies of electromagnetical radio waves-both natural and generated by human communication technologies. It is an internationally shared resource that cannot be depleted, but can be filled up (208).
*Radio waves are not bound by political borders however, and radio space is a dimension of nation space that draws vectoral connections across geographical space (208).
*Radio waves transgress across pieces of land, causing conflicts of sovereignty over radio space, control over content, and availability of space for local spectrum users. For remote island nations, borders with other nations exist across deep ocean water, and the negotiation of radio boundaries is less contentious. Rather than conforming to immediate land space, the island radio zone stretches out into the ocean (208-209).

"The Possibility of Spectrum as a Public Good" by Clay Shirky

*FCC considering opening up additional spectrum to unlicensed uses. Much of spectrum under consideration for broadcasters--creates tension with other groups that may want to take advantage of spectrum (222).
*Current regulation assumes that a given frequency is like a virtual wire (223).
*To limit interference--a sender had to 'own' a frequency to use it. FCC manages and enforces (223).
*FCC treats spectrum as property, a regulatory approach that creates enormous difficulty, since spectrum isn't actually property. The necessary characteristics of property are the opposite of the characteristics of a public good (223).
*Since the treatment of spectrum as property is an artifact of current regulatory structure, itself an artifact of current regulatory structure, itself an artifact of engineering can change what spectrum is, at least in a regulatory setting (224).
*Critical change in engineering (critical advantages)--spread-spectrum radio--first encodes data on several frequencies simultaneously...It decouples the link between the frequency of a particular signal and the amount of data that can be sent between devices, allowing data transfer rates to be much higher than the carrying capacity of frequency considered as a virtual wire. Second, because both sender and receiver are computationally smart, they can agree on ways of sending and receiving data in ways that largely avoid traditional form of interference (224).
*Wi-Fi is a technology to do this (224).

New Neighbors at Kennedy Plaza

May 4, 2005 is the grand opening of a Providence Police Sub-Station at Kennedy Plaza. The Sub-Station will be located at the west side of the ticket building. I'm sure this will make my "dead zone" even more dead. Who wants to hang out inbetween the police and city hall. But hey, more authority to protest for my project.

Evolution of My Project

As a result of discussing my on-site investigations at Kennedy Plaza with my Professor I determined that Kennedy Plaza has a flaw in its design. The problem is that there is a dead zone that is created in the area between the Ticket Terminal and the steps of City Hall. The architecture there establishes a position that the city wants to remain closed off from the people. Elements such as the front City Hall door being locked up and two rows of bollard and chains prevent any movement from Kennedy Plaza to the steps of City Hall.

The steps of City Hall have traditionally been an area for citizens to protest from city to city. The remainder of the semester will be a focus on creating a new system that allows Providence citizens to protest freely, activating the existing dead zone.

Kennedy Plaza Plan

Central Axis Road

Covered Bus Stop

Main Building

West Plaza

Bottom of Statue

Duh...

Today during class we had guest lecturers Katherine Moriwaki, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, and Tad Hirsh. During discussion of my classmates working projects, Jonah made reference to a project where a guy informed other commuters of their ability to tune into his ipod playing in his car using itrip by putting a bumper sticker on his car with the radio frequency.

Itrip is a small antenna that plugs into the headphone port of the ipod. Using your car radio you tune into your ipod using a FM preset that the ipod will broadcast using the antennae.

My "duh" moment is not recognizing this capability earlier as a store bought technology to use at Kennedy Plaza. Itrip does not have to only be used in a car.

First Proposal

Individual Micro-broadcasters

I would like to propose a project where a bus or an individual can become an Individual Micro-broadcaster. This project will be installed at Kennedy Plaza in Providence, RI. My intentions are to examine the possibilities of the bus becoming the receiving unit for public messages or the Plaza as the receiving unit. I would also like to further explore the idea of an urban soundscape, specifically dealing with Kennedy Plaza and the use of communication as an outlet for boredom while waiting for the bus.

My interest in individual micro-broadcasting started with an interest in how media ownership in the USA is transferring to a smaller and smaller ownership pool at the same time mobile technology like mp3 players are becoming more common. I’m interested in understanding what role technologies like FM radio will have in the future. I am also interested how the public can take an easily accessible technology like FM and use it in a new way that will foster community involvement, ability to share ones voice and have new social networks emerge from a broadcast.

My initial research will be on past projects that deal with sound gathering and broadcasting, pirate radio, mobile sound, community interaction, and public speech. One site that I would like to explore more is free103point9. They list a variety of interesting past projects including their Tune(In))) series that takes place in various cities. This series has performers play into transmitters and the signal is then broadcast and listened by individual radio headsets. Another interesting project listed on the site is Radio 4x4. This project has four performers creating four separate simultaneous audio performances that are mixed by the audience members moving about to the various feeds.

In dealing with mobile listening devices more research on listening habits will be fulfilled through reading Michael Bull’s Sounding Out The City. From initial browsing I am interested in exploring how personal listening devices can serve as “auditory mnemonic” to aid users in constructing a sense of narrative or “pleasurable coherence” within urban spaces. With mobile listening it gives one the ability to not only block out urban spaces, but also people, and can be used as a strategy to avoid verbal interaction without breaking the “gaze.”

From my research I hope to be able to design a project that will deal with Kennedy Plaza in Providence, RI. I chose Kennedy Plaza because of the high amount of public traffic the site gets from individuals that are in transition, or mobile. From site visits the area attracts a variety of people from all over Rhode Island. RIPTA busses come and go routinely, reaching out to many cities as far as Newport. In addition, Kennedy Plaza serves as the Greyhound and Bonanza bus stations for Providence bringing people from many other states. One interesting design element of Kennedy Plaza is that the ratio of indoor to outdoor space is unusual for a traditional bus station. At most there are about 20-30 seats inside on benches with limited standing room. This dynamic causes Kennedy Plaza to be and area where numerous groups congregate outside. These groups range from homeless people, to high school and college students, to smokers, to mothers and children.

Bibliography