First Problem Comments

To respond to general outcry over the perceived complexities of the first problem, I want to offer the following. The first problem is simply intended to force each student to think about the difference between the concepts of place and placeless. As architects we, very pragmatically, design buildings to become part of a place. (for example, the City of Boston). Recent developments in technology have filled the world with products that work to eliminate place. (for example, the Iphone).

If we are to design a building to house such elements, we should work to understand what the user thinks in relation to their products. (for example, Apple Management)

There have been a few comments stating uncertainty about what the final product will look like. This is good news. This is a good time to bask in the process; the process of making.

I envision maps, or let's call them diagrams, that reveal steps you take along a journey. Take me on this journey. Consider that I can not see what you are doing, but need to know so I might reinact these steps from another location.

If you were to silently draw directions from your house to the nearest hardware store. How would you begin? What visual details are necessary? Are there colors to consider?

If you were to write these directions, they might take the form of, "Go left, then take the first right, pass through the blinking light...".

Information travels around the globe through cables, internet portals, servers, and the like. It's journey is never a straight line. Along the way inflections change, meaning is added, meaning is lost. Like a complex level of the children's game telephone, the initial see of information returns as something close, but never the same.

How can we track this phenomenon? What are the steps taken from when you sit at your computer, to browsing, clicking, ordering, purchasing, waiting, answering the door bell, receiving the package from UPS, and finally opening the package. Beyond your keyboard, where are your commands, (directions) going? Wht is their impact. Who is responsible for them and what do they set in motion? Does each step generate its own discrete set of directions? How does your keyboard know how to tell the UPS guy your address? Each step must communicate a set of directions to someone or something to connect all these dots.

I am asking for you to imagine. Think about these sets of things and how might they be documented; both graphically and in writting. Consider this a tracking problem rather than a mapping problem. Perhaps that will allay concerns that the final result should look like Hagstrom.