The Big City

1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.

2. What are the main points of the essay?

3. How are the ideas or arguments in this article relevant to your own practice as a media artist?

I have chosen this article, for two reasons, one because I like the title of the article and the other was because of the images. I thought that title was kind of catchy, and I knew with the word “Urbanism” it had to do with the city. I also happen to preview the article a bit, and saw that there were some really interesting images, and I really wanted to know about these images.
There are 3 main points in this article that are important to state. They are the background of urbanism, the Do It Yourself project and, and the results. Urbanism is defined as the life of a person who lives in a large city. Urbanism used to be changed in the way of having one boss and telling all the people around them how the city should be established. In today’s society, more of the heterogeneous people are making the decisions about how the city should be established. These heterogeneous people include policy makers, artist, business owners and environmental groups.
The “Do it yourself Project“ is the idea of having more of the surrounding culture making decisions about what the city is going to be like. Individual people walk through an area and take notes about what the area is like, and if these areas should be used for their project. The act of walking allows the individual to slow down, and collect the surrounding sounds, sights and smells, as well as constant activity in the area.
The last point is the idea of using the space around us. How do we use the space around us? Like in the “Breathing Spaces, we see an great example of how people search for buildings.” As the project opens up, it suggests that there should be a connection between an individual’s mental and physical being and the connection between the individuals surrounding space. Also the photographic image and the interactive visual media are tooled that stimulate more creative experience. One example is the advertisements through billboards.
This article has inspired me as a media artist to examine the surrounding atmosphere closer. This particular article made me think about the city more, and in the future when it comes to filming in the city, that there are a lot of different areas to examine. Next time I walk through the city and examine buildings and the space around me closer, and don’t take it so much for granite. There are a lot of beauty in the surrounding area, and choosing the first one may not be the best choice.