Off the Grid: Iifrastructure and transformational space
| aut.researcher | Douglas, Carl Weston | |
| dc.contributor.author | Douglas, C | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Grierson, E | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2011-10-18T00:32:23Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2011-10-18T00:32:23Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2011 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2011 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Concepts of space underlie and structure design practices involved in the production of human environments, such as architecture, landscape design, urban planning, industrial design and civil engineering, for example. The implicit nature of concepts of space, and their close link to interpretations of self and world make them appropriate candidates in the pedagogy of these fields for a discussion of "threshold concepts" as proposed by Meyer and Land (2006). This paper contrasts the dialectical concept of space as a container and the non-dialectical concept of networked space, conceptualised here as threshold space and transformational space. It asks how the latter could shift understandings of a complex interdisciplinary spatial design problem, namely infrastructure, the physical systems of mobility, communication, and environmental control that underpin human environments (Bélanger, 2008; Varnelis, 2009). To address this non-dialectical concept, it examines firstly the nature of infrastructures, arguing, as proposed by Varnelis (2009), that they are "networked ecologies" or "hyperobjects" according to Morton (2011): open networks of effect rather than closed collections of equipment or fixed territories. Secondly, it considers the implications of this model for what is depicted as a world-view, adducing Morton's rejection of the idea of Nature (2007), and Harman's interpretation of Heidegger's analysis of tools (Heidegger, 1962; Harman, 2006). It concludes by advocating that a critical position termed here as being off the grid—encountering secondary or what Harman terms "withdrawn" (2006) aspects of infrastructural systems—should be sought as a transformative position in the education of designers, planners, and policy-makers. | |
| dc.identifier.citation | ACCESS: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2, Dec 2011: 45-57. | |
| dc.identifier.roid | 18988 | en_NZ |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10292/2350 | |
| dc.publisher | RMIT University, School of Art | |
| dc.relation.uri | http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=026634758132978;res=IELHSS | |
| dc.rights | NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version) | |
| dc.rights.accessrights | OpenAccess | |
| dc.subject | Architecture | |
| dc.subject | Infrastructure | |
| dc.subject | Urban design | |
| dc.subject | Network culture | |
| dc.subject | Theories of space | |
| dc.title | Off the Grid: Iifrastructure and transformational space | |
| dc.type | Journal Article | |
| pubs.organisational-data | /AUT | |
| pubs.organisational-data | /AUT/Design & Creative Technologies | |
| pubs.organisational-data | /AUT/PBRF Researchers | |
| pubs.organisational-data | /AUT/PBRF Researchers/Design & Creative Technologies PBRF Researchers | |
| pubs.organisational-data | /AUT/PBRF Researchers/Design & Creative Technologies PBRF Researchers/DCT A & D Other |