Answers to blog questions from readings

(Naeema)Space and Place: How is Feeling Intentional?
Feeling is intentional in the sense that an object is imbued with qualities that relate back to the person who is doing the feeling. If you are consumed with hatred toward dollar menu quarter pounders, the reason you assign hatred (say the mistreatment of cows in factory production) refers to the object and also back to you. So there must be a recipient of the emotion and a willing agent at the same time.


(Donna)"The Cyborg Self and the Network City": Do you think its possible to live in today's world with no technology?

Even in the remotest parts of the world where agricultural traditions are still embraced, or perhaps some hunter gatherer groups in the Sahara, they are still embedded in trade networks of some sort and the products they obtain go through processes of industrialized manufacturing in the richer parts of the world. So their seeming isolation is broken apart as soon as they get coffee from South America, or when tourists come via airplanes to buy their handicrafts, or when United Nations airlifts foodstuff to help with hunger crises. I think the question of being free form technology can only be to a relative extent, because the contact with the rest of the world is inevitable.

(Daniel) Why are heterotopias important?
Foucault spends time illuminating these contra-utopias because they connect a society to itself, like the cemetery holding members of every line of descent in the city and government. Heterotopias are places where deviants often reside, like the insane asylum or even a hospital where people who aren't currently productive citizens go to be healed. By setting aside these spots for the category of deviant, societal norms are reinforced and continually reinscribed, which serves the interests of those in the upper echelons.

Desperately Out of New Jersey

   

A documentary I made last semester for the creative writing department.  Eric Guadara, a local Rutgers poet, takes a road trip to San Francisco seeking bar culture and the remnants of sixties free love.  

C++

1)Does the possibility of constant surveillance in our society pose an insurmountable threat to human freedom?
2) When human bodies are fused 100% of the time in a global network via computer chips in clothing, will this constitute an additional convenience, or will it completely disintegrate our conception of private space?
3) How do our commonsense notions of one envelope of skin, one mind conflict with the idea of nodes strung together in an intelligent network?
4) What is the nature of human agency? Has it changed over time?
5) When information crosses the quantum boundary, how will our social institutions react and adapt?

Yi-Fu Tuan Space and Place

1) Is the difference between space and place more a matter of the perception one brings to the experience than inherent qualities of locations?
2) Do feelings have to be outwardly directed towards some object, or can they reflexively engage the self?
3)Why are human subjects not better than rats at navigating mazes?
4) If place is an object of value, and space is the network linkages relating these objects, are symbolic processes always involved in establishing meaning among these relations?
5) What level of conscious control can exert over our experience?

5 Questions on "Of Other Spaces"

1) What were the societal changes that occurred as a result of Galileo repositioning the Universe of an infinite plane?
2) Why does space supposedly cause more anxiety in our era than dealing with time?
3) How is a mirror involved in both virtual spaces and real places and what is the significance of this dual involvement?
4) Does a heterotopia usually designate an area outside the realm of normal activities in a society?
5) What is the link between prisons and boats, both considered heterotopias under the author's rubric?

The real person behind our collage

Working on a limited time frame, we had to act quickly to generate our interview. It seemed more difficult to randomly stop someone and start asking them questions about ethnic identity, so we took the more formal approach and requested someone at the center for Latina Cultural Studies on college ave. Samsara, a Dominican, fit the profile of most of what we guessed a latina Rutgers girl would be involved in, except for the Salsa club. She is part of the leadership of the Latina Student Council, a member of the Latina Sorority, and for the most part her daily activities revolve around her ties to this particular community. I found it interesting that her membership in the sorority lead to her entrance into the student council, showing how social networking builds on ties between related organizations. She mentioned partaking in the restaurants and bars along Easton, as well as the George St bus stop, which doesn't index anything about her ethnic identity, but speaks to her inclusion in the college community.

Reimagining Latina Identity