Arch 4822 Ololade T Owolabi_Infastructural space Reflection _sp21

Ololade Tolu Owolabi 

Arch 4822

Infrastructural space Reflection

Spring 2021

For my reflection on the readings of infrastructural space, there were a lot of different bits and pieces that came to a whole for it to be properly understood but there were also a lot of unanswered questions that could have been taken in different directions based on the opinion of who was answering. Disposition was defined in so many ways but the one that stuck with me was that it is an unfolding relationship between potentials with the example of a  ball at the top of an inclined plane possesses a disposition because even though the ball is not presently rolling down the plane we all know that it is capable of rolling down the plane. This is also the case when it comes to infrastructure spaces when mixed with active forms. 

According to the reading, active forms are markers of disposition which translates to me as there would be no disposition without active forms. Active forms are made up of different parts which are the multiplier, switch/remote, wiring/topology, interplay/ governor, stories, knowing that, and knowing how. These were the main types of active forms are and they all had major parts to play. An example of a multiplier used in the reading was the field of mass-produced suburban houses as this was said to be a common phenomenon in infrastructure space meanwhile some other multipliers are known as cars, elevators, mobile phones, laws, real estate formulas, structural innovations and so on this objects are known as multipliers because not only are they repetitive components but they help shape other developments, for example, having a car helps shapes roads and driveways and designing with an elevator helps the owner builds higher. Thus when this active form is used in an infrastructural space it becomes a means to adjust and assess everything around. Humans can also be known as a multiplier in infrastructure spaces as a lot of decisions change once a human is placed in spaces according to their ages, backgrounds and so many other factors.

The switch/remote modulates the flow of activities. This is an active form that has some form of control through different objects based on their situations an example of this was multiple cable landings and multiple service providers as more service providers providing more cable landings can give them the ability to make the network more competitive which it did. The active form of wiring/topology is known as the intuitive markers of disposition and can also be considered as an assembly of multipliers and switches. Topologies are also known as markers of political disposition as they highlight the ways in which the authorities circulate or concentrate information through television stations like the news and regular people can pass information back and forth through open mesh systems like google or Instagram but in the case of infrastructure, space topologies can be seen in a bus, train, or elevators which go to different floors as this helps to support and encourage specific activities and routines over others. The form of  Interplay/governor encourages the politics of balance rather than control. In an infrastructural space, I consider that to be the balance between built spaces and green open spaces. If towns/cities were to grow by wards then wards would also be considered as a multiplier.

I agree with the statement of  “The extrastatecraft of infrastructure space is artistically and intellectually attracted to the idea of designing action and interplay as well as designing objects.” This is because choosing to design one over the other would lead to an incomplete design or a design with too many faults but when the ability to design the action the designing objects are both used in the design of the space then they complete each other without the need of a utopian solution.

Stories can be considered as an active form as they can inflect disposition in infrastructure space and can be deployed with spatial intent. This was the case when the white picket fence became a symbol of the suburbs and became synonymous with the American dream. According to the Smithsonian magazine, this was done when a developer named Campbell McCool built in little Taylor, Mississippi, outside Oxford Plein Air, a 64-acre community which at that time was made to include 200 wood-frame residences. Each house was advertised as a traditionally Southern house with wide front porches and a white wooden picket fence of 40 inches high. This was a community that was supposed to provide protection and a complicated piece of the American dream. This made people see this development as a dream but it was basically a  field of mass-produced houses which was very well advertised to people as what they need and want. Thus the action of the advertisement was the real carrier of information, meaning, and change, and it may be entirely disconnected from the text. 

In the reading of broadbands and broadband urbanism information was a point that was said to be also immanent in the disposition of the space itself with or without telecommunication, But broadband networks present compound dispositions through the linear topologies of terrestrial fiber-optic cable buried in the ground, the atomized airborne topology of mobile telephony, and the switches between the two this gave broadband networks the power and ability to territorialize, alter settlement patterns, and redistribute resources which were said to be good it some places and not so good in other places as this lead to the influencing of so many other things an example been technology. Since the laying of underground cable favors existing linear infrastructure like highways and rail lines laying them beside roads can influence the building of businesses by the side of roads or even residential houses this is also done mainly by residential services in wealthy areas to amplify sales.

In conclusion, broadband was a very detailed explanation of what disposition is and in what ways it is currently been used around the world by different organizations and businesses which gives them a certain amount of control over the lives of people as they start to make a certain decision based on the services around they which is why the people who live in new york mainly pay for their neighborhoods and the services they can get rather than what is available to them in their homes. 

Dolan, Michael. “How Did the White Picket Fence Become a Symbol of the Suburbs?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Apr. 2019, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-white-picket-fence-180971635/.