catchment area analysis intermodal transfer point landformations multi-use landscapes / evolving landscapes stimulation points more or less planning proliferated pneumatic services boundary configuration postagriculture intersystemic relation model structural differentiation minimal surface structures re-assemblage
those were the notes i'd taken of the more interesting keywords on the first exhibit. it was on the left as you went in, a series of thin panels in a white cube, a collage of early industrial machinery behind them. i'd just popped into the aaschool to use the consume node, and disocvered this end-of-year show on. with both this first piece and the first one on the right, innovative plotting techniques for social network maps, i was very taken. this was to one side in a larger room. i sat down in the centre, in front of a weaker thing with two screens displaying supermarket context, and books suspended from the ceiling, like notebooks, logbooks, dangling around my head. took out my laptop, jumped online and babbled excitedly at #bots about the stuff i was seeing. it was very quiet, and i felt in-context.
on my way out later, i popped back into the same room to have a quick look at streetmap. the chair had been moved to one side, i popped myself down, started the network interface. a strange woman, blonde, late-thirties, potters up and asks, are you with the exhibit? we're photographing in here, going to turn the lights down in a minute. no, i reply, i'm just quickly using the wireless network to look at the map, i'll just be a minute. can you work in the bar? well, there's no wireless reach in the bar, oddly, and i'll just be a minute. a geezer fiddles with his tripod, they are planning to depict the screens of supermarket people. he prods me also, so i shift off onto a nearby counter space.
the blonde woman walks up. excuse me, this is an exhibition, not a workspace. sorry? are you with the summer school? no, i know a few of the people who worked on these projects [not strictly true, we exchanged a few words during an on-street demo of their node once] and i just nipped in to use the wireless net. well, this is an exhibition space, not a workspace.
i smiled cheerfully and delivered an impromptu lecture on the incongruity of enforcing social and cultural divisions of display and function, consumption and exploration space, in such a progressive context. the blonde woman looked quietly nervous. i tottered out of range. in retrospect i was glad not to have looked at the map, i enjoy cycling more when i'm not quite sure where i'm going.