Global vs Local

The Question:
Having listened to our class discussion and reviewing our readings I have come to the conclusion that we as citizens have been tricked into becoming consumers. (I am defining citizens as individuals that are aware and actively taking part in their environment and consumers as people with no regard to the limit availability of resources, who want what they want when they want it.)

As citizens we chose to move to the suburbs where we thought we could safely raise our two point five kids in our perfect houses with perfect lawns framed by that good old white picket fence. By moving to the suburbs we left the convince of the city, the shops that were located around every corner, the public guards and squares, and the social gatherings that we so crave. However as citizens of the USA we want convinces, so we allow the big businesses (like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Chiles, etc.) to move in. Mind you, I have nothing against these or other companies, it is just that with the development of these businesses our suburbs become more urban, little cities of themselves.

Haveing established the perimeters for my question, I ask: How do architects, who have been trained to builded globally, return tothe local small twon environment and build structres that maintain the identiy of the local town?

Electronic Worlds

Readings:

William J. Mitchell, "Prologue: Urban Requiem" e-topia (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999) 3-7

Marshall McLuhan, "Decline of the Visual" Looking Closer 3: Classic Writings on Graphic Design (New York: Allworth Press, 1999) 174-176

Albert Borgmann, "Virtuality and Ambiguity" Holding On to Reality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999) 179-192

Question: We have established in our readings and class discussion, that the digital world is one that requires only two senses, sight and hearing, and both of these are not truly required to navigate the digital world. Example legally blind individuals can still 'see', a deaf individual can still 'hear' with a hearing aid.

As technology continues to develop we are able to access the digital world from anywhere at any time. We are continuously attached to some form of technology that allows us to access our digital circles, weather it is to check email or to find out what a friend had been doing since we saw them last, twenty minutes ago. And as technology continues, virtual reality devices, devices that will allow us to see the digital world could gradually take over to become our reality.

With the way technology is going, we know more about our neighbors than our selves. SO where does the disassociation of self end and the association with the unit or masses began? Or rather with the use of the Internet and the ever increasing availability of digital sources and forms of information gathering, when or where does the individual fit in?