Sarah Smith

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Discussion Question

art photography vs. visual sociology

April 16, 2014 - 2:28pm

In reference to my reading response on the Becker reading this week, I bring this us:

page 193 (in regards to contemporary art photography): "They withhold the minimal social data we ordinarily use to orient ourselves to others and leave viewers to interpret the images as best they can from the clues of clothing, stance, demeanor and household furnishings they contain. What might... more

Reading Responses

On Becker and photography

April 16, 2014 - 2:25pm

[photo by Garry Winogrand]

I'm going to break up this reading response into two parts: a reaction to some direct statements Becker makes, and a parallel with the discussion from this week's theory II class.

I took a photojournalism class in undergrad, in which we learned a bit about technique and a lot about the history and certain standout figures in the field. A lot... more

Urban Dérive

in between and above crown st

April 2, 2014 - 3:07pm

Discussion Question

the temptress, the whore, the virtuous woman

March 26, 2014 - 1:56pm

Wilson in "Into the Labyrinth" talks about the historical view of women's presence in the city as a problem: "the city offers untrammelled sexual experience; in the city the forbidden - what is most feared and desired - becomes possible. Woman is present in cities as temptress, as whore as fallen woman, as lesbian, but also as virtuous womanhood in danger, as heroic... more

Discussion Question

cogs in the gentrification machine

February 26, 2014 - 3:16pm

As Adam said in his reading response, and in summation of Howell's piece, skateboarders and other "lower creatives" are just pieces in the machine that is gentrification. This to me is interesting, first and foremost because those are exactly the type of people (along with the homeless population) who the general populace bemoan, but also the ones who the flip side of the coin... more

Diagram/Map

Porosity on Crown Street

February 26, 2014 - 1:40pm

Discussion Question

the metropolitan type of man

February 19, 2014 - 1:27pm

For studio at the beginning of this semester, we were asked to conceptualize the city as it's smallest, most basic entity - one person proposed an idea that a city is a place where a person can be a stranger, anonymous. Are things in the city as Simmel says? Is the city a place where 'intellect' reigns over 'depths of personality', where quality and individuality is... more

Discussion Question

Question related to the Fainstein reading

February 5, 2014 - 1:07pm

Fainstein says in her piece that "Governments have promoted physical change with the expectations that better-looking cities are also better cities, that excluding poor people from central locations will eliminate the causes of blight rather than moving it elsewhere, and that property development equals economic development".

I think a lot of us question these types of... more

Photography Series

Signs on Crown Street

February 5, 2014 - 12:15pm

Videos

Crown Street: The Stranger's Path in New Haven

January 29, 2014 - 1:09pm

by Mun and Sarah

Reading Responses

Understanding Ordinary Landscapes

January 29, 2014 - 4:58am

I have a few (perhaps disjointed) thoughts on this reading:

First, at the very beginning of the chapter, there's some discussion about the visual illiteracy of Americans - "like fish that can't see water" - because we cannot consciously notice our everyday environments. While I would argue this illiteracy and cultural ignorance still prevails, I'd also like to... more

Discussion Question

the masculine gaze

January 29, 2014 - 4:08am

In the Holdsworth reading this week, he discusses various reasons why there has been a shift in theory to go beyond the cultural landscape approach for effective human geography research. One such reason is the almost total absence of women scholars in the earlier traditions of human geography. The fact that in much of the staid built environment and cultural landscapes, a male hand has... more