Sunday, March 11, 2012

Observing Physical Traces

I got a copy of the Zeisel book, Inquiry by Design:Environment/Behavior/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, and Planning and was drawn to the chapter on Observing Physical Traces—looking at clues regarding behavior based upon physical evidence left behind by people.

In taking a look at some of the out-takes from the parklet photos, I found some interesting things. Of course this is hardly systematic, but perhaps nevertheless telling...


I took this picture because of the pedestrian in the bike lane, but only this weekend after I happened to read the Physical Traces chapter of Zeisel, I noticed that there is a big pile of trash in the lane! 

Photography is so great for things like this!

It's also interesting that this seems to be an older bike lane symbol. A trace of an earlier effort.















When I was walking the parklets, I was impressed at how well maintained they were, including how nice and new all the furniture seemed. I challenged myself to find tables that did not look new. This table was the most beat up one I could find. What happens to the ones that get damaged and worn?

This guy was flat on the ground, looking rather vulnerable (and sad.(

These little images reinforce a sense that I have that the furniture in these parklets is disposable. I wonder how long it lasts.

Do we think that if we don't put the trash on the ground, it's not littering? I notice this kind of thing on campus at FIT regularly. What if you could catch people doing this and ask them if/why they think it's OK?

Remember when people talked to their plants? What if plants could talk to people? I wish these plants could talk. I wish they would say: "There's a trash can over there, knucklehead!"

Lastly, I want to share this image and invite explanation. Is the fat white band an accident? Does it mean something? I like that there are footprints through it. Speaking of footprints, it looks like the bike lane symbol in the crosswalk is fading away.






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1 comment:

  1. MichaelMarch 12, 2012 at 2:34 PM

    I think the big white band is a vestige from an earlier incarnation of bike lane -- sort of telling the cyclist that is where they are supposed to stop, akin to the ones for cars some feet behind crosswalks. But that raises a very important question: is there a codification of symbols and colors that pedestrians and cyclists are supposed to know? If so, how are they supposed to know? I don't recall getting the memo, and since the city doesn't require bicyclists to register or otherwise get licensed I don't imagine that they really know either.

    In the parklets, some areas were painted green, others blue or left clear of markings -- are we supposed to naturally know what this means? If the city really wants these hybrid areas to be successful, they had better start doing a better job of 1) codifying the symbols and 2) disseminating the information accordingly.

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