Dymaxion.org
Dymaxion.org is me, Eleanor Saitta. These are a few pieces I've written recently. Unless otherwise specifically noted, all work listed here is ©2011 Dymaxion.org/Eleanor Saitta.
Dymaxion.org is me, Eleanor Saitta. These are a few pieces I've written recently. Unless otherwise specifically noted, all work listed here is ©2011 Dymaxion.org/Eleanor Saitta.
Written on the night of the 2012 US presidential elections, in disgust at the utter lack of anything that could be confused with real politics in America.
Reflections on the year 2011: On Becoming an Adult. Originally written for the first New Public Thinking book, Despatches from the Invisible Revolution, available from PediaPress and featuring the work of many other fascinating folks, all reflecting on the year that was 2011.
What happens when we can't afford democracy any more? Originally written for the magazine Powision, published out of the University of Leipzig, for their November 2011 issue, “Wege aus der Demokratie?” or “Ways out of democracy?”. Also available in German.
On suicide, stories, and war. Originally delivered as a talk at the 2011 Uncivilization festival in Hampshire, in the UK.
A personal and theoretical narrative on the subject of borders and the transnational experience, written for the Border Town independent architectural studio on divided cities.
An essay in part calling out the New Public Thinking community and related, more fluid social circles on how the community handles diversity in organization and conversation.
A short essay on the traps we set for ourselves in how we think about the future for Vinay Gupta's crowdsourced book project, The Future We Deserve.
A piece on the false promised of situated computation with respect to the way we live our lives and what the word "local" means in a modern, digitally mediated city.
This piece is part of Tim Maly's #50Cyborgs, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the term "cyborg", first used in print in September of 1960 in an article published by the newly formed NASA, discussing the possibility of adapting humans to space. For the other posts in the series, see the 50 Cyborgs blog, or Tim's main blog, Quiet Babylon.
The Call for Essays for an ongoing project on what will become incomprehensible about media culture for the natives of network culture.
Abstract:
Architecture and urban planning define the world we interact with. This has many deep and not always obvious effects — everything from what we can do in public spaces to the kinds of families we can live with. The cities end up with rarely allow us the flexibility and humanity we want.
Cities, buildings, infrastructure are heavily politicized systems with embodied power structures on many different levels. We can intervene, alter those structures, and create the spaces we need and want. Architecture is generally the domain of the rich and powerful, but it doesn't have to be — we can intervene and hack the city.
In this talk, we'll explore modern urban power structures and look at different ways we as individuals can subvert the city. We'll move outside the design-culture consumer conversation around architecture and urban futurism, and explore how to change our cities, one brick at a time.
Published in monochrom (volume 26-34, “Ye Olde Self-Referentiality”, ISBN 3950237267) and also the forthcoming proceedings of the 2009 Paraflows conference: URBAN HACKING. Full text.
Originally presented as a talk at Arse Elektronika 2009 in San Francisco, Saturday, October 3 2009, and again at Notacon 7 in Cleveland, Saturday, April 17 2010. Talk description:
Humans use tools, and the tools we use change us. This is true for everything we do, and we're rarely more inventive than where sex is concerned. To understand the future of sex, we need to think like designers, and look at the future of sexual technology. The most basic frontiers of sexual technology are relatively well-trodden. An IP connected dildo is boring — fun to use, and certainly not an exhausted category, but theoretically less interesting. Let's explore new territory, ask questions, and answer them with design fictions.
The essay version of the script, to be published in the proceedings (forthcoming) is here.