Passing For Knowledge

I have to admit a small love affair with geography. But in recent years, I’ve viewed the concept of geography in a more “micro” sense. Instead of looking at the Iberian Peninsula or the Caspian Sea, I’m finding the artificial geography within cities more interesting. There are numerous analogies to describe a city to make it seem like a form of wilderness. But the truth is, once streets are laid down, the land will never be the same again. We’ve paved asphalt over what was once wilderness.

But instead of looking for analogies to define city scenes in nature terms, maybe we should redefine (perhaps, pervert) our notion of geography to encompass the physical elements of our artificial environments. And once we do that, we can look at public space in a completely different light. (more…)