A kamal is an old celestial navigation device useful for determining Polaris’ latitude only in equatorial latitudes. This instrument is a limited device that is composed of a small wooden table with a hole in its middle, a string with several knots, human eyes and teeth, the horizon, the Pole Star, a particular geographical space,
Journal
Let us face it, you will get lost
Yes, eventually, you will get lost exploring this piece of research, and that is okay. This labyrinth was designed with that intention too. Otherwise, what would be the point of a device like this one? Nevertheless, there is more than just a didactic reading-experience behind the usage of a labyrinthine structure for constructing this piece
Event | Doctoral Colloquium, Winter 2021
Next Friday, during the Winter Colloquium #MyTopic.in.society, I will be presenting some advances of my doctoral dissertation. The aim of my talk this time is to display the whole (and almost final) structure of my work. Due to the current global situation, the event will be held online.
Ontological incompleteness
Reality, as Benjamin (2003[1982]) projected Nietzsche’s idea of Eternal return (2001[1882]; 2006[1883]), is a tricky movement of perpetual recurrence. The same concepts of immanence and incompleteness can be found in Deleuze’s difference (1994[1968]) and in Borges’ circularity[1]. The conceptualization of difference in Deleuze —strongly tied to repetition— is inspired, among other things, by Borges’ story
Event | STS Congress
On Thursday, and during the meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, I plan to present a paper named “Designing Multimodal Artifacts for Exploring Urban Life. An Experimental proposal between Times Square and I.” My intentions with that talk are to
XXX Times Square with love
Times Square has a collection of fascinating pieces of furniture. Most of those furnishings were designed by well-known designers, architects or artists, so the combinations they projected onto those objects, a mix of usability, symbolism and aesthetic, blended with multiple possible responses to usability by the actors outside, make those elements interesting devices to be
Event | Urban Anthropology Research Colloquium
Next Thursday, from 16 to 18, I will participate in a new (virtual) session of the Stadtlabor, discussing my project on pedestrianized Times Square. That talk intends to share my methodological intentions and scope. Also, I would like to introduce the set of tentative artifacts I plan to design.
Reductions
As an ontological provocation, the idea of writing this piece of research is to encourage the debate around the linkage between urban studies and STS from an empirical-philosophical viewpoint mostly inspired by Annemarie Mol’s perspective on post[1]-Actor-Network Theory, Viveiros de Castro’s multi-naturalism (2004) and Heidegger’s ontological work on usability (2008[1962]). This research is also an
Event | Doctoral Colloquium, Winter 2020
Following Friday, I will at the Munich Center for Technology in Society, presenting some of my doctoral research highlights. The talk will focus on how Times Square has turned more than just as the study object of my research, performing as a sort of co-author of my work.
Old man yells at cloud in Times Square*
If there is someone one can name as the “anti-pedestrian plazas of Times Square,” it must be Steve Cuozzo. Cuozzo, a writer, restaurant critic, and New York Post’s real state columnist, has turned himself in the most significant media contradictor of Times Square’s pedestrianization model. I made a compilation of 16 Cuozzo’s columns about Times