Fred Truman
Design & Code Creative
Social Performance in the Contemporary Street
September 27, 2011
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As a continuation of our networked object observation, I chose an intersection located one block south east to observe social performance in the contemporary street. The reason being is that the former stretch of street had absolutely no where to sit, aside from on the ground next to the Nuts-4-Nuts cart. That just didn’t seem doable for the length of time I planned on hanging around. So I chose this intersection which is undergoing massive change in the form of two large retail building projects and a public space in the middle. Granted this space existed before, but now there are these nicely placed step-benches and a collection of tables and chairs.
I observed this space today, from 1PM to 2PM and it goes without saying that even at relatively low traffic volumes this place is most definitely alive. It was hard to focus on any one thing or person at first. There are people waiting for the bus; people eating lunch alone; people walking with giant shopping bags; subway noise coming from directly beneath the street; construction noise; a crazy man talking to himself directly across from me; interesting conversations about the nature of change taking place in this very spot; and the list goes on.
I observed groups of twos, threes, fours, eights and even a group of twelve bankers/law students (younger dudes in suits?). Most didn’t dwell at the corner – I only counted four people in three groups. Presumably, given the large open space immediately adjacent, those wishing to pause will duck into the refuge of the tables and chairs. However, one was an older man, stopping to look up at the construction. The next was a woman, using her phone nearly the entire time, sat next to me for a few moments, got up, walked to the corner and stood there for a solid 4 minutes – looking at her phone. Most interesting, when she had decided she had killed enough time or had completed some task on her phone she started to cross the street in front of her and seeing that the sign quickly changed to DON’T WALK – she just crossed the other way.
We all do this in the city. Our destination is five blocks north and 8 blocks east, and we’re willing to take whichever direction is immediately presented by the intersection until we’ve exhausted either the 8 or 5 block boundary and then we have to choose only the remaining direction – and we probably spend more time waiting at traffic lights towards the end of our journeys than the beginning. But I imagine this particular behavior – this moment when our attention returns from the virtual to the physical – is mirrored in precisely the opposite direction as well. If you’ve ever used Second Life you can imagine those characters just standing around while their disembodied operators are cooking dinner or chasing their kids around the house – only to abruptly snap back in action in startlingly awkward fashion.
The final were a couple of older women obviously debating which direction they needed to go. They were only there for an additional 30 seconds beyond what would have been necessary to cross the street – but it’s interesting that this particular location presents the best vantage point for deciding our next moves even in a world of Google Maps.
Everyone else came right into the square and took a seat. These were lots of individuals, some pairs or threes, many eating. One middle-aged man sunned himself in a chair and was greeted with a fist pound by a friend who swiftly carried on, and subsequently by a middle-aged woman in business attire whom he stood at attention for a couple of minutes before collapsing to his casual posture and open-shirted basking.
Another group of mixed demographics (mostly in their 30s-40s) swung into the square, summited one of the step-benches, discussed something then orbited the entire square before exiting towards the way they came.
In terms of devices, one of the most interesting observations was that given the amount of seating and the giant sign proclaiming there to be free wifi – I didn’t notice a single laptop. Maybe if this were in another part of the city the story might be different, but I found it refreshing to be seated in a space with lots of other individuals preoccupied by nothing more than their conversation, their lunch, the ambient sounds or just looking around at each other. This can still happen despite the anxious compulsion to whip out the phone and start browsing facebook, and we seem to love being surrounded by other real people – as different and unknown to us as they may be.
Finally, before leaving I listened in on a conversation taking place immediately behind me on the same bench where one man told another man (among other things) his nostalgia for the very space we were in. He remembered coming here and buying a new pair of shoes virtually “everyday” – now the construction and new businesses seem to be driving up prices and changing something he once loved. It’s cool that a space can function as the most active recollection of what it once was – our conversations functioning as a vehicle that takes us not away from the present and back in time but allows our presence to persist across multiple eras simultaneously. Without this space, our collective memory is more fragile.
For reference, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces – William H. Whyte: