SUNY Purchase ︎ (DES3800) Design for Web & Screens
Reading: Metropolis & Mental Life
Background
Throughout the semester, we’ll contextualize our work with some readings. Some will be “important” articles or essays from hacker culture, and others, like this one, present ideas from other areas of culture in order to provide a lens onto your design practice.This essay largely talks about the effects of a city on an individual. My point in bringing this essay to class is that we examine it in comparison and contrast to our contemporary experience of the internet. Additionally this will hopefully provide a bit more imagery and ideas for your Observational Coding Project.
Questions to think about while reading this
- What is the relationship between technology and the body?
- What is different about the manifestation of technology as the city and the internet? What is the same?
- Think consciously and clearly about your physical experiences in a city vs the internet. In what ways do they echo the ideas Simmel mentions?
Related Readings & Content
- Summary of The Metropolis & Mental Life︎ (This is not a substitute for reading the essay just to help guide your reading and notetaking)
- “Why Instagram is the Worst Social Media for Mental Health” by Amanda MacMillan from Time Magazine︎
- “The first web theorist? Georg Simmel and the legacy of ‘The web of group-affiliations’” by Dr. Mary Chayko︎
- Metropolis by Fritz Lang︎