Shot some kids shooting video of themselves skateboarding by the University Ave. court house. Part of the reason they were skateboarding there is that it has some of the city’s last remaining benches that don’t have slats to keep skateboarders from doing grinds on them (see the last photo in this series for an example of a bench that incorporates anti-skateboarding measures.)
As I watched, it got me to thinking about how design gets deployed in our buildings and public spaces to moderate behaviour. Anti-skateboarding strategies are a relatively minor example of this (relatively minor unless you love skateboarding). Let’s be blunt. Skateboarding is counter-cultural, subversive, one of those things young people do. We need to push it into officially authorized spaces – skateboard parks – just like sanitized graffiti on officially sanctioned walls.
What about more subtle design engineering? Does the shape of public walking spaces funnel us inevitably into shopping malls? Are we surreptitiously manipulated into more socially convenient behaviours? I wonder …
And what about photographers? Are we fucking up things for our social engineers by asking too many questions? God I hope so.
