The Boston Diaries
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Category Archives: Boston Diaries
Day 35: Election Day
It’s Election Day today and as part of my fieldwork I visited three polling stations around the South End, took photos and spoke to campaign officers and volunteers (who were very friendly and more than happy to pose for my … Continue reading
Guest lecture: Managing Choice
On Monday, November 4th, I gave my first guest lecture at Emerson College. It was a double bill, with a matinée from 4-6pm and an evening performance from 6-8pm, as this is a large freshman cohort. The title of my … Continue reading
City Lights
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Tagged Back Bay, Mass Ave, noir, Portraits of America, Prudential
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Community
Community. A word/concept that is very rarely used in parts of Europe – or it is used in very narrow terms to describe an administrative area or population of a small town – and yet it’s so widespread and fundamentally … Continue reading
Day 24: Engagement Game Lab, Emerson Library
Briefing at the Engagement Game Lab, followed by a visit to the new offices, followed by another productive evening transcribing and coding interviews in the library.
Vote
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Tagged Boston Common, Mayoral election, Portraits of America, Tremont St
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Day 23: Central Square
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Tagged Art in Transit, Central Square, fieldwork, MBTA, stations, T
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Day 22: editing
Nine hours in the library, editing the paper on Facebook’s personalisation algorithm and its impact on user satisfaction. After spending exactly an hour and a half on disentangling one single comparative statistic (and why the comparison is not valid), I … Continue reading
Placeworlds
“Place can function as the most powerful organizing theme of shared meaning. Street corners and neighborhoods, parks and schools, monuments and memorials— these are not just spots on a map. They are what hold the abstraction of social life together” … Continue reading
Day 21: Chinatown, Downtown, Emerson Library
Walking through Chinatown I noticed that in contrast to other downtown neighbourhoods which feature very little evidence of the upcoming mayoral election – it is quite a politicized community (interestingly there are more signs here for John Connolly than in … Continue reading
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Tagged Chinatown, community art, Downtown, Emerson, libraries, Mayoral election, MBTA, public art, work
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Day 20: On the set of Will & Grace
One of the perks of working at Emerson is that the original set of Will & Grace is permanently housed inside the College’s Iwasaki Library, on the 3rd floor at 120, Boylston St
Day 19: Bagel and work
…at the Pavement Coffee House, Boylston St.
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Tagged Back Bay, Boylston St, coffee, food, Pavement Coffee House, work
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Day 18: At the edge of the present
Saturday evening in downtown Boston, spending the evening transcribing interviews for the project on public space, urban/civic culture and the role of the citizen in Athens. “When you walk through a city and you feel a wave of emotions … Continue reading
Day 18: Old Harbor
So I’m walking along the beach at the Old Harbor, listening to this incredibly nostalgic, wonderful album with traditional songs from the Greek community in Southern Italy (forever grateful to BBC Radio 3 for introducing me to it) and I’m … Continue reading
Day 17: Chris Marker exhibition at the List Visual Arts Center
Chris Marker: Guillaume-en-Égypte Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art
Day 17: MIT Campus
…and dinner at The Friendly Toast
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Tagged coffee, fieldwork, food, Friendly Toast, Kendall Square, MIT
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Day 17: Kendall Square
At Kendall Square, Cambridge. Endlessly transcribing interviews, pondering the role of architecture in urban public space and having a great latte at Voltage Coffee & Art, currently exhibiting art by Caroline Board and Kate Castelli (‘What is left unsaid’). Incredibly … Continue reading
Posted in Boston Diaries
Tagged art, coffee, exhibition, food, Kendall Square, MIT, Voltage, work
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