Critique

Persuasion
The case against the case against Cambridge Analytica The Great Hack is very well-made documentary, engaging, articulate and ... persuasive. But the (unintended, perhaps) effect of such an intensive focus on People Being Misled focussed me on (mis)leading in general ...
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a la carte
I find it hard to consider photography as art, because it is so often used as a technology of persuasion. By this I mean it is used to seduce the viewer, into a purchase (advertising), an author’s point of view ...
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Leaving
I’ll start with leaving, because in the moment, any moment, there is only perception and response. Reflection happens after, at the end. So I only know what Hawai’i means to me now that I am home. But I want you ...
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The Rewrite
I feel I need to warn you, this is a sad story, with no good ending, really no ending at all. I am in limbo. Many months ago a friend of mine died. And I have been heartbroken since, about ...
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All the News that Isn't
News outlets - feeds, papers, and broadcasts - are constantly touting the latest medical breakthroughs, and it’s hard to know what to listen to, what and whose advice to take, especially given all the past bad - harmful! - recommendations ...
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Life without Plastic
The Bigger Picture Health concerns extend to a wider frame than just our bodies, to include social milieus and the environment, at many different scales. Over the years Bruce and I have adopted many practices and routines to protect the ...
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Fan_of_KathyFan
Matt, I have been lurking on OT for several years, and lately following you daily. I appreciate so many of your contributions, they spark a lot of reflection and dialogue. Right now I have many ideas and responses piling up ...
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Essays
Isolations of Space and Time Issue #7 - Isolations of Space and Time Geologic time is rather impossible to appreciate. We live with a sense of time measured by a unique metronome, the human heart–one second for each beat. We ...
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More Essays
Kin Issue # 2 - Family When I was in Iceland with my husband we stayed mostly in the west and north. Bruce and I met few others as we traveled the island, taking in the small and the grand, ...
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The Play's The Thing
The epitome of storytelling genres is The Theater, where words, objects, persons, art, and music are fashioned into a sense-engulfing parade-display-embodiment of narrative, sign, symbol, and meaning. I find it always a delicious treat. At its most exalted theater is ...
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Neurotypicality and Ethics
Empathy and morality It was with great interest that I read an article in the New York Review of Books, Psychologists Take Power (February 24, 2016), which discussed morality and empathy in psychological terms. As a high-functioning visual autistic I ...
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Gardens
Despite my chosen and beloved profession – landscape architecture – I do not like to design gardens very much at all. I have sorted out the reasons over the years and they are several. In the main, gardens are usually ...
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Copy That
I have a problem with copying in general - really it is one of my pet peeves - that goes beyond the theoretical framework of landscape and building called genius loci: that a creation is fit to its time and ...
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Public Space in the New American City
Here is a recreation of my prize-winning submission for the design competition Public Space in the New American City, held in Atlanta, Georgia in 1994. The original entry for site C comprised a site model and boards, which no longer ...
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Re-Presentation
COMMUNICATING LANDSCAPE DESIGN INTENT TO THE NON-EXPERT: SMALL EXPERIMENTS USING COLLAGE ABSTRACT Landscape design media comprise those graphic and spatial models used to generate imagined landscapes and to represent finished designs. But many of these traditional devices are insufficient for ...
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Parterre de Temps
This proposal is for a staging of Kurt Jooss’ 1932 dramatic dance The Green Table, as a partitioning not of the surface of the Earth, but rather of space through time. This is a modern interpretation of the 17th century ...
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Anna Is Woman Is the Earth Is a Garden
I was asked to write about this sculpture by a reviewer, and I did despite my reluctance to analyze my own work. Here is my statement; his notes follow. WORD and IMAGE The Garden of St. Anna This sculpture is ...
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Isolations of Space and Time
Geologic time is rather impossible to appreciate. We live with a sense of time measured by a unique metronome, the human heart–one second for each beat. We borrow the cadences of planets and moons to capture days, months, and years ...
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Invasion
Isolations of Space and Time I. Invasion Isn’t every successful species invasive? The history of life on Earth is the history of the relentless, explosive expansion of living things into every imaginable and unimaginable environment, commandeering resources and space competitively, ...
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Immigration
Isolations of Space and Time II. Immigration Studies of primates show they are hardwired to keep to their own, and strongly suggest we are built the same - to protect those like us and repel those who are not. Recent ...
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Inundation
Isolations of Space and Time III. Inundation Our dealings with some physical, non-biological recurrent events of the natural world, like fire and flood, also show awareness of larger scale process. Older practices that protect life and property are in favor ...
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Emanation
Isolations of Space and Time IV. Emanation We are slowly coming to terms with the converse idea that actions taken within our frame have consequences for systems beyond. The obvious example here is the imagining and construction of the U.S ...
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Balance
Isolations of Space and Time V. Balance On a weekend drive, touring the lakes region of New Hampshire, I was approached by a resident offering help with directions. Our conversation was telling. In just a few minutes he conveyed the ...
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Fake News
Fake News is real, and as a writer I know one way to spot it instantly and easily: in the use of adjectives. If a ‘news’ story contains them, it contains an authorial point-of-view. Point-of-view is appropriate for labeled opinion ...
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Home for the Aged
Where do you want to live when you are old? The Eden Alternative is a philosophy of eldercare that emphasizes interaction among older people and the natural and human worlds in order to relieve the kind of suffering that especially ...
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Big Love
I just finished watching the HBO series Big Love. Like many other people my television viewing habits and preferences have changed. Now I prefer multi-season series, and dramas rather than comedies. Just as good books do, newer television series delve ...
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