Random spaces
With both Rob and I away, things got quiet here and now I’m going to try to play catch-up.
snarkout has a great post about early explorations and mapping, and ends with this gem: “There were no dragons in the New World. There was a blank map, and that was a more terrifying matter.”
Ever since being turned onto them by a history professor, I have loved reading old travelogues. And (for my MA thesis) I spent the greater part of 1999 reading Spanish chronicles of the invasion and colonisation of the Americas. Stunning stuff. Perhaps the best known of the Peruvian chronicles is Guaman Poma’s beautifully illustrated history Nueva coronica y buen gobierno (link to full English version), although my favourite is probably Juan de Betanzos’ Narrative of the Incas.
On other fronts, things magazine pulls out a link-packed post on architecture, skateboarding and Kevin Bacon (!)
And if you have any interest in the intersections of urban space and technology, I’ve posted my notes from Intel’s Urban Computing event last week: Part I / II / III / IV