Monday, February 6, 2012

Week 3 Urban Tomography

This week, our class discussions revolved around urban tomography. Urban tomography are ways we can observe the movements and patterns within the city and how they interact with each other. You use slices of the cat scan like pictures and view it from different angles. There are different types of tomography such as x-rays, GPS, cat scans and audio; each type is very different from one another. By using urban tomography, it helps us capture how the city or urban life was like at a certain period.

For a better example, this video gives you different visuals of urban tomography. In the beginning, the video shows slices of a forest with each picture being from different angles. Together, it makes up one area.   http://vimeo.com/18027928

      Another activity we did during class was watch a video of The City. The movie showed a theme of the progression of technology. In the beginning, the tools were more self-sustained then gradually became mass produced. The people became more focused on results rather than consequences. As a result of the booming technology, pollution began to contaminate urban areas. We also discussed that if we were to create our own theme, we came up with the idea to show how much technology has taken over our lives and how that will affect our future generation in the long run. 
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6 comments:

  1. Marybeth Group15February 8, 2012 at 3:17 PM

    I think the video is a fairly good representation of Urban tomography, although it is only a visual of video images. It would be interesting to see examples of the other types of urban tomography as well, such as GPS or X-rays.
    The inclusion of technology ideas from the movie also can tie in with urban tomography ideas because urban the technology on urban areas and predict future effects.

    -Marybeth, Group 15

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  2. ericmayo@vt.eduFebruary 12, 2012 at 12:39 PM

    Also, The City portrayed the happiness received from suburban lifestyles and how every person seemed to buy their products locally to help support their small rural/ suburban area. I think this short movie failed to recognize the effect agriculture and suburban lifestyles truly has on the environment. Homeowners pour pesticides on their lawn which run off into rivers, creating massive algae blooms which suck the life out of aquatic ecosystems. Farmers practice unsustainable farming techniques such as over farming land, causing topsoil erosion which once again runs off into nearby water sources. This list could continue for pages and pages... but I feel there is no need to drag things on. One should not downplay the effect of harmful agricultural practices on our environment..

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  3. UAP1024Sp.12Grp5February 12, 2012 at 8:18 PM

    The effect of agriculture leads back to the urban lifestyle. The demand by city dwellers is what makes farmers result to such harmful practices. If a farmer's products are not over demanded, s/he would mulch or plough the remnants of the previous season back into the soil rather than result to fertilizers and other chemicals. Also, by sourcing materials for building cities(stone, sand, etc) from rural areas, we expose the soil to erosion more than excessive farming does. The roots of plants actually hold soil together thereby reducing erosion.

    -O.I

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  4. Matt DavisFebruary 13, 2012 at 10:21 AM

    I enjoyed the video you linked. It was nice seeing these images through a screen of sorts. Their use of urban tomography I found be very interesting with the multilayer effect. Many of the scenes shown were tranquil in nature which sometimes goes unseen.

    I also enjoyed the in-class video Dr. Sanchez played. It accurately portrayed the city life and more subtle suburban life back then. I think the major theme to take away is to focus more on the quality and less of the quantity.

    - Matt Davis - Group 8

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  5. Tom SanchezFebruary 19, 2012 at 7:37 PM

    Limited post and resources.

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  6. UAP Group 18February 20, 2012 at 4:29 PM

    @Matt Davis-

    Do you solely think that urban tomography is used to focus on quality as opposed to quantity? I understand where quality of areas is important to document, but don't you think that quantity may be important as well? For example, a person looking to document a street corner in a city, may want to spend time focusing on the quantity of people passing through and amount of cars passing, to get a better idea of what the area is like.

    Rachel Gordon
    Grp 18

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