Response to "Outside Lies Magic"

While reading an excerpt from John Stilgoe’s Outside Lies Magic, I was reminded of my own recent experience. I spent two months in New York City for a summer design internship, and it differed dramatically from previous visits. While tourists do their fair share of exploring a destination city, their exploration is often limited to large landmarks and popular attractions. Time spent between sites is spent navigating, to an extent. Living in the city for a more extended period of time and falling into a routine allowed me to form a much greater attachment to my temporary home. I spent hours after work and on weekends walking around by myself, looking at things and taking photos. The small details of a city's buildings, parks, and sidewalks speak of its history and set it apart from any other place.

I've never heard of such a thing as a course on exploring. Exploring comes naturally to me, as it may for many designers. Interest in one's surroundings and inclination toward visual expression are what draw people to the design field in the first place. The tendency to notice things and wonder about them helps an observer identify problems and makes him more likely to develop innovative solutions. Stilgoe is right when he says that “education and entertainment media teach nothing about being original, about being innovative, about being creative or inventive.” Information that is distributed to the masses is much less likely to spark independent thinking than one’s own observations.

For our senior project, we are invited to convert a building in downtown Baton Rouge to anything we’d like. Spending some time exploring downtown undoubtedly will give great clues as to what certain areas are suffering the most and what the area needs to continue the positive changes being made there in recent years. It also should tune us in to what makes our city unique and special.

This entry was posted by Emily, on Tuesday, September 11, 2007. You can leave your response.