Response 8

Alex Andreou: ‘The Anti-homeless spikes: ‘Sleeping rough opened my eyes to the city`s barbed cruelty’
In Alex Andreou`s article, the Anti-homeless spikes: ‘Sleeping rough opened my eyes to the city`s barbed cruelty,’ Ocean Howell states “…you are not a member of the public, at least not of the public that is welcome here.” This quote relates to the whole of the article by showing that homeless people are not treated as members of society but instead as aliens who are in no way human. They are looked upon as disgusting creatures who have horrible hygiene, live in public areas, and constantly beg for money. They are looked down on as if they are not humans and are treated with little to no respect. If they died, nobody would care and the public would just look in the opposite direction.

(This picture was taken between Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn NY)

My own thoughts concerning the situation is that I think that humans are very selfish and not thoughtful when it comes to other humans. They do not even think about the circumstances the person could have went through just to become homeless. We tend to look the other way instead of helping those in need. Several forms of helping them can include money, food, a place to live, etc yet we choose to keep everything to ourselves. It is sad to see how we all behave towards each other and how we all are concerned only about our own well-beings instead of about everyone`s well being. In the end, I think that those who really don`t care about anyone else`s struggles will be the one who regrets it in the end when they need help one day and no one attempts to help them.

Tristan Tzara: “Dada Manifesto 1918”
Tzara states that “…Dada was born of a need for independence, of a distrust toward unity.” This shows that many individuals want to be independent and want to be apart from the rest of society therefore their actions and words reflect that desire to be separate from everybody else. This is in relation to Andreou`s piece about how homeless people are being pushed away since the people living in society think that the homeless do not belong and therefore use methods of trying to get rid of them. One example is the picture that I took above between Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn NY of a bench. This bench is made of metal and is divided into three sections as to make it very uncomfortable for a person to sleep on. Artwork can be made to depict a soft, fuzzy, warm, long bench with no dividers, with a protective layer above it, in which anybody can sleep on, day or night, without any interruptions from the public.

Sherry Turkle: How Computers Change the Way We Think
When Turkle said that now in elementary schools, students have started to use emails, word processing, power point software and so forth, it shows just how important and advanced technology has gotten over the years. Her point is that the young children are learning at an early age new ways of learning, thinking and understanding which will help to make them technologically advanced in the future. I think that this is going a bit too far because when I was growing up, we were not introduced to technology and computers till the end of middle school, which even then we had learned basics. I do think that technology can be very beneficial in expanding our minds and helping us with our daily activities but I wonder about the bad effects it can have too and if we`re going too far.