Response 9

Part 1: “Anti-Homeless Spikes” Photo

This photo was taken in Downtown, Brooklyn between Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue. It is a part of a small, square common area full of benches that look exactly like this one. This small space is located next to the Family Court house and across thee street from Starbucks and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. I feel like the architecture of this bench relates to the concept of “Anti-homeless spikes,” because it has the bars in between each seat, acting as dividers. Unlike other benches, these dividers prevent homeless people from laying down to rest at night, it forces them to sit upright. I believe that this particular design of this bench relates to the concept of the article because it is displaying that homeless people are not welcome on that piece of city property. I remember seeing benches that were made out of wood, without hard metal dividers in the middle of the bench. I remember seeing benches that were spacious, that had no limits pertaining to the amount of space a person can take up. Now, It’s a sad realization to notice that benches are being built out of cold metal with limits as to how much space someone can take up.

Part 2: “The End of Capitalism Has Begun” Issue

This reading was a bit difficult for me to understand, I had to keep re-reading certain parts of it and found myself to begin to get a little bored with the reading itself. I sort of understand the issues being presented within the reading but I’m not sure if i understand them fully. The issue that I feel like I  understood a little better than the other issues is the issue of technology making things easier, blurring the line between what is work and what is free time, and reducing the need for work. This issue is one that I can agree with more than the others because I do feel like with the introduction of new and different technology, people really don’t have to work too hard to find certain information or learn about a new topic. People don’t have to work hard to find information that would have taken hours of reading book after book in a library. I feel like people use the new technology introduced to them to take the easy way out of things and this affects not only the work they are doing but the way they present themselves.

The  concept of information technology making things easier and reducing the need for work relates closely to another concept explained on page 4, where the writer talks about information being abundant. Since, information is abundant it is beyond easy to find especially with technology that is able to find it for you. Technology makes it easier to replicate another person’s work and ideas. Technology makes it easy to devalue the cost of a certain product because that product may be available on a different website for less money and it may not have the same quality as the first website did. Technology makes it easy for people to make money by doing little to no work at all. Therefore, devaluing the purpose of capitalism and the working class.

Part 3: Discussion Question

Does the architecture of certain things built around us alter the way we think of and view homeless people?