Towards Growing Peaches Online
Metadata
Highlights
- Alexander wrote about things which make us feel more whole in their presence, like the peach growing against the wall. In San Jose, he referred to that quality as “living structure.” (View Highlight)
- Living structure is the natural order of life lived at human-scale. A compost heap has living structure. So does a good bus system, or a small public square. You can feel it in the difference between a lovely old building and a sterile new development; one is built by its inhabitants, and the other is designed by architects. “When a place is lifeless or unreal, there is almost always a mastermind behind it,” Alexander writes. “It is so filled with the will of the maker that there is no room for its own nature.” On the other hand, things with living structure feel right; they’re harmonious. (View Highlight)
- Architects alone could never save the world from all this dead weight, but software might have a chance*.* That is, if the software itself had living structure. If it was designed from the ground up by its inhabitants, like an old building, rather than from the top-down, like a mall. (View Highlight)
- Software has a responsibility to heal the planet and enrich human life, he told them. “Computers play a fundamental role in making the world—and above all the built structure of the world—alive, humane, ecologically profound, and with a deep living structure,” he said. (View Highlight)
- Maybe there are different ways to inhabit a place. Maybe the coder is like a ghost in the house, opening faucets and flickering the lights when the user isn’t looking. Or maybe living structure can be something cobbled together by the user from leftover materials—at odds, even, with the house itself. In a lovely piece for Pioneer Works, the artist and game designer Everest Pipkin describes creating rogue worlds inside of Roblox, one of the biggest games in the world. “To stand in these places is to stand in a place where desire was met. Where for a moment, something that was yours was carved out of the ugly body of online corporate games culture,” they write. “Like building a fort in the woods between the highway and the mall.” (View Highlight)
- We talk a lot about how platforms corrupt our ability to focus, think critically, or connect with others. But Are.na is an example of the way a small, conscientiously-designed platform can do the opposite. Tending to my channels is like building a home as I inhabit it: the process unfolds over time and changes my relation to the outside world. “The goal is not self-improvement,” a footer on the Are.na homepage reads. “The goal is engaging more deeply with the World.” (View Highlight)
Towards Growing Peaches Online
Metadata
Highlights
- Alexander wrote about things which make us feel more whole in their presence, like the peach growing against the wall. In San Jose, he referred to that quality as “living structure.” (View Highlight)
- Living structure is the natural order of life lived at human-scale. A compost heap has living structure. So does a good bus system, or a small public square. You can feel it in the difference between a lovely old building and a sterile new development; one is built by its inhabitants, and the other is designed by architects. “When a place is lifeless or unreal, there is almost always a mastermind behind it,” Alexander writes. “It is so filled with the will of the maker that there is no room for its own nature.” On the other hand, things with living structure feel right; they’re harmonious. (View Highlight)
- Architects alone could never save the world from all this dead weight, but software might have a chance*.* That is, if the software itself had living structure. If it was designed from the ground up by its inhabitants, like an old building, rather than from the top-down, like a mall. (View Highlight)
- Software has a responsibility to heal the planet and enrich human life, he told them. “Computers play a fundamental role in making the world—and above all the built structure of the world—alive, humane, ecologically profound, and with a deep living structure,” he said. (View Highlight)
- Maybe there are different ways to inhabit a place. Maybe the coder is like a ghost in the house, opening faucets and flickering the lights when the user isn’t looking. Or maybe living structure can be something cobbled together by the user from leftover materials—at odds, even, with the house itself. In a lovely piece for Pioneer Works, the artist and game designer Everest Pipkin describes creating rogue worlds inside of Roblox, one of the biggest games in the world. “To stand in these places is to stand in a place where desire was met. Where for a moment, something that was yours was carved out of the ugly body of online corporate games culture,” they write. “Like building a fort in the woods between the highway and the mall.” (View Highlight)
- We talk a lot about how platforms corrupt our ability to focus, think critically, or connect with others. But Are.na is an example of the way a small, conscientiously-designed platform can do the opposite. Tending to my channels is like building a home as I inhabit it: the process unfolds over time and changes my relation to the outside world. “The goal is not self-improvement,” a footer on the Are.na homepage reads. “The goal is engaging more deeply with the World.” (View Highlight)
Towards Growing Peaches Online
Metadata
Highlights
- Alexander wrote about things which make us feel more whole in their presence, like the peach growing against the wall. In San Jose, he referred to that quality as “living structure.” (View Highlight)
- Living structure is the natural order of life lived at human-scale. A compost heap has living structure. So does a good bus system, or a small public square. You can feel it in the difference between a lovely old building and a sterile new development; one is built by its inhabitants, and the other is designed by architects. “When a place is lifeless or unreal, there is almost always a mastermind behind it,” Alexander writes. “It is so filled with the will of the maker that there is no room for its own nature.” On the other hand, things with living structure feel right; they’re harmonious. (View Highlight)
- Architects alone could never save the world from all this dead weight, but software might have a chance*.* That is, if the software itself had living structure. If it was designed from the ground up by its inhabitants, like an old building, rather than from the top-down, like a mall. (View Highlight)
- Software has a responsibility to heal the planet and enrich human life, he told them. “Computers play a fundamental role in making the world—and above all the built structure of the world—alive, humane, ecologically profound, and with a deep living structure,” he said. (View Highlight)
- Maybe there are different ways to inhabit a place. Maybe the coder is like a ghost in the house, opening faucets and flickering the lights when the user isn’t looking. Or maybe living structure can be something cobbled together by the user from leftover materials—at odds, even, with the house itself. In a lovely piece for Pioneer Works, the artist and game designer Everest Pipkin describes creating rogue worlds inside of Roblox, one of the biggest games in the world. “To stand in these places is to stand in a place where desire was met. Where for a moment, something that was yours was carved out of the ugly body of online corporate games culture,” they write. “Like building a fort in the woods between the highway and the mall.” (View Highlight)
- We talk a lot about how platforms corrupt our ability to focus, think critically, or connect with others. But Are.na is an example of the way a small, conscientiously-designed platform can do the opposite. Tending to my channels is like building a home as I inhabit it: the process unfolds over time and changes my relation to the outside world. “The goal is not self-improvement,” a footer on the Are.na homepage reads. “The goal is engaging more deeply with the World.” (View Highlight)