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The value of public discourse and the resulting promises of community

As intelligent everyday citizens, we value public discourse and the resulting promises of community.

Among other practices, discussion allows ideas to be announced, explored, identified, and examined in healthy environments prompted by people who eagerly participate in civil engagement. With such a potential for action and advocacy, many hope to define the rhetoric of a public space, thus encouraging platforms for intriguing discussion.

More specifically, at Dartmouth, several spaces across campus are intentionally built by architects and administrative groups to ensure and promote collaborative discourse in the otherwise isolated location of Hanover, NH. One specifically to Dartmouth's layout is Class of 1953 Commons, the main dining hall. The upstairs public space designed primarily for eating has emerged into a multi-functional location where students dine, study, meet, discuss, etc.

Through varied techniques, this website hopes to explore the question:

Does the pocketed publicity evident throughout Upstairs Foco illustrate good public discourse? 

To understand the potential of this question, pocketed publicity must be identified as a conceptual lens in terms of Dr. David Fleming's analysis of publicity in space.

Please click on the right-hand banner to learn more about Fleming's rhetoric of the necessity for publicity in space.

Please click on the title Publicity at Foco: Responding to Responsibility to be led back to the homepage.

How Upstairs Foco redefine's publicity as described by Fleming

How does Upstairs Foco redefine publicity as illustrated by Dr. David Fleming?

In The Space of Argumentation: Urban Design, Civic Discourse, and the Dream of the Good City, Fleming describes his definition of an effective public space, highlighting a need for discourse. In order to encourage necessary engagement and discussion, Fleming believes there are several characteristics that accurately define a good public space, specifically publicity.

Unfortunately in his essay, Fleming focuses only on spaces such as a public street to exemplify publicity.

"Clearly, good public discourse requires territory where all residents have the right to appear, to see and be seen, to hear and be heard," (Fleming 161.)

In doing so, this lack of analysis fails to highlight varying types of publicity, perhaps not necessarily present on a busy, crowded street in a center of a city but often seen in quiet, privatized spaces, that nevertheless allow users to carry out similar levels of discussion addressed by Fleming.

This quiet publicity, referred to as pocketed publicity, is evident in Upstairs Foco, and enables Dartmouth community members to not only carry out discourse found in more public spaces like Downstairs Foco and the street Fleming describes, but to engage in deeper conversations, create stronger relationships, and illustrate personal growth better in the less populated and unique physical environment.

With movable furniture & nooks, students engage in pocketed publicity creating discourse

With movable furniture & study nooks, students engage in pocketed  publicity ultimately creating good public discourse.

Across campus, many study spots and dining locations have rigid furniture and walls covered with historical symbols of Dartmouth. Options like The Courtyard Cafe and Downstairs Foco seat students at longer tables that break conversation and alternate study options in the library comprise of couches, cubicles, or long rows of seating.

At Upstairs Foco, flexibility is what encourages pocketed publicity. With selections to study on small tables, circle tables, corner nooks, and behind staircases, students are able to stay engaged with their work and decide whether they want to be in the middle of everyone or tucked away onto ottoman-chairs in little study compartments.

In addition, the artwork and deign elements of Upstairs Foco allow all types of students to work. With modern study lounge design and colors quite different from the neutral hues painted across the library, the area also hosts an assortment of furniture indicating several studying options for students.

Consequently, the varied design elements ultimately dismantle any stereotypes associated with the area, encouraging accessibility to all. While the dark side's long tables suggest space for athletes and the light side of Downstairs Foco is primarily used by non-athletes, Upstairs Foco serves as a neutral location for all. Similarly, as not directly located in the library, it is not colloquially  seen as "face-timey" like first floor berry, "fratty" like third floor berry, or "where there is no fun" like fourth floor berry. Instead, Upstairs Foco's decor and deign make it usable and attractive to several types of  students.

 

Below is a design layout of Upstairs Foco (drawn by Paulomi Rao)

Design of Upstairs Foco-page-001

Encouraging stronger discussion among few, Upstairs Foco minimizes the chaos of masses

Encouraging stronger discussion among few, Upstairs Foco minimizes the chaos of masses.

At Upstairs Foco, students have a dining option with less people. This simple decrease in numbers compared to the downstairs allows people to avoid the chaos of being lost in the crowd like the busy street Fleming describes or the rush of Downstairs Foco.

In addition, fewer people enables students to be held more accountable for their actions. If a student acts rowdy or misbehaves, another individual can call his/her peer out because it is easier to identify who is poorly behaving. In this way, the diversity Fleming describes that is necessary for public discourse is found not in numbers like a crowded street but through the depth of diversity within each person. As the upstairs has an overall fewer people, students are more encouraged to truly get to know each other's personalities rather then just issuing a friendly greeting to masses of people.

Below are two time lapse videos taken on Sunday March 7th within 5 minutes apart from each other during the brunch swipe time period. The first one captures Upstairs Foco where less people allow students to work on group projects in pocketed publicity and really get to know each other. In comparison, the second video showcases Downstairs Foco where chaos and chatter offers a loud dining environment, but not an opportunity to thoroughly engage with each other because of the loud nature of the space.

With less people upstairs, noises are also kept down, creating an environment more similar to a study lounge than a dining hall. This difference in noise encourages many people who look to multi-task while eating to head upstairs. In addition, in a quieter environment, students are less susceptible to feeling overwhelmed by publicity. There, they can interact with a small group of people instead of partially conversing with multiple groups without truly discussing.

Below are two audio recordings taken within five minutes of each other that illustrate the varying sound levels between the upstairs and downstairs.

 

With more accountability, students are encouraged to use their time effectively in a myriad of activites

With more accountability, students at Upstairs Foco are given greater range to participate in a myriad of tasks than sitting downstairs.

Specifically, a less chaotic space ensures students can use the space as a location to work on group projects, study, hang out, and meet with teams.

  1. Group Projects: When several spots are taken in the library, students can use the upstairs to discuss ideas in a new, fun, location that is loud enough to allow groups to engage in public discourse but not too quiet that group members fear their talking will interpret others.
  2. Study: As the decor is flexible, many students spend time studying upstairs. With additional amenities such as free coffee/tea all day and large tables to spread their work out, students feel overall less stressed than in the rigid environments of the library.
  3. Hanging Out: It is easier to have better conversations with people in the quieter environment than the chaos of downstairs, encouraging greater community efforts to relax with friends.
  4. Teams/Clubs: With private dining halls and enclosed rooms, people feel encouraged to meet and talk things out in a space that isn't affiliated with a certain Greek House or club. Other than the necessity to swipe in and pay, varying slightly from Fleming's perspective of the open street, Upstairs Foco can be used by everyone, hence allowing it to be a flexible space for functionality.

Upstairs Foco Finalized

Knowing how good public discourse is created, students learn how to become a better consumer of public areas

Being able to identify pocketed publicity in new spaces encourages individuals to efficiently utilize areas.

In a large room, it is normal for many to get overwhelmed and confused by size and people. Yet hopefully, after learning how pocketed publicity is created in Upstairs Foco, viewers can understand the best methods of making use of space and becoming accountable for their actions. For instance, after seeing the comparable size between Upstairs and Downstairs Foco, many may not initially recognize how adaptable Upstairs Foco can be. But after a closer examination, individuals can understand how flexible physical characteristics of a space encourage people to be held accountable and responsible for their behaviors, ultimately fostering an environment of collaborative and controlled discussion.

This action is replicable across multiple spaces outside of Dartmouth's campus. Recognizing how characteristics such as physical amenities, design, and population statistics  assist in creating proper discourse to facilitate productive communities enable individuals to become better consumer of public area. Likewise when designing public spaces, architects and planners can make note of varied levels of personalized publicity to ensure they are creating spaces that encourage users to collaborate and discuss.

200 word reflection on writing concepts

Assignment #3 was intriguing in several ways. Not only were we tasked with creating our own claim on any space at Dartmouth, but we were asked to present it through a website platform. The first step, picking a location and searching for a claim, was very similar to past assignments in the class. For instance, after formulating a potential research question I analyzed my theory through a conceptual lens (David Fleming's argument on publicity in The Space of Argumentation: Urban Design, Civic Discourse, and the Dream of the Good City.) My next step was to search for evidence to back up my claim, again similar to past asssignments. However, this time I created the evidence myself instead of extracting it from various sources. In order to do this, I had to think critically to incorporate multiple media presentations. To start, I took dozens of photos to get physical evidence of the landscape and created a handmade map of the upstairs architectural layout to address the flexible design of the space. In addition, I created two time-lapse videos to show varying levels of publicity, two audio-recordings, produced an info-graph of function and utility of the space by interviewing several students, and created a narrative recording to add a multi-media perspective to Dartmouth's emphasis of good public space.

In all, I learned that creating multi-media was a bit trickier than just composing prose because of the creativity involved with expressing evidence. However, at the end of this project, I am excited about my potential to create multi-media outside of the classroom (ex. for The Dartmouth when I write news articles.)

As the last large assignment for Writing 5, I wish a happy viewing to all!