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.