Smart Phones and Urban Space

Smart Phones and Urban Spaces by John Collins 110717897

Computers and the internet have revolutionized the way society functions. Increasingly, they have made every facet of life more quantifiable. Communication has been made easier and more efficient and information is now defused at an incredible rate, with an unprecedented level of accessibility. The knock on effect is that people, particularly in more developed parts of the world, are part of very different patterns of consumption and communication. People buy products online, without ever speaking to a single person. People maintain interpersonal relationships which span the globe.

Photo (by John Collins): Even while your eating. A restaurant on Ffenchurch street, Cork city.

While society has engaged with digital media for decades, for the most part this engagement was desk based, stationary. Admittedly multimedia and social networking sites had begun to enthral people. Online communities started to become forums for opinion on a myriad of social aspects central to actual life.  But once a user left their computer they would instantly sever ties with the digital world. The digital world could not infringe on the mobile nature of the tangible world. But smart phones, and to a lesser extent, tablets have made the digital world more dynamic. The digital world is now moving parallel with real life in terms of accessibility and relevance to society. What a person writes on their twitter or Facebook accounts is often accepted as tantamount to what they do or who they are. 

Photo (by John Collins): Creedon’s B&B, Oliver Plunkett St., Cork City.

How we interact, opine, consume and represent ourselves by way of digital media is continually and increasingly reflected in the physical urban environment. Shops, pubs and restaurants provide free Wi-Fi, which has become a vital component for any service business, so much so that coffee and Wi-Fi are near synonymous at this point. Even in transit, in and between urban centres, Wi-Fi has become a basic amenity. This is emblematic of how fundamental access to digital media has become. This is largely due to the prominence of smart phones and, to a lesser extent, tablets and laptops.

 

Development of Fashion by Amy Gear

A family photograph of my great grandparents Esther and Patrick Bourke on their wedding day in 1930.

Material culture presents us with a gateway into the past. It highlights the significance of the ‘real’, through the discovery of past objects we can study the process of progress in humanity. “Because something is material, it must be material”, this has been a common attitude of critics when studying material culture. However, clothes are not just clothes; hair is not just cut in a random way; they tell us a story. Material cultures can become artifacts through which social organisation and progress could be determined, according to Marxist ideals. For more information on material culture see: http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.library.ucc.ie/science/article/pii/B9780080449104009718. 

I have provided a photo of my great grandparents on their wedding day in the year 1930. Both in their early thirties, they lived in Co. Limerick. Esther worked as a house maid and her husband Patrick worked as a groundskeeper and gardener in a big house. As told by my grandmother, they lived very poor lives. I chose to focus on my great grandmothers chosen hairstyle and hat, although poor, she still managed to keep up with the ever growing fashion of the time; that of ‘the Bob’ and the Cloche hat, both very popular from the 1920’s onward. The development of fashion allowed for a new freedom of women; a disruption of space. No longer would they be shunned on the streets or thought of as prostitutes if seen without the presence of a man. Though these new styles were seen as slightly masculine and inappropriate, it gave women a new lease on life to take back the city in its entirety. Women also sped up the impacts of consumerism and capitalism in this new desire for fashion and material items. They progressed in the city that was increasingly becoming more modern. Women had a new role, not just that of a mother, housekeeper or wife but that of an independent, working woman. Click here for more information on fashions from the 1920s http://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rj8HLFTv1QEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=flappers+style+in+the+1920s&ots=t0WFThnsfc&sig=m4jD2GufCgUCtKWVwGEx_jCOxPM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=flappers%20style%20in%20the%201920s&f=false

 

Material Culture: Great Granny Duggan’s Coal box Iron – Clíodhna Bourke

Fig.1 Coal Box Iron – This Iron was used by my great grandmother Mary Duggan in the 1890′s. It was used by lifting up the lever on the back of the iron and placing in red hot coals. The lever was then moved back down. This would heat up the iron enabling it to iron various materials.

This Coal Box Iron (Fig.1) is a piece of material culture which I found recently. At first glance, I didn’t quite realize the significance of it. I decided to plague my grandfather with numerous questions regarding what I had found. It had been in my grandfathers shed for the past 50 years. The iron was used by my great grandmother who lived in Limerick city in the late 1800’s at a time when the way in which people presented themselves became important. This particular iron was used by my grandmother for ironing the alter linen in her local church where she worked as the Sacristan. She also used it in ironing the collars of shirts which had to be starched beforehand to stiffen them. Starching the clothing would help them keep their shape.’The box-iron and the sad-iron were the two most common used irons in Ireland’ at the turn of the last century. (Sharkey, O. 1987) It was the modernisation of the cities in Ireland which triggered a transformation in the way people began to present themselves. This coal iron enabled them to improve the appearance of their clothing by literally pressing out the wrinkles in the clothing with a hot iron.

The modernisation of the city not only brought about the transformation of the cityscape but also a physical transformation of the people within the city took place. The modernization of the City led to the modernization of the body. People began to take pride in their appearance. Personal hygiene became important and clothes were washed, scrubbed and then dried before the ironing of the garments took place.

Below (Fig.2) is a picture taken in 1948 of my Grandparents on their Wedding day. It is clear that the creasing in my Grandfathers pants and the stiffness of his shirt provides evidence for the use of an iron at the time.

Grandparents Wedding – This picture was taken in 1945 and gives evidence of the use of an iron at the time.

Sources used:
Sharkey, O (1987). Old days and ways. United States: Syracuse University Press, New York. 86.

Urban Architecture: A Hedge School during the 18th century – Marie Lenihan

One may look at this photograph and simple see an ‘old dwelling house’ but is that all it is? To understand the transformation of the experience of time and the notion of self it is necessary to reflect and appreciate history of developments within any community or city. In fact when this photograph is stripped back and investigated it resonates strongly with the development of modernity as it represents a hedge school in Mountcollins, a small rural community in West Limerick in the 18th Century. This Hedge school was an important architectural building for the people of the community during this time as it provided the children with the only available education at the time. Today this building is a home but the room to the left of the door is still referred to as the ‘teaching room’.

Hedge School during the 18th Century
Source: The Loineacháins of Mountcollins Co. Limerick Ireland September 1993 Reunion (Magazine)

Religious and political issues were raised within communities with the introduction of the penal laws as catholic schools were prohibited in Ireland. With these laws catholic children were denied an education in Ireland so Hedge Schools were created like the one in the photograph in rural areas to teach the children. An important transformation occurred with the emergence of the national school system in 1831.
With regards social and spatial ordering the penal laws tried to alter the people by enforcing laws and by making people follow rules, which created a space of regulation and control within society. Hedge schools did enough to challenge the penal laws by portraying their appreciation for Irish. In my opinion Hedge schools resemble the typewriter as with the development of the typewriter came about the keyboard, the development of these hedge schools came about the National school. As the experience of speed emerged, books were available, transport was improved and the method of teaching was sophisticated and modernised.

References

Kraftl, P. (2009). Urban Architecture. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. K. Editors-in-Chief:  Rob and T. Nigel. Oxford, Elsevier: 24-31.

(1993).The Loineacháins of Mountcollins Co. Limerick Ireland  1-16.

Christchurch: the Development of Cork into Modernity – Linda Crowley

Image one: Entrance of Christchurch, South Main Street, Cork

Christchurch, located in the heart of Cork City centre is said to be one of the first churches built in the city. Constructed in 1726, with its symmetrical façade, its tall windows, triangular shaped roof and decorative pillars at the main entrance, it is quite clear from image one that it is an 18th century neoclassical Georgian building (image one). Between the 18th and 20th century Christchurch was used daily by Corks Church of Ireland parishioners before being taken over by Cork City Council in 1978. This in itself reflects a political and cultural shift in the ways in which public space was being used at that time. New ways of thinking about the city led to refurbishment of the building in 2004. This was also due to the growth of the metropolis and the changing population inhabiting Cork City as it modernised to keep up with the rest of Europe.

Image two: Interior of Christchurch

Restoration of the inside stayed true to its original form (image two) which meant this new modern space was constructed keeping the history of the building to the forefront. Today it is used for concerts, art exhibitions, fashion shows, movie screenings and sometimes even weddings. Like the public gardens, boulevards and main squares of cities of the past this building is another place in the city where the public can be managed, controlled and educated in captivating ways.

Image 3: Altar showing pulpit and stained glass of original church

Image 4: Seats from coffee shop outside entrance

Christchurch is a prime example of modernity, unique to this city. The altar (image 3) along with its stained glass and original pulpit still remain and – having been a spectator at many of its concerts – they without doubt act as the breath-taking backdrop to shows that take place here. As can be seen in image 4, Christchurch is also home to a coffee shop, reflecting the sophisticated type of people using this new space and also that this building is indeed a signature of modernity.

 

Urban Architecture: The Firkin Crane – Audrey O’Mahony

Fig. 1: This view shows the front of the building. On the left it is possible to see the pillars of the entrance to the butter market. The steps are not contemporary with the building but were added in the 1980’s.

From its height in Shandon, The Firkin Crane offers a unique shape to the skyline of the Northside of Cork City.  Built in 1855, and designed by architect Sir John Benson, The Firkin Crane is an excellent example of modernity reflected through urban architecture.  Its innovative and clever design reflects its purpose and shows how expansion of the butter market forced modernity.  All of the services that were required by the market were located near it.  The butter was put into barrels (firkins) and these were balanced and weighed in this building on a piece of machinery known as a crane. The easiest way to accommodate the movements of this crane was to build the building in a circle, hence the name and the shape.

Fig. 2: This is an aerial shot of The Firkin Crane taken from the top of Shandon Bells. It shows jus how unique the building is in its surroundings and how it compares to other buildings in the city.

Kraftl (2009) tells us of the Marxixts idea of reading landscapes as texts; this is true of the area encompassing The Firkin Crane. Buildings allow you to investigate the structure of the neighbourhood.  Outside the Firkin Crane is O’Connell Square which was also designed by Benson.  This space offers a sharp contrast to the surrounding narrow, winding, streets and lanes; it reflects a boulevard type space, this wide open space allowed for social transactions between merchants and farmers. By itself The Firkin Crane is significant but as part of the butter market it is even more so and forms part of a cityscape (Kraftl, 2009).  The globalisation of the butter trade forced modernity in the grading, production and exportation of Cork butter.  As Cork butter was the gold standard of butter it was exported and traded all over the world. High standards, exact measures and up to date techniques were an essential.  The Firkin Crane was part of a landscape of power, this neighbourhood was the centre of the butter trade, and if you didn’t sell butter at this market you had a very poor chance of selling it elsewhere.

The status that went with the butter trade was reflected in the spectacle incorporated in the design of the buildings of the butter market including The Firkin Crane. “Buildings are designed to exert and/ or represent the interests of those with the power to build” (Kraftl, 2009, pg.31).

Sources Consulted:

Dennis, R. (2008) Cities in Modernity Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840-1930 University Press: Cambridge.

Jervis, J. (1998) Exploring the Modern Blackwell: Oxford.

Kraftl, P. (2009) Urban Architecture in The International Encylopedia of Human Geography Elsevier.