It has been almost two years since my last blog post.  The hard-drives still hold the data from my degree project, but I still have not connected them to a new computer.   Thankfully my final images are still intact and easy to access.  I will make a post with my final images in a later post.  

For now I'd like to talk about the shooting and death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, St. Louis, MO.   While at times the protests were violent and media grabbing, most of the time they were focused on communities coming together to grieve, mourn and call for action.  The family I have in St. Louis participated in the protest and in Seattle my community leaders were heavily involved in having our neighborhood come together to mourn and support each other.  A whole growth of lectures, discussions, meetings, flyers and articles appeared in Seattle and new connections and ideas were shared.

Many images and videos emerging from the tragedy were emotional and eye opening. 

As I was searching and trying to take in all the activity, a few images reminded me of this project.

As a polemic I had collaged together protest images from OWS and a mall interior.  And here were images showing an even heavier subject of protest being conducted in the same context.

Mall/retail/commercial/shopping/market spaces need a serious examination by architects and designers for a number of reasons.  Not the least of which:  The state of public life in America.  These are sites with people.  Many people.  From different classes, races, nationalities, age groups, neighborhoods.  People out of their cars, out of their homes and out of their schools/workplaces for a brief period of time in a common space.  These are contested sites with a tense relationship between agency and private ownership rules and regulations.