tektec | landscape tectonics: September 2012

Friday, September 14, 2012

Looking for a Job/Internship in Landscape Architecture

I just got a job and moved to NYC. My dreams came true! Cute. That is also my excuse for not posting. I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long!

When I was job searching I found a pretty good system and accumulated LOTS of links of places to look for jobs. This post shares my system and all the links I found for those who are in the market for employment. If you know of any I left off, comment and I'll add it! My search was for the most part tailored to the US and Canada, with a focus on NYC. If you're not looking in these areas there are still useful links in this post but there are likely many others that would be helpful.

Job Search System
This worked really well for me-- it kept me organized and ensured that I had a record of jobs to which I applied.

Make folders of bookmarks that you can open with one click. (You could, for example, click the links below that apply to you and hit "bookmark all tabs", a right-click on a tab in Chrome). Split your links into thirds and label the folders "Monday/Thursday," "Tuesday/Friday," &"Wednesday/Saturday" or whatever works for you so you don't waste time and morale checking daily.
As you look through your links, Evernote clip the ones that pique your interest. Don't look to in-depth at this poing so as to not interrupt your list scrolling groove. Think Henry Ford- efficiency!
Once done with your links, look through your Evernote notebook (named something like "Jobs- to apply" and decided how super excited about the jobs you picked you are and prioritize/delete according.
Once you've sent your materials in, move the jobs to which you've applied to another notebook called something like "Jobs- applied."

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Data! Sensor-embedded Landscapes

"As our worlds become smarter and get to know us better and better, it becomes harder to know where the world stops and the person begins." -Andy Clark

NEON
The NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) project is a super-exciting new direction in ecology. Scientists are gathering 584 types of data from permanent and mobile stations in 20 landscape types to glean insight into the impacts of invasive species, climate change, and land use change on the United States landscape. Great!

Of course, I almost immediately found my way to a spreadsheet that details the "data products" NEON will endeavor to gather. NEON will gather data remotely using LiDAR, spectrometry, and cameras. On-site, people will gather information and samples that will be processed in the field or in the lab. Most excitingly, NEON will employ lots of field instruments--sensors.

CH2M Hill's depiction of NEON infrastructure

Sensors in the Landscape Cyborg
Sensors have super potential for the creation of intentional landscape cyborgs by landscape architects. I've recently been reading Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence by Andy Clark (of the introductory quote), who wrote about the original impetus for the creation of cyborgs. Scientists first hoped to create cybernetic organisms to "extend the self-regulating control functions of the organism in order to adapt it to new environments."

The first step of self-regulation is the recognition of a stimulus. A wired landscape embedded with sensors has that ability. NEON scientists are using sensors to learn about the how people have impacted the environment, and landscape architects could use sensors to gather information before design and monitor the design's impacts after in much the same way. Or, we could use these sensors as the eyes and ears of a landscape that within certain thresholds trigger some sort of actuator-- pumps, lights, servos, fans, misters, the launch of a fleet of drones (cute, friendly drones, of course).

For example, in Living Systems Liat Margolis and Alexander Robinson profiled a series of dams that can inflate or deflate as needed--within minutes--to make a park adaptable to highly variable water conditions (you can preview this entry on google books).

A Dutch inflatable dam- the largest inflatable dam in Europe. Photo by GK Bloemsma.

So what are the sensors with which we could equip landscapes? Below is a list of phenomena NEON will be sensing via field instruments (with the smallest frequency noted in parenthesis). Nerd out with me, or see the full pdf on data products here.

Aquatic/STREON sub-system

Date of surface ice off (/day)

Date of surface ice on (/day)

Subsurface water height in a well (/minute)

Subsurface water temperature (/minute)

Subsurface water specific conductance (/minute)

Net radiation (/minute)

PAR near water surface (/minute)

Timing of leaf fall (/day)

Timing of leaf out (/day)

Timing of leaf senescence (/day)

Surface water cDOM (/minute)

Surface water conductivity (/minute)

Surface water dissolved oxygen (/minute)

Surface water height (pressure transducer) in stream (/minute)

Surface water velocity (/minute)

Tower Measurements

2-d windspeed (/minute)

Air temperature (/minute)

Atmospheric pressure (/minute)

Biological temperature(?) (/minute)

Bulk precipitation (/minute)

Cameras at tower ground, middle, and top (/4 hours)

CO₂ (/minute)

Cross-wind (lateral) windspeed (/20 Hz, or per twentieth of a second)

Wind direction (/minute)

Diffuse PAR (/minute)

H₂O (/minute)

Horizontal windspeed (/twentieth of a second)

Inclinometer beta and alpha angles (/4 hours)

Incoming PAR (/minute)

Incoming radiation (/minute)

Reflected PAR (/minute)

Reflected radiation (/minute)

Relative humidity (/minute)

Snow water equivalent (/minute)

Sonic temperature (/twentieth of a second)

Vertical wind speed (/twentieth of a second)

δ13C -CO₂ [percent isotope] (/minute)

δ18O-H₂O [percent isotope] (/minute)

Sun Photometer

Aerosol optic depth

Filter 1- 8 (sky, sun)

Almucantar (sky, sun)

Principle (sky)

Langley (sun)

Triplet (sun)

Particles from the Sky

Ozone concentration (/second)

NOx concentration (/second)

Bulk particulate deposition (/2 weeks)

Particulate size characterization (/second)

Soil

Canopy fill rates (once)

Maximum canopy capacitance (once)

PAR-line (/minute)

Throughfall (/minute)

Soil temperature (/minute)

Soil heat flux (/minute)

Soil semi-variogram/water (once)

Soil CO2 profile (/min)

Minirhizotron fine root image (/week)

Minirhizotron hyphae image (/week)

Do you have any suggestions for other sensors and actuators?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Feral Cyborgs

A textile interwoven with roots is a physical manifestation of the cyborg nature of landscape construction.

This barefaced breed of cyborg can be found in designed and ignored landscapes.

Photo credit: Evan Blondell

These cyborgs sit waiting to be recognized as the constructed reality of landscape architecture.

Waiting to suggest the aesthetic appeal of dynamism;

Waiting for landscape architects to recognize and talk about the potentials of intentionally partnering with contingency.

A mission of creating intentional, constructive cyborgs through design encourages landscape architects to be observant, critical, and bold. The role of tectonic theory in landscape architecture is to guide landscape architects in bringing cyborgian thinking into practice.

Thanks to Evan Blondell and Chris Carl for taking me out to the Boneyard & Saline Creeks as part of their first Urbana Land Arts Project, where I discovered these feral landscape cyborgs.