IS Public Lecture: Tom Rivard

Performance Urbanism:
Rivard's lecture explores narrative and fiction as instruments of civic engagement. He draws comparisons between commuting and the act of "reading the city". His lecture helped me understand the perspective shift and marginal differences of the make of the city.
For example, he talks about advertising vs. communication which explores how a commuter travels in the city. A commuter will hardly ever communicate or interact with another commuter. However, through advertising in the forms of posters, signs, shopfronts, the city is able to communicate with the commuter through these mediums, thus the act of "reading the city".
He then points out however that the city than loses its vitality as all interactions are sterile and muted. He spoke of the surreal territory of "the library" and how the silence of the space does not reflect the amount of "communication" (between readers and books) that happens.