Affordances and Identity

When hearing about the class: Social Issues in Urban and Regional Development, I didn’t know what it was about or what I would get out of this class but when we did the activity related to Gibson's Theory of Affordances, in the third lecture. Turns out I really enjoyed the class the very first day because I can connect to the lectures on a personal level. An example would be the Norman door: a poorly designed door that confuses you to give the idea of whether to pull or push. This was named after the author of The Design of Everyday Things: Don Norman. There are well-designed affordances such as seeing the shape and color of money and there are less theory, more practical affordances such as a chair: it's used for other situations like standing to change a light bulb or a wheelchair. One activity we did was we had to find one thing that afforded our lives to become the person we are today, it really had me and the other students open up to each other about what guided them to who they are today. Like for me, the thing that afforded me was when I was moving from place to place every single year, having a park near my house made me who I was. I would always go there to make memories and that's when I felt connected to the mother earth because it was a place where I can have fun, relax, think, and just have time to myself.

In the fourth lecture, we learned about the three main aspects of identity expression: (1) Nomenclature - What particular name or names do members of the group select to label or call themselves? (2) Heritage - What kinds of stories, cultural elements, experiences, social relations do members consider key in defining or understanding their ethnic background? (3) Private vs. Public - Is there a difference between privately held identity as distinct from the public? As a planner, you pick one of these nuances because it gives you some insight into the community you will be doing your planning in. The activity: individual identity matrix where we were handed these web bubbles, where the middle one said: “Hi my name is (fill in your name) and I’m a (fill in the line).” For example, I said, “Hi my name is Viktoryia and I’m a student.” If you go to some type of education place such as middle school, high school, etc you're most likely to say the grade or major you are in. Is this how you would introduce yourself? In the outer bubbles, you were to pick what identified you, I said: “I’m Native American, play sports, love to draw, an outdoorsy kind of gal, kind, and a middle child of two younger sisters and one older brother.” No one would have ever guessed these small things about you because we don’t say it. Why don’t we introduce ourselves in this manner? It would be a great conversation starter and a great way to make friends.

Both of these activities stuck with me because there is more to just introducing ourselves all the same way. I mean have you ever heard someone say “Hi my name is jack and I’m very caring”? Like people have different identities and no one really knows who we are if all we ask is for names or where one goes for their education. People should know more than just a face and name, you never know who they really are unless being introduced in a different manner that brings more in-depth conversations. When planning, you need to know where you are planning and who it affects, you can’t just plan in a place where people are different and have different affordances that made them who they are. You could be destroying sacred places to certain people and this could have the people coming back with anger, frustration, etc. I think knowing people for who they really are and not for what they appear to be can really make a difference in any planning community because it gives the people an understanding of why planners help change for the better or worse.