The Traditional, Messy Business of Getting Infrastructure into the Ground

In addition to the nitrogen tanks, this formidable display in downtown Manhattan is a reminder that the costs of a network are associated with this traditional, messy business of getting it into the ground in highly congested urban areas (source Stephen Graham’s “Beyond the ‘dazzling light’: from dreams of transcendence to the ‘remediation’ of urban life“). A fact often overlooked in the visions on ubiquitous cities that barely consider that virtual flow still require the construction and maintenance of complex physical infrastructure (discussed by Phil Hubbard and the Infrastructure theme of Sliding Friction)

“A holistic, trans-disciplinary and robust understanding of the city as a critical amalgamation of infrastructure networks is required if we are to understand the relations between cities and technologies (and the ever-attendant threat that this relationship will break down if networks fail)” Phil Hubbard