Fab Lab, De Waag Technology & Westergasfabriek

Part 1: De Waag Fablab

Visiting the Fablab was an interesting and informative experience. We had about 4.5 hours to use the lab to create anything we wanted. To be honest, my initial impression of the Fablab was that of an endless workspace with unlimited supplies and resources at our fingertips. In reality, there were a few materials and resources but far less than I imagined. Our project seemed very ambitious and daunting when we surveyed the Lab.

This turned out to be a challenging and good thing, because we had to think more creatively to fulfill our goal of making our robotic bug. After surveying materials, we decided to use dumb motors, gears and clear plastic to make the frame. My job was to design the aesthetics or "shell" of the bug. This proved to be a very daunting task, because how was I to create the exterior cover of the bug when the interior was not really conceptualized? I had a rough set of measurements, but I am not mathematically inclined enough to actually figure out how large to make semi-circle "scales" over a rectangular frame. So I spent the first part of the day conceptualizing the design.

There was this black plastic I really wanted to use for the shell, but it turned out to be sticker material so I opted for the clear. I am not an engineer, and know almost nothing about mechanics and gears (though I can understand if explained to me in detail). So Clint, Dylan and Clifford worked on the body and the mechanics while I guesstimated measurements for the shell. I cut out the translucent plastic on the laser cutter, which turned out to be too hot so it burned the edges of my shapes. It turned out to have a really neat browning effect that I think everyone actually liked. So after 4.5 hours of learning (and sometimes failing) new software, hardware, machinery, materials and design, we ended up with a bunch of pieces of bug. We will return next Tuesday to complete the fabrication and test out our bug.

I'm still not totally clear on what exactly the Fablab does for De Waag. I understand they are open to the public every Tuesday afternoon. But is the Fablab where they create all of their prototypes? Is it more of an educational space? These are all questions I will ask during our next visit.

We have learned much about the Society in the last two weeks and what I am most unclear about is how all of the sub-spaces of the Society fit together. This certainly needs more investigation on my part, especially since the connection seems crucial so understanding how De Waag wishes to solve social issues.




Part 2: Meeting with Tom and Peter (Dylan's Technology Interview)

We the Media group had our first interview of three today, with Peter Fekkes, Manager of the Media Lab, and Tom Demeyer, Head of Technology.

The interview was very informative. I think Clint's idea for all of us to attend all of our scheduled interviews, regardless of topic, was the best idea since all of our individual research questions are so related.

The most important bit of information I learned about the society was that De Waag does not actually develop new technologies. Rather they implement existing technology in new and creative ways to solve some social problem. Generally this means creating a prototype with a certain group in mind, such as old folks or mentally challenged individuals. Technology is usually secondary to their projects, and if using a low-level technology is the best and most efficient means of solving a problem, then the low-level technology will be used.

Another comment I found fascinating was the comment that "no nerds work here." I suspect this is not totally true, since technology and new media IS an integral part of the work De Waag does and therefore there probably are individuals who are very interested in technology. But from who we have met at De Waag, there seems to be a striking parallel between those who work at De Waag and those who work at VKS: all individuals with diverse multiple backgrounds in seemingly unrelated fields. Is this unique to these two institutions, or is this type of background highly valued in Amsterdam? Or Europe?

Part 3: Tour of Westergasfabriek

Our travel from Prinsengracht to Westergasfabriek:

View Larger Map

My video pails in comparison to some others that have been posted. I hoped to pick up some audio of Pol talking about the park, but the wind distorted it too much to be of any use. You can hear him talking about the huge number of people who visit the park. So here is a 360 view of the center of the park. Note the kids playing soccer and open green and concrete space.





On the map on the right, we stand next to the huge blue circle in the middle of the park. It was the old gas factory, which is now used for concerts, parties and other social events. Pol works for the park and has a creative vision of using new media technology, including blue tooth, to bring people in the park together.

This "Park of the 21st Century" is divided into four parts:
-Living Park
-Living Lab
-Services
-Events

He made notes to show us the structure. I apologize for the poor photo quality.






















Pol is working with De Waag to conceptualize some prototypes for creating this living park.

Public Space through Bijlmer

Today is the first day of our second week here and also the last day before we break from various exploration tours of Amsterdam, which made sense to me when the train took us out to Bijlmer, a rising urban community southeast to Amsterdam. Before we departed for the tour, Leon Deben gave us a lecture on public space, which is simply defined as the place where you can sit or stay as long as you want to. For the purpose of the study, space is divided into three domains:
Public domains, where strangers are present and only known by their professions (e.g. truck drivers, doctors)
Parochial domain, where people know each each other because of the common space their share; no strangers
Private domains, where is mainly family-oriented and people might act very differently under the protection of privacy.
Speaking of social actions, which was the next question Leon brought up, how do people live in public space? Scanning through four pages of notes I took, I ended up with a somewhat selfish respone: you live your own life in public space. The perfect example for our sometimes cruel personal inatenttion would be later in the day when we were riding in the train and a girl playing accordion walked passed by hoping for acts of charity but everybody immediately turned away in ignorance, including myself. Yet this is the very neccesary way we live our lives in public spaces. The less we care about what the strangers are doing around us, the more smoothly we move on with out lives.
However, we cannot ignore ALL the time, because we are part of the public space we are in. Leon illustrsted this with the question of how close someone can sit next to you before you have to leave. Hmmm…awkward indeed. Leon brought a different angel in interpreting this awkwardness other than how we feel personally: the unique type of social actions in public space. IF some family member or a close friend did the same thing, you probably wouldn’t even notice. But when private acts and ideas are brought on the public frontstage like the Gay Pride, people are entertained, amused, or maybe disgusted by such exposion of private intimacy.
Whether you like it or not, most of us do not have much to say about public spaces. It is a place to reflect the organizations of the society as well as to express individualism in front of public crowd. This is how public space is used in urban settings by its inhabitants who often pay very little of their attention to their surroundings.

The Bijlmermeer is an area within the Amsterdam-Zuidoost district, where more than 82,000 people reside and 50,000 jobs are provided. The original plan of Biljmer turned out tob e a failing tragedy when a Beoing 747 crashed into one of the high-rise buildings in 1992. No one knew the exact number of deaths casued, because there were many unregistered illegal immigrants residing in that area, which was one of the main reasons that Bijlmer was known as the “ghetto”.
The structural renovation took place after 1992, aiming to “provide specific support to residents in a vulnerable social position the opportunity for better housing within the Bijlmer itself. The various functions – residential, business, recreation and shopping – will then become more intermingled” instead of being entirely seperated when it was first built. Half of the high-rise flat buildings were demolished, whereas the other half were renovated. Shopping centers, school, medical centers, and religious facilities were built throughout the community. Leon explained to us the on-going removating plan for next coming years and its intention to attract more new middle-class residents.
Walking around the neighborhood, I admit I was impressed by its well-designed landscape. Yet something felt “off” about it which I could not specify. It is a strongly segregated neighborhood with its own subculture and identity. The highlight of my day was a miniture zoo in the middle of the high-rise buildings. The clash between country and urban, African and Dutch, even black and white was spelled out oddly by the dunkies and hens running around on the concrete ground.
What I love the most was the welcoming hospitality we encountered at the market. This Ukraine man offered us indigenous African vege products for free while he told his life story and his “American dream”. I could not help being touched by his generous act. As little as we might see his potato and plantiam as some exotic food experience on our trip, to him it might be a piece of dream carried along by couple American college students. This had nothing to do with the buildings and landscapes surrounding us, but the direct genuineness one shared with the other that ended my day perfectly.

Video coming up soon!

Daily Diary 8/08 - Eddy Hu

Amazingly today was a productive day despite getting up at 1:30 PM. The original plan was to do as much as possible in order to have something good to blog about, but it was difficult because by the time everyone was ready it was 3 PM.

We started the day (afternoon) off by going down to the Rembrandt House. It was a short walk from the dorms, so Jenny, Clint, Dylan, and I headed out as quickly as possible. It was a little confusing to find because of the Rembrandt Center (tourist shop) and the Rembrandt Corner (no idea what that is about) flanking the Rembrandt House.

The entrance was super modern and therefore confusing since I was expecting Rembrandt's front door, but the sign in front of it was unmistakable so we went in. Thanks to our museum cards we got in free, which was great since I had not yet found a place that accepted the card.

Inside, the entryway led into the actual house, and as we walked down the hallway, the modern entrance & giftshop melted into a recognizable historical Dutch house. We started on the main level where the main door was found. The entryway was filled with prints from other artists and one Rembrandt. I was surprised to learn that Rembrandt was also well known as an art dealer and master, since I had only been taught about his work as an artist.

We made our way up through the house, and got to see the traditional super narrow spiral staircase. It felt like the house would never end as we passed through the studio, the bedrooms, and the showrooms. All told, I counted 4-5 floors in Rembrandts old house, which for 13,000 gilders must have been quite the mansion at the time. The most interesting room in my opinion was Rembrandt's room of his collections. As an avid collector, Rembrandt had tons of (now illegal) animal relics, ranging from tortoise shells, to huge antlers. In addition there were several busts of Roman Emperors (which Rembrandt seemed to have a thing for), a cabinet full of coins, and a vast collection of old weapons. The most impressive part was Rembrandt's collection of other artists' works. He allegedly had 8,000+ prints bound in books, and although I knew none of the objects were the real thing, I could still imagine the amazing amount of effort Rembrandt must have put into making his collection.





The highlight of the house were Rembrandt's etchings. I had learned before about the process of making the etchings, but it was something else to see Rembrandt's studio and his original works. The detail he managed to get into his portraits were mind blowing, and the landscapes he created of the countryside were far more impressive than the photographs I had seen before.





After the Rembrandt house we returned to Prins Henrikkade to meet up with Kelsey and Ruben to head over to Rijksmuseum. By the time we were ready it was nearly 4:30PM, and we were worried about not having enough time to see the exhibits, but the walk and the tram ride over were brisk and afforded us an hour to do a "pre-screening" as we decided to take advantage of our museum card and come back again for the real thing. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed, so I don't have any photos of the exhibits (you'll have to see it for yourself!) but I do have some photos from outside the building.



The museum itself was truly impressive, classic and a bit imposing on the outside, and modern and beautiful. I was very impressed with the Vermeer paintings and the Japanese temple guardians. The best part in my opinion was how well the museum housed all of their works. Unlike most museums I had been to, the rooms really suited the art, and were not just generic darkened rooms with dimly light paintings or artifacts behind thick glass. I also noted that many of the works were purchased with help from the National Lottery, which I wish the US would do from time to time.

After the museum we made our way over to Amsterdam's first Ethiopian restaurant, Lalibela. It was a bit of a struggle to get a table since we ended up with 11 people, but with a bit of rearranging we were all seated. We then proceeded to make fools of ourselves by not knowing how to order and not being able to explain the various food allergies and vegetarian needs. It took about half an hour, but it was totally worth it when our food arrived. I had never had Ethiopian food before, but I was very pleased when I discovered that I would get to stuff my face with various breads, meats, and veggies. Most of the group ordered veal, Mimi ordered chicken, I ordered mutton, and all of it was delicious.

This is what it looked like when we started eating:

Pardon the poor quality, but I'm just getting used to using my little digital camera.

Gay Pride Day!

Today was a wonderful day to be in Amsterdam. The gay float parade down the canal was an amazing experience, one that showed how united and supportive the Dutch are. As we all watched the many differing styles of floats go down the canal there was truely one theme throughout the entire parade. This theme was of course Gay pride but it's importance goes far beyond just pride, but awareness of the growth of a culture into understanding and acceptance. The Netherlands/Amsterdam deserves to be proud of their acceptance because as we all know being Gay in many societies across the world is not accepted or even allowed under law ( some countries even have the death penalty if you are caught being "gay"). For example in the United States gay marriage is a heavily debated issue where morals and beliefs of others tend to dictate the many lives of lesbians and gay men. In the Netherlands this seems to not be a problem. Getting married is a personal choice one that should not be decided upon by law. If a gay couple wishes to get married than why shouldn't they? It's not like they are hurting anyone by sharing their love with one another on paper. This is exactly the views of the Netherlands government and the obvious views of most Dutch persons in general. As far as I could tell there was no one there disrupting the event with signs of a differing viewpoint.

On a lighter note the parade was so much fun to watch! Each float had blasting techo music, exciting sometimes revealing costumes, and of course no parade would be complete without tons of confetti! There were many floats that were fun to watch but there were also floats that helped create awareness about differing issues affecting the gay community. For example AIDS awareness, Hepatitis B awareness, and amnesty international were all there spreading important knowledge to the community. One float in particular really touched my heart. The float stated that "these parents were proud to have gay children". I know many people from home who wished their parents supported and loved them no matter their sexual orientation. But of course we all know that this is not always the case and to see such support was touching and uplifting.

All in all, I believe that everyone really enjoyed the parade, not only was it fun to watch and partake in, but it also shed light on the type of community that we are living in. It allowed me to see that acceptance of all people no matter who they are is important if one wants to have a successful society. The United States and other nations should use the Netherlands as an example!

The Art of Research Technology

Today, after waking up at various times in the morning and accomplishing a widely varying amount of work, we headed east to the IISG (International Institute of Social History) building, where the Virtual Knowledge Studio is housed, to meet our friend and mentor Professor Paul Wouters. There, we were treated with an introduction to what, exactly, his Virtual Knowledge Studio does.

Indeed, while the name itself isn't terribly definitive, its component parts are more than a fair approximation of their task, along with a number of non-eponymous components. Chief among these is the general field of Humanities research. One favorite definition of the Humanities which Professor Wouters enjoys is that by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg of Duke University and the University of California, respectively:

Meaning concerns interpretation of data, evidence, and texts. Value ranges over the entire field of cultural, aesthetic, social, and scientific investments. Significance, implicating both the former two, raises questions of representation, in the sense of accounting for (explanation) and of capturing, in the sense both of offering a faithful rendition (description) and of making broad claims (generalization).

From the above, it feels natural to glean the essence not merely of an area of research, but rather a process, with many working parts which fit together in a very loosely defined manner. This process of combining the concepts of meaning and value into a singular entity appears to be a core tenet of what it means to research the Humanities -- and the Social Sciences, another defining component of the Virtual Knowledge Studio, is merely an entity within the Humanities.

The Social Sciences are equally hard to define, partially because while rooted in the hard sciences, as denoted in the name, their object of study can stray quite a bit from anything intuitively relatable to "science." However, one of the tenets of the Virtual Knowledge Studio described by Professor Wouters sheds some light onto a concrete definition of the field: the VKS strives to "turn philosophical questions into empirical ones." This sort of description appears to provide a reasonable parallel with the essence of Social Sciences, which may be described as a process by which humans and society, something organic and philosophical, and molded into something resembling the natural sciences, involving extensive experimentation and repeatable results. It's important, though, to note that the term "science" has traditionally not implicated the natural sciences, and both spirits of the term are in fairly common use.

It would appear now that we have at least stumbled our way through some sort of concrete definition of the humanities, and then the social sciences, where the Virtual Knowledge Studio lives, and thus we may begin exploring the essence of what the organization specifically does. From the standpoint of a pragmatic, outcomes-based analysis, the Virtual Knowledge Studio appears to build technological tools that enable other researchers to perform their work with greater efficiency – this would cover the "virtual" component, and touch upon the concept of ICT, which will be discussed in further detail later. However, the story is much deeper than this surface analysis.

changing practices, telling stories, building tools

As is evident from this particular quote detailing the pragmatic goals of the organization, building tools is only the third of three. By also focusing on improving research practices and telling stories to the public, VKS brings another component to the equation: the aspect of knowledge. Not only does the Virtual Knowledge Studio build tools for research organizations and teams, they also study the impacts of these very same tools on the research process, thus furthering the knowledge capabilities both of the subject and of themselves. And, through innovative and interactive means of conveying the research process and results to the public, they tell stories that help further the public's knowledge.

The means by which they accomplish this is, as previously mentioned, through various types of ICT. ICT may be loosely related to the American "IT", or Information Technology, but while IT implies merely the technological infrastructure that enables a preconceived set of communication services such as networking or telecommunications, the European notion of ICT stretches far beyond this. Instead ICT is almost a philosophy that binds the technology – it is the use of technology to communicate, inform, and analyze, not simply the existence of it. This crucial difference in terminology led to several debates, but Professor had a number of core principles that he believes represents ICT, as well as the Virtual Qumran project as an example to back it up.

Essentially, the Virtual Qumran project is a virtual recreation of the Qumran area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The project thus aims to be a visualizer for the area, to allow better understanding and study of it; however, it also features a strong simulation component, as all the data put into is bound together in such a fashion that enables factors to be changed and resulting effects to be propagated.

• ICT as a neutral container of information. This approach has a focus on data – collecting, relating, and collating data becomes the key focus behind ICT technology. This already has an advantage over human-powered research: in the Virtual Qumran example, ICT technology enables data from all different fields – epidemiology, geography, and religious studies – to be bound together in a meaningful way that humans would struggle to accomplish.


• ICT as a tool. This approach is the simulation aspect: now that we have the data all intercorrelated, we can put it all to use by experimenting upon the data. What happens to the religious history of the area if we introduce an epidemic of some sort? The tool aspect of ICT thus enables intense analysis of data, including the interpolation and extrapolation of existing data. However, the tool aspect also encompasses public communication – the storytelling aspect.


• ICT as a political tool. This the ICT version of How to Win Friends and Influence People. As we put more of ourselves and of our research into these ICT tools, we turn ICT into a powerful political tool, enabling it to be used for propaganda, censorship, or other useful and dangerous means.

As can be seen, the Virtual Knowledge Studio is composed of a vast plethora of loosely connected ideologies, technologies, and methodologies. Putting them together is a delicate act which must be handled with care, not only because it is so difficult to achieve elegantly, but also due to the disruptive nature of their research – they manipulate directly what they intend to study, and then observe the results, thus putting themselves into their own research equation. This leads to my final conclusion that this is all quite an art, thus justifying the use of the word and component of studio in their name.

As a footnote and a look to the future, Professor Wouters' latest project, Research Dreams, connects people via a social tool to help amalgamate potential research projects into larger, more meaningful, and collaborative projects. Check it out!

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Following all of this, we departed for a couple of hours before the group dinner at bloem, during which those of us at Prins Hendrikkade found that the power was out.

Dinner itself, however, was a fantastic affair, during which we tied or broke last year's record of length of stay, with a total of nearly four hours in the restaurant's upstairs loft. The food was delicious (and for us, free!), and everyone seemed to have a good time. Here's looking forward to our next one on Wednesday!

Amsterdam and Jewish Life: An Old Relationship

As our first week of classes started to come to a close, on Thursday (July 31) we continued our survey of integral characteristics of contemporary Dutch society. Yet, unlike the previous days, each of which had one particular theme (architecture, Islamic society, sex work), Thursday's class focused on two very distinct, yet both distinctive, aspects of Dutch society and culture: Dutch drug policy and the history of Jewish presence in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. As the two topics clearly stand alone, I will only discuss one of them in this entry, the former.
Walking past Anne Frankstraat and the Esnoga, the Portugese-Sephardic synagogue dating back to the late 1600s, we first visited the Jewish Historical Museum in the heart of the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. During our time at the museum, which used to house four synagogues (known as the Ashkenazi Synagogue Complex), we were able to get a glimpse into the history of Dutch Jewry from the 17th until the 20th century. Besides viewing historical material from these time periods--material that shed light on integral historic figures like Baruch Spinoza, Menasse ben Israel, Shabtai Tsvi-- we had the chance to view the synagogues from these time periods, since, as previously stated, they have come to physically form the present museum. The oldest synagogue in the complex, known as the Great Shul, was built in 1671. As the community dramatically grew during the late 17th and 18th centuries, three other synagogues were built in quick succession – the Obbene Shul (1686-1688), the Dritt Shul (1700) and the Neie Shul (1730, expanded in 1750). Each former synagogue now houses different galleries of the museum. For example, the galleries in the New Shul focus on the topic of Dutch Jewish life in the 20th century. The Great Shul features the exhibition on Jewish religion and tradition, as well galleries that highlight the history of the Jews of the Netherlands from the beginning of the 17th century till the end of the 19th century. The themes of these two sections of the museum, i.e. the past and present, are encapsulated by the following quote from the JHM website: “The stories about the first Jews to come to the Netherlands, about assimilation and integration, cultural interchange with non-Jews and the preservation of their Jewish identity are themes that remain topical today in contemporary situations and debates.”

After the museum tour, we walked a few blocks to another building, which is also considered part of the JHM, the Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater). This theater was used as a deportation center for Jews during WWII. The theatre, built in 1892, used to be the entertainment center of the Jewish quarter. During the war, however, its function completely changed and it was used to send thousands of people to the Westerbork transit camp in Holland, and from there to the extermination camps where over 100,000 Dutch Jews were killed. The theater became a memorial in 1962. Its auditorium has been replaced by an open courtyard with an obelisk where the stage once stood. The entrance hall leads into a memorial room where an eternal flame burns. Next to the flame, there is a wall on which family names of all the Jews from the Netherlands who perished during the Second World War are engraved. Before leaving the Dutch Theater, we were given a lecture on how the events of World War II affected people living in the Netherlands.

Feeling like I could not get a full sense of the old Jewish quarter in Amsterdam without visiting the Esnoga, I went back to this part of town a few days later. After visiting the massive construction, I learned that it was built in 1671 by the ‘crypto-Jews’ of Portugal--Jews who fled to Portugal after the expulsion of 1492 and were forcibly converted to Catholicism in 1496 but were still persecuted because of their luminal status. Over a century later, with discrimination and persecution still rampant, many of these conversos, who were still secretly practicing Judaism, fled northwards and found refuge in Amsterdam. These refugees often called themselves Portuguese Jews to avoid being identified with Spain, which was at war with the Netherlands at the time. Within a few decades, they set up a bourgeoning community in their new place of residence and were able to enjoy the kinds of benefits that most Jews in Europe could not, since they were still predominantly relegated to impoverished ghettos. Thus, because of financial and social liberties, they were able to have a very massive synagogue built in central Amsterdam. Its magnitude and grandeur can only be truly felt after one goes inside the main sanctuary.

The synagogue also houses the oldest functioning Jewish library in the world, Ets Haim Bibliotheek, which has been in the Esnoga since 1675. The following quote from the library’s website puts the library into an interesting Sephardic-Jewish context: “By integrating rather than assimilating into their new environment, Spanish-Portuguese Jews often played an important role in transferring scientific knowledge from the Islamic world to Christian Europe. This openness is mirrored in the Ets Haim's policy of providing a thorough grounding in Jewish scholarship combined with excellent tutoring in secular subjects like literature, philosophy and the natural sciences. This mixed curriculum contributed greatly to a society where different religions coexisted.” And with this quote, I would like to end my blog entry because the blurb nicely introduces some issues that Emily and I will be investigating on this trip, primarily: the boundaries and unique attributes of Dutch-Jewish identity, the interaction with non-Jewish society in Amsterdam.

The following are two clips I took while at the Jewish Historical Museum:

Pragmatism and Prostitution

Most people still seem a little bit jet-lagged, but everyone is still trying hard to get into the swing of things. This was evident during class, as we started out the day with a guest lecture on prostitution; even though a couple of people struggled to stay awake, it definitely wasn't because of a lack of interest about the topic.

Prostitution has only been legal in the Netherlands since 2000, and has also been decriminalized in Hungary, Germany, New Zealand and certain parts of Australia, although technically most countries allow sex work in some form or another through escort agencies, strip clubs, etc., and there are sex worker advocacy groups in every country. Sex workers in the Netherlands, on average, see 4.3 clients a day (6.5 if working windows, 2.2 if working as an escort are the high and low averages). They make 35-50 Euros for 15-20 minutes of work, leading to average earnings of 1095 Euros a week, a large number when compared to the average Dutch citizen, who makes 1300 Euros a month. Sex work is therefore a rather lucrative enterprise, which is witnessed also by the fact that a majority of surveyed sex workers admitted that money played some part in their decision to get into the industry. Sex workers pay taxes and are able to deduct business expenses.

I interrupt my thrilling list of statistics to put the reasoning for the legalization of prostitution into a context, namely the context of Seattle; as mentioned in the previous post, there are many things that set the Dutch apart from the rest of the world and lead people to consider them a bastion of liberal ideals, and this is mostly due to their pragmatism. The presentation we were given on the first day was about American moral values (the Bible says) vs. Dutch pragmatism (the practical approach) as the underlying theories in policy making. I definitely saw more of Seattle in the pragmatic approach, rather than the moral approach, which is furthered by a comparison of their history of sex work. Seattle in the early 1900's was a stopping point for men headed towards Alaska for the gold rush, and like any good port town, soon had a thriving sex industry. Understanding that it would be impossible to crack down on the 2,700 sex workers who had set up shop in the area, city officials created a special district for the women. Because prostitution was still considered morally reprehensible by the general public, the women were portrayed as seamstresses, and like the many women I have seen over the past few days, modeled scanty garments in the windows of their "storefronts". Pragmatically enough, however, city officials charged a "sewing machine tax" which provided a large percentage of Seattle city income for a few years. So Seattle city officials, realizing that they couldn't keep prostitution at bay, tood the somewhat pragmatic approach and let prostitution continue, even profiting off of it, but tempered this with good old American morality by pretending these women weren't actually prostitutes, but seamstresses.

Dutch pragmatism seems like it can also be explained by this quote, from Another Roadside Attraction by Pacific Northwest author Tom Robbins:

"Man is not as good as he thinks he is. (Nor as bad, for that matter, but let’s not complicate things.) He has certain needs, demands certain services which in reality are probably healthy and natural, but to which in time’s passage and as a result of odd quirks in his ethos, he has ascribed (or allowed his religious leaders- often guilt warped, psychopathic misfits- to ascribe) negative values. In the queerest of paradoxical metamorphoses, honest desires change into taboos. To simply “say” that a desire is immoral- or, resorting to even flimsier abstraction, to deem the fulfillment of a desire illegal- does not eliminate the desire. It does not eliminate anything except straightforwardness. "

Between this pragmatic viewpoint, the rain, the friendly yet withdrawn people, excess of bikes, and strange fish dishes, I basically feel like I have reached Seattle in some sort of alternate universe where I can't figure out what I am buying at the grocery store (does anyone need a liter of buttermilk?) and there aren't advertisements on every single available surface.

Which leads me into my project, which is supposedly about women's portrayal in advertising. I decided to do this project because I am interested in women's rights issues and also media studies, so I thought it was a nice mix. I didn't want to do any sort of typical study of the Dutch (men marrying men! euthanasia! prostitution! drugs!) because I thought perhaps these were overstudied and overhyped issues. However, it is impossible for me to explain how omnipresent these things seem to be, except for by spitting out more statistics:

Number of transgendered people seen today: 7

Number of men Rollerblading in gold thongs: 1

Number of "coffee shops" passed today: 15

Number of bongs: Too many to count

Number of booths selling pornography in public markets during middday: 1, possibly 2, although we did only go to one small market.

Etc.

Perhaps what I am trying to say is that in the touristy center of Amsterdam that our group has mostly seen, what you expect from Amsterdam is exactly what you get, and I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't fully take advantage of the fact that the Netherlands are so different in planning my research.

I'm also disappointed that I didn't join the squatting group. Another thing that the Dutch approach pragmatically is using space; thus, squatting is legal if a building is not in use for a certain period of time. Today after our lecture a group of us simply wandered the streets of Amsterdam eating "frites" (the Dutch specialty of French Fries, ours sans the Dutch specialty of a heaping scoop of mayonaise), ordered bikes (a necessity here, it is beginning to appear), attended the previously mentioned market, and then made our way to a squat for dinner. For 6 to 10 Euros (payment on a sliding scale) each person got delicious soup with green onions, followed by a plate of stir fried veggies, tofu, and rice with peanut sauce, and then, for 1.5o more, the most healthy/best tasting dessert I have ever eaten, a blueberry cream pie with a thick wheaty crust. I'm really jealous of the community that is built around these squats, and also of Isaac, Fiona and Cassie, who are studying them/eating more delicious vegan food in the next month.

Sorry about the poor video lighting, for some reason there were no lights really turned on in the squat, and I was also trying to keep a low profile with the camera.