The Chaotic, Fractal and Complex City

afd Detropia , an award winning documentary  is now touring selected theaters.  If you are a person interested in urban issues , this should be a film you should see.  (By clicking on the linked name, you will be sent to the documentary's official site.) Other documentaries about Detroit that might be of interest are: Deforce and Requiem for Detroit . The latter can be seen online.  For those teaching urban planning, urban geography, urban policy, urbanism etc. these documentaries would be excellent for facilitating discussion about urban decay, urban morphology, urban revitalization etc..  

The above video is one in a four part series. It was shot by an amateur videographer documenting the personal tragedies and physical decay in Detroit. It has the gritty feel of Michael Moore ’s film about Flint, Michigan (a city undergoing the same decline as Detroit)- Roger and Me . However it doesn’t have the ‘charm’ of Moore a modern day trickster. The video series’ appeal is the roughness of the video, having elements of cinéma vérité , and its first person view. The entire video series can be found at Detroit Ground Zero for Economic Collapse   on SuviveAndThriveTV . This is an interesting group that posts a wide and eclectic collection of videos relating to their vision of the future. They state on their site: Survive and Thrive TV is dedicated to sharing this information from our panel of experts and our members to help others cope with the lifestyle changes we will face in the future.   There are also some other videos that might be of interest  This bl...

daafdajl;jaf Urban planning is being changed by technology.   As indicated in Dr. Batty’s lecture, spatial technologies, particularly GPS tracking, is changing the nature of viewing cities.   The aspect of stakeholders interacting with models is very interesting.   Dr. Batty also mention a emerging trend that of linkage of simulation and models via ‘the cloud.