Public vs Private Space

While wandering around downtown New Orleans taking pictures of the city, Ken mentioned an article that he had recently read about an apartment building in NYC that has all glass walls. The apartments arent separated by anything more than glass! Even the walls within the apartments are glass, including the bathroom. Now, before you get too nervous, they do have curtains or something like that to allow for some privacty. Even so, wouldnt that make you nervous? My big complaint lately has been that living with the people i work with has created some messy "they know too much about my life issues" (i love living in community by the way, i just want to gripe a bit), so imagine if i had that complaint with every person that walked by my humble residence.

Voyeurism is a big theme these days with youtube, webcams, and facebook. In fact, as much as i think it's creepy and weird, i have to admit a love for facebook... make that an addiction to facebook. But dont worry, i never bother to look at your profile ;) Is reading my blog voyeuristic? (hmm... )

i could dig deeper into the idea of voyeurism, especially since that seems to clash with the "mind your own business" culture that i live with in New Orleans, but i'll leave you to think more on the subject yourself (even if you dont know the New Orleanian culture-or maybe it's inner city culture). Or perhaps i'll just leave the discussion to the architects,

i will say that lately in my media-junkie frenzy during this little vacation at home i've found that this isnt a new subject. Not new at all.

Yesterday i watched Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. That whole movie was based on voyeurism. i think i didnt really get the ending because i was a little confused about the evidence. Either way, although the ending was optomistic, watching the movie made me feel the same way that i feel when i spend too much time on facebook: trapped in a small space, listless, and bored.

During my latest media of fix, i found some incisive wit and commentary on the subject in the strangest of places: Even Stevens. That's right, Even Stevens had an episode where Ren has a slumber party and Louis sets up cameras all over the living room so that he can charge all the guys he knows $10 to watch.

Beauty and smarts in the strangest of places eh?

Here's that article i was talking about