Art 295

San Francisco Signage

Thought paper 3

Jiang Yihan

Pieces of memory in

Haight Street

.

In this week’s filed trip at

Haight Street

, it’s my first time to feel the signage culture in the US.

The height street is like a culture market of SFO. People buy and sell culture here.

Every culture is equal to live here, no matter new or old.

Even the older the thing is, the more popular it will be.

People living there can escape from the modern world’s formal style, and find the truth of their will and the deep part in their thought.

As a part of the Counter Culture,

Haight Street

keeps most culture product of the old age. And it makes those products re-fashion and live on that.

Counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day,the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior deviates from the societal norm. It is a neologism attributed to Theodore Roszak, author of The Making of a Counter Culture. Although distinct countercultural undercurrents have existed in many societies, here the term refers to a more significant, visible phenomenon that reaches critical mass and persists for a period of time. A countercultural movement expresses the ethos, aspirations, and dreams of a specific population during an era—a social manifestation of zeitgeist. It is important to distinguish between "counterculture," "subculture," and "fringe culture".
Countercultural milieux in 19th-century Europe included Romanticism, Bohemianism, and the Dandy. Another movement existed in a more fragmentary form in the 1950s, both in Europe and the United States, in the form of the Beat generation,followed in the 1960s by the hippies and anti-Vietnam War protesters.
The term came to prominence in the news media, as it was used to refer to the social revolution that swept North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand during the 1960s and early 1970s.

                                 ------From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture

The signage in this street is really different from other street in style and culture.

The signage including the ad keeps the old style, maybe the 60s’ or 70s’.

Also, people is the living signage of

Haight Street

as well as the dogs.

And why is there a diplodocus?

The answer is that someone likes to sit here~~

Week 1 Jiang Yihan (Boko)

Signage of transport

The existence of signage is an essential part of a city culture. The signage that existence now remained from the process of history, and these signage have been changed several times to suit to development of the city, as well as the culture.

For the new visitors in San Francisco, like me, the signage can be really helpful. The first day I arrived at San Francisco, as well as the first day for U.S., my dad and I lived in a small hotel. At that time we brought a lot packages, and our room is at the 3^rd flood, so we carry all the things to the room and then we went out to eat, finding there was an elevator sign which we ignored! Next day we got a map and try to find the way to downtown and USF, it was very easy to follow the street name and hit the destination. I have to say it’s a great job that almost all the road and street have their names and signage in the U.S.  By following signage new visitor can easily travel to somewhere they want and saving time to taking photos or enjoying the food.

Signage in transport means a lot. When you drive a car you must notice the signage located in the roadside, even the ad. It tells a lot about the transport (like no turning left or no parking), where to find hotels, restaurants and so on. The signage leads the whole city to run well. If there is no transport signage, people may get confused or cast car accident. For example, if there is no sign of the fire line, someone may park car here and then the fire man can not arrive the building when it’s a fire. So signage in transport is useful and scientific.

One more thing, I really agree with the idea of the reading that old people can tell you more about the city.

“You just moved into a new neighborhood. Find the oldest neighbor on your block and go borrow a cup of sugar. She might live in the house with the birdfeeders in the backyard and a cherry and apple tree. This neighbor is retired and has time to talk. She happens to have built the first house on your block. She knows how many deer live in the wooded park and which ones eat her rose; how old the trees are and that a precious few came from the farm which once stood where this subdivision is now. When the bulldozers came, she dug up a few baby sugar maples and planted them and they light the fall landscape in gold and orange. In the sixty years since she left Germany, she's seen the local climate change: she'll show you flowers in her garden that could not grow in Wisconsin before. She'll also tell you how the neighborhood has changed ethnically, and that she is not happy about "those loud people" in the neighboring apartments. And then she'll send you home with a jar of raspberry jam she's made. (Trish O'Kane)”

How to Read a Landscape

http://www.williamcronon.net/researching/landscapes.htm

If you got time and you want to blend with the life of a city, like me, talk to your neighbor and keep in touch. Old people lived in the city for their whole life, so they tell you the story like their fingers. And I think they are the gate to a city’s culture.

Signage survives from the flow of history and marked by the local culture. Studying the signage in San Francisco will no doubt help me to understand the social life in the U.S.

SF signage