| Book Update | ||
| City Ubiquitous: Place, Communication, and the Rise of Omnitopia is complete and set for a January release. | ||
This is a growing resource seeking to gather and distribute research on a conceptual framework called omnitopia, a structural and perceptual enclave whose apparently distinct locales convey inhabitants to a singular place. Etymologically, the term reflects a neologism of the Latin omni (all; "in all ways or places" or "of all things") and the Greek topos (place). While its origin proceeds from utopia and heterotopia, omnitopia differs from these two concepts in one essential way. Rather than evoke an imaginary locale or a distinct place, omnitopia reflects the practice and perception of multiple locations being accessed through a singular site. Put another way, omnitopia posits the shrinking of human geography into a singularity where any place becomes everyplace and every place is the same. At present, omnitopia is marked by five strategies: dislocation, conflation, fragmentation, mobility, and mutability.
• Dislocation detaches a site from its surrounding locale. [Learn More]
• Conflation merges disparate experiences into a singular whole. [Learn More]
• Fragmentation splits a singular environment into multiple perceptions. [Learn More]
• Mobility orients a place around movement rather than stasis. [Learn More]
• Mutability enables the perpetual change of a place. [Learn More]
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Download
PDFs of recent omnitopia research |
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| "What happens [in Vegas]" | ||||
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| Communication
This essay
proposes three central aspects of omnitopia: generic environments, continual
movement, and atomized interactions. In so doing, the article extends
upon previous inquiries into utopia and heterotopia while commenting upon
the changes to terminal life wrought by the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. |
Critical Studies in Media Communication 22(3) This essay (co-authored with
Anne Marie Todd) demonstrates how The Simpsons depicts urban
life as a mutable environment whose disparate locales convey their inhabitants
to a version of public life marked by dislocation, conflation, fragmentation,
mutability, mobility, and commodification. |
Space
and This essay explores the role of motels in the transition between idiosyncratic locales to homogenized chains. This analysis of omnitopia in early-twentieth-century motels reveals three practices: dislocation through vernacular architecture, fragmentation through iconic signage, and mutability through roadside simulacra. (PDF - 674k) |
Text
and Performance This essay explores Las Vegas
as a stage-set for tourist performance, concentrating on two foci: (1)
Las Vegas as omnitopia and (2) the performance of Las Vegas through post-tourism.
The essay also discusses the consequences of inauthentic post-tourist
play as imagined by critics of "mere pleasure." |
Sith, Slayers, Stargates, + Cyborgs (edited volume) (New!) This chapter excerpt from David Whitt and John Perlich's book on modern myth offers an updated introduction to the omnitopian framework. While I plan to post the entire chapter after a one-year publisher's embargo, I invite you to take a look at Whitt and Perlich's book before then. They built a fine collection of essays. (PDF - 204k) |
Appearances of omnitopia in other scholarship Adey, P. (2007). ‘May I have your attention’: Airport geographies of spectatorship, position, and (im)mobility. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25(3), 515-536. Adey, P., Budd, L., Hubbard, P. (2007). Flying lessons: Exploring the social and cultural geographies of global air travel. Progress in Human Geography, 31(6), 773-791. Barnett, R.S. (2005). A space for agency: Rhetorical agency, spatiality, and the production of relations in supermodernity. Unpublished Masters thesis, North Carolina State University. Keller, A. (2008). International airports: Passengers in an environment of 'authorities'. Mobilities, 3(1), 161-178. Kachornnamsong, K. (2006, May). ISY: Enhancing positive user experience in transit area. Mads Clausen Institute for Product Innovation, University of Southern Denmark. Salter, M.B. (2007). Governmentalities of an airport: Heterotopia and confession. International Political Sociology 1(1), 49-66. Scott, David G (2006). Socialising the stranger: Hospitality as a relational reality. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of Otago. Do you know of other published uses of the omnitopia framework? Send me an email. |
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Questions? Email page maintainer, Dr. Andrew Wood [web] at wooda@email.sjsu.edu
Note: Unless
otherwise stated, all text and photographs are copyright Andrew Wood.
The images from Babe: Pig in the City, Playtime, The Simpsons,
and any trademarks herein, are used for academic comment and criticism.
Their use in this scholarly project does not constitute an authorization or
endorsement by any other entity.
In an academic context, the term "omnitopia" shares no lineage with
Nintendo's Secrets of Evermore videogame
that employs the same word; this use of omnitopia was developed independently.