• Figure 1. Taxicab Fare-paying
Infrastructure in Korea. (from the center
bottom, moving up) The pad where one
touches a credit or transportation card with
transaction chip; the taxi meter, with calculator keypad for entering the amount of
cash payment; the pad where one touches
the transaction-enabled cell phone; just to
its right, the credit card–reading device for
normal credit cards with magnetic stripe,
complete with keypad, which I assume is
for manual entry or security codes; just
above the credit card reader, a printer to
provide receipts for any of the payment
methods; at the very top center, the navigation system, this time displaying map
information instead of a television show. I
have skipped over the auto’s infrastructure,
including radio, tape, and CD player, HVAC
controls, shifting controls, and steering
wheel, all of which are also visible in this
photograph.
just after a national holiday.
The trees, too, are infrastructure. They have been carefully
planted in these locations and
artistically trimmed. Even the
birds get into the act; the big
clump toward the top of the
tallest tree is the infrastructure
for the magpie: its nest.
Some of the infrastructure
provides the necessary affordance for others: The poles provide the supporting affordances
for the lights, wind turbine,
solar cells, and signs. Some
infrastructure serves as signi-
fiers. The signs are deliberate,
intentional ones. The magpie
nest is an unintentional signifier, for wherever the nest is
seen, it indicates there are apt
to be a pair of magpies in the
vicinity. If you examine the
figure carefully, you can see
one of the proud owners of
the nest perched at the very
top of the tree. The magpie is
the only item that is not infrastructure in the picture. Even
the background, barely visible
in the figure, is of a river and
flood plain, which also pro-
vides jogging, bicycling paths,
and picnic and playing fields
during nonflood times. Just as
the trees are artificially placed
in their location for aesthetic
purposes, the river is carefully
controlled as well, with high
banks and numerous dams
and spillways. The river serves
several functions as essential
infrastructure for the waterway and flood control. Finally,
on the opposite bank of the
river (dimly visible in the background), one can see buildings,
roads, and other infrastructure
July + August 2009
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