About

Hello, my name is Alex. I’m a writer and PhD student at the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. If you asked me, I’d probably say that I am based in Toronto too! It was early in my undergraduate studies began to develop an interest the city. Particularly, I took an interest in the politics of space and potential for technologies to alter the ways we understand and interact with the built environment as well as the people around us. I suppose that’s kinda what geographers refer to as the socio-spatial dialectic. Anyway, it’s helped by being firmly rooted in Gen Y; a child of the Net Generation, I have grown up in the midst of some of the most fascinating technological developments in, probably forever! I have never been able to escape. In fact, I was born merely days before the first Apple Macintosh’s hit the shelves.

For my PhD research I’m interested in public spaces and wireless technologies, namely, Wi-Fi. I find Wi-Fi fascinating because it doesn’t conform to tradational spatial boundaries, or even established conceptions of public or private space. An unsecured private residential Wi-Fi network can extend far beyond the material boundaries of a house, into the street and neighboring homes. I’m interested in what this blurring of boundaries means for our understandings and experiences of urban public space. In light of new wireless ICTs, where does public space begin and private space end? When is physical space separate from digital space? Are such conceptions of space even useful? How are we beginning to know our cities and ourselves differently by virtue of Wi-Fi?

When I’m not trapped in my office thinking about digital movements of data I can all too often be found making physical movements through the city streets by bicycle. If you’re interested, you can probably see a little more of my personal side at my Facebook profile or you could follow me on Twitter. You can see some recent photos I’ve taken below. If you want to check out my CV, I suppose that’s cool too.