Adriana is a community cartographer, under-utilized space modifier, and urban lifestyle researcher. She teaches a course about the suburbanization of NYC at the Parsons School of Design and is the Research Director for CAPITAL B. Her projects explore extreme modes of domesticity and the relationship between shopping, the war on terror and freedom. Currently, she is investigating new shopping mall construction in Baghdad and exploring guerilla gardening projects for fenced-off grassy areas around public housing towers in NYC. She holds a B.A. in Latin American History and Slavic Studies from Brown University and an M.A. in International Relations from The New School.
Adriana's Blog
Better than Living
Adriana was The Mantle's first blogger. Alas, she's moved on and will be greatly missed. Nonetheless, you can still read about her blog, Better than Living, and former entries.
"Everyone knows shopping is the only thing better than living." - Kelly Jones Sharp in a letter to the editor, NYT, March 13, 2007
What if our neighborhood became a mall and that mall became our city?
Would shopping become living?
Would our lives become lifestyles?
Would consumer rights become citizen rights?
Would outstanding shoppers become our national heroes,regaled for their courageous shirt and tie combinations, hailed as freedom shoppers?
Adriana's contributions (and her blog, Better than Living) will map the territory of the global city through the lens of the mall, gated community and lifestyle center. She will be exploring built environments programmed for all things better than living and escorting us on excursions in the new tourism.
