I was just thinking about the devaluation of labour and the devaluation of being a reader and wondering whether or where the two intersect or not.

A friend recently shared the analogy that previously there were authors/authorship and now the entire world’s an author. This makes sense because I firmly believe that technology will focus more and more on finding our way through and around information (and possibly out from). An international, transglobal virtual sorting office.

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The City of Vancouver have introduced these VIVA seating areas * named parallel parking seating. They are made of lovely lumber and are places for the public to plop down and sit. At first I thought they were bicycle parking zones because of the word parallel parking, but on closer inspection and sitting they are benches with small coffee tables.

I’ve only seen one, it was placed right outside a coffee shop and seemed situated to serve the coffee shop dwellers more than random pedestrians. However it was dark and we were the only people sitting on it. It will be interesting to see where they pop up. I think they’re quite an inviting idea.  Especially if they’d rolled them out months ago when you weren’t going to risk goose pimples and drenching to sit on them. But generally they indicate positive use of public spaces, encouraging people to sit and natter or rest and read. Plus the lumber smells nice.

* I since learned it’s only one and it’s called a “modular deck”..