T. F. Tierney

• Comment: this is too promotional. Remove adjectives & other statements of quality or importance. Rather, give substantial reviews of her books from third-party independent reliable sources, and indications of how frequently cited are her most important articles . See WP:PROF for that standards DGG ( talk ) 06:18, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

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T. F. [Thérèse Frances] Tierney (born June 8, 1951) is an American urbanist, network theorist, and architecture critic. Tierney was an early contributor to the formulation of “network urbanism”.. She holds an appointment as Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and is the author of more than 25 publications on topics such as intelligent infrastructure, public space, smart cities, and networked mobility.

Biography

Born in Palo Alto, California, Tierney grew up in a post-war Eichler house designed by Ashen & Allen Architects, fostering an early interest in architecture and urban design.  Joseph Eichler’s residential developments exemplified California Modernism, featuring simple lines, open floor plans, and integral materials. The stated aim of these developments was to create inclusive and diverse communities, which included integrated parks and community centers.

Tierney graduated from Palo Alto High School. From 1998 to 2002, she studied architecture at California College of the Arts. From 2002 to 2009, Tierney was a Malcolm Reynolds Fellow at the University of California Berkeley, where she developed a theory of networked urbanism, for which she was awarded her doctorate in 2009 with a Designated Emphasis in new media .  During 2006, Tierney was a predoctoral researcher at the MIT media lab during William Mitchell’s tenure as director.  She began teaching at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2009.  

Research

Tierney has played a role in the conceptualization of networked space as advanced in The Public Space of Social Media: Connected Cultures of the Network Society .  Kelsey Brennan assesses Tierney’ theories this way:

“Michel de Certeau’s framework of “space as practiced place” … allows Tierney to argue that the actions performed and messages exchanged in online communities around niche interests are in fact spatial practices that weave places together. Which, of course, disrupts our traditional understanding of place as involving a relatively fixed series of spatial relationships, to instead assert a new, dispersed and digitized view. It reframes our physical relationship to the city not only as mediated through the built environment, but through a digital one as well.”

In 2013, as founding director of URL: Urban Research Lab, Tierney was one of ten delegates for Smart & Digital Cities, organized by the Consulate General of France in San Francisco.  This formative experience contributed to a more holistic understanding of networked technologies in urban contexts.

Considering Tierney’s infrastructural proposals for smart cities, Emma French, Georgia Institute of Technology wrote, “Several themes emerge: The first is that intelligent infrastructure in many cases is leading cities away from centralized transportation hubs and toward more decentralized, user-driven nodes….The second theme, somewhat connected to the first, is that the best intelligent infrastructure is place-based…The third theme is that intelligent infrastructure is not a panacea, and in the worst cases can even reinforce existing inequalities related to urban transportation networks and social mobility more broadly.”

Criticism

John Hill, editor of World Architecture.com, says that Tierney’s approach to network urbanism tends towards “technological optimism” , more recently, however, she has emerged as a critic of smart cities with “Toronto’s Smart City: Everyday Life or Google Life?" , which argues for a more humanistic approach to the design of future cities.

In her writing and lectures, Tierney advances the notion that “the future of urbanism depends on conceptualizing infrastructure not as a means of optimization, data collection, or control, but as a connective tissue of social relations binding a city together”

Books and articles

Books

• Tierney, T. F., Editor. (2017, 2^nd ed. 2018)  Intelligent Infrastructure: Zipcars, Invisible Networks & Urban Transformation. Charlotte, VA: University of Virginia Press.·  ISBN-10: 0813939488
• Tierney, Thérèse. (2013, 2^nd ed. 2018)  The Public Space of Social Media: Connected Cultures of the Network Society. London, Routledge Inc. ·  ISBN 1138649309
• ----  (2007).  Abstract Space: Beneath the Media Surface. London: Routledge Inc. ·  ISBN 0415415098
• ----; Anthony Burke, Editors (2007). Network Practice: New Strategies for Architecture and Design.  New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ·  ISBN 1568987013

Chapters in Books

• Tierney, T. F. (2019). Chapter: “Network Urbanism: Definition, Scholarship, Directions”  in Critical Approaches to Contemporary Architecture. Swati Chattopadhyay and Jeremy White, Editors. New York: Routledge, September 2019.
• ----  (2015). Chapter:  “Reappropriating Social Media: Internet Activism, Counterpublics and Implications” in Foundations in Mobile Media Studies: Essential Texts on the Formation of a Field. Jason Farman, Editor. New York: Routledge (November 19, 2015)
• ---- (2008). Chapter: “Biological Networks: on neurons, cellular automata and relational architectures.” in Network Practice: New Strategies for Architecture and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp 78-99.

Articles in Journals

• Tierney, T. F. (2019) “Toronto’s Smart City: Everyday Life or Google Life?”  AMPS: Architecture Media Politics Society Journal, UCL Press, London. https://www.scienceopen.com/document?vid=665c1905-950b-4bbe-ac52-570d5a796535
• ----  (2019) “Big Data, Big Rhetoric in Toronto’s Smart City”  Architecture & Culture: Journal  of the Architectural Humanities Research Association. London: Taylor & Francis Group.
• ---- (2017) “Public Space Rewired” The Architectural Review (AR), London: vol. CCXLI, no.1438: Shared Space.
• ---- (2015) “Point Clouds, Locative Media, and Digitizing the Image of the City” in Now, There: Scenes from the Post-Geographic City.  Mimi Zeiger, Editor. Wind Tunnel Graduate Center for Critical Practice, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA.
• ----, Therese. (2014). “Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: Mobilizing Social Media for Urban Resilience.” The European Business Review, London, UK (July/August)
• ---- (2013). “Disentangling Social Media: Public Space and Internet Activism.” Thresholds 41: MIT Journal of Architecture.  MIT Press; Cambridge MA.
• ---- (2013). “Locative Media: A Critical Appraisal and Intervention.” Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for Arts, Sciences, Technology: Environment. no. 46:3 MIT Press; Cambridge MA.
• ---- (2013). “Synthetic Digital Ecologies.” Trace SF: Bay Area Urbanism online architecture journal (February 17, 2013) http://tracesf.com/
• ---- (2007). “Formulating Abstraction: Conceptual Art and the Architectural Object.” Leonardo: Journal of the Int. Society for Arts, Sciences, Technology 40, no1. MIT Press; Cambridge MA. URL:http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/leon.2007.40.1.51?cookieSet=1&journalCode=leon
• ---- (2006). “Collective Cognition: Neural Fabrics and Social Softwares.”  AD: Architectural Design. London: Wiley Academy. Sept/Oct 76 no5: 36-45. URL: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/113390142/abstract.
• ---- (2003). arcCA: Architecture California, Journal of the American Institute of Architects California Chapter; no. 01.3 “Publicness.”  [http://www.aiacc.org/tag/therese-tierney/]