City Ubiquitous | Andrew Wood

Research and Secondary References

Excerpts of Wood's omnitopia research

A Rhetoric of Ubiquity

Searching for Springfield

Motels and Omnitopia

"What happens [in Vegas]"

Dark City and Omnitopia

Communication
Theory 13(3)

This essay proposes three central aspects of omnitopia: generic environments, continual movement, and atomized interactions. In so doing, the article extends upon previous inquiries into utopia and heterotopia while commenting upon the changes to terminal life wrought by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
(PDF)

Critical Studies in Media Communication 22(3)

This essay (co-authored with my SJSU colleague, Anne Marie Todd) demonstrates how The Simpsons depicts urban life as a mutable environment whose disparate locales convey their inhabitants to a version of public life marked by dislocation, conflation, fragmentation, mutability, mobility, and commodification.
(PDF)

Space and
Culture 8(4)

This essay explores the role of motels in the transition between idiosyncratic locales to homogenized chains. This analysis of early-twentieth-century motels reveals three practices: dislocation through vernacular architecture, fragmentation through iconic signage, and mutability through roadside simulacra.
(PDF)

Text and Performance Quarterly 25(4)

This essay explores Las Vegas as a stage-set for tourist performance, concentrating on two foci: (1) Las Vegas as omnitopia and (2) the performance of Las Vegas through post-tourism. The essay also discusses the consequences of inauthentic post-tourist play as imagined by critics of "mere pleasure."
(PDF) (Images)

Sith, Slayers, Stargates, + Cyborgs (edited volume)

This chapter from David Whitt and John Perlich's book on modern myth offers an updated introduction to the omnitopian framework. I invite you to examine their complete collection of essays. Note: This scan from a photocopy is less-than ideal; some of the pages are a bit crooked. The book is perfectly aligned.
(PDF - 2.65mb)

Appearances of omnitopia in other scholarship

Adey, P. (2007). ‘May I have your attention’: Airport geographies of spectatorship, position, and (im)mobility. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25(3), 515-536.

Adey, P., Budd, L., Hubbard, P. (2007). Flying lessons: Exploring the social and cultural geographies of global air travel. Progress in Human Geography, 31(6), 773-791.

Barnett, R.S. (2005). A space for agency: Rhetorical agency, spatiality, and the production of relations in supermodernity. Unpublished masters thesis, North Carolina State University, USA.

Devereux, E. (2007). Understanding the media (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Hartmann, M. (2009). The changing urban landscapes of media consumption and production. European Journal of Communication, 24(4), 421-436.

Irving, B.A. (2009). The rhetorical dimensions of place-making: Texts, structures, and movement in Atlantic Station. Unpublished master's thesis. Georgia State University, USA.

Kachornnamsong, K. (2006, May). ISY: Enhancing positive user experience in transit area. Mads Clausen Institute for Product Innovation, University of Southern Denmark.

Kellerman, A. (2008). International airports: Passengers in an environment of 'authorities'. Mobilities, 3(1), 161-178.

Kitchin, R. & Dodge, M. (2009). Airport code/spaces. In S. Cwerner, S. Kesselring, & J. Urry (Eds.), Aeromobilities (pp. 96-114). Abingdon: Routledge.

Kofoed, E.S. (2009). The discursive representations of borderlands: An analysis of visual culture and conceptions of place occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border. Unpublished master's thesis. Kansas State University, USA.

McAlister, J.A. (2009). Material aesthetics in Middle America: Simone Weil, the problem of roots, and the pantopic suburb. In B.A. Biesecker & J.L. Lucaites (Eds.). Rhetoric, materiality, and politics (pp. 99-130). New York: Peter Lang.

Pepe, A. (2009). Reinventing airspace: Spectatorship, fluidity, intimacy at PEK T3. ACE: Journal of Architecture, City & Environment, 4(10), 9-19.

McRae, J.D. (2008). Play City life: Henri Lefebvre, urban exploration and re-imagined possibilities for urban life. Unpublished masters thesis, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Salter, M.B. (2007). Governmentalities of an airport: Heterotopia and confession. International Political Sociology, 1(1), 49-66.

Sarabu, C.R. (2009). Anthroportscapes. Unpublished honors thesis, Cornell University, USA

Stewart, J. & Dickinson, G. (2008). Enunciating locality in the postmodern suburb: FlatIron Crossing and the Colorado lifestyle. Western Journal of Communication, 72(3), 280-307.

Stewart, J. (2007). The rhetoric of South Park. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of Cincinnati, USA.

Scott, D.G (2006). Socialising the stranger: Hospitality as a relational reality. Unpublished masters thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Other Manifestations of Omnitopia

After City Ubiquitous went to press, I learned of a Chinese-language articulation of omnitopia - developed in 1997 independently of my work - by Hong Kong-based author Dung Kai-cheung. "Omnitopia" appears as a subsection of Dung's book, The Atlas: Archeology of an Imaginary City. At present, I am unaware of any English translation of the complete "omnitopia" subsection in The Atlas.

More recently, I found (through a Google books in-text keyword search) a 54-page volume called Inhuman: Internet, School, and Humanity (trans., Philip Beitchman) by French writer and philosophy teacher Robert Redeker. This articulation of omnitopia refers to the global reach of the internet. The year of publication is 2003 - the same year of my first published work on the topic - though Redeker's book did not appear on my searches until September 2009.

In both cases, and others that remain to be uncovered, we find a multitude of utilities for the Latin and Greek roots used to propose omnitopia.

Appearances of omnitopia in popular press

Cassidy, M. (2009, February 27). Can we talk? Well, yes, but why bother? San Jose Mercury News, E1, E5. Reprinted in Seattle Times (March 16): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2008865217_btview16.html

Nelson, A. (2002, April 29). The Holiday Inn sign. Salon. Online: http://archive.salon.com/ent/masterpiece/2002/04/29/holiday_inn/print.html

Pappas, S. (2009, February 5). SJSU professor looks to burst the bubble of omnitopia with new book. Santa Cruz Sentinel, B3.

Plotnikoff, D. (2001, February 16). The wired world as a metaphor for life online and offline. San Jose Mercury News, 3C.

Vorderbrueggen, L. & Cuff, D. (2006, July 6). Rudeness breeds not-so-happy campers: Getting away from it all almost a thing of the past as trips marred by loud music, inconsiderate neighbors. Contra Costa Times, unknown page.

Do you know of other published uses of the omnitopia framework?
Send me an email: Andrew.Wood@sjsu.edu

This page is also accessible via tinyurl.com/omniresearch