What did I miss?

Telephone cables, surveillance cameras, traffic lights, streetcar cables, street grates, sidewalk markings, water mains, internet cables, sewage pipes.

Be warned: after this tour, you'll never be able to look at a normal city block the same way again.

Book here:

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A city block is a symphony of coordination, a miracle of systems design, a battleground of competing infrastructural priorities.

Announcing my new tour of Toronto: "The Signal and the Noise".

For three hours, we will dissect a single intersection from top to bottom...

Toronto 🥹

Mirrored image of the CN tower in a reflection

Canada life building

A big cloud

zoomed in of the top of the CN tower

Toronto…has there ever been anything more beautiful

Toronto…

After WWII, "technology" was everywhere, its scope widened beyond control.

Where there were once fine-grained distinctions between "engineering", "tool-making", "machinery", "technical methods", & "sets of practices", there is now just "technology".

🤯

The term widened in scope through Thorstein Veblen's "technological determinism"—machines as an autonomous force that can overthrow culture.

Before long, "technology" came to be seen as a force of revolution and "progress", spanning from applied science to the mechanical arts.

The word "technology" was first used by Germans to refer to the systematic study of industry.

It was brought to America in 1860 by William Barton Rogers, who was founding a new university and wanted it to have foreign gravitas. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was born.

In the 17th century, science preserved this hierarchy. Theorists who used the telescope were heralded; the glassblowers who manufactured it were not.

By the industrial revolution, engineers were "applied scientists"—once again affirming the supremacy of head over hand.

As elites in Medieval Europe relied more on craft workers for weapons & tools, they invented a new category: "mechanical arts" — more impressive than "techne", but still subservient.

Elites feared that if craftspeople gained too much power, they could overturn the social order.

Working on my Dan Seljak Toronto's Hottest Urbanist Glow tan this summer

Hidden Rivers · Events Calendar View and subscribe to events from Hidden Rivers on Luma. Select a tour date below. Can't wait to explore this city with you!

Today, Hidden Rivers returns for 2025.

We begin with a kick-off in Christie Pitts (I bought a rainbow parachute). Then, six tours: from the ghost of the Spadina Expressway to the revitalized Don River.

Whether you grew up in Toronto or just got here, Hidden Rivers is for you.

lu.ma/hiddenrivers

Three years ago, I put out the call to meet Torontonians who wanted to see their city in a new light.

Since then, we've explored the city's vast ravine system, walked its original shoreline, and traversed 12,000 years of Toronto's history to feel more rooted in the place we call home.