Notes from class discussion, week two:
January 11, 2010:
What is at stake for public space when information becomes dematerialized? What is critical that might be lost?
Urbanism: reversal of sedentary/agricultural society. potential for nomadic existence—are nomads placeless? Will everyone become disconnect from a natural circadian schedule. Lost in translation.
Does public space have to have program; is it a physical space, eg. chat rooms (public space or public forum)?
Parks are more meaningful in context. Context determines meaning of public space. Only reason to go anywhere is for work or recreation.
Decentralized urban space/ dissipated urban scene.
No need for kiosks anymore, so public space remove from place to gather information.
Nomadic producers—why build a workplace if you can work everywhere? No reason for mass gatherings anymore, not necessary.
Will we ever abandon the basic human desire for proximity/physical presence? Technology always loses its shine.
Which industries will become automated first? Service, production, or military? What about jobs?
Maybe the shift towards decentralization is more sustainable. Why not decrease the importance of the city? Could this balance the pressure for cities to become denser from backlash from sprawl? At least less desire to build such tall buildings?
Innate desire for human interaction—become ‘life-cubicle’ desire for proximity but no direct communication.
Difference between proximity and presence.
How many people do you need for proximity/presence? 1 person in the flesh = 5 people online?
Physical presence becomes everything when the power goes out.
Will we smell things over the internet? [do you then need an ester plug in to do it]
Sensory technologies are thrilling when new, but fade quickly—continued addition of features to mobile phones, for example.
We are overlooking human desire. What if you just want to dig?
Can you program space where work is not desirable? Wireless dead zones. As designers, can we control the way multiple programs overlap in public space?
With advanced tech you have to learn sets of processes to be able to work in the first place. How to use new programs, interfaces.
Market forces and economy change how we work in this way, too.
What do you pay for when everything is free? Taxes?
Social norms are changing rapidly.
Children now are the case study—what all this tech communication is doing to us. Kids never have to say goodbye anymore, never lose contact. Complications of facebook friendship, new rules and etiquette for parent-child, teacher-student, employer-employee, etc.
We keep building more stuff to hold dematerialized info.
Architecture and technology are not necessarily separate, are in fact mutually inclusive.
Do servers become obsolete as fast as our PC’s? Can we keep reprogramming them to better keep up with change?
Data centers do not hold same attraction for human development—don’t employ many people.
If we are plugged in (such as on the phone) in public space are we really in our own private space instead?
How do we differentiate between a window and a screen? Size of aperture?
Chance meetings are lost, small moments—chance to see hot girl’s undies in public laundry room has its appeal, or do the undies get posted online with infinite zoom. Is it becoming more and more pre-meditated?
Over-indulgence: nude sunbathers on Google Earth. Versus digital memorial: hobo on park bench.
Payment for roof-top advertising.
it seems we're having a hard time staying on track. I think its indicative of the problem set itself. we either seem to be discussing the hardware/software interface, which quickly becomes hypothetical, or we are talking about building things that house or facilitate this interface. This interface is the unknown variable. Aside from the need for power and water, the system is hardware non-specific. So, we build things that plug in, or we build things that stand regardless. But, whatever we build better have more than immediate hardware capacity.
ReplyDeletethe hardware is a question. i have received some answers this week about IT infrastructure that might help clarify/get us back on topic--basically that the trend toward pervasive computing is only increasing the need for more off-site storage and processing. cloud computing also increases this need. nobody talks about this because it is not considered an issue, which is why it has taken me until now to get a definite a + b = c answer. i am not sure monster data facilities are the answer to this trend.
ReplyDeleteso we choose how our designs interact with their surroundings and how or where they process and store that information, etc. we can also have a say as to how the infrastructural nodes interact with their surroundings... we don't have to be super knowledgeable to make these decisions or suggestions.
relating this to individual interests and concerns is the next step.