final project: ourworld.com

Verb: To socialize: Virtually

Nowadays, it seems people are pushing towards the realm of virtual existence. People spend almost the majority of time in front of a computer screen to obtain news, entertainment, education and socialization. Socializing has turned into a form of instant message conversations, email correspondence and meeting new people have also started to grow in the form of virtual social spaces, such as friendster, craigslist and myspace. It seems people are no longer searching for physical conversations. It almost seems to be a rarity that people still meet for dinner!

We almost exist in two parallel worlds, the physical and the virtual. The physical world is still open to observation and interpretation. People can create evaluations based on physical gestures, mannerisms, other things unspoken and slight. The virtual world seems to be a projection of ourselves. We decide what the viewer can analyze and observe. It becomes more one-sided and bias. So if the physical is who we are, it is almost as if the virtual is who we would like to be.

The Virtual world creates a physical shell and continues to separate the two different worlds we exist in. Now, it seems easier to exist one sidedly. It allows us to guard ourselves, collage different foundations, other representations. It has bred an unavoidable and now growing passiveness and is slowly isolating physical publics. But now, these physical encounters even if brief are so much more meaningful and create larger impacts in comparison. Then as architects and designers, how can we use the tools and thinking process we have learned to better shape the virtual world? What can we do to create a more three dimensional virtual space that includes unintentional observations and interactions, such as random sidewalk encounters while walking to the subway station that exists in the physical world?

My proposal for a more three dimensional social sphere in the virtual world would try to recreate or re-enact the daily, physical routine that exists in our physical everyday.

+ + + +

www.ourworld.com

Many people have different places they visit on the internet, many of them being routine visits. To specifically understand what my proposal would be, I will use my internet usage as a case study.

I have categorized the virtual internet sites I visit into three realms, the private, semi-public and the public and have paralleled them with physical substitutes. The most private realm in the virtual world is email. Email is a secure way of communication with a specifically intended viewer and the message is carefully created. I see this paralleling my most private space, my apartment. My apartment is a place where I have complete control of who comes in and out and basically the activities that carry out in that space. I have two main email accounts, my hotmail account and my gsd account. The physical spatial parallels would then be my apartment in Cambridge and my desk at the GSD respectively.

The semi-public space, I would categorize would be blog spaces. The audience is still random, to a certain extent, usually found through similar interest searches, blog rings or you referring friends to that site. Your identity is still anonymous to a certain extent, but you being to share ideas via posts. I see the physical equivalent to be a coffee shop or a specific interest retail store. These spaces are all semi-controlled, semi-public. They are only available to those who wish to patronize the commercial activity based on similar taste or interests. I have three blogs. A blog on my gsd website (created in digital media two years ago with Jef and Allen!!) which I can equate to the semi public spaces of Gund Hall, such as the Pit or Chauhaus. I have a xanga.com blog which is a bit more anonymous than the GSD blog, but I can see as my local coffee shop. The last blog is the class blog; this is an extension of our classroom.

The public sphere would be friendster, myspace and craigslist. These are basically unregulated sites, where people can browse without much problem (though there are privacy setting you can place on your website to restrict views, but that is a special case.) Random profiles are highlighted on your home page. This can be equated with a Central Park or City Hall Plaza. I have a friendster account that keeps me virtually connected to friends from New York to California, past to present, yet I do not see these people often.

So my proposal for a more three dimensional virtual world, would be a way to connect and organize all these worlds in a similar way to our everyday physical activities. Ourworld.com would allow the user to give place based values to their internet sites, on a virtual map. You would be able to choose the platform of your virtual city; it could be based on the actual location, or a fantasy location. You would plug in the locations of all your site routines, basically “plan” the city according to your needs.

This website would allow other users to organize their routines and virtual existence on the same place. So when you go from email to your friendster page, you would have to “walk” through this virtual city. There would be a platform where you could also see who is walking along with you, to provide this potential unintentional interaction, you could choose to chat with this person as you would in the physical.

Let me demonstrate this visually to get a better understanding. Figure 1 shows the setup of this site. You get to choose, based on three main maps: your actual city location or another actual city you wish to “live” in, a beach getaway (non-specific to a real city), a rural setting. These three locations can correspond to three different lifestyles. It’s your virtual world, so you can choose your fantasy location. This is indicative of lifestyle so the odds of having people “live” in your community will have similar lifestyle choices, much like real life.

Once choosing your location, you assign place values for your internet site visits. I have decided to choose my actual city as my virtual map. I have placed all my internet sites on the virtual location map. As you can see, a lot of my “recreation” time is spent at the gsd. I have placed my hotmail account, my main mode of private communication at my apartment and my main public sphere in Central Square, where I spend most of my leisure time. Although I have chosen to parallel my virtual world with my physical world, users do not need to do that. They can place websites where ever they choose.

So once the setup is complete, I can just use the map as my site guide and all my favorite websites are contained on one website. I can then click on the color nodes and surf the web as I would normally. The size of the node can start to correspond to frequency of usage as well.

When I go from site to site, this is where the platform changes. Rather than just flash from one page to another, you would walk the streets. Decide on a path to take, the stroll along the streets, from point A to B. You would be able to see what other users are in that vicinity and what path they are taking, to a certain extent. You would only be allowed to view who is within very close proximity, sight of view, not the omniscient-all-telling plan view, to see how crowded streets are. People can use avatars to represent themselves, ranging from an actual photo, to a cartoon icon to just a colored dot, depending on their personal preference, since the virtual world allows you to control amount of information revealed. You can see who else is walking along the street, at the same time. When rolling over their avatar, you would be able to see only basic information, name, location, where they are going. If you would like, you could pause on the street and start a conversation with these people, or ask them for “directions” to a new coffee shop, etc. Eventually, as the city grows, people can start assigning the same value to certain locations. For example, many people can start to assign their various blogs to the 1369 Coffeehouse on Inman St and Mass Ave. A blog aggregator can be used there and these people can start to share in conversation via blog ring or search.

In general, the way this website can grow is much like a real city, it’s up to the population to choose which areas are “hot spots” to hang out and the most used, main roads would be where the most unintentional interactions would occur.

This can be seen a slight improvement to the isolating factor of the virtual world. The problem with virtual space is that it is non place based and temporary. This website attempts to remedy both those problems. Although I still believe that physical public spaces and interactions are the most meaningful interactions, people will not leave the virtual world. As architects, it is up to us to create a more dimensional virtual world, better suited for publicness and to foster a greater sense of community.

final project topic

would like to research the verb: communicate.

basically expand the "play" catagory of the syllabus to encompass communicate. virtual space has become the new public domain. see how this impacts our everyday. look into the virtual spaces that exist: friendster, myspace, xanga, livejournal and blogspot. how these virtual platforms for community gathering have impacted our lives. how they have evolved there and how these spaces can be better created. better connectivity, or less, take into account spatial considerations and that representation.

tangible media

The verb: Travel. Document. Remember.

Nowadays, it seems traveling is one truly meaningful way to open horizons and learn from your surroundings. Travel by definition means going to a place that is physically removed from your everyday, one has the tendency to photograph, write and sketch about the experience in order to document and take a piece of that place away with them and recreate or meaningfully maintain that experience with them.

With already existing media interfaces, one finds a phone/camera/video/text message at one’s fingertips. Yet that media interface is flawed in one area: memory capacity.

Recently (during my past studio trip) I was fumbling with my digital camera the entire time. Either batteries were low or my memory card was too full. Traveling with your laptop can often be cumbersome, so I left that at home. But I was left with limited facilities and capabilities.

I propose an interface that can document, photograph, film, take sound clips but storing it virtually. By connecting it to virtual memory storage space, the internet, the memory card will never be full, memory is almost limitless, almost like your mind capacity. Physically, you only capture and remember what you wish to. But now there is the potential to capture it all, without discretion and post trip you can filter the memories that you would like to maintain.

But on the down side, this type of interface begins to deteriorate physical presence, mind and body. Basically, by using these filtered/supplementary devices, it removes you from the experience. Instead of seeing things with your own eyes, you start to see everything through a lens, feel things through a filter. Everything becomes unreal, intangible, virtual.

microarchitecture

Before, in order to fulfill a NEED, the way to fulfill that need was to physically visit that architectural construction. Nowadays, with the aid of the internet, more localized and personalized outlets are readily available, changing our everyday activities.

One typology that has been persistent through time has been the construction of libraries and the consolidation of information for mass usage.

One virtual construction that has started to decentralize the entire library construction and rapidly accelerate the sharing of information is the creation of wiki’s and namely wikipedia, an online resource that has begun to replace library books, the borrowing of and writing of, simultaneously.

Wikipedia is advertised as the free encyclopedia. It has a searchable database of articles pertaining to almost all topics, in almost every imaginable language.

Not only does it provide access to information on topics, but it democratically allows a user to edit, add and correct information on the website. It is an open and self publishing resource that allows one to share information, almost bypassing the publishing/printing world. It also begins to provide information on obscure topics that may not normally garner attention in the mainstream.

It provides a means of communication, internationally as well as just an informational outlet. It allows people to converse, share ideas, virtually. It fosters dialogue that would ordinarily not be possible in the typical library environment because of the limited engagement and social etiquette that has been associated with library culture. Additionally, it provides a linkage between those that are physically separated and far in proximity.

This creates a new definition of an academic community, which tends to be limited to the physical campus or city/region. It opens up modes of interaction and information flow.

interactive art

a lil late with the post but...
better late than never.

after nell's presentation last week, another interactive art intiative that i was reminded of is the yellow arrow project. http://global.yellowarrow.net.

this public art project is interesting because it is completely appropriated by the author. the premise of the project is that you request a package of yellow arrow stickers. each sticker has a corresponding number. you place the arrows all around town. people can see the stickers call or text a number then recieve a personal message relating to what that arrow means. for example i saw a yellow arrow on the back of a praking sign on mass ave. i actually texted the number and the message received told me to look up at the hancock tower. the messages can range from overtly political to personal messages... it's all up to how much you want to share and say.

the virtual interface sends the message but i enjoy the fact that there is still the physical presence of the sticker....

and i'm always a fan of good, meaningful graffiti.

new mega typologies: virtual social communities

Assignment One:
New infrastructure typologies that did not exist prior to the internet.

Main Entry: in·fra·struc·ture
Function: noun
1 : the underlying foundation or basic framework (as of a system or organization)
2 : the permanent installations required for military purposes
3 : the system of public works of a country, state, or region; also : the resources (as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity

Main Entry: vir·tu·al
Function: adjective
1 : being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted virtual dictator>
2 : of, relating to, or using virtual memory
3 : of, relating to, or being a hypothetical particle whose existence is inferred from indirect evidence

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A brainstorm:

Working directly from home.

Non-physical social interactions (friendster, myspace, craigslist)

Blogging (sharing thoughts, livejournal, xanga, blogger)

Long distance learning

Evaporation of space measurement.

Time does not really elapse. Instantaneous access.

Physical isolation with mental company

Self-created, self representation: avatars

Immediate communication (instant messenger things)

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CASE STUDY: Friendster
I have decided to use friendster as the most used tool for social interaction in virtual space. Nearly everybody that I know has a profile which they update and maintain regularly. This has become a social phenomenon that has spawned similar networks: myspace.com, thefacebook.com and others that I am unaware of.

Friendster allows you to "meet" people from all over the world, search for like minded people and potentially interact with friends of people you already know. Additionally, this is a tool to maintain contact with friends who are physically detached from your everyday. It is a way to keep in touch, check in with friends individually or on a mass level.

The slides submitted give a brief introduction to the friendster craze.

the virtual

this is for internet and architecture.

theresa
m. arch I third year.

background info:
born and raised in new york
studied civil engineering and art history in undergrad.
for almost 2 years worked at landscape architecture firm in nyc (michael van valkenburgh associates)
have been at the gsd ever since.
past critics: marco steinberg, ron witte, ashley shafer, joe macdonald.

what i expect from this course:
a critical analysis of the role that the virtual world should play in our physical everyday.

here is the FIRST post on another blog that i have that is somewhat related:
september 12, 2005
virtuality
a way to keep my semi-public thoughts in one place. accessible at all times. stored in virtual space.
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+nonsensical ramblings i want to remember+

slowly, what we were discussing in class, [in configurations of public space] specifically the virtual section, is slowly taking on more meaning.

i've never really been too invested in internetting. been chained to email, but never the whole blogging, sharing what i'm actually thinking with strangers thang. well not counting friendster, that wasn't blogging but more about checking up on folks and peeping into others' worlds.

interesting the concept of virtual community huh? key points that were constantly brought up [at least in my mind] were:
+ virtual communities are not true public spaces because inherently priviledge is embedded. it is not accessible by all. only the few, select few.
+ representation is filtered and directed. it's never truely open to democratic observation.
+ but the notion of it, being uncontrolled in theory, (after you have access) anyone can post, anyone can edit, anyone can make a website and carve out a small crevice for self expression, makes one think that it can be that last open frontier. but.
[but at this point does real public space really exist? for real for real? always red tape. always those kept out or in. someone controlling what's to be programmed in that space, dictating what is to happen, it's never decided by the people. civic spaces are only defined by select few public officials. what is true democratic public space? how can we achieve that? do we even want it?]
+ virtual space is only going to continue to grow (see, even i'm jumping on the bandwagon) how can we foster a truer sense of community within it? how can we exploit it, subvert it as a resource for our own good, without it being self indulgent and purely self fulfilling and self promoting and financially driven? always the question.

right now, it still seems too contrived. there's not enough of the unintentional interactions that make physical public spaces beautiful. you have too much control. can't let go.