[iDC] Atoms, Bits, and Ubiquity

[patrick lichty]

Hello, all.

My apologies for not being more active, as Christiane Paul and I have
been hard at work getting the current issue of Intelligent Agent out,
which is the first time we've been in print since 1998...  Big job.

The idea of architecture, communal society and media is something that
I've been interested in for years.  In 1999 I wrote "Towards a Culture
of Ubiquity" for the BNMI summit, Emotional Architectures.

http://www.voyd.com/ubiq

My thought was that media/computing/communication would migrate from the
screen to the hand, onto the body, and off into architectural space.
Mind you this is not a singular process, but a progressive one where the
media expands from the screen, over the body, and out into space.

By and large, this pronouncement seems to have taken place.  The screen
has moved to mobile/locative media, and media is burrowing into the
physical. 

The difference between 1999 and 2006 seems to be that the progression of
media is not as uniform as I thought, and broader.  Where I had thought
more about embedded technologies, physical computing, locative, RFID, as
well as embedding seem to be the case.  

What I wonder is:
How does this mesh of communications networks affect our sense of an
evergent/cybrid architecture (physical/information)?
How does it affect our social structures, grouping, socioeconomic
strata?
How does the evolving physical/informatic 'city' change the way we
create, dialogue, and collaborate?

I realize that some of this is already discussed by Mitchell, but I want
to bring some of this up again to bring our viewpoints in line with this
move from the screen into space.

I hope this meets with some of your interests.

Patrick Lichty
- Interactive Arts & Media
  Columbia College, Chicago
- Editor-In-Chief
  Intelligent Agent Magazine
http://www.intelligentagent.com
225 288 5813
voyd at voyd.com
 
"It is better to die on your feet 
than to live on your knees."