Course 3.314, virtual places.
Essay by Edwin Strik
April 2003
Virtual relationship?
A while ago a friend of me told me he had met a girl via a chat box, and
was happily involved in a relation with her for the past two months. A little
later he enthusiastically told me they were going to Ômeet each otherÕ for the
first time next weekend. This made me wonder; easily within two minutes my
friend managed to convince me that he was in a happy relation with a girl and
at the same time he declared his excitement about them meeting each other for
the first time. Now, I couldnÕt understand this at that moment, to me Ômeeting
was meetingÕ, a physical act so to speak and I didnÕt see at that time that
meeting via the internet had this kind of potential for an individualÕs
personal life. The pace at which the internet and other digital sources, like
mobile phones and palmtop computers connected to networks, are developing made
me realize that next to our physical world, there is the rapid expansion of
ÔourÕ virtual world. Right in the middle of the two are we, as individuals,
groups, communities, whole populations; drawn to the, to some extend, reliable
physical world but more and more drawn, via all the interfaces that are
presently at our service, to this virtual world. However convenient as a
service it already is, this virtual world is for the moment still handicapped
by technological limits, varying from the speed of connections to the lumpy
size of most PCÕs. However it is more than likely that in the very near future
these technical limitations will no longer be there to worry about. By that
time, other, more significant problems will have introduced themselves, as far
as they havenÕt already. Like my friend with his Ôbi-worldlyÕ relation, similar
and more complicated social changes will have to be faced. Questions about;
where do I have my friends and how do I stay in contact with them (face-to-face
or not), or what happened to my personal assistant that always helped me with
my money stuff at the bank, are the daily reality when the present rate of
digital development continues. Anticipating on the implementation of all these
technologies and their ever more Ôeasy-to-operateÕ interfaces seems very wise
as otherwise we could face ourselves with a changing society in which a certain
form of control over our social identity and interaction could be lost. Perhaps
there will not be only positive consequences in our urban development and the
social level of our living environments. Whatever it is that will happen under
influence of our new and easy to operate digital devices; everyday life and the
reality between people, concerning social behavior and interaction, will change
and any attempt at anticipating how big the influence will be or how radical
social structures can changes in an urban context has its value. The relation
between an individual and his/her devices, linking him to virtual places, will
be both complementary as well as competitive to human-to-human relations.
Virtual places
When we take a closer look at the virtual world and its present-day
features, weÕll find it quite similar to its physical context. It is very
strongly linked to a worldly geography both in its appearance and its
organization. The content is the most obvious example, it is often closely
related to a certain place on our planet. However this doesnÕt mean its only
function is to be seen by people from that place. The broad accessibility in it
self is the big advantage of large parts of the virtual world. However the
content itself often does contain a certain locality that we can relate to.
Also technological features and build-in coding have similar effects in
geo-locating virtual places in the physical world. The obvious difference is
the lack of place-boundness. The digital world with all its features can be
entered from almost anywhere on the planet if admittance is allowed. This
feature is what makes it so attractive and useful to its users. However it does
bring along a new influence on our perception of distance, a process that saw
its first big boost with the introduction of the telephone. Digital
technologies have speeded this process up and made it a lot more elaborate.
Long distance digital infrastructure is a good example of the actual influence
the virtual has on the physical. New relations between previously non-related
regions or cities can instantly be established by simple means of a digital
connection. Whatever the purposes of the connection, people than are able to
get in (personal) contact, do business, have obligations; which are to some
degree not directly obstructed by their physical separation. More likely these new links could turn
out to generate a whole new spectrum of possibilities in the production and
trade of goods, the organization of our inhabited space and more direct social human needs.
The consequences of these linkages are so far-reaching that we all are part of
this new relation between places; it will influence our social-, political-,
economical-, and design- parameters, as we know them now.
The social
patterns can change drastically because of the easy acceptance of the virtual
environment, it therefore seems no more than logical to keep asking ourselves
the question what we want this new environment to be as a mediator in daily
life. Looking at the personal human aspects from an architectÕs point of view
the new virtual environments are so much a part of daily life, they can hardly
be seen as uniform and dimensionless. In fact their interwoven character with
our physical world almost demands statements about what we expect of this
mediator. Already these environments have the character of being inhabitable
spaces in addition (or as a replacement) to physical places. ÔÕThey range in
scales and characters from the intimate and private to the globally public.
They are not just interfaces; we are beginning to live our lives in them ÕÕ1. The real world and
the virtual intersect quite deliberately to form an effective combination for
human performance. A performance that at times will be passive, info sponging
or at times will demand active participation, both in the physical as well as
in the virtual environment.
A future
development can be expected in trying to achieve a more person-consuming
virtual environment. By giving the interface between human and digital device
more and more features of a real environment it will function as such, but
including the specific advantages and conveniences of the medium. This in it
self will change the existing balance in the relation between virtual and
physical and the human adaptation to it. It will become more and more likely
for virtual meeting-, socializing-, working-, gathering-, etc. places to form.
Like in the real world an effective and convincing environment in ÔcyberspaceÕ
will need to establish some of the characters of a ÔplaceÕ. Important in this
matter is the presence of peripheral information. This will, on a social level,
keep a person aware of the environment (virtual) and adds to a realistic
interface between man and computer. In a future where digital devices will
complement and at certain times replace the real world, the traditional screens
of these devices will not be sufficient in providing this extra information.
Essential for social performance will be a further intertwining of the two
worlds, keeping a person down to earth and up in cyberspace at the same time.
The effects on
our social interaction due to the introduction of all the digital technologies
and their virtual connection possibilities can both be seen as similar to
present day as well as with far reaching consequences for our local situations.
We most likely wonÕt change our socializing habits very much. However the
option of not going to a physical meeting place of what ever kind but instead
choosing the virtual alternative, perhaps a thousand kilometres away, will
influences urban and local socializing activities.
Relations
Much of our
social interaction can be identified as being social contact with people we
know to some extend and because of a certain specific aspect of our daily life.
The colleagues at work, a tennis partner, the G.P., the group of friends with
whom you share your interest in stamps or whatever, in other words your
acquaintances. These relations, our secondary relations, can benefit a lot from
the virtual places we are creating. When being complementary to the physical
world, making arrangements, setting up meetings, sharing information, will be
more easy and can at the same time generate an extra need to meet the other
party in person or give the freedom to continue work or live life from a
certain location without having to personally catch up with someone. At the
same time however they will also affect these secondary relations. We see it
happen that a person has the choice of meeting some of his acquaintances in
person and others, just via the internet. Priorities will change and because of
the growing possibilities in meeting people, the time spend with each of the
acquaintances will grow less.
Our living and
working conditions have over the past 15 years been under a stronger and
stronger influence of the new digital technologies. They create an environment
that leaves us options to increasingly make up flexible working schedules,
possibilities of working from home or from temporally working environments. Also
they leave us more and more freedom to combine working and living in a more
intertwined way. Most of these changes depend on the user-interface; which is
developing to be more users friendly all the time. Restructuring living and
working arrangements can cause a social effect in our approach to our (future)
secondary relations. They will perhaps be spread all over the world. Also it is
already showing that the virtual world will be a generator for meeting more and
more people who share similar interests, maybe on a professional level but very
likely just on the level of personal interest. Generally speaking the result of
improving the interface between a person and a digital device will make it
easier for this person to get in contact with someone who has similar
interests.
Now we face a new
phenomenon, it will be possible for us to meet someone with similar interests,
without the mutual necessity of knowing more about this person. This relation
seems to replace the traditional tertiary relationship; the relation we
socially needed to establish, to get a service from someone we had no further
interest in. For most of us this service-relation is more often an annoyance
than a pleasure. It is probably not the nicest way of putting it but for
example; waiting in a long supermarket-queue to pay your groceries at a counter
where the lady/man is clearly not enjoying her/him self and grumpily lets you
know how much you have to pay this time, is not my idea of nice and usefully
spend quality time. In the near future weÕll have a choice not to spend our
time on those relations but on those that have our priority, like this new
phenomenon of tertiary relations based on similar interests. However, this
shift will have two consequences that possibly are not just positive. To start
with, the service person that might sometimes be of great annoyance also bears
in him the specific recognizability and trust that comes with his function. A
virtual alternative can hardly be expected to have a similar effect. It will
not always be necessary of course but in some cases and to some people the lack
of these persons can be quite threatening. The second remark to this shift is
that the new tertiary relation will change the identity of relations in general
to some degree. Social encounters will apart from being virtually also be
shorter and the number of contacts will rise exponential. The limit is no
longer defined geographically; your virtual connection brings the world easily
within reach. Nor is there the natural threshold of introduction, like we know
this from our secondary relations. Clearly this anonymity has its advantages,
the virtual relation even has a potential as equalizer, where markers like age,
gender and race are no longer an issue and can be hidden behind expertise and knowledge.
ÔÔThey (virtual meeting places) provide well-bounded, socially useful
opportunities to experiment with self-representation and alternative
identities, and to step temporarily into the shoes of othersÕÕ2. We
already see that this kind of anonymity has also got negative aspects, which
are hard to deal with and in the physical world can also have very severe
consequences. Dating chat-boxes for example that attract men or women that have
the intention of victimising the other party is already a reality. Within
certain boundaries the change from a traditional service-relation (tertiary
relation) to one that is based on personal interest and priorities seems to be
a very positive development capable of greatly enriching ones personal
interests. At the same time these relations ensure you to keep some personal
distance in order to not start a relation more like our secondary relations. A
great possibility is obviously that through the large number of tertiary
relations you might find new personal acquaintances or even personal friends.
The other part of
our social interaction is devoted to our close friends and family, our primary
relations. These relations evolve around a general interest in the
personalities and are more intimate in their nature. It is very interesting to
see these relations develop at present time under influence of the digital
media. Since long families and other close ties have been in a movement of
physical separation The times that it was normal for whole families to live
together in one big house are long gone, but ever since the personal contact
with relatives remained one of the key factors of life. The idea of this
changing under influence of the virtual world, digital devices and smarter
interfaces seems doubtful; a Ôvirtual mumÕ is just not sufficient when a
serious hug is needed from ÔmumÕ. What we probably will see happening is these
new technologies liberating us from being severely locally bound. They can
function as Ôsupport-structuresÕ at times relatives canÕt be together, for
example because of choices to move elsewhere or professional obligations
wherever on the planet. It is at those times that virtual places can really
create freedom and possibilities without trying to replace, instead possibly
even intensify, any of the existing physical qualities.
Our relations
will develop through the development of our technologies, but at the basis
weÕll continue to find a social behaviour that is basically just natural human
behaviour, complemented by a new group of semi-anonymous relations, with whom
weÕll have to learn how to establish a new kind of social behaviour. The
digital telecommunication media will be a mechanism for economic and social
integration on a global scale but in a way that hasnÕt found its own
equilibrium of social patterns yet. Our personal world will still consist of a gemeinschaft and a gesellschaft. The first being a group we can closely
relate to, our family and close friends, supported by the virtual to establish
and maintain strong ties. The second being our ÔoutsideÕ world; the unknown,
anonymous places where we can observe, learn and meet, complemented or replaced
by a virtual alternative. At times a global and at other times a super-local
alternative is offered by means of our developing interfaces to enter virtual
places.
Urban
consequences; homes and cities
Our perception of
ÔhomeÕ is quite broad, from large complete family mansions to single person
apartments, communal living and student residences. They have one element in
common, for that specific person or group it (hopefully) provides the necessary
protection and functions as a shelter. Living on your own geographically
defined spot called ÔhomeÕ will have to face some renewed aspects. For home to
have the quality, or maybe even necessity, to be a safe-haven for the
inhabitants, the virtual world forms a new dilemma. That is to say, if home
needs to be a safe-haven from the outside world this will conflict with one of
the basic features of the virtual world, which is to give access to this outside
world. On the other hand the ÔhomeÕ now has got a great new potential of being
the mediator between intimate relations relying on protection; and all the
other social relations that might be encountered via the virtual world. Amongst
others, the architect will have to play an important role in establishing this
new dimension to homes, in a physically build form. Questions about permanence
and mobility will need an answer considering the changing facets of life under
influence of better interfaces and smarter digital devices. These technologies
generate a new form of mobility but also take away some of the reliable aspects
of our physical and concrete social life. To counterbalance these changes home
could more and more be given the identity of a permanent beacon.
Furthermore this
new scale level that we are facing in the virtual world, a global scale level,
will give the house the identity of being the very most local in a global
network. The role of the city, the rural and any other form of urbanisation is
therefore no longer the same. Because of the global digital network, isolated
areas now have similar ÔvirtualÕ potential, the character of the location
remains but it is intertwined with a much larger world. A new emphasise on the
local and global seems to complement the existing emphasise on cities and their
surroundings. Cities have always been characterized by their ability of
containing a higher number of linkages (physical and virtual) than other
urbanized areas. The introduction of telecommunication-infrastructure with the
arrival of the telephone started a process of great increase in the density of
linkages within cities and between them. Digital infrastructure will densify
even more and will make worldwide connections on a dense and non-hierarchic
level. Some of the urban consequences relate closely to the identity of ÔhomeÕ;
solitary homes, homes being part of larger communities or being part of the
cityscape, but in all cases also directly linked to a virtual environment.
Environments that have long been identified with social interaction and various
relational opportunities, the very possibility of urban public life, so to
speak, are now facing a new competitor, one that doesnÕt demand a physical
context. New opportunities arise as old ones disappear, new urbanity could
consist of smaller, more intimate living environments, inside cities as well as
outside. Cities will start to perform even more than they already do as social
melting pots with highly defined identities. This is there means of countering
but also complementing virtual meeting places as these places will always lack
the face to face vibrancy of seeing and being seen, meeting and being met.
Living environments, containing ÔhomesÕ can get a great boost out of
tele-workers and people choosing their own hours, let alone people with
children who will have the opportunity to be around them more often. It will
generate local services and activity at any time of day and hopefully will
re-establish small-communities own specific social structure. Relations;
primary, secondary and tertiary, will find there own ways to the surface, both
via physical and via virtual media. The role that urban architecture and
planning can play in this process is obvious. It has the chance to provide
solid bases, safety and security, while at the same time these bases can also
generate possibilities of personal adaptations, changes, social intertwining
and age and racial mixing. Planning urban development with both the physical
and the virtual consequences in mind will be fundamental as initiator of the
process, not as a final result if any form of project wants to be given a
chance of survival on a longer term.
Scale levels of
the interfaces
The scale level
of any kind of digital device in a personÕs daily life is of fundamental
importance. It determines how the device relates this person to his
surroundings and to human-to-human relations. If, for example, this person has
access to a virtual environment from a fixed place in his home this will
generate different virtual and physical social interaction than if he has the
freedom to connect a mobile unit anywhere he would normally move in his
physical environment. Anticipating on the implementations of different devices
and interfaces is essential for creating or avoiding certain effects it may
contain in social interaction. Of course the individual decides for himself
what media suites his convenience best. Not necessarily does this imply that on
a larger scale the interfaces cannot be more adapted to an integrated use where
virtual and physical are more elaborately interwoven.
It is best to see the present digital
structure as a large-scale, widely available, heterogeneous used utility. It is
a system of interlinked and interacting devices. A utility made to be operated
by and assist a person or a group in a way that there is easy access to virtual
places. When we place the individual in a physical surrounding we find that the
smallest scale devices link to larger scale, fixed devices, which in turn link
to global scale devices. Zooming in from the city scale weÕll find possible
connections almost everywhere related to an overall network, we find fixed
group connections like intranets, mobile personal connections and fixed
personal connections. The impact of a digital interface, either as a means to
socialize in a virtual surrounding or in the gathering of info, on daily life
is large. However because there is so many scale levels that have there own
kinds of interfaces and options it has to be taken into account that social
interaction is affected in different ways on; an individual level, a group
level and on a society level. The individual has to be placed in a context,
both physical and virtual, like my friend in the introduction. Groups have to
make decisions on the openness and accessibility of there communal networks.
These small-scale networks could very well turn out to be highly elaborate
virtual meeting places for secondary relations. On the level of society it
means that attention of individuals is going to be divided between physical and
virtual meeting-places. Much of this division will be based on the availability
of personal, mobile devices and on the interaction between these devices and
the direct environment. For example in a vibrant city-centre one could imagine
the interaction between a personal info-device and its direct physical
surrounding to create connections with friends who are maybe in town as well or
want to be part of a nice gathering of friends via a virtual link. The
personalization and mobilization of information and social connections relies
on larger scale networks that in themselves have the capability of connecting
people as well via personal fixed links and group links.
Virtual and
physical relations
ÔÕOf course, time
spent interacting online is time spent not doing something else. It is easy to
leap from observing this to the conclusion that surfing cyberspace substitutes
for more socially desirable face-to-face interaction with family, neighbours,
friends and urban strangers in public spacesÕÕ3. Our virtual
environments fulfil a role in society that isnÕt new in it self. By means of
new digital technologies it has been given a great impulse to develop into a
serious addition in the social interaction between individuals in society. The
largest changes are taking place in our heads; there we have to realize that
certain relations can benefit greatly from the virtual environments. The new
digital devices and easy to use interfaces support both primary and secondary
relations. Clearly, physical and virtual world are complementary in these
cases. More generally speaking the result of improving the interface between a
person and a digital device will make it easier for this person to get in
contact with someone who has similar interests no matter what there relation
is. Here appears also the bigger challenge that has to be dealt with. It
concerns our tertiary relations; they are short, often non-personal and very
much a part of everyday getting-along in society. Under influence of the virtual
world there is a chance that by replacing them by virtual equivalents a
valuable part of our social behaviour will be lost and new alternatives will
have to rise. Cities will adapt to this by getting an ever-stronger identity,
or by dieing out. It will partly be a challenge for architects and planners to
make the former happen not the latter. Small residential communities where both
virtual and physical worlds have been given attention seem a very good
alternative to our present-day large scale and often-anonymous suburbia. By
introducing those communities the danger of Ôblack-holeÕ areas rises, they
could appear in the cityscape, because of a lack of attention or too little
mixture of social groups. Our personal relation with our digital devices will
keep on growing as the interfaces that connects us to the virtual world keeps
getting more advanced. Mobility will keep on doing what it does since a long
time ago; giving us the freedom to go where we want with our material identity.
This is likely to be counteracted by a greater urge for permanence at the
basis. Whether this is on the scale of a home or a permanent uplink to
cyberspace.
The relation
between the virtual and physical world is far from crystallized, if it ever
will. Our physical world and our virtual world will complement, replace and
support each other. Like it goes for most people the convenience of having a
mobile phone for example is also its downside; youÕre constantly in touchÉ
Edwin Strik
April 2003
School: K.A.R.C.H.
Course: Virtual places
Main teacher: B. gronlund
Literature:
-
e-topia,
William J. Mitchell,1999
-
the rise of
the network society, Manuel Castells, 1996
-
survey: the
internet society,
htp://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=1534295
1.) page 31,
e-topia, W.J. Mitchell
2.) page 87,
e-topia, W.J. Mitchell
3.) page 90,
e-topia, W.J Mitchell