Real vs. Imaginary Communities

“. . .Rather than being constrained by the computer, the members of these groups creatively exploit the systems’ features so as to play with new forms of expressive communication, to explore possible public identities, to create otherwise unlikely relationships, and to create behavioral norms. In so doing, they invent new communities.”(Reid, 1995)”

 Cyber communities are transcending the physical boundaries that usually accompany other communities. They can be any size, defined by the number of members. However, since these communities don’t actually possess boundaries, some researchers claim that they are “imaginary” communities that do not merit a deep study.

However, Oldenburg (1989) makes claims that online communities are actually filling a niche. We travel through three main areas during our daily rituals.  We have the place we live, the place we work, and the place where we interact with others. This used to be the domain of pubs, cafes and other such environments but increased urbanisation and developments such as the spread of malls and the stifling of humans leaves this gap sorely empty. Logging into an online community no matter what the form is the equivalent of popping at your local bar for a quick chat with the locals. 

Wearable Technology

In recent years, miniaturization has increased. Taser jacket?

L’echarpe Communications – Techy scarf

1. Wearable computer, worn not carried

2 .User controllable

3. Real time, always active.

4. Cool

Steve Mann

Existech’s fashionable products for security, eSafety

“Maybe Camera – Who’s paranoid?” – A piece of acrylic on a sweatshirt which LOOKS like a camera but may or may not be. Complete with privacy disclaimer!

Audio ballerinas

Audio peacock (what?)

Dialtones, a telesymphony

Mobile phones annoy the heck out of people. But it is still an instrument, yet has no place for them to be performed properly at.

Paul De Marinis

“Raindance” 1998

“Firebirds” 2004

Joachim Sauter ART + COM

“Famous Grouse Experience”

“Medial stage and costume design

David Rokekby

“Very Nervous system”  1986-1990

Paul Garrin / David Rokeby

Erikki Kurenniemi

DIMI ballet 1971

Paul Sermon

“Telematic dreaming” 1992

“Telematic Vision” 1993

Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz

“Satellite arts project” 1977

“hole in space” 1980

Nam June Paik

“Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” 1984

We live in a changing world, this is something that we have known for many years. The information age exploded into our lives during the 1990’s and has continued to grow exponentially ever since. The shift has been from the creation of products, to the handling of information, of which there is now an overwhelming amount.

Videos, documents, music, encyclopaedias are all bow deeply integrated within digital mediums such as the internet.This influx of information is staggering for the human mind, so this has led to the creation of interaction design.

There is too much information in the world for anybody to access it in it’s raw form. Interaction Design was formed as a way of creating ways to easily access and manipulate data, in ways that make natural sense. This has led to the evolution of the internet and in turn, the extension of the internet into our everyday lives. Now we can access information from almost anywhere we desire, from computers, laptops and cellphones.The evolution of the internet has also led us to the age of Web 2.0, a shift in focus of the internet from being a static collection of pages with meaningful links between them, to focusing more on user generated content and the manipulation of existing information by said users.

Community orientated websites such as Facebook and Youtube have offered the user for the first time, the ability to EASILY make a place for themselves on the internet without having to delve into the dark world of programming.

But as demand and the volume of information grows, new methods need to be developed for people to interact with their data. In the future, how will we interact with our data in not only cyberspace, but the real world as well?These new future methods of interaction are already in development, such as the proliferation of radio (RFID) tags for giving real world items a presence on the Internet and the constant development of wireless technologies, for allowing us constant access to reams of data which become more and more relevant to our actions in the real world.

So in conclusion, what technologies and methods will interaction designers provide us with for interacting with online communities in the future?

Bibliography:

Dan Saffer – The Future of Interaction Design: Berkley, New Riders 2007

Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline - Quentin Jones JCMC 3/12/97 - http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue3/jones.html

JCMC VOl 10 Issue 4 - Online Communities - http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/

Ethnomethodology and the study of online communities: exploring the cyber streets -  Steven R. Thomsen, Joseph D. Straubhaar, Drew M. Bolyard - http://informationr.net/ir/4-1/paper50.html

Second Life Research - Guido Lang - http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/ 

Social Interaction Design Guide: Social Media, Social Practices, Social Content - Adrian Chan - http://www.gravity7.com/articles_G7_SxD_Social_Content-12-21-06.html

Design and Postmodernity

“Postmodernity is everywhere, from literature, design and philosophy, to MTV, ice-cream and underwear” – Michael J Dear and Steven Flusty

                                             Spaces of Postmoderism

                                             2003

-ities and –isms

-ities describe the value system, that ideology

-isms are the qualities associated with those ideas.

Post modernity: the state or ideaology of being postmodern

Postmodernism: The associations of being postmodern

Value systems provide societal, cultural, and economic meaning

Design features of Post WWII

Shows innovation and technologically based design

HfG – Rotary Slide projector - 1963

         - electric shaver - 1961

Levitown – thousands of houses in rows, nature suppressed

-       Depressed housewives, “is this all?”

-       Lack of public facilities

Postmodernism about choice, feminism about choice

Those disabled, different race, religion, all fitted into woman’s lib, global awareness. Woman’s lib postmoderist

Richard Hamilton – “Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, SO Appealing.”

         - Collage, 1956, Tate, London

 Abstract Expresionism

De Kooning’s Untitled XXIII, 1977

Shifano, Mario Coca Cola, 1972

70’s CRAZY design man.

3-Legged Arne Jacobsen Ant Chair, 1952.

Form moulded Plastic

1970’s Apollo design. Looks like a space helmet :/

1962 Oldenburg Cloth Hamburger

1967 Inflatable Blow Chair

1968 Bean bag chair

1981 Carlton cabinet – Ettore Sottsass

1969 Portable red typewriter – Olivetti

1970 Nefertiti desk

1985 Tartar Table

Paris – Student Uprising

Mechanical Calculator

Slide Rule

Apple Computer

WWW – 1993

Semiotics

Structuralism

                  Sign

                  ^      ^

             ^              ^

         ^                         ^

Signified———————Signifier

Gaston Bachelard

The Poetics of Space 1958

Underlies the rationalism of the imagination

Phenomenology, the experience of space, includes the poetic notion.

Basement: Dark, damp frightening

Attic: Light, mysterious, discovering of secrets

Difference between horizontal and vertical

 Jean-Francois Lyotard 1925-1998

The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge

Knowledge has become ‘splintered’ into fragments.

The synthesis of a small narrative, the telling of events.

-       Discourse opens without pre-conditions, no rules or conditions…

Postmodern narrative is situational, provisional, temporary, with no claim to universality, truth or reason.

Science legitimates itself for reasons which assume a unified, progressive, universal total truth…

But none of these are so…

Bias and distortion have changed blah blah blahfgdfsjkghdfg

Frederick Jameson 1934

Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 1991

Postmodern war (Vietnam) created a postmodern culture of alienation and disorientation. High-tech fantasies are morally questionable.

Jean Baudrillard 1929-2007

Simulcra and Simulation 1988

Values of commoditities as a philosophy of culture

-Functional value of an object (eg pen)

I’m setting up categories in my blog now so that I can tag each post and have them ordered into subjects, rather than have three seperate blogs, one for each subject.

For future reference, the link to the research aspect of my blog is
Huh, my link seems to be busted. Well anyway, it’s http://burning-water.com/blog/archives/category/course-blogs/271-history-blog

Search for philosophical language

1. To serve as an auxiliary language for people to communicate (common language)
2. Scientific language – simplified system of symbolism
3. Logical calculus – powerful instrument of the human mind

John Wilkins – Bishop of Chester (1614-1672)

            Attempted to create universal language

-“An Essay Towards a Real Character and A Philosophical Language”

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)

            -“Characteristica Universalis” Universal Character

            Add numbers to determine meaning

Discovered binary notation system – Existed 2000 years previous in Eastern countries.

Charles Babbage

            -“Analytical Engine” 1834

            Early calculator, forerunner of the computer, never completed

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

            -First computer programmer

Alan M. Turing (1912-1954)

            -Founder of computer science

            -Turing machine, really simple but can calculate a lot of stuff, theoretical

Turing test – “If you communicate with a computer in another room through a terminal not knowing if it is a computer or human, then you have true AI.”

1947 – Worked on software in Cambridge

1952 – Convicted on acts of gross indeceny (gay? – what the hell)

Konrad Zuse: Z3 computer 1941

            Was working in isolation from other sources

Founded first computer start up company

Late 1960s, suggested calculation based space (fledlging internet?)

First fully functional programmable computer – mechanical relays

Colossus at Bletchley Park 1944

            -Reduced time to crack messages from weeks to hours

Norbert Wiener “Cybernetics” 1948

            Developed field of cybernetics – means to extend human capability

            First human-machine interaction designer

IBM 701 – First commercial scientific computer 1952

            Sold 19 over 2 years

PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) 1960

            Most well known for creation of hacker culture

            First game – SpaceWar! - Steve Russel

            Cathode ray tube

MIT – Center of computing universe

Atari – Pong

Ivan Sutherland –Sketchpad 1963

            Lightpen and screen for drawing directly on screen (tablet – woot)

            First program to fully use a gui

First non-procedural program (straightening lines)

First true object oriented system

Douglas Engelbart’s NLS demo (oN-Line System) 1968 – “The mother of all demos”

Presentation of hypertext linking, instant messaging, video conferencing, email,            Mouse, huge amount of technologies

Mouse developed in 1960’s, not used mainstream till 1980’s

1990’s

Pretty much a computer explosion

Media           

1834 Zoetrope

Eadweard Muybridge “The Horse in Motion”

Fantascope projection

Lanterna Magica – Early projector

Vladimir Tatlin 1919-1920

Bauhaus something

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

            -“my belief is that mathematically harmonious WORDS”

1930 Home Clavilux by Thomas Wilfred

            -First remote control?

Jean Tinguely, meta-Matic, No 17 1959

            -Homage to New York 1960

E.A.T – Experiments in Art and Technology

Nam June Paik – First video artist

Sony – First portable video/audio recorder

John Whitney – Father of Computer animation 1917-1995

Cybernetic Serendipity