......

"A new social type was being created by the apartment building, a cool, unemotional personality impervious to the psychological pressures of high-rise life, with minimal needs for privacy, who thrived like an advanced species of machine in the neutral atmosphere.  This was the sort of resident that was content to do nothing but sit in his over-priced apartment, watch television with the sound turned down, and wait or his neighbors to make a mistake...... their opponents were people who were content with their lives in the high-rise, who felt no particular objection to an impersonal steel and concrete landscape, no qualms about the invasion of their privacy by government agencies and data processing organizations, and if anything welcomed these invisible intrusions, using them for their own purposes.  these people were the first to master a new kind of late twentieth-century life.  they thrived on rapid turnover of acquaintances, the lack of involvement with others, and total self-sufficiency of lives which, needing nothing, were never disappointed."   




"She referred to the high-rise as if it were some kind of huge animate presence, brooding over them and keeping a magisterial eye on the events taking place. There was something in this feeling -- the elevators pumping up and down the long shafts resembled pistons in the chamber of a heart. The residents moving along the corridors were the cells in a network of arteries, the lights in their apartments the neurones of a brain."






  -- J. G. Ballard, Excerpts From: High-rise

...Image of The Invisible...

The intensity in times square...

The New System...

Simulation_1

Simulatin_2

MetaMarket... notes 

As we move further into the 21st century and metadata takes the market what does this say to the notion of identity?  currently our identity is 'that which is identical to our selves'.  the things which make up 'US'.  things we own, histories we lived, plans we make,.......  is metadata our new 'identity'?

what is identity?

The Halo of the Strange...

 some ideas toward the possible chapters for the book, obviously a bit sketchy.  these are probably in no way what the actual titles will be...and probably not the content either....

The idea:

—     technology and the age of media: (a discussion of the condition in which we exist, technology and how it is shaping the ways we experience, interprit, and exist in the our environment.)

—   the evolution of the web:   (an insight into the condition of the web from its introduction [web 1.0], and its evolution to 2.0 and whats in store for us) 

the site:

—     times square, a process:  (The condition of times square and the process leading to the mediation of the architectural environment)

—     the void, 1 times:  (a bit about the architecture of the void [whatever that means])

—     times square left behind:  (a discussion of the existing condition of times square in terms of media, technology, interaction, social networking, etc and how it might be outdated)

the project:

—     continuing the process:  (how one can use dynamics to take the existing condition of one times sq. and project it into the future)

—     bringing times square into the future:  (a catalyst for bringing times square into the condition that will exist in a web-3.0 world, and ultimately the future.  forecasting the condition that will exist in the future, and designing for that condition)

—     the program:  (a bit about what will take place)

¿Whats at stake?

The idea:

How will technology, hyperconnectivity, social networking, media…. Change the way we experience the environment and interact with each other?  How can we begin to design for that changed condition?

As technology advances so does the way we interact with it.  One comment from the midterm jury was, what is at stake in the future and what does that mean for times square?  What will technology be like in 20 years and how can we design for that?  Will Times Square be out dated?  Is times Square really so integrated when it comes to technology or is it just a manifestation of web 1.0?  If we are making the transition to web 2.0 (or possibly already deep into it) now, what is web 3.0 and how will that change or shape our interactions with it and others in the future?  Where does times Square fit into the mix?  Sure we think of it as being a show for interactive video and advertisements but in the grand sceme it is all operating in the realm of web 1.0 .  can this project become the catalyst that brings times square into the world of web 3.0.  so here is a bit about on the web versions and what they mean.

Web 3.0  Semantic Web

A simple wikipedia search defines Web 3.0 as a “web of data”.  A web that enables machines to understand the meaning or semantics of the information on the world wide web.  It extends the human readable hyperlinked pages by adding to them pages of metadata which the computer can read.  This is info on the nature of the pages and how they relate to each other.  So what does this mean?

The Evolution of the web:

Web 1.0

The web began as an informational portal, basically a read-only web.  Content was though of in terms of ownership and the game was to be the first to own the content that was hot at the time.  The web was generally thought of as a divided array of usable directories and everyone (everyone ‘using’ the web) would own a their own little slice of it in the form of simple home pages.  This was primarily used for and thought of as a business tool.

Web 2.0

In the notions of web 2.0 we see the move toward a read-write version of the web.  Homepages became blogs and facebook/myspace pages where the information would become content that is continuously updated rather then simple static information.  This new read-write web marks the beginning of the web platforms (seen in things such as google os).The web would be seen then in terms of community rather then corporation or business.   This puts the focus on the power of community to create and validate.  We see this in the move from Britannica onine (web 1.0) to Wikipedia (web 2.0) where collective opinion is valued as much as editorial publication.  This new web community offered a glimpse into a more free form of integration and organization and views toward future integration of new systems.   The dynamic capabilities of this web system is obviously a prime estate for advertising.  

Web 3.0

The read-write web is replaced ultimately with a portable personal web where everything is tailored to each persons specific needs/wants/uses/etc.  The focus on the web as a community becomes a focus on the individual.  Blogs become lifestreams, a total digital collection of all you do and have done starting with a digital certificate of birth.  Instead of shared content, web stuff is thought of as dynamic content that exists on the web and is organized to each person specifically.  The web based platform will ultimately lead to a condition where widgets, apps, etc are the way we navigate.  The simple advertisements become interactive, personalized, pointed, advertainment blurring the lines between advertisement and entertainment.  it all centers around metadata...

The idea of metadata is not new, especially in the computer science field, and even in the stock trading where metadata is understood as information about stock data.  when properly understood and interpreted, stock market metadata, also simply referred to as stock metadata, “can help you picture what is happening with a particular company’s stock.  So if there is a trading trend developing, one of the tools used to spot that trend as it moves along the stock marked is market metadata.”  Example…. If you want to buy shares in a company, you might want to have an idea of what 15-minute period of the trading day do shares of that company statistically trade at their lowest points.  This information (and other stuff such as relationships with other trades and companies) is a stocks metadata.  It its this information that makes up a sort of stock 'identity'.  This metadata is currently sold with trading services such as ameritrade, etrade, and others.  The question is if in the future will there be a market for Metadata.  A place where Metadata might be sold, bought, and traded like stock?  Might this new Metadata Market be a way Times Square can enter the world of web 3.0?

More infor on stock metadata:

http://www.peaceforhaiti.com/tag/metadata

¿Midterm? Responses and Questions

What is the purpose "program" of the spaces?  This is an important question.  the juries offering was that in looking at near future scenarios, one might identify a condition that can be assumed to exist in that scenario and design for that.

¿Midterm?

Bringing the void out into the plaza

Sketch of what kind of spatial condition might occur

System Deployed....

As a continuation of the process that led to the current condition of one times sq. a dynamic system was set up using the lines and striations from the existing art deco facade and the signs that cover it.  disturbances occurred in the simulation between the lines of the art deco facade and the lines of the advertisements.  it was in these disturbances that i created space.