Navigating the Virtual Age with Postmodernism Principles
In Learning from Pop, Denise Scott Browns writes:
“In fact, space is not the most important constituent of suburban form. Communication across space is more important, and it requires a symbolic and a time element in its descriptive systems which are now only slowly being devised.”
Dulled down, this publication helped to generate postmodernist architectural theory by rethinking how architects look and learn from the world. Brown is acknowledging the importance of communication across space and over time plays in constructing our world, or specifically the epitome of American consumerism in Las Vegas.
50 years later, we can and should apply this approach to how our environments are constructed in virtual reality, augmented reality, or mixed reality. Black Mirror has played around with several dystopian scenarios in concern to the increasing presence of these alternative realities and social medias in our society. How can designers and architects influence the creation of these spaces to strive for socially responsible and equitable technologies?
I had a similar line of thinking that reminded me of black mirror. How having my phone on me is kind of like carrying around my own personal Las Vegas strip at all times. Where instead of billboards the websites I visit have tailored their banner advertising to fit my interests. Seeing a suspicious ads about things mentioned in person. Not being able to watch a video without several ads. Hearing the same 5 company's sponsored segment in every single podcast I listen too.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s interesting is that now, there are some students that rather than practicing in the tactical built environment, they work designing digital cities and built environments. Aside from Minecraft and video games, there are apps that allow you to place a virtual item, be it a token or a building in the virtual world that can be experienced through a VR application. There have been areas that are basically littered with virtual tokens that are beginning to look like a digital junkyard. So even though they don’t take up physical space, they do take up space somewhere else and that world too we are beginning to ruin.
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