Final Year Studio - Research - Urban Screens Manchester -Circulez Y'a Rien a Voir

Image Coutesy of James Wellock, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

On the 11th October 2007 I visited Manchester for Europe's Urban Screens exhibition. One of the works on show was Circulez Y'a Rien a Voir and it was very interesting to see the insallation live.

Due to its size and noise the installation seemed to attract alot of attention from the audience. It reminded me of how an urban Graffiti area attracts young people. It was very interesting and questioned how you think you move through an urban environment, changing your perception of the area.

The only problem with it was that because the screen was specifically set up, it looked too much like an experiment. It looked too clinical and for me didn't seem to fit in with its surrounding architecture, thus diluting the urban interactive illusion.

FInal Year Studio - Research - A Wall is a Screen

Images courtesy of www.awallisascreen.com, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

A Wall is A Screen is an installation that is performed all over the world, by a dedicated groupd of artists. They believe that at night, after a busy commercially fueled day cities become lonsum and deserted.

During and evening the group will walk around the city picking up an audience by playing movies of walls of various buidings. It is organised like a tour and many films are watched throughout the evening as viewers come and go. The advantage of this media experience is that the audience may travel to places they have never been, even within their own city. It makes the viewer look at both the building and place in another dimension. This forces the audience to remember a place by a distinction not felt before, it could be that they once saw 'Casablanca' on that wall!

A key byproduct of this very 'urban' style cinema is that such things as street nioses and building surface texture make every veiwing experience different, even if it is the same movie. In a sense the texture upon which it can be shown can give a great warmth or coolness sense to the viewer, very much like the supposed exagerated difference between film and pixel. The decision of what movies to show is taken before hand and vary in theamatic focus.

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Dissertation - Initial Development - Initial Proposal

I propose to produce an investigation whose purpose is to understand the effect new 'Interactive Systems' such as the 'Internet' have on the way our learning environments teach students. To do this I will research firstly into the history of how the Internet was developed throughout the education sectors. Secondly I will investigate the effect this has had on the implementation of the new teaching style VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic) Learning. Thirdly I will look at what effect this has had on how students access information; its aesthetic, distribution and management design. This research along with a look at current conceptual learning network technologies should give me a vision of what the classroom of the future will look like. My main purpose for this project is to find out what key skills the introduction of interactive systems such as the Internet have gained us and what they have lost us.


Interactive Systems

For this I will first read specific essays, books and websites relating to the subject. This will give me a good idea as to how education institutions develop in relation to network technologies such as the Internet. Below are some sources:

Education in Cyberspace
Edited By: Ray Land and Sian Bayne - Library Floor 2 - 371.334 EDUR

Technology immersion: new tools in the hands of well-trained staff transform teaching and learning
Author: Dennis L. Peterson

Emerging Technologies and Distributed Learning
Author: Chris Dede

William J. Mitchell Learning, Education and Creativity Transcript


VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic) Learning

For this I will research in to how the Internet is being used to teach students in the new VAK Learning styles, which the Government is applying to all subjects along with compulsory ICT implementation in each. This will be done by reading specific material such as essays, books and websites: Below are some sources:

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Author: Howard Gardner - Library Floor 2 - 153.93 GAR

Enivisoning Information
Author: Edward R. Tufte - Library Floor 2 - 302.23 TUF

Adapting On-Line Education to Different Learning Styles
Author: Diana J. Muir

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intellegence Theory and VAK Learning

Project Zero: Artful Thinking


Personal Experience

Finally by recalling my memories and attending a present day secondary school, hopefully interviewing one of the staff. I will be able to ask how they use interactive systems in conjunction with VAK Learning styles to teach their pupils. This information in conjunction with my other research will create a conclusion which will forecast the future of the classroom and distinguish the positives and negatives of networking information for teaching. Below are some additional sources:

E-topia
Author: William J. Mitchell - Library Floor 2 - 303.4833 MIT

Quizcom - Interactive Class Learning System

Senteo - Interactive Response System

Actalyst - Interactive Digital Signage

FInal Year Studio - Research - Scribbling Waves

Image courtesy of www.babiole.net, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

Above is a peice that is performed by Cécile Babiole in 3D. As music is played she draws what she hears. The gestures of her hand modulates the sound she hears and is this is then displayed on the screen. Inspired by the 'Etch-a-Sketches' of her childhood, she uses MIDI controller knobs to scribble strokes onto the screen. It is to mimic the way a dreamy child might match up both sound and image.

This peice although not as interactive to the audience as her other peices is still interesting, just for its shear aesthetics. As the sounds play the graphics on screen seem to move like a ballet dancer moving across the stage. It is both elegent and beautiful, by using what Edward Burke calls "Gradual Variation."

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FInal Year Studio - Research - 100 Loops

Image courtesy of www.babiole.net, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

This next peice of work by Cécile Babiole builds on the intense sense stimulation of the previous peice. 100 Loops is a simple interactive internet peice that allows the user to click and control when each animation and its occumpanied sound is played.

The effect of this controlable "Information Bandwidth" is very interesting as it lets the user control how much information he or she can take at a time. For example when you double click 3 of the boxes you can manage to create a visual and audio rhythm that is very much like that of peice of music. But as you double click more and more of the boxes it becomes harder to both time and listen to the peice, as both animations and sound fight each other for the deminance of what Bruce Mau calls your "Sense Channels." Once all the boxes are clicked you become overstimualted by the information and everything ends up looking and sounding like a mess, your "Sense Channels" in a sense rupture.

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FInal Year Studio - Research - Incessamment

Image courtesy of www.babiole.net, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

Above is a video capture from Cécile Babiole's Incessamment, a video and sound installation that investigates into the notions of time and space represenation.

Intrigued by the fact that our globalized urban environments have many 24 hour CCTV surveillence systems focusing on specific places, Babiole proposed shooting an whole urban landscape form a singluar view point. This is then edited together with various urban sounds of traffic and industry and then sped up to create an algorithmic elegence of visual and sound rhythms.

The installtion consists of two video projections in a single place with the audience sandwaged in the middle. Sounds from each location are then broadcasted throughout the area as the peice navigates through space and time, creating direct links of image and sound with the audience.

This peice is very interesting to me because of the way Babiole has simply intensified what the senses are taking in by simply speeding up the video and audio of the medium. It is a very good example of when images and sounds can take on, what Josef Alber calls a third meaning(1+1=3 or more). The speeding up of the video and sounds give the urban landscapes an almost robotic, 'ant farm' feel to them, which in some places can look communistic and in others simply comical.

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FInal Year Studio - Research - Circulez Y'a Rien a Voir

circulez y'a rien a voir pic, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

Image courtesy of www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk

Circulez Y'a Rien a Voir is a public space insatllation by Cécile Babiole, and was first displayed at the +/- L'Epicerie in Paris, in December 2001. Designed to fit in the space of a shop window to interact with passers by, this image and sound installtion's title roughly translates into "move along now, there's nothing to see." A statement a policeman might say to scatter a crowd of people.

A simple definition of the piece is that of a survillence work where the passer by generates images and sounds by moving around in front of the projection space. Any movement is captured by a camera and converted into graphic patterns and sound modulations on the display screen.

This piece of work is a good example of something that tackles the audience perceptions of how they interact with their environment. Making an inactive space such as a manakin filled shop window physically interactive engages the audience on many more levels than a simply window decoration could. The audience is forced to understand that although they might not take any notice of the place they pass through, the place does of them.

Fortunately this specific piece will be displayed at the 'Urban Screens Manchester' exhibition, in Cathedral Gardens on the 11th October 2007, so I think I will have a trip there, see it live and blog any other thoughts I have of it.

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FInal Year Studio - Research - Cécile Babiole

babiole bio pic, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

Image courtesy of www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk

Cécile Babiole intially worked in the area of video and 3D animation design. Recently she has delved into the area of dynamic environments and the live treatment of both sound and images using real time processing.

She combines high and low level technologies that are usually seen as simple on and off devices. She uses public spaces to create humorous and inventive art installations that investigates technology and behavioural codes.

She looks interesting to investigate for me because her work challanges what we expect and require from public spaces. It engages passers by on various levels and really emphasises the effect of successfully tieing image and sound together when creating a single experience.

Click here for her website

Final Year Studio - Research - Information Interaction Sources

Below are some initial sources to start from which will help me develop my subject area:

Books:

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Author: Edmund Burke - Library Floor 5 - 320.5 BUR

Beauty and the Contempory Sublime
Author: Jermey Gilbert-Rolfe - Library Floor 3- 701.17 GIL

Beautiful Evidence
Author: Edward R. Tufte - Library Floor 2 - 302.23 TUF

Enivisoning Information
Author: Edward R. Tufte - Library Floor 2 - 302.23 TUF

E-topia
Author: William J. Mitchell - Library Floor 2 - 303.4833 MIT

ME++
Author: William J. MItchell - Library Floor 2 - 303.483 MIT

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Mulitple Intelligences
Author: Howard Gardner - Library Floor 2 - 153.93 GAR

Lifestyle
Author: Bruce Mau

Websites:

Bruce Mau Design

Beauty and Sublime Theory

Colour Theory by Worqx

David Rokeby - Installtion Artist

Design and Emotion Society

Edward R. Tufte - Graphic Information Display Designer

E-topia Review

Extra Burke Theory

Urban Screen Manchester

Minority Report Film Description

Robert Collyer - Photographer

Architecture and Digital Screen Media Technology Essay

William J. Mitchell Learning, Education and Creativity Transcript

William J. Mitchell Cyborg City Interview

A Wall is a Screen - Urban Installation Artists

Annette Shafer and Trampoline UK

Cecile Babiole - Installation Artist

CUBE : Centre for the Urban Built Environment

Dan Albritton and Jury Hahn - Mobile Installation Artists

The Light Surgeons - Light Engineers

Final Year Studio - Initial Area - Information Interaction

After spending my placement year as a Junior Graphic Designer I have started to understand and appreciate the use of image, graphics and text in both print and digital design to stimulate certain senses in the audience, these are known as 'Sense Channels.' These senses include, sight, hearing, touch, smell and even taste.

This came apparent to me when I wondered why I liked designing for print just as much as I did for digital applications. It came down to, what I later descovered to be, the 'Information Bandwidth' of each medium. For example a printed brochure will stimulate the same and also different senses when displaying information than a digital website. Both have pros and cons, but when we try to tailor a design to fill all medium requirements the design is said to be diluted and thus doesn't play on the pros of each medium.

Above is my initial investigation to find resources around the subject of 'Information Interaction' and new technology.

Dissertation - Initial Development - Initial Personsal Experience

As I have said below during my second year at university I started to look at technology interaction and then as I progressed through my placement year I got interested in how graphic design in both print and digital design can effect the experience the viewer has. I think in relation to interactive systems it may be worth having a look at 'Interfaces' both on-line and when being used with interactive classroom aids.

Dissertation - Initial Development - Initial Interactive Systems Sources

Below are initial sources that I have found when researching into Interactive Systems in the education:

Books:

E-topia
Author: William J. Mitchell - Library Floor 2 - 303.4833 MIT

Education in Cyberspace Essays
Edited By: Ray Land and Sian Bayne - Library Floor 2 - 371.334 EDU

David Rokeby's 'The Giver of Names'

Technology immersion: new tools in the hands of well-trained staff transform teaching and learning
Author: Dennis L. Peterson

Websites:

Quizcom - Interactive Class Learning System

Senteo - Interactive Response System

Actalyst - Interactive Digital Signage

William J. Mitchell Learning, Education and Creativity Transcript

More Books:

Learning through interaction : technology and children with multiple disabilities
Authors: Nick Bozic and Heather Murdoch - Library Floor 5 - 371.91028 LEA

Learning and teaching with computers : artificial intelligence in education
Authors: Tom O'Shea and John Self - Library Floor 5 - 371.39445 OSH

Teaching with multimedia
Authors: Martin Joyce and Darby Jonathan - Library Floor 5 - 378.179445 TEA

Design and production of multimedia and simulation-based learning material
Authors: Various - Library Floor 5 - 371.39445 TEL

Exploring interface design
Author: Marc Silver - Oldham LRC - 005.437 SIL

Dissertation - Initial Development - Initial VAK Learning Sources

Below are initial sources that I have found when researching into VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic) Learning:

Books:

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Author: Howard Gardner - Library Floor 2 - 153.93 GAR

Wesbites:

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intellegence Theory and VAK Learning

Project Zero: Artful Thinking

Katherine Benziger's Brain Dominance Model

Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence

Adapting On-Line Education to Different Learning Styles
Author: Diana J. Muir

Emerging Technologies and Distributed Learning
Author: Chris Dede

Eureka: The Musuem for Children in Halifax

Dissertation - Initial Development - Initial Venn Diagram

Initial Venn Diagram, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).

Above is an initial Venn Diagram so that I can try and narrow down some areas to start looking into, in relation to my interests. After spending my second year starting to investigate the area of how we interact within a computer environment and having a great interest in the use of graphic design in communciation after my placement year, I decided to start looking into the below subjects.

Personal experience will draw upon my personal accounts, usages and feelings towards teaching and learning with todays new technology to display specific information. VAK learning will delve into the new ways that information is taught today, while interactive systems will be an investigation into how these learning styles are and will be put into practice to teach various age groups.

Interaction

The feeling of beauty occurs when all our senses agree, in contrast it seems the sublime is felt when our senses are confused or out of balance.

Beautiful colours are calm pastel shades and the eye is seen as truly beautiful as it allows a glimpse into a person mind.

Where as beautiful is only seen as a positive experience the notion of 'sublime' can be sought both in the positive and negative scenarios.

Burke states the sublime is more often negative feelings that cause fear and dread, as this is a much stronger emotion that happiness.

This results in the core source of sublime being 'terror' and often it is used when describing biblical events.

Sublime is caused by something being intense, this may be light and darkness. The terror can often be raised dramatically the audience is hit with both light an dark at random times, this causes obscurities. The same can be said about sounds.

Sublime is caused when the environment the audience is in is vast but detailed just enough to over stimulate the eye retina and block other thoughts.

Sublime is how we try to rationalise events that we simply cannot explain. Before science, many religious events were described using real world adjectives to create the feeling of the sublime.

Burke states that this core terror is programmed into all of us, and because of this is classed as 'taste.'

Both the beautiful and the sublime must to take effect, stimulate the soul and senses before rational thinking can be engaged.

Beauty creates love and the sublime creates fear, this doesn't make them the same but instead of equal importance.

Beauty relaxes the viewer while the sublime shocks and over stimulates the audience into submission.

Both images and words can cause the effects of beauty as it is often the connotations of an object, the possibilities that have the greater effect.

In conclusion Burke states that the sublime stimulates the mind while the beautiful stimulates the soul.

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The London underground map goes to show that sometimes subconscious acts can some times have greater effect than conscious ones. I really asks the question where does true design come from and backs up Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.

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Thanks to 'ctrl z' accidents now really happen and this in turn stops the occurrence of 'creative accidents' or 'happy mistakes.' We should embrace the interruptions and the triumphs, to create more interesting work.

Free flowing movement is a lot harder to replicate on screen than it is in the real world. This makes 'gradual variation' in some cases twice has harder to master.

Style is charisma, it is the way something is implemented, it is new thinking. For example Pele's bicycle kick. Designers must develop this style and this is a core reason why computers cannot create something beautiful. Design is using past influences to come with something new, but all a computer may have is a 'cookies,' it can't think outside of the box, make links and reinterpret information without human interaction.

Digital or physical design must communicate meaning by the rules of human interaction or 'performativity.'

This GIE has crammed the world we live in and over stimulates all of us. He uses to describe all classes of design and states that this is the barrier that you design must wrestle with and stand out from.

Mau states that as the places we travel become more and more like each other. We are starting to only find cultural attraction in the taboo local activities.

Mau states that music creates notions of love (beauty) and images create notions of the terror (sublime).

In publishing it is better to perform what you are teaching rather than just illustrate it.

Design must partner context and content. You must show a journey of understanding through you design, take the audience on the journey you have walked.

Before post script systems, code type was used. Code systems such as 'Archie' became much cheaper when 'visual display' systems came on to the market, but needed a much higher skilled worker to use them.

Mau really believes that authors of the content must be involved in the design.

'The society of the spectacle states' states seductive advertising is evil. It is the taboo of sexual advertised products that attracts us to them.

Mau states that the audiences 'history of access' or past experiences allow them to navigate at most 4 difference styles of information layout, without becoming confused.

'Image weave' - the Libertine reader

Design must use the audience's 'cone of vision.' It must work under the radar for the greatest effect. Rationalisation and other thinking should not occur, it simply should be seen as the only way something could have been implemented.

This then begs the question that due to ease of access to graphic applications, logos will start looking like each other, due to fact that images can have more connotations than graphics, i.e. more scope.

Thanks to such websites as 'Amazon.com' that distribute products internationally at relatively low cost, you design must now compete on an international scale. One successful way to do this is of course to create a brand or 'voice.'

The GIE is crammed with 'voices' from various entities all striving for your attention and time.

Mau states that companies such as Nike, McDonalds and Coca-Cola, have 'brand equity' and in fact are very transparent to the public.

Thanks to digital development 'perfection' is truly attainable target. This then stops the process of accidents being developed and in some cases can narrow the width of the idea. This has happened most notably in photography where post capture reviewing hasn't allowed accidents to be developed and built upon in post production. It seems accidental abstract has been replaced by photo realistic reproduction and modification. This means that thanks to Photoshop the image can now lie and deceive the audience more than it ever could before.

For speed and circulation the computer is to the image what the typewriter was to text. It begs the question, that due to the ease and speed of image manipulation could images become a serious internationally language.

In design 'amplifiers' must be used to exaggerate key areas from the background noise. This can be done by scale, colour, and shape.

'Bandwidth' today plays a key role in design. A web-site more often than not has more depth and bandwidth than a note of paper. But a well produced book has more bandwidth than a web-site due to its physical 'subliminal messages.' The way digital is attaining this physical attribute is by making the digital content more interactive, for example virtual reality and art installations. It is all about engaging the senses, the more senses you stimulate the more of the viewers attention you have, and maybe even their emotions.

Great design should cause the 'third event,' let the reader compare and contrast, then conclude.

Marketing and television are the 20th Century's 'cloaking. devices. Television is marketing at light-speed. Memorable events are named after 5 years, historic after 10 years. TV as speeded up how we relate to the world, the internet can only make this quicker, information at 'hyper-speed' maybe?

Typography is seen as a 'black art,' it contains cognitive to associative meanings. Unlike cognitive, associative meaning evolves with time and fashion. Designers uses these associative meanings to open up channels between the design and viewer, increasing the bandwidth. This only grows with repetition of image and meaning.

Typography's job is to deliver content by changing our attention. Typography in a sense is closely linked to architecture as it can only develop as much as convention and legibility let.

Design is about shaping time and attention, typography and images are used to create an 'ethos.' It concerns the 'Gestalt' or the overall environmental effect. It is the ability we have to instantly recognise logos etc.

Like TV, typography can control the speed in which information travels. Both reader and viewer must be taken in consideration and 'tracks' laid down to make sure the design appeals to both. Type must be used by understanding how it normally laid out, one example of this is the 'orthogonal gird.' Here typography is closely linked to mass production trends.

The grid pattern can be disregarded as avant-garde, 'Free-Form Typographic Poets' did. The text performed its content rather than just displayed it. Here there is two ways of displaying information, the first offers it on a plate and because of this, is the quickest. The second makes the viewer put together the information in their own head, causing the act of thinking.

It is ok to strive for 'perfection' but once it is achieved and reproduced it loses its uniqueness and in turn its character.

One attack on the extra bandwidth interaction has in relation to the book, was the 'Book Machine.' Here a 'feedback loop' was created so that the book could grow, develop, decay, die and be reborn.

In relation to controlled bandwidth to information it is maybe interesting to look at some communist states rules on marketing and advertising.

'Boredom' is the brains attempt at keeping the status quo. Another model to Burkes 'taste' theory is Ira Greenburgs, 'common visual algorithmic literacy.' This usually occurs when the right and left part of the brain integrate.

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William J. Mitchell states the city as an interactive environment cannot exist as it it has for centuries. The digital telecommunications revolution will introduce networked living and change this.

Just like 'piped water' made the village redundant as a public meeting space. Cyberspace will allow us to interact with each other much more abstractly rather than linear. Cities will stop having centres and start becoming modular, we will make virtual places to meet, as we did with cafes etc.

As the bandwidth of information we are exposed to becomes grater our physical interactions will become less and less. For example before TV, the fireplace was where the family socialise. This then changed to the tv and social interactions decreased, you could argue that now with the internet and ability to view information anywhere in the house that the family relationship has hit rock bottom?

'Informatization' is now following 'electrification' and allowing us to access information from anywhere at anytime, much to the demise of the small library.

Information is de-centralised, even images and text move through cyberspace at light speed without being bound to paper.

More information though doesn't automatically result in a greater understanding though, as garbage data is still garbage what ever medium it is in.

Silicon is the new steel, and the internet the new roman road.

The more 'bits' you can push through a cable, the more complex the interaction can be. Once the internet could only manage typing and clicking, now it can display video and audio,

Mitchell states that the network will become the computer, as POPs of points of presence become more available.

Online meeting places are such websites as San Francisco Bay area's 'Well' and New York city's 'echo.'

In some cases such as 'Fidonet' simple access to text information is enough. Small communities could then get access to education and medical resources.

TV screens are based on Giovanni Battista Aleotti's theatre design in the Baroque period. Here audiences were entombed in a room that had 3 normal walls and one rectangular 'virtual wall' where the play was performed. This then means the performing space can run parallel to us but we cannot enter it.

'Dynamic architecture' is the next step in networking with the living world around us. We are already seeing it with urban screens being built, the next step is for the building themselves to contribute information to the environment. It seems the new 'point and click' culture will involve even our physical space. This will be done by 'Anti-Proscenium,' smart walls will not just display information to viewers but immerse them in it, creating a very large bandwidth for the senses to react to. MIT's, Joe Jackson's 'smart paper' is a technology developing this media.

Unlike before then, peripheral vision will be a factor and this will be an indicator on how the audience perceive the information as it is very important to naturally understanding you surroundings.

This 'opening' up of the screen will allow 'smart places' to engage our senses at multiple levels. It will be like going from a 56kb modem to a 10GB one.

This kind of virtual reality is a modern interpretation of he Renaissance's obsession with architectural space and perspective.

Due to the notion that to be comfortable in our surroundings and not be totally submersed in VR, a much realistic idea is 'Hybrid architecture.' Here graphical overlaying of our actual architecture will be used to allow you peripheral vision to stay comfortable in its environment will also engaging all of you senses.

This overlaying of information may give birth to a day when we can stop cluttering up our urban areas with all the GIE and target viewers key desires.

Architecture of the future will no longer play with masses in light but digital in space.

For us to use these digital spaces though just like the PC 'desktop' before it, the spaces must be based on real world rules and attributes. This allows the flow of information to be much quicker if we are already used the 'performatavity' of the medium.

With RFID, GPS, MIR, cameras and sensors our buildings will become 'artificial ecosystems' and in turn giving digital 'interfaces.' The buildings will become huge computers allowing information to be sent to individuals when and where they need it. For example Mark Weiser's Ubiquitous Computing Project.

This universal connectivity to everything will be thanks to WiFi and OOP (Object Orientated Programming). OOP will allow complex code to be integrated into various hardware easily and quickly.

Function will no longer follow form, but code.

'Body net' systems will allow users to carry vast amounts of information bout themselves where ever they go, on mall mobile hardware. The bandwidth may start to become a two way interaction rather than one.

New smart technology will then react to the signals we send back and start to anticipate our actions, we shouldn't have to program VCRS!!! HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems should automatically control themselves and in turn use our scarce natural resources more efficiently.

Old abandoned cities that never had the room or resources for the industrial revolution can thrive and prosper in the light of the anti-location digital revolution.

If we say that it is when we physically interact with information that the 'bandwidth' of that medium is seen has high, should we in relation to online meeting places make them more like physical ones such as cafes etc. Should they adhere to material objects rules, gravity or weather?
Will they be private, public or commercially controlled?

It is important to note that chat rooms, due to anonymous 'handles' are more like Mardi Gras, and really should be seen as an addition to the physical meeting place not a replacement.

Thanks to such technologies as SMS and Email, we can now prearrange meetings with people. This means that we get a kind of 'tunnel vision' that blinkers us to the other possibilities of meeting other people will might benefit from meeting. This is in a way catered for by subject specific chat rooms where all the inhabitants have a shared interest. These are known as 'Civitas' or families with shared common beliefs and interests.

Electronic monitoring systems such as CCTV, result in 'quaternary social relationships.' Those that exist between the observed and the observer. We could imprison ourselves in vast electronic 'Panotilon.'

With commission free websites, it is now the extra bandwidth of information they offer that come into play, the quality.

In a twist of bandwidth, Ken Goldma ad Joseph Santarommano's 'Telegarden' allows uses to input basic interactions via keyboard and mouse to control real actions of robots at the other side of the world. This allows the user to simply interact with a artificial being to plant seeds and create natural life that you would be able to to touch. smell, see and taste.

May organisations operate 'electronic fronts' and 'architectural backs' For example both digital and physical shops show a automated controlled point of sale, but still need human interaction to process the orders.

When choosing how to interact 'the economy of presence' or EOP, comes into play. This is the availability of being able to compare and weigh up various styles of medium when communicating with various people. You can decide the size of the bandwidth needed for the interaction, do you need to just talk to them, or see them as well.

More often than not the more senses you stimulate the higher bandwidth and the more intense the interaction. 'Synchronous' communication does this by engaging both sight, smell, touch and sound in real time. 'Asynchronous' communication only usually stimulates one sense such as sight or sound, it is sometimes cheaper and less time consuming though. More often than not if it is important we will meet up with someone locally face-to-face and if it isn't we will simply send them remotely an email.

EOP is the pushing the service of the worlds companies further and further as Amazon.com give you information on what you might like to read and Waterstones contain coffee shops so that you can use it like a library and see and feel the books.

Mitchell states that in the futures 'E-topia' the worlds cities will work smarter not harder. The basic design principles will be: dematerialisation, demobilisation, mass customisation, intelligent operation and soft transformation.

It is important to finally note that the power of the physical place will always prevail when particular cultural, scenic and climatic attractions are thrived for. Simply, we will sometimes use networks to avoid places, and sometimes we will go places to network!

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David Rokeby is an installation artist that creates work that directly engages the human body or that involves artificial projection systems.

Could the our common 'tastes' come the from the fat that we all originated from the same place? For example everyone in Europe is supposed to relatives of the one of seven families. Can our genetics have an influence on what we like and don't like.

As with Mitchell's 'Asynchronous' theories on communication, Umberto Eco states, 'By means of the sign man frees himself from the here and now for abstraction.'

Symbols are instruments that convert raw intelligence into culture.

The moon landing was the first time in history that everyone on the world felt and reacted to the same thing at the same time.

Fletcher states the computer is fast becoming and extension of the brain.

Stephen Jay Gould states that '...human thought and emotion have a universality that transcends time and converts the different stages of history into theatres that provide lessons for modern players.' This emphasised in meaning with the introduction of recording history through images. Interestingly areas that have imagery of bad past events don't do them anymore, while areas that don't allow image history recording to take place still do horrible things to their inhabitants.

Milton Glaser states that 'Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking.'

The Internet opens up more choices and allows more social structures to appear.

The 'QWERTY' keyboard is an example of a product that was designed with a cultures 'taste' in mind.

Fletcher asks could we be dreaming all the time, but during the day there is to much conscious static going on that we don't realise. For example Hundertwasser states that when a dream is dreamt alone it is just a dream, but when we dream together it is a new reality.

For taste and collective understanding, look at 'Brainwiring.' This is a the ability to come up with the same solution for the same problem. Another example of this is 'Visual Chinese Whispers.'

Edward O. Wilson states that 'We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.' He says it is the designer's task to able to select the correct information for the job and be self critical.

On the Minority Report extras it states, that we do not see in rectangles, we don;t see the world through a PC screen. We see the world using or focused vision and peripheral vision. Also when dreaming or seeing in memories in our heads, we don't see a recording from one specific place. Instead your brain sparks and creates the image using layers from various parts of the brain that are linked together by microscopic electrical nerves, called neural connections.

In regard to smart architecture one area to look at is 'volume carving.' Here objects can be recorded from various angles then created in 3D on the computer. It is only a matter of time before we can then output the object into a 3D space and create an hologram.

Mitchell states that thanks to computers 'creativity' can be sped up as trial and errors can be produced and disregarded quicker.

Mitchell also sates that we must use 'dynamic architecture' to create media that reacts to the weather and seasons, so that the advertising doesn't have to be so direct. He ways media should compliment the architecture it covers, not disguise it

We must be careful not to use screens in architecture to just radiate tackless, meaningless information. They must become a part of the landscape and only show themselves when needed. It poses the question 'Can the pixel replace the rivet and bolt?'

Fletcher states that the brain registers beauty and love in the modern and outer layer. The intermediate layer deals with everyday things and the ancient layer deals with fear and lust. This is a called a 'Triune' brain and may explain why 'fear' is a much more effective emotion than love and the core of 'sublime.' It is maybe where 'love' originally came from, from the fear for a 'loved ones' well being.

The visual part of the brain is 30% of the cortex and it has various cells to deal with scale, shape and colour. Also it is important to note that the left side of the brain is the 'doer' side and the right side is the 'dreamer' side. But our sense are cross linked, so left eye goes o right cortex etc.

Karl Popper states the brain has three tiers, one for see and touch, one for conscious and unconscious states and one for thoughts and ideas. It is important to remember that a computer cycles through data in a linear fashion while the mind jumps from connection to connection. Also that the more a computer knows the slower it gets, while the more the mind knows the quicker it get.

Key factors in our brains understanding data and emotions are, 'brain integration' where the two sides of the brain interact offering up different thoughts. The other is the notion that since 'sight' is our most used sense, we strive to simplify things so that we can take more visual information in at time. This is said to have originally started us thinking abstractly.

'Synaesthetes' are people who have cross sensed sensations, for example hearing a sunset and seeing music.

Fletcher states that there are two types of learning; 'Rock logic' that simply adds information upon information to acquire more knowledge. 'Water logic' where water cannot be added to water as it mixes together, thus making the idea grow and develop. Th first results in units that add up to a conclusion and the second results in images that conjure up a perception.

Robin Collyer is a photographer that produces photographs that have all the advertising and marketing rubbed out. These landscapes with the absence of graphics become very disorientating and knock you off balance. There is a real ghost town feel about his retouched photos. It seems that in today's world where we just add information upon information, the absence of it grabs your attention more than its presence. The images look very clinical and make the viewer feel lost and alienated. In a sense they create a notion of the end of the world and fear in the audience. maybe a 'sublime' style emotion.

Fletcher states that 'Imaging is visualising as language is to thinking.'

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Interaction can be narrowed down to one of the core types, learning.
VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic) Learning based on Howard Gardner's 'Theory of Multiple Intelligencies' and other psychologist models, is a modern movement in schools give a same quality of education to different learners. It is an area where technology will play a key part, both in interaction and access. It is important to note that every subject in schools in the UK must use computers at some point on the curriculum.

Visual representation of information allows un-linear learners to understand complex accumulations of results or teachings. Our brains regard 'sight' as the most sensitive sense. This means a large chunk of the brain regarding senses are reserved for what we see. This means that when reading for example, although you are reading words, the 'bandwidth' of information is very narrow as all you are interpreting is shapes. When visually represented the 'bandwidth' widens as colour, scale and perspective come into play.

VAK learning styles are specific methods of teaching that explain information in the preferred ways people chose to learn and develop.

Gardner's theory of 1983 stated the model on many aspects of teaching to various human intelligence and learning styles. VAK is used by both the education and industry sectors.

Gardner co-founded 'Project Zero' in 1967, which focused on the studies of artistic thought and creativity.

Here is Gardners model of the seven multiple intelligences at a glance:
- Linguistical - words and language
- Logical-mathmatical - logic and numbers
- Musical - music, sound and rhythm
- Bodily-kinaesthetic - body movement control
- Spatial-visual - images and space
- Interpersonal - other peoples feelings
- Intrapersonal - self-awareness

Possible additions to this list is:
- Naturalist - natural environment
- Spiritual/Existential - religion and 'ultimate issues'
- Moral - ethics, humanity and value of life

The additional intelligences haven't been added though due to their subjective. In all Gardner states that an individual learner may have one or many of the intelligences. This usually depends on the 'Bradin Dominance Model.' He says that it is more beneficial to test for learning styles rather and IQ.

Spatial and visual VAK learning is the creation of images, pictorial imagination expression, understanding of the relationships between images and meanings, and between space and time, to communicate information.

Typical users of this intelligence learning style are artists, designers, architects, ton-planners, inventors, engineers, beauty consultants etc. The jobs where this can be useful is when painting a pictures, designing a dress, creating a co-orporate logo of simply packing the boot of a car, Tetris style!!! These kind of people like to learn using pictures, shapes, images and 3D space.

Interpersonal can also influence teachers and artists. It effects anyone who likes to further themselves skill wise. This relates to any person who can look at themselves, understand what the like, dislike or what they are missing and react to this in a specifically, meaningful way. People who do this are related to the 'Emotional Intelligence Model.'

The VAK learning model is just an aid and must not become a dogma that must be strictly adhered to! It originated in the 1920's to visually represent thinking, for example brainstorms. Today though it is seen as beneficial to students when learning, for example a child who may find it difficult to recognise the letter 'B' y looking at it (visual), may find it easier to trace its outline and remember it that way (kinaesthetic).

Internet learning is seen as more adaptable than traditional classroom learning. Theorists agree that there are four stages of learning.
1. Exposure stage - initial engagement of subject
2. Guided learning stage - teaching of subject
3. Independent stage - individual learning of subject
4. Master stage - total understanding of subject

It is important to note that students learn by 30% of what they see and 90% of what they say and do. More often than not visual learners benefit from using 'Mind Maps' to link information.

Online technology allows control of delivery and presentation.