ME++ The Cyborg Self and the Networked City

Sensing Space (Architecture Positioning) (Paperback)

The incorporation of new technology into architecture continues to define our everyday lives, whether it be tiny sensors woven almost invisibly into materials, buildings which communicate with their surroundings via the facades, or "intelligent" houses that adapt to fit their inhabitants. Sensing Space investigates the potential of interactive technologies as an integral component of contemporary architecture.

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The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments

Winner of the 1994 Lewis Mumford Prize given by the Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH).

Christine Boyer faces head-on the crisis of the city in the late twentieth century, taking us on a fascinating journey through theaters and museums, panoramas and maps, buildings and institutions that are used to construct a new reading of the city as a system of representation, a complex cultural entity. Boyer brings together elements and concepts from geography, critical theory, architecture, literature, and painting in a synthetic and readable work that is broad in its reach and original in its insights. What finally emerges is a sense of the city reinvigorated with richness and potential.

The City of Collective Memory describes a series of different visual and mental models by which the urban environment has been recognized, depicted, and planned. Boyer identifies three major "maps": one common to the traditional city—the city as a work of art; one characteristic of the modern city—the city as panorama; and one appropriate to the contemporary city—the city as spectacle. It is a richly illustrated and documented study that pays considerable attention to the normally hidden and unspoken codes that regulate the order imposed on and derived from the city. A wide range of secondary historical literature and theoretical work is considered, with evident debts to structuralist analysis of urban form represented by Aldo Rossi, as well to much post-structuralist criticism from Walter Benjamin to the present.

The Human experience of space and place

Constructing a sense of place: architecture and the Zionist discourse

p.247 Re-placing memory

The sense of space

The rise of networked society

The chapter: The space of flows

Since it was Manuel Castells who created the concept, will quote at length his definition of the space of flows. Castells (1996) writes:

Our societies are constructed around flows: flows of capital, flows of information, flows of technology, flows of organizational interactions, flows of images, sounds and symbols. Flows are not just one element of social organization: they are the expression of the processes dominating our economic, political, and symbolic life. ... Thus, I propose the idea that there is a new spatial form characteristic of social practices that dominate and shape the network society: the space of flows. The space of flows is the material organization of time-sharing social practices that work through flows. By flows I understand purposeful, repetitive, programmable sequences of exchange and interaction between physically disjointed positions held by social actors. (p.412)

The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space

Editorial Reviews

Review

'If only more new media commentators had this level of historical-critical reference, engaging, good stories, and a degree of wonder at what media and windows bring to the city, to life...' - John Hutnyk, Academic Director, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths University of London

'Just when you thought the last word had been said about cities and media, along comes Scott McQuire to breathe new life into the debate. When revisiting existing pathways, his always ingenious eyes produce startling and original insights. When striking out into new territory, he opens up before us inspiring new vistas. I love this book' - James Donald, Professor of Film Studies, University of New South Wales

'A book that contains sometimes audacious segues, that crams into a single chapter more insights and illustrations than seems feasible, yet which ties all threads together through a consistent, theoretically rich analysis of the interplay of media and city... Writing with effusiveness uncharacteristic of back-cover blurbs on academic tomes, James Donald says "I love this book". But I will end by echoing his praise, and make a promise to readers: you will love The Media City, too' - European Journal of Communication

'Compared to the urban studies literature of say David Harvey or Ed Soja, McQuire writes with a much greater architectural sensibility. His argument is that we move from a rather centred space of the classical renaissance city to a 'relational space' where past and future are juxtaposed not in simple Newtonian chronology but in complex relation to present. Such a transformed urbanism and media (compared with say Renaissance and Beaux Arts perspective) moves from what might be seen as the panoptic to a serial succession of photographic shots, of film frames, of movements along vistas at speed.

At stake is a city that is continually redefined by the media and understood along the lines of McQuire's quite novel media theory. At stake is a vision of media, which are too ubiquitous in the multiplication of screens, surveillance and other devices/interfaces in private and public space to primarily function any more as representations. Media in this (McQuire's) context are no longer primarily a set of representations, but constitute the very substance and fabric of urban public and private space' - Scott Lash, Goldsmiths, University of London

'…refreshingly clear, getting to grips with some of the key concepts of urban sociology in a way that moves beyond the wistful evocation and splatter of undigested terms that characterises so much academic writing on culture and cities… a clear historical and theoretically informed look at the city over the last 200 years… give us one of the most cogent accounts we have had for some time' - Media, Culture & Society

Product Description

Offering social commentary at the deepest levels of historical and critical reference, The Media City links Myspace to Howard Hughes; trams to cinema; security cameras to exploding buildings; reality TV to Marx; and Lenin on privacy to Kracauer on the mass ornament. Wide-ranging and richly illustrated, it intersects disciplines and connects phenomena which are too often left isolated from each other to propose a new way of understanding public and private space and social life in contemporary cities.

The Informational City: Economic Restructuring and Urban Development

The cities and the regions of the world are being transformed under the combined impact of a restructuring of the capitalist system and a technological revolution. This is the thesis of this book, now in paperback. Castells not only brings together an impressive array of evidence to support it but puts forward a new body of theory to explain it. He analyzes the interaction between information technology, economic restructuring and socio-spatial change through the empirical observation of contemporary national, urban and regional processes in the capitalist world, with emphasis on the United States. The author summarizes a very wide range of evidence of urban and regional development, and isolates the causes and consequences of the processes and trends that may be observed.

Intelligent cities: innovation, knowledge systems, and digital spaces

Book overview

Author: Nicos Komninos

At the turn of the century some cities and regions in Europe, Japan and the USA, displayed an exceptional capacity to incubate and develop new knowledge and innovations. The favourable environment for research, technology and innovation created in these areas was not immediately obvious, yet it was of great significance for a development based on knowledge, learning, and innovation.Intelligent Citiesfocuses on these environments of innovation, and the major models (technopoles, innovating regions, intelligent cities) for creating an environment-supporting technology, innovation, learning, and knowledge-based development. The introduction and the first chapter deal with innovation as an environmental condition, and with the geography and typology of islands of innovation. The next three parts focus on the theoretical paradigms and the planning models of the 'industrial district', the innovating region', and the 'intelligent city', which offer three alternative ways to create an environment ofinnovation.

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CyberCities: visual perception in the age of electronic communication

Urban historian M. Christine Boyer turns to the new frontier - cybercities - in this compelling new book. Boyer argues that the computer is to contemporary society what the machine was to modernism, and that this new metaphor profoundly affects the way we think, imagine, and ultimately grasp reality. But there is, she believes, an inherent danger here; that as cyberspace pulls us into its electronic grasp, we withdraw from the world. Transferred, plugged in, and down-loaded, reality becomes increasingly immaterial. Frozen to one side of our terminal's screen, Boyer concludes, we risk becoming incapable of action in a real city plagued by crime, hatred, disease, unemployment, and under-education. In a series of polemical essays, Boyer examines cyberspace, virtual reality, disembodiment, and cyborgs, drawing on a wide range of sources from Walter Benjamin to William Gibson. In the end, Boyer issues a clarion call to reinstall a social agenda in the midst of these technological innovations.

The Cybercities Reader

Stephen Graham (ed.)

abstract

For too long Information and Communications Technologies (or ICTs) have been lazily portrayed as means to simply escape into a parallel world - to withdraw from the body, or the city, in some utopian, or dystopian, stampede online. Such perspectives deny the fact that the so-called 'information society' is an increasingly urban society. They ignore the ways in which new technologies now mediate every aspect of everyday urban life. And they obscure a key question: how do the multifaceted realities of city regions interrelate in practice with new technologies in different ways in different places.

The Cybercities Reader explores this question. It is the most comprehensive, international and interdisciplinary analysis yet of the relationships between cities, urban life and new technologies. The book incorporates:

- Thirty-one of the best published writings in the field with thirty-two specially commissioned pieces.

- The work of writers from thirteen nations and twelve disciplines.

- Detailed discussions of cybercity history, theory, economic processes, mobilities, physical forms, social and cultural worlds, digital divides, public domains, strategies, politics and futures.

- Analyses of postmodern technoculture, virtual reality and the body, global city economies, urban surveillance, 'intelligent' transportation, e-commerce, teleworking, community informatics, digital architecture, urban technology strategies, and the role of cities and new technologies in the 'war on terrorism'.

- Detailed case studies of 'virtual cities' in Amsterdam, Internet cabins in Lima, back offices in Jamaica, 'smart' highways in Melbourne, technopoles in New York, mobiles in Helsinki, e-commerce convenience stores in Tokyo, high-tech business parks in Bangalore, public spaces in Mexico City, and urban ICT strategies in Kuala Lumpur, California and Singapore.

- Editor's introductions, guides to further reading for each theme and piece.

- Over fifty plates, tables, and diagrams.

The Cybercities Reader is essential reading for anyone interested in how cities and new technologies are helping to remake each other at the start of this quintessentially urban digital century.

keywords

Cybercities, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), information society, technoculture, virtual cities, virtual reality

New heritage: new media and cultural heritage

About the Book

The use of new media in the service of cultural heritage is a fast growing field, known variously as virtual or digital heritage. New Heritage, under this denomination, broadens the definition of the field to address the complexity of cultural heritage such as the related social, political and economic issues. This book is a collection of 20 key essays, of authors from 11 countries, representing a wide range of professions including architecture, philosophy, history, cultural heritage management, new media, museology and computer science, which examine the application of new media to cultural heritage from a different points of view. Issues surrounding heritage interpretation to the public and the attempts to capture the essence of both tangible (buildings, monuments) and intangible (customs, rituals) cultural heritage are investigated in a series of innovative case studies.

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City Ubiquitous- Place, communication, and the rise of omnitopia

City Ubiquitous is for students and scholars of the built environment, but it is also meant for anyone who recognizes the odd and frightening pleasures of urbanity. Flowing from airport to hotel to coffee shop to chain restaurant, we glimpse the alienation and fascination of looking, consuming, and communicating in the staccato rhythms of contemporary life. City Ubiquitous investigates this structure and perception of omnitopia, investigating its origins in Parisian arcades, world’s fairs, and military-industrial superslabs; its manifestations in airports, hotels, and shopping malls; and its potential undoing through performance, placelessness, and reverence.

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Programming Interactivity - A Designer's Guide to Processing, Arduino, and openFrameworks

Joshua Noble "Programming Interactivity - A Designer's Guide to Processing, Arduino, and openFrameworks"

July 2009  | English | ISBN-13: 978-0-596-15414-1 | 736 Pages 

If you're interested in using electronics and programming to create rich interactive experiences with your artwork, designs, or prototypes, Programming Interactivity is the place to start. You'll explore common themes in interactive art and design, like 2D and 3D graphics, sound, physical interaction, computer vision, circuit bending, geo-location and more. This book explains programming and electrical engineering basics, and introduces three freely available tools created specifically for artists and designers:

    * Processing, a Java-based programming language and environment for building projects on the desktop, Web, or mobile phones

    * Arduino, a system that integrates a microcomputer prototyping board, IDE, and programming language for creating your own hardware and controls

    * OpenFrameworks, a coding framework simplified for designers and artists, using the powerful C++ programming language

You'll get working code samples you can use right away, along with the background and technical information you need to design, program, build, and troubleshoot your own projects. Programming Interactivity also examines cutting-edge design techniques, and includes discussions with leading artists and designers on projects and theory.

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Collective Intelligence in Design

Editorial Reviews

Editor: Christopher Hight, Chris Perry

Product Description

Exploring how today’s most compelling architecture is emerging from new forms of collaborative practice, this title of AD engages three predominant phenomena: architecture’s relationship with digital and telecommunication technology; the media; and economies of globalisation. The articles in the issue explore the relationship between these readings and examine, for the first time, the implications of these phenomena upon forms of architectural invention and production. While much attention has been focused upon the influence of digital media on architectural form and technique, little has examined its far broader implications for forms of architectural practice. Yet, as with modernism and the professionalization of architecture at the end of the 19^th century and the rise of architectural corporations in the mid-20^th century, the future of architectural design will inevitably depend upon reconfigurations of architectural authorship. 

From the Back Cover

Exploring how today;s most compelling design is emerging from new forms of collaborative practice and modes of collective intelligence, this title of AD engages two predominant phenomena: design's relationship with new information and telecommunication technologies, and new economies of globalisation. With the shift from the second machine age to the age of information, the network has replaced the assembly line as a pre-eminent model of organisation. With this shift has come the assembly line as a pre-eminent model of organisation. With this shift has come the introduction of numerous alternative modes of social, economic and political organisation in the form of peer-to-peer networks and open-source communities. this has radically altered conventional models of collective invention, as well as challenging received notions of individual authorship and agency, questioning the way in which traditional disciplines organise themselves. This reorganisation is apparent with in architectural practice, as well as within its participation in a greater cultural context of increasing interdisciplinarity. For the design disciplines, this includes the emergence of new forms of collective intelligence in a number of different fields including architecture, software and interaction design, gaming, motion typography and product design.

Collective Intelligence in Design takes in contributions from: AlUm Studio, CONTINUUM (working with the Smart Geometry Group and Bentley Systems), Servo, Hernan Diaz-Alonso and Benjamin Bratton, Open Source Architecture, MIT's Media Lab and United Architects. Additionally, the issue features essays from a diverse pool of academics and designer,s including Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker, Michael Hensel, Therese Tierney, Pia Ednie-Brown and Brett Steele, as well as an extensive interview with Michael Hardt, an influential thinker on the subject of contemporary globalisation.

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4dsocial: Interactive Design Environments (Architectural Design)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"features the work of leading designers" (worldchanging.com, Monday 8th October 2007)

Description
A new breed of public interactive installations is taking root that overturns the traditional approach to artistic experience. Architects, artists and designers are now creating real-time interactive projects at very different scales and in many different guises. Some dominate public squares or transform a building’s façade – others are more intimate, like wearable computing. All, though, share in common the ability to draw in users to become active participants and co-creators of content, so that the audience becomes part of the project. Investigating further the paradoxes that arise from this new responsive media at a time when communication patterns are in flux, this title features the work of leading designers, such as Electroland, Usman Haque, Shona Kitchen and Ben Hooker, ONL, Realities United Scott Snibbe. While many works critique the narrow public uses of computing to control people and data, others raise questions about public versus private space in urban contexts; all attempt to offer a unique, technologically mediated form of ‘self-learning’ experience, but which are most effective concepts in practice?

Situated Technologies Pamphlets 3: Situated Advocacy

Description:

The Situated Technologies Pamphlets series, published by the Architectural League, explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism. How are our experience of the city and the choices we make in it are affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics and other 「situated」 technologies? A new generation of architecture that responds to building occupants and environmental factors has embraced distributed technical systems as a means and end for developing more mutually enriching relationships between people, the space they inhabit, and the environment. This pamphlet discusses key qualities of "responsive" architecture as a performing instrument that is both mutable and contestable.

This book is downloadable via here

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World's Greatest Architect: Making, Meaning, and Network Culture

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Here's a provocative collection of witty, insightful, and argumentative essays that helps us think about the world of architecture and design in new and startling ways."
— Steve Paul, Kansas City Star

"Like the extraordinary Whole Earth Catalog of our youth, these brilliant essays create patterns of possibility that allow the reader to see and design one's personal connection between each essay. The allusions to various cultural icons and their views on topics ranging from maps and communication to modern culture and creativity make this book a must read for the hungry mind. World's Greatest Architect is incisively written and along with William Mitchell's other contributions, firmly establishes his place in the pantheon of learning professionals."
—Richard Saul Wurman 

Product Description
Artifacts (including works of architecture) play dual roles; they simultaneously perform functions and carry meaning. Columns support roofs, but while the sturdy Tuscan and Doric types traditionally signify masculinity, the slim and elegant Ionic and Corinthian kinds read as feminine. Words are often inscribed on objects. (On a door: "push" or "pull.") Today, information is digitally encoded (dematerialized) and displayed (rematerialized) to become part of many different objects, at one moment appearing on a laptop screen and at another, perhaps, on a building facade (as in Times Square). Well-designed artifacts succeed in being both useful and meaningful. In World's Greatest Architect, William Mitchell offers a series of snapshots—short essays and analyses—that examine the systems of function and meaning currently operating in our buildings, cities, and global networks.

In his writing, Mitchell makes connections that aren't necessarily obvious but are always illuminating, moving in one essay from Bush-Cheney's abuse of language to Robert Venturi's argument against rigid ideology and in favor of graceful pragmatism. He traces the evolution of Las Vegas from Sin/Sign City to family-friendly resort and residential real estate boomtown. A purchase of chips leads not only to a complementary purchase of beer but to thoughts of Eames chairs (like Pringles) and Gehry (fun to imitate with tortilla chips in refried beans). As for who the world's greatest architect might be, here's a hint: he's also the oldest. 

Digital Places: Building Our City of Bits

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Horan argues that the future belongs to urban areas that have the cultural and technical infrastructure of digital places... -- William R. Morrish,Professor,University of Minnesota

"Offers realistic suggestions to developers, architects, and planners who are grappling with the challenge of incorporating technology into development" -- Peter S. Rummell, Chairman/CEO, The St. Joe Company

"This book offers important new insights to technologists as well as to architects of space and place." -- John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist of Xerox 

Product Description
Discover how digital technology is affecting the bricks and mortar of the places where we live and work. The author, a well-known expert on the applications of digital technology, analyzes its impact on the physical design of housing, stores, offices, libraries, and schools. He also examines the effect on regions and cities, including the hard and soft infrastructures essential to attracting high-wage technology companies. Throughout the book, examples illustrate how digital technology has affected the design of a wide variety of project types and how digital places can be created. Ideal for architects, developers, planners, and technologists who want to be on the cutting edge of design.