form, content, patterning

check out this homage/illustration/explanation of Web 2.0:
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
Michael Welsh, Assistant Professor In Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University

This clip brings up a really interesting distinction between HTML and XML (first and second gen web languages). To quote Mr. Welsh:

"HTML was designed to define the structure of a web document...form and content became inseparable...In XML, form and content are described separately, allowing data to be exported free of formatting."

As a result of added flexibility, XML allows data to flow more freely from site to site. This produces a far more sophisticated platform for the manipulation of data, one in which content can be organized through patterns of use, and in fact this patterning of content becomes content in its own right, in the sense that it retains its own identity and can be manipulated through further patterning operations. This opens the door to the emergence recursive feedback in the system, creating differentiation in the surface of the network, varying degrees of ossification/plasticity. This strikes me highly similar to network models of biological intelligence: populations of neurons self-organizing through repetitive use to form cohesive (and increasingly repeatable) patterns of thought.

Could we venture to say, then, that when pattern-making become more essential - more present - than content, the internet becomes a sufficient contextual framework for intelligent behavior and self-organization - a language, if you will.

*this post has been edited in response to comments, more elaboration to come.

digital, drifting and the end of history

sci_arc hosted a provoking lecture from the italian theorist mario carpo wednesday night, titled above.

among the subjects he touched on was the notion of drift in creative production. mr. carpo discussed the nature of writing before and after the advent of the printing press. before, content was subject to progressive change - drift - through intended (editorial) and unintended (mistaken) revisions during the copying process, placing authorship in a constant state of flux. the printing press radically transformed the situation, de-coupling the creative act of writing from the mechanical act of reproduction. as a result, authorship became fixed.

mr. carpo traced a similar transformation in architecture through a treatise written by alberti at the outset of the renaissance. alberti sought to detach the architect from the guild-system and the tradition of the architect as master-builder (exemplified, for example, by the project of Brunelleschi's dome). rather than a collaborative, evolving process of design-build, the architect would take sole authorship of the design. the product, and the final form of the architecture, was a fully realized representation of the building. the builder then would implement (copy into physical form) the construction from these documents. this conception is very much familiar today, institutionalized in the record drawing set / bid contract structure of most projects.

the emergence of the networked society has called into question alberti's model of cultural production. in this environment, drift becomes possible, and is in fact (like the manuscript) unavoidable. open-source software development and the changing landscape of the music industry are prime examples of this emerging condition. for mr. carpo, the techno-centric cult of the individual, a defining characteristic of contemporary practice and discourse, is in its last throws -- glorious as they may be. a new paradigm is emerging: in exchange for giving up absolute authorship, the architect gains access to a far richer cultural vein, a vast network of real-time data, feedback and cultural flux.

is music a donut?

(open source cinema asks this question when you set up an account)

should music be a product? should it be free? The distinction will be radically blurred as music becomes increasingly customizable and responsive to specific environments. The musician will become a designer, creating the source code for a family of infinitely variable, yet related music. The choice will become whether or not (or to what degree) to release the code.

open-source : research in profiles / profiling

My research at this point follows two tracks:

The first concerns open-source as a tactic: I will track the linage of open-source environments, from ARPANET to the speculative metagovernment prototype and beyond. The immediate interest is to understand the nature of profiles and profiling through these specific frameworks. The deeper goal is to conceptualize how and to what extent open-source tactics might be employed in the envisioning of Jerusalem 2050.

The second will be the development of an online collaborative space. Consisting of a collection of networked online entities, this space will function as an open-source research probe. The space will begin with some very basic automated linkages between this blog, my del.icio.us catalog and a wiki, and will grow to include more sophisticated, customized networking, visualization and organization tools. The intent is twofold: to take advantage of the expertise of a large network of friends, relatives and colleagues; and to test and experience first-hand the mechanisms of an open-source environment.

several important links

del.icio.us = social bookmarking (emergent internet organization)

processing.org = data manipulation platform (coding for artists)

metagovernment.org = open-source government (a protoype)

Mediascapes studio fa2007, an outline

"Sometimes reality is too complex for oral communication...
But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world..."
Jean-Luc Goddard

My take on the Mediascape studio:

We will be working towards one or multiple submittals to the Just Jerusalem competition, envisioning possible scenarios for Jerusalem forty years into the future (2050). The date is interesting in that it allows a great deal of visionary latitude and yet enforces a degree of realism and tangibility on the proposal.

We will explore the evolving landscape the city, and world in general, in an effort to understand possible systemic interventions that might bring about a more equitable, workable state-of-affairs in Jerusalem. Central to our approach is the basic assumption that the physical and virtual worlds are converging. The entrée into the project is a study of the practical and metaphysical implications of the profile and profiling. We will track their many dimensions, focusing on the relation to the hybrid physical-virtual network.

Course readings/viewings include the scifi classic Shockwave Rider; movies such as Code 46, Alphaville and Videodrome; and a variety of internet presences. Much more information can be found at the fast growing Mediascapes wiki.

an uneducated manifesto, a starting point

language is a technology; the internet is becoming a language.

the conceptual power of the computing environment is fast migrating from the box to the network. applications and data are becoming increasingly native to the net and correspondingly independent of the box. computer intelligence is no longer a measure of power - the capacity to compute - but of connectivity - the capacity to engage, structure and reconfigure real-time data.

similarly, the critical debate in architecture must move beyond the blob vs. the box. the exploration of form as an end-in-itself is no longer delivering radical shifts. for the past ten years, architecture has focused on computationally intensive geometry. now, it must engage the territory presented by the network, both as a site for a new kind of architecture, and as a tool for rethinking the nature of design.


(This is only here so i an add it to my profile)