“A Virtual Modus Operandi” presented by García
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Technologies of Place 2
Presentation Title:
- A Virtual Modus Operandi
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
The New Technologies foster a new kind of efficiency in the symbiosis of the traditionally differentiated economic, political and social systems, giving place to en entirely new situation which rather than constituting an even system, presents what Jose Luis Brea has come to define as a “fractal constellation of affinities” in an “immanence plane where differences play” and “a relational space in operation”; These fractal differences entail a new myriad of habits and urban concerns in an evolving participatory urban praxis. Far from established concept-based strategies, this unprecedented coexistence of subjectivities and disparities, such as transnational, local, individual, virtual, tangible and the spaces in-between, demands new spatial agencies and tactics.
This paper is a reflection on the changing situation of global cities from a city-dweller’s viewpoint. In contrast with new leading urban practices that further global competition through construction this article explores the productive capacity of the increasingly available virtual environments in the city dweller’s hands to stimulate urban life in the contemporary city. Taking the Japanese city as a case study, the methodology employed in this investigation entails looking at the nature of virtual environments as alternative space-times to inhabit and exploring the relationships between virtual and tangible forms of inhabitation through examples of situations found between the two, such as fiction, moving images, informatics, mobile phones, the web 2.0 and DV technology. In so doing traditional Architect’s tactics such as ideology and the concept, are put into perspective through the notions of participation and subjectivity. Lastly I look at specific tactics employed by some Japanese documentalists in virtual space-time to actualize reality and argue their attitudes as a benchmark example for an entirely new urban practice in line with today’s urban milieu and with the changing concerns of the majority of urban dwellers.
