The Architecture of Cyberspace

Symposium:

• ISEA97: Eighth International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA97:  

• The Architecture of Cyberspace

• The Architecture of Cyberspace

• Peter Anders
• Gerhard Eckel
• Mathias Fuchs
• James Leftwich
• Dirk Lusebrink
• Marcos Novak
• Wolfgang Strauss
• Nik Williams

• Architecture has undergone a wide range of changes over the past two decades. Whether as the result of new technologies or economic pressures, they force a reassessment of practice and its service to society. The tools for restructuring architects’ role in our culture are already in their hands. Computers, combined with the skills of trained professionals, offer opportunities far beyond their present application as drafting machines.

  Using computers architects can now create artifacts which do not model future projects the way drawings do. Instead, these objects function as autonomous artifacts within cyberspace. Current examples of this are the interactive objects in computer games and the graphics used in Windows or Macintosh operating systems. Both represent useful artifacts created for media space. Neither require manifestation in the real world.

  The future is likely to bring us a greater variety of these objects. Popular interest in virtual reality and the InterNet will encourage the development of more sophisticated 3D media interfaces. These objects, viewed collectively might form a landscape or urban terrain which will help users of cyberspace to orient themselves within the information environment. The spatial metaphor allows users to get a general sense of information rather than being lost in undifferentiated detail. The creation of meaningful space is the traditional terrain of architecture. The purpose of this symposium is to show how architects, artists and designers have been working to create the landmarks of cyberspace.

Category:

• Panel