Information Architect and Network Urbanist Adam Greenfield of Speedbird has recently announced that he's self publishing (ala Tufte and Lauf) his next book: The City Is Here For You To Use. If recent posts on his blog are any indication, The City promises to expand on his primary interests, first explored in Everyware: the intersection of Ubiquitous Computing and Everyday Life, this time with a specific slant towards urbanisms past, present and future. I've been a longtime reader of his blog(s), and I'm about halfway through Everyware right now, which is a highly articulate and at least partly sceptical examination of UbiComp's state of the art and implications. I know liberty bell has namechecked Greenfield here before, anybody else following this stuff?
I've mentioned elsewhere some thoughts on Information Architecture in general; it's really interesting how the thinkers in this field are kind of sneaking up on architecture, picking up the metaphors and tools (mostly from the 60s) that we've left behind while we're distracted by Form and Fancy Graphics, but I'm not convinced that 'Architecture' (or Urbanism) is the right master narrative for Informatics, which is potentially even bigger than the built environment.
The self publishing angle is of course also interesting here, it having been discussed in these forums recently, too. It'll be an interesting thing to watch unfold, and anybody can follow along on the blog or even throw in $10 via paypal as a deposit to help the project along.
I too have found it interesting that people in the IT and IS sectors have picked up on some of the lingo of Architecture/Urbanism from the past decades...
Doesn' Kazy Varnelis come at it from this perspective. However my understanding he is no IT but rather an architect/urbanist/designer looking to IT for inspiration.
I unabashedly adore every word Adam Greenfield has ever written. (OK, I haven't actually read it ALL, I'm exaggerating, but you get my meaning.) My deposit for a first copy of The City Is Here... is in.
765, I've been thinking about that comment you made recently, that it seems a lot of these things were already covered by architecture's wild child theorists in the 60s, Archigram for example. They seemed like they were not only breaking ground in how people interact in/with the physical environment, but having a hell of a lot of fun doing it. Are the IA/ubicomp guys having that much fun? We architects are so dang morose so often...
There is lots to discuss here. So much of it for me comes back to material: I wonder if the convenience - and fun - of having a smart floor recognize my presence in the office from my footfalls and tell the coffee maker to prepare my regular cup of black coffee so I can grab it on my way to my desk makes a difference if the smart floor is carpet tiles or marble? Or if I can feel it bounce under my feet rather than hold solid and immobile as does the governmental institution by which I'm employed? Or if I have to walk 20' vs. 400' to get there? Or if the building my office is in has operable windows or not? There are so many elements of human/structure interaction that WE as architects should have a hold of, should excel at, but it's so easy to see those areas of expertise belong to interior designers, planners, etc.
So are the ubicomp designers going to make yet another inroad into what traditionally has been the specialty of architects? I think so, and I think in this case we have to drop our fear of the unknown and embrace them. I think they (I don't know who "they" are, and sorry to simplistically set it up in these us v. them terms) are looking seriously - more seriously than most architects, in fact - at how people interact with their environment, and since I firmly believe every building project is an urban design project, I think we have to know what they are making possible.
I actually know a lot of IA people who are in various stages of career shifts architecture, so I'm sure the influence and interest flows both ways.
lb, I like your condensation: it's about how people interact with their environment. On reflection there's a distinction to be made here between two types of Information Architecture: one, in which the organization of information and it's presentation and use is treated as a design project analogous to the organization, structure, and presentation of space & materials in architecture. And another type, in which the structure, etc. of the information and the structure, etc. of the space tend to become intricately linked ... it's this second type that I think AG is into here.
And yeah, I'm really excited about the intricacies, overlaps and isomorphisms that are possible. It's a way out of the Form trap that architects have walked deeper and deeper into since the 60s, when we turned away from all that fun Archigram stuff. Form is easy, this stuff seems tricky, subtle, and new.
The reason that AG feels so familiar is that many of his influences are architectural/urban. From Jacobs to Lefebvre to Debord. The best of the ubicomp work remind me of Archigram, Nigel Coates and Tschumi at the AA, and the Smithsons.
Anne Galloway's writing at purse lip square jaw is also interesting.
I guess this auction of wireless space that NPR covered yesterday may mean some of the ubicomp's possibilities can become manifest?
You know what I really need, and at this point it's very slow-adopter of me to say it, is Adam on podcast. Then I could CAD and listen simultaneously! Surely one of those hundreds of globe-wide conferences out there is available...hmm.....
Read Adam's latest post (he seems to be more prolific lately) about RFID tags and a spa experience. Ubicomp does not necessarily mean large scale connectivity. These small scale localized experiences are the interesting leading edge.
JJKing has experimented with local scale shared wireless networks, where communties/orgs steal, produce and/or share content. It is an interesting adjunct to physical community.
The City Is Here For You To Use
Information Architect and Network Urbanist Adam Greenfield of
Speedbird has recently announced that he's self publishing (ala
Tufte and Lauf) his next book: The City Is Here For You To Use. If recent posts on his blog are any indication, The City promises to expand on his primary interests, first explored in Everyware: the intersection of Ubiquitous Computing and Everyday Life, this time with a specific slant towards urbanisms past, present and future. I've been a longtime reader of his blog(s), and I'm about halfway through Everyware right now, which is a highly articulate and at least partly sceptical examination of UbiComp's state of the art and implications. I know liberty bell has namechecked Greenfield here before, anybody else following this stuff?
I've mentioned elsewhere some thoughts on Information Architecture in general; it's really interesting how the thinkers in this field are kind of sneaking up on architecture, picking up the metaphors and tools (mostly from the 60s) that we've left behind while we're distracted by Form and Fancy Graphics, but I'm not convinced that 'Architecture' (or Urbanism) is the right master narrative for Informatics, which is potentially even bigger than the built environment.
The self publishing angle is of course also interesting here, it having been
discussed in these forums recently, too. It'll be an interesting thing to watch unfold, and anybody can follow along on the blog or even throw in $10 via paypal as a deposit to help the project along.
Interesting 765
I will have to check out his blog.
I too have found it interesting that people in the IT and IS sectors have picked up on some of the lingo of Architecture/Urbanism from the past decades...
Doesn' Kazy Varnelis come at it from this perspective. However my understanding he is no IT but rather an architect/urbanist/designer looking to IT for inspiration.
I unabashedly adore every word Adam Greenfield has ever written. (OK, I haven't actually read it ALL, I'm exaggerating, but you get my meaning.) My deposit for a first copy of The City Is Here... is in.
765, I've been thinking about that comment you made recently, that it seems a lot of these things were already covered by architecture's wild child theorists in the 60s, Archigram for example. They seemed like they were not only breaking ground in how people interact in/with the physical environment, but having a hell of a lot of fun doing it. Are the IA/ubicomp guys having that much fun? We architects are so dang morose so often...
There is lots to discuss here. So much of it for me comes back to material: I wonder if the convenience - and fun - of having a smart floor recognize my presence in the office from my footfalls and tell the coffee maker to prepare my regular cup of black coffee so I can grab it on my way to my desk makes a difference if the smart floor is carpet tiles or marble? Or if I can feel it bounce under my feet rather than hold solid and immobile as does the governmental institution by which I'm employed? Or if I have to walk 20' vs. 400' to get there? Or if the building my office is in has operable windows or not? There are so many elements of human/structure interaction that WE as architects should have a hold of, should excel at, but it's so easy to see those areas of expertise belong to interior designers, planners, etc.
So are the ubicomp designers going to make yet another inroad into what traditionally has been the specialty of architects? I think so, and I think in this case we have to drop our fear of the unknown and embrace them. I think they (I don't know who "they" are, and sorry to simplistically set it up in these us v. them terms) are looking seriously - more seriously than most architects, in fact - at how people interact with their environment, and since I firmly believe every building project is an urban design project, I think we have to know what they are making possible.
I actually know a lot of IA people who are in various stages of career shifts architecture, so I'm sure the influence and interest flows both ways.
lb, I like your condensation: it's about how people interact with their environment. On reflection there's a distinction to be made here between two types of Information Architecture: one, in which the organization of information and it's presentation and use is treated as a design project analogous to the organization, structure, and presentation of space & materials in architecture. And another type, in which the structure, etc. of the information and the structure, etc. of the space tend to become intricately linked ... it's this second type that I think AG is into here.
And yeah, I'm really excited about the intricacies, overlaps and isomorphisms that are possible. It's a way out of the Form trap that architects have walked deeper and deeper into since the 60s, when we turned away from all that fun Archigram stuff. Form is easy, this stuff seems tricky, subtle, and new.
or a new way into a bigger form trap.
The reason that AG feels so familiar is that many of his influences are architectural/urban. From Jacobs to Lefebvre to Debord. The best of the ubicomp work remind me of Archigram, Nigel Coates and Tschumi at the AA, and the Smithsons.
Anne Galloway's writing at purse lip square jaw is also interesting.
I guess this auction of wireless space that NPR covered yesterday may mean some of the ubicomp's possibilities can become manifest?
You know what I really need, and at this point it's very slow-adopter of me to say it, is Adam on podcast. Then I could CAD and listen simultaneously! Surely one of those hundreds of globe-wide conferences out there is available...hmm.....
Read Adam's latest post (he seems to be more prolific lately) about RFID tags and a spa experience. Ubicomp does not necessarily mean large scale connectivity. These small scale localized experiences are the interesting leading edge.
JJKing has experimented with local scale shared wireless networks, where communties/orgs steal, produce and/or share content. It is an interesting adjunct to physical community.
nam- Kazys is a theorist, writer, urbanista, flaneur, photographer, and academic - but not a designer. Robert Sumrell holds those chops in AUDC.
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