John Westell ARGUMENT

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Research Papers 2011-2012 Neal Schwartz

In society today, we have entered a new age in which our way of existence is defined through our connections and the network. We have developed a new type of society in which our economy, culture, social values, and even our identity have become linked into the larger network structure. This has thus, created a specific type of user that exists amongst this tangled web of inputs, and is controlled by how the network operates and functions. The network culture establishes links between humans, between machines, and between humans and machines. It places itself amongst the information age, in which the flows of bits and atoms are produced and consumed at a rapid rate. The drive stems from the structure of the network evolving as new structure of power for governing multiple autonomous entities at once. The information age exists today as new way in which we produce and obtain new forms of information. The network is inherently a product from this era, embedding the logic of the informational age, and allowing it to organize and transfer information from one source to the next. We have built a myriad of networks and connections to which we situate ourselves amongst and facilitate every action within our lives.

Denis Gram Computer City 1964 Many of these networks exist invisibly as they operate in digital form and are tracked through digital technologies. As Mark Wigley argues in his article Network Fever, he states, Invisible networks seemingly threaten visible means of defining space, dissolving the walls of buildings. These networks not only threaten our logic of thought but threaten the existence of our physical spaces. As the threat on spaces occurs it is largely due to speed, industrialized technology, and mass production that question qualities inherent within our public spaces. They have displaced not only the users that inhabit these socially driven domains but, have displaced the need for the built environment all together. Network culture is driven by its ability to link the digital with the physical, providing a new type of accessibility for any type of user. It becomes a link for the masses, where every user has the ability to exist within. The network provides a new understanding of time as it becomes rapidly faster through the use of digital technologies. It is a intelligent framework that adjusts to various constraints and looks to accommodate the whole. It is derived from both digital and biological frameworks that exists within our culture today. The digital structures exist a purely organizational strategies for how data is sent and received. In biological it operates similarly but are defined more through regulation and control of other complex frameworks. The network has ideally become a new concept for the 21st-century user, something that is rapidly transforming our understanding of the world. The design of the network becomes a critical element for its performance and existence within society today. Some networks achieve their presence through hierarchical organization in which one central node controls all entities. Others achieve their success through

the opposite in a more decentralized structures where connections can be facilitated by any autonomous entities. Most networks provide a framework that directs the methods of communication and the types of relationships it can facilitate. PROTOCOL Protocol exists within our network culture, as the dominating structure of power. As Alexander Galloway defines in his article, Protocol, Control, and Networks. He states, protocol is a technology that regulates flow, directs netspace, codes relationships and connects life forms. He also states, Protocol is two fold; it is both an apparatus that facilitates networks, and a logic that governs how things are done within that apparatus. Protocol exists in many different forms both virtual and physical, and embeds itself though various technologies, production methods, and social interactions. . Protocol exists throughout technology, and attempts to evolve our disposition towards more ubiquitous technologies amongst society today. Ever since the late 1960s when architects began to find new methodologies to integrate technology into our everyday lives, we have attempted to form a coexistence with technology and self. The work of Archigram who looked to develop a framework for technology and the city dweller. Their design of the Plug-In-City became interested with the idea of interface as it could relate with multiple entities. It becomes an important way to the address the rapidly growing sense of individuality, that which information and social media technologies have created, more simply put, how do people interact and interface with such architectural elements? The framework that which Archigram designed, was one that in some sense allowed for a structured nomadism of spaces to occur. In some sense a network for spatial configuration. Where the spaces could be re-configured and moved around within the structural framework to accommodate the users needs. In a sense the ability to customize ones spatial experience becomes the essential concept within the design. This was an important idea that Peter Cook of Archigram and many others in the group were invested in exploring. The notion of protocol in technology establishes similarly a type of framework for use and from which we can operate. It is widely defined in a technological sense, with the capacity to organize layers of information within the network. Amongst computer networks, protocol can be organized through different layers in which the layers become nested within each other; for instance, the information layer, transport layer, etc. There are 3 topologies for types of networks, some that are centralized (pyramids, hierarchical schemes), there are also decentralized networks ( a main hub or backbone with radiating peripheries) and distributed networks (a collection of node to node relations with no backbone or center) (Galloway & Thacker). The design of protocol within technology based networks is designed with the ability to be connected with any type of entity regardless of where it comes from. This is what allows for these types of networks to be so flexible and at the same time rigid. What becomes interesting is the notion of a technology saturated environment, and how we interact with public spaces is ideally governed by protocols within the technologies we use. There is the potential that by understanding these will allow for a more immersive environment to be created that relates more to the types of activities and social interactions people are engaged with. In examining in the notion of technology in public space, the use of Rem Koolhauss Seattle Central library, becomes a point of understanding into the structures that are conditioning a culture of use. The relationship of the buildings program was defined in the connections made to the in-between spaces. These spaces became crucial to the design, which were defined as spaces that would stimulate the occupants knowledge, also producing areas of work, interaction and play.1 In the digital age, architecture is constantly falling into the backdrop, where technological devices replace real spaces of physical interaction, for networks of exchange (Murphy 2006) This was an important goal that which OMA looked to redefine. He looked to simultaneously connect the virtual with the real in a new type of blending, that the adjacencies in program could potentially create. Protocol exists within production mechanisms of information, material artifacts, and people. The design of these structures produces a specific culture of use. In current technology today we have seen new types of production methods that are transformation the way we recieve and produce information and
1 Saieh , Nico . Seattle Central Library / OMA + LMN 10 Feb 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed 24 Aug 2011. <http://www.archdaily.com/11651>

material object. In this idea there is the notion of the networked consumer in society today. As we exist in a society of a constant consumption, from information to material object, which occurs much faster with technology like the internet and mobile devices. How do we design spaces for the networked consumer? We see spaces designed specifically for the consumer, like the super mall, Big Box Outles, and many other consumer driven sites. These areas are designed with specific power structures and economic standards for modularity, and the ability to accommodate the public. Many of these places operate within the public realm and are standardized in terms of design. This standardization produces in sense a homogeneity between the types of spaces and interactions that occur. Similarly these standardizations can be found throughout digital networks as well. In terms of the social, we see that all types of networks are creating a new form of social interaction with one another. Platforms like facebook have transformed the way we interact and communicate online, and that is widely transforming the way we interact within our public spaces. In Clive Thompsons article, Brave New World he presents the effect that facebook has on our perceptions and experience within the public realm, creating an ambient awareness to ones surrounding.
Constant online contact had made those ties immeasurably richer, but it hadnt actually increased the number of them; deep relationships are still predicated on face time, and there are only so many hours in the day for that.

In looking at how social networks operate one might begin to understand how specific features influence a larger number of users and what types of aspects are not successful. This becomes potentially important to understand, because it would bring about what types of relationships can be made to better connect spaces to those inhabiting them. The structures of power within social networks can demonstrate through the types of organizational strategies they use and implement for the use of many.
SOCIAL MEDIA [FACEBOOK]
The tools of the Information Age

WHAT IF FACEBOOK WAS A SPACE?--- FACE_SPACE

INTERNET CONTENT

social plugins

rd

individualized profiles

modern day firepits

d,
profiles as social attractors

global population

In part, my argument stems from our new existence and use of the network. It has created a new form of networked consumer through new technologies and forms of social interaction. These ideas can potentially bring forth a new way to understand public relationships between urban sites and their inhabitants and produce a more defined idea of a public space.