TERMS
A dozen ideas that have often been
considered in this seminar and studio.
DISTRICT:
While more often a designated administrative zone, as for schools, land management, or congress, a district can also be a de-facto aggregation of participants who identify with the place, and who benefit from the aggregation via a larger political voice, shared economic advantages, commoning protocols, historic designations, etc. Thus a district becomes an important concept in urban design, especially where considering psychogeography (spatial mental models).
While more often a designated administrative zone, as for schools, land management, or congress, a district can also be a de-facto aggregation of participants who identify with the place, and who benefit from the aggregation via a larger political voice, shared economic advantages, commoning protocols, historic designations, etc. Thus a district becomes an important concept in urban design, especially where considering psychogeography (spatial mental models).
DATA vs INFORMATION vs KNOWLEDGE:
Not all data inform. To hold any amount of information may not involve knowledge. Not all knowledge shows wisdom. Alas while the amount of data has exploded, the amount of wisdom has not. Among these, knowledge has had the most study. That is epistemology. Space, place and ground truth remain important categories in epistemology. Information, however needs deep reconsideration. Too often information relies on the technical definition (Claude Shannon) of data successfully sent. Yet bad data transmit too. Received data may not inform. Conversely the world may inform without anything being sent. That is sometimes called natural data or environmental information. Information is better defined (Luciano Floridi) as true semantic content
Not all data inform. To hold any amount of information may not involve knowledge. Not all knowledge shows wisdom. Alas while the amount of data has exploded, the amount of wisdom has not. Among these, knowledge has had the most study. That is epistemology. Space, place and ground truth remain important categories in epistemology. Information, however needs deep reconsideration. Too often information relies on the technical definition (Claude Shannon) of data successfully sent. Yet bad data transmit too. Received data may not inform. Conversely the world may inform without anything being sent. That is sometimes called natural data or environmental information. Information is better defined (Luciano Floridi) as true semantic content
HYPERLOCAL:
From, for, or about the participants, citizens, or residents of a geographic place amid some larger, more usually remote media culture. Not just a wayshowing app making use of GPS coordinates. Hyperlocal media often run on ad-hoc networking. Hyperlocal services work within a limited physical radius or travel time. Unmediated local phenomena are seldom referred to in this manner, however. Hyperlocal is a media term
From, for, or about the participants, citizens, or residents of a geographic place amid some larger, more usually remote media culture. Not just a wayshowing app making use of GPS coordinates. Hyperlocal media often run on ad-hoc networking. Hyperlocal services work within a limited physical radius or travel time. Unmediated local phenomena are seldom referred to in this manner, however. Hyperlocal is a media term
SYSTEM:
A useful way of knowing and operating the world. Enough such worldmaking is Modernity. As a knowledge construct, System thus serves as a lens, by which to bring the workable aspects of the world into focus. ...The dominance yet incompleteness of System illustrates the realty that science and technology are culturally positioned. Neither mere opinions nor comprehensive truth, scientific and technological knowledge remain forever in adaption, forever (per Galileo) confining themselves to questions that may have useful answers. Yet (per Einstein) “not all that counts can be counted.” ...Yet any one System has some identifiable properties: bounded, intentional, proprietary, feedback-controlled, with advantages of scalability, stability, and gain (amplification). This makes it different from Infrastructure or Network, two terms to be investigated in weeks to follow.
A useful way of knowing and operating the world. Enough such worldmaking is Modernity. As a knowledge construct, System thus serves as a lens, by which to bring the workable aspects of the world into focus. ...The dominance yet incompleteness of System illustrates the realty that science and technology are culturally positioned. Neither mere opinions nor comprehensive truth, scientific and technological knowledge remain forever in adaption, forever (per Galileo) confining themselves to questions that may have useful answers. Yet (per Einstein) “not all that counts can be counted.” ...Yet any one System has some identifiable properties: bounded, intentional, proprietary, feedback-controlled, with advantages of scalability, stability, and gain (amplification). This makes it different from Infrastructure or Network, two terms to be investigated in weeks to follow.
SYSTEM vs NETWORK vs INFRASTRUCTURE:
Whereas system (see above) is bounded, designed, and controllable, a network may be open and emergent. Whereas a network is useful as an interconnection of a set of nodes, an infrastructure is useful for what else may be built upon it. Of course many systems and infrastructures are networks. Of greater interest (see below) are networks of systems, or infrastructural systems on top of which other systems may be run. Especially, but not only, in communications, layer models are important in creating a world of systems.
Whereas system (see above) is bounded, designed, and controllable, a network may be open and emergent. Whereas a network is useful as an interconnection of a set of nodes, an infrastructure is useful for what else may be built upon it. Of course many systems and infrastructures are networks. Of greater interest (see below) are networks of systems, or infrastructural systems on top of which other systems may be run. Especially, but not only, in communications, layer models are important in creating a world of systems.
“THE SYSTEM” vs “WORLD OF SYSTEMS”:
As a starting point for the seminar, not the distinction between protesting (or even seeking to smash) “the system” versus seeking agency and places to intervene in a “world of systems.” Best explained by ecologist Dana Meadows, this distinction has been unpacked in an deep dive by epistemologies Clifford Siskin. See individual participant blogs for a variety of takes on what this has meant in the seminar.
As a starting point for the seminar, not the distinction between protesting (or even seeking to smash) “the system” versus seeking agency and places to intervene in a “world of systems.” Best explained by ecologist Dana Meadows, this distinction has been unpacked in an deep dive by epistemologies Clifford Siskin. See individual participant blogs for a variety of takes on what this has meant in the seminar.
RESILIENCE:
The capacity to recover from disturbance is not the same as the wish to sustain a condition. In the dynamics of systems ecologies, resilience often means bouncing back but sometimes means bouncing forward into a new condition. Thus resilience is often more a property of a world of systems, whole interrelations are more recombinant, than of anything comprehensive enough to be considered the system. Especially where overengineered, larger systems respond better to anticipated disturbances but less well to unanticipated ones. They are robust but fragile. Resilience is different from that. Resilience is almost always more local.
The capacity to recover from disturbance is not the same as the wish to sustain a condition. In the dynamics of systems ecologies, resilience often means bouncing back but sometimes means bouncing forward into a new condition. Thus resilience is often more a property of a world of systems, whole interrelations are more recombinant, than of anything comprehensive enough to be considered the system. Especially where overengineered, larger systems respond better to anticipated disturbances but less well to unanticipated ones. They are robust but fragile. Resilience is different from that. Resilience is almost always more local.
COMMONING:
Expressed as a process, rather than as an abstract ideal or a place, the keeping of a commons becomes an everyday practice, based on making the rounds, observing transactions, taking only what is needed and leaving as good for all others. Since this usually benefits from membership organizations, protocols of exchange, microtransactions, and conveniently casual communications, there is reason to believe that information technology can make commoning more viable in more kinds of situations.
Expressed as a process, rather than as an abstract ideal or a place, the keeping of a commons becomes an everyday practice, based on making the rounds, observing transactions, taking only what is needed and leaving as good for all others. Since this usually benefits from membership organizations, protocols of exchange, microtransactions, and conveniently casual communications, there is reason to believe that information technology can make commoning more viable in more kinds of situations.
ENGAGING CONTEXT:
In an attention economy, qualities of engagement become all the more important. While a sense of agency might remain foremost among those qualities, there must also be a sense of flow. Getting into flow normally takes practice. Flow is neither tedious nor too difficult, and in this practice must not become rote, but must afford enough sensibility, play, and mastery to remain something of an end in itself. This is something very different from infinite clickable choice. A medium must afford this and constrain that. A practice generally has a context, props, and community. Thus things, places, and networks have agency too. As actor-network theory begins to explain, engagement runs high in communities of practice.
In an attention economy, qualities of engagement become all the more important. While a sense of agency might remain foremost among those qualities, there must also be a sense of flow. Getting into flow normally takes practice. Flow is neither tedious nor too difficult, and in this practice must not become rote, but must afford enough sensibility, play, and mastery to remain something of an end in itself. This is something very different from infinite clickable choice. A medium must afford this and constrain that. A practice generally has a context, props, and community. Thus things, places, and networks have agency too. As actor-network theory begins to explain, engagement runs high in communities of practice.
BOUNDARIES/NETWORKS:
Design creates layers of boundaries, and ways for networked flows to cross into or be kept out of them. Clothing, rooms, buildings, neighborhoods, and nations all serve as boundaries. Customs houses, city gates, entry portals, doorways, and masks! all act as gatekeepers. Where traditionally boundaries were the more powerful, today that is networks. But it is the duality of them where to look for design. Points not only of entry but also crossover, flow regulation, and rate monitoring all deserve embellishment. To emphasize that the design is not so much of the network itself as of the access points, sometimes a plumbing metaphor helps: fixtures and fittings.
Design creates layers of boundaries, and ways for networked flows to cross into or be kept out of them. Clothing, rooms, buildings, neighborhoods, and nations all serve as boundaries. Customs houses, city gates, entry portals, doorways, and masks! all act as gatekeepers. Where traditionally boundaries were the more powerful, today that is networks. But it is the duality of them where to look for design. Points not only of entry but also crossover, flow regulation, and rate monitoring all deserve embellishment. To emphasize that the design is not so much of the network itself as of the access points, sometimes a plumbing metaphor helps: fixtures and fittings.
SCALE:
Humane design operates in the the orders of magnitude closed to individual and social embodiment. In architecture, this brings things larger and smaller than the building or the room into consideration. Conventionally, urban design emphasizes the street and district, and product design emphasizes the objects and fittings. Embedded interactivity inceasingly interoperates across this spectrum, however. Yet it too often does so as if everything is the handheld device and the distant data cloud. Good strategic design knows better: intermediate scales of embodiment still matter most.
Humane design operates in the the orders of magnitude closed to individual and social embodiment. In architecture, this brings things larger and smaller than the building or the room into consideration. Conventionally, urban design emphasizes the street and district, and product design emphasizes the objects and fittings. Embedded interactivity inceasingly interoperates across this spectrum, however. Yet it too often does so as if everything is the handheld device and the distant data cloud. Good strategic design knows better: intermediate scales of embodiment still matter most.
GENRE:
A category of creative work, and the cultural interpretations that surround it. Distinct for shared resemblance of style, method, or subject matter. Some familiar Genres: comedy, westerns, hip-hop, infographics, tiny houses, white-cube architectural abstractions.. To Siskin, System is best understood as a Genre, and to us, moreover, as a design Genre. Likewise the architecture thesis project is itself a genre. Those who appreciate this genre tend to recognize a distinction between the profession of architecture and the discipline of architecture.
A category of creative work, and the cultural interpretations that surround it. Distinct for shared resemblance of style, method, or subject matter. Some familiar Genres: comedy, westerns, hip-hop, infographics, tiny houses, white-cube architectural abstractions.. To Siskin, System is best understood as a Genre, and to us, moreover, as a design Genre. Likewise the architecture thesis project is itself a genre. Those who appreciate this genre tend to recognize a distinction between the profession of architecture and the discipline of architecture.