// DATABANK - 'NETWORKED PUBLICS' [K. VARNELIS, 2008]

Today, technological networks are more accessible, more ubiquitous, and more mobile everyday. The always-on, always-accessible network produces a broad set of changes to our concept of place. These changes are not simply produced by technology; on the contrary, the development and practices of technology are thoroughly imbricated in culture, society and politics.  This particular image depicts a network mapping of the world’s global internet connections. However, with connection there is also disconnection. 





> Simultaneous Place

+ Connection = Disconnection [CTW 2010]

In the context of familiar public spaces, if individuals do not interact with one another verbally, they are engaged in a calculated co-presence. They are - via some form of network connection – in another place. Over time, our mobility has been augmented by machines of transport – spaces of transition absent of identity, human relationships, or traces of history. The only way humans can navigate the overwhelming condition of the metropolis is by disconnecting, by shutting off our connections to this multitude of others. It has been suggested that our sense of place is coming to an end.

>Mobile Place: The Rise of the Telecocoon

The city is itself a communication device having been shaped by the telephone and television. Until recently, the two primary means of browsing the city have been by foot – the flaneur’s method – and by car.  Public events now occur simultaneously, in two different places: the place of the event itself and that in which it is watched and heard. Mobile phones can be used as ‘territory machines’, redefining public space by transforming a seat, a pavement, a bus stop, into the user’s own personal paradise; using mobiles to create a private virtual world through which we maintain constant interpersonal contact.

> The Network + its Socio-spatial Consequences

Society is moving toward more networked forms of organisation. Far from the mythical distribution ideal that ideologists of technology claim it to be, the network has its own physicality and material presence. Areas and populations outside of this logic are subject to the tunnel effect: they virtually don’t exist as far as the network and the dominant world economy is concerned.  Does virtual existence impact upon actual existence? It’s been suggested that the network has to be seen as part of an opposition between “the Net and the self”, in which individuals relentlessly try to affirm their identities in a rapidly changing world. This identity formation increasingly happens within networks that are both physical and virtual, filled with individuals who both produce and consume, taking advantage of new kinds of online cultural production.

+ Networked Publics - the 'Networked Human' [CTW 2010]

> Geospatial Web + Locative Media

Despite the inescapable truth that global network connectivity equates to local disconnectivity, two emerging technologies are poised to bridge the gap between the network and the local – the geospatial web and ubiquitous computing. This meshing of the virtual and physical is intended to reduce local disconnectivity whilst maintaining global/virtual connectivity, with the model of non-place being turned on its head in the creation of social connections via mobile networking technology. The convergence of the geospatial web with locative media and mobile networking technology will enable society to read, and leave behind virtual traces on the world, re-creating physical place as a digital map – the virtual has become grounded in the real. This overlay of virtual data over place will enable society to have access to a whole web of locally applicable information, thus enhancing local connectivity and the social significance of place. However, it could also render place a prisoner of memory and ‘someone else’s’ experiences. It may also exacerbate the issue of ‘tunnelling’ for those without network access, leading to an increase in social exclusion. And, of course, the rise in locative media will undoubtedly result in an ever-expanding surveillance culture within a ‘virtual police state’ society.

// DATABANK - 'PANDEMONIUM: THE RISE OF PREDATORY LOCALES IN THE POST-WAR WORLD' [B. HOOKWAY, 2000]

Buildings and infrastructure, as shapers of the urban milieu, have been superseded by a state of so-called ‘pandemonia’ - the superimposition of cybernetic principles upon the organisation, regulation and control of urban space. For those who cling to the ordered variations of the city plans of the recent past, today’s metropolis is utterly chaotic. Bandwidth has replaced the boulevard, and commuting has given way to the mouse click. After thousands of years of blocks held by mortar, the contemporary city is now stitched together by new modes of communication and control.

> The Three Ages of the Machine

Following the Industrial Revolution, society has advanced through the First and Second machine ages [mechanical and electrical respectively]. During these phases, machines developed from simple mechanical tools to fully electrified tools, and the human-machine relationship remained primarily recurrent and linear in nature, and was based rigidly upon processes of usage and action. 

+ Pandemonium - the three ages of the machine [CTW 2010]

According to Deleuze and Guattari, society has recently entered a third phase in its industrialisation trajectory, their so-called ‘Third Age of the Machine’, in which human-machine systems have now become non-linear [or cybernetic] in nature, replacing the previous non-reversible relation during the First and Second ages. The connection between the human and the machine is now based upon internal, mutual communication, and is no longer driven by processes of usage and action. The ‘Third Age’ has come to dominate all industrial landscapes, particularly in the continuous-process manufacturing and information technology industries.

> The Human + The Industrial Machine

The liberation of information-processing techniques from the human worker began in industry in the 1970s, via the adoption of ‘flexible specialisation’. Previously, Fordist semi-automated assembly lines operated through the resonance of the rhythms of labour and production processes, in such a manner as to enable production routines to be easily quantified and repeated. The advent of cybernetic machines severed this labour-production / human-machine interface – now, the worker has been entirely assimilated into a cybernetically-directed and controlled matrix of production. The human and the machine have been spliced together, and both now function as reciprocal agents within contemporary production environments. As production has become increasingly automated, a deep divide has been created within the workforce. On the one hand, there are the highly skilled engineers and systems analysts who direct, control and maintain complex industrial machinery. However, on the other hand, there are the masses of unskilled workers, whose sole economic asset is their geographic mobility. As a result, a major issue has arisen from the arrival of cybernetic production:  is the worker now forever destined to be either a controller of flux, or to merely become a controlled element of flux?

> The Human + The Information Machine

The organisational and bureaucratic criteria of information environments were subjected to reconsideration in an abstract form in order to free flows of information, which resulted in corresponding transformation to their spatial manifestation. The resulting environment was then recast as a dynamic processing machine, in which variations in the physical environment were shaped by communication flows, and the hierarchical organisation of control began to evolve. The decentralisation of control is seen as a more sophisticated organisational paradigm to a centralised system. With the information age came a new type of office collective, the Burolandschaft, which accommodated the fresh need for greater fluidity in information processing, and a desire to free production from top-down control. Yet a strict level of control is nevertheless implemented, via the creation of an environment of peer-surveillance, in which the work environment has become all-encompassing and relentless. Burolandschaft attempted to embed workers within the process, to act like the parts of a machine as nodes for communication flow. Hierarchy within the information production environment is no longer linear but can now be defined by non-linear networks – the office has become performative.

+ Pandemonium - cybernetic systems [image courtesy of Tim Marjot 2010]

> A Cybernetic Urbanism?

The city, as a complex entity in a perpetual state of flux, has been transformed as a result of the assimilation of cybernetic principles into all aspects of the urban network. Non-linear control organisation, responsive environments in industry and information technologies, and the mergence of the human and the machine; these relatively new concepts are still evolving, and as such will serve to further transform the city, and the architectural theory and practice that creates it. Perhaps, the main task facing architecture in the ‘cybernetic age’ is to accommodate this doctrine through the adaptation of existing urban infrastructures, whilst simultaneously limiting the negative by-products of societal fragmentation and cultural triviality. The traditional dynamics of the city have been irreversibly altered by the integration of cybernetic principles into the fields of design, production and information, particularly when coupled with the increasingly pervasive new digitised ‘global network culture’ we are witnessing. The future prospect of a widespread new ‘cybernetic urbanism’ is a realistic possibility indeed.

// DATABANK - 'A NEW PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIETY' [M, DE LANDA, 2006]

In ‘A New Philosophy of Society’, De Landa explores Deleuze’s investigations into assemblage theory, and postulates that it could be utilised to model the connections and complex, multi-layered interactivity between social entities, from basic inter-personal networks, to government organisations, cities and nations. This, ultimately, could give rise to a more socially-informed urban design methodology, which could have massive benefits for the functioning of the world’s cities. It is in essence, a further branch into philosophical and scientific studies into non-linearity and complex systems.

> Assemblage Theory: In a Nutshell

The book sees De Landa piecing together the scattered work of Deleuze and his theory of assemblages. Basically, De Landa sets out the form of all physical and virtual entities, that being non-linear assemblages of components, which are the outcome of specific historical evolutionary processes. [These components are often themselves assemblages, existing at a smaller spatio-temporal scale]. De Landa explains the central concept of ‘territorialisation’ as that which relates to the extent of homogeneity or heterogeneity of a given assemblage’s internal components, which result in a more or less stable assemblage. The non-linear aspect is in relation to the fact that all assemblages contain built-in feedback loops once they cross a critical complexity threshold – a cybernetic function which enables assemblages to react back upon its constituent components. The notion of non-linear causality, that of “same cause, same effect, always”, is being increasingly discarded in the face of the increasing complexity within contemporary science and society, due to its inability to adequately model systems accurately. De Landa’s hope is that with this insight into how complex systems operate and interact with one another, perhaps the highly complex, yet often misunderstood entity, modern society, could be more effectively understood, modelled, and where necessary, redesigned.

> The Cybernetic City

Throughout the course of the book De Landa highlights the benefits of, and potential application, of assemblage theory in studying and illuminating the connections between various levels of social networks and entities in urban studies. An understanding of the complex interactions and processes that combine to generate an entity called ‘society’ has obvious benefits for the would-be urban designer seeking to understand the collective he is designing for. The internal functioning of society ultimately impacts upon its external environment, namely the city, hence its relevance to the overall study into the future of the city. De Landa elucidates the non-linear, cybernetic functioning of assemblages upon their component parts, and this is indicative of the nature of assemblages’ part-to-whole relations and interactions. These result in non-linear, emergent properties and/or assemblages, whereas whole-to-part interactions react back to affect future successive emergence. This dual-direction cyberneticism is mirrored in the relationship between society and the city, each reacting back upon each other to produce emergent results, due to the interactivity of their respective assemblages.

+ A New Philosophy of Society - network society diagram [from 'Digital META_CITY' CTW 2010]

> The City Assembled

De Landa eventually applies assemblage theory to the city. In his view, the city is composed of countless internal components, each of varying heterogeneity and material manifestation, physicality and expressivity, and including social actors and agents, buildings, infrastructures, organisations and institutions. De Landa postulates that the city’s spatial form is the result of recurrent social rhythms over time, the connections and interactivity processes of these internal components and assemblages. De Landa also shows the processes of territorialisation and de-territorialisation to be a critical factor in the spatial form of the city, in terms of social, cultural and economic distribution of people, resources and infrastructures. Congregation and segregation are thus two methods of increasing the internal homogeneity of a given physical locale, whereas two examples of increasing the internal heterogeneity [de-territorialisation] of an urban region would be increased geographical mobility and land rent impact upon land usage. Perhaps, given the exponential increase in urban complexity over the past few decades, assemblage theory has role to play in the design of the future society and city. Due to its ability to operate in a non-linear manner without having to make the traditional sacrifice when modelling complex systems, that of multi-layered complex interactivity, assemblage theory has the potential to infiltrate urban design theory and practice, just as it has done with other fields of design - the future of the city is unmistakably complex and ultimately cybernetic.

// DATABANK - 'NON-PLACE' [M. AUGE, 1995]

The contemporary city exists as an amalgamation of two distinct types of physical territory – place and non-place. Place, in the anthropological sense, is created through a mixture of interactions between local references, social and cultural codes and practices, as well as the individuals themselves who inhabit the physical space. [Architectural place would include the architectural significance, or lack of, within that locality]. On the other hand, non-places are those locations devoid of collective interaction with a physical location in possession of a distinct identity or socio-cultural significance. In other words, place is an inherently social territory whereas non-place promotes social solitude and individuality. With an understanding of the particularities of place and non-place, urban planners could be more effective in reconciling their intrinsic differences and polarities, and could potentially formulate new strategies for more effective integration of place and non-place within the modern city.

> Modernity or a ‘Supermodernity’?

Auge defines the term modernity as “the presence of the past in a present that supersedes it, but still lays claim to it.” This definition would suggest that, far from eradicating the old places and temporal rhythms of the city, modernity simply nudges them into the periphery. By doing so, the city is imbued with the ability to evolve and develop, whilst maintaining its historic and cultural soul. According to Auge, we have now entered into the age of Supermodernity, in which the old rhythms and places are segregated from the whole into less-significant sub-narratives, being treated as mere spectacle for the consumption of the masses. In effect, Supermodernity produces non-places, meaning spaces which are not anthropological places and which do not integrate the earlier places. Instead, these historically- or locally-referenced places are promoted [or demoted?] to the status of ‘places of memory’, and permanently consigned to a restricted and specific location.

> Place vs. Non-place

Anthropological place can be defined as a physical territory, located in time, in which events occur, potentially political, social, economic, or religious. Therefore, place is always in possession of a specific identity that is rooted in historical events, customs, practices and processes. If a physical territory is not in possession of these qualities then it is merely space. Space is an abstract representation of place [virtual place?], that is free from time, and in which exists the potential or capacity for physical events to occur. Spaces which contain events and activities which are non-relational with historical, social or cultural aspects of a particular location and which possess no specific identity have been coined non-places. Non-places only form relations towards a particular event and the inhabitants of those spaces. Examples include transportation networks and nodes, temporary accommodation, and large-scale leisure and retail outlets. Non-places are partly defined by their visual references and indicators, which may be either prescriptive, prohibitive or informative, [or a combination] and are either projected in ordinary, written or oral language [signs or loudspeakers] or graphic mechanisms [maps or symbols].

> Non-place: The Dominant Urban Territory?

Has the non-place become the dominant and defining element within the contemporary urban landscape? Certainly their influence is considerable and is seemingly ever-increasing and pervasive. This undoubtedly raises issues with the subject of urban planning – just how do you integrate place with non-place, modern with ‘supermodern’? As place and non-place exist as opposing polarities, with place incapable of being totally erased, and non-place being immune to completion, this would appear to be a difficult task requiring a pragmatic and locally-informed solution. The primary problem that non-place creates within urban locations is widespread and socially divisive – that of promoting social solitude and similitude, whilst simultaneously eroding the social, cultural and architectural identity of a specific physical territory. Not only do they erode the identity of the present, but they also sever the present from its past – history is merely employed as a spectacle, a superficial and somehow peripheral event within the wider urban tapestry, rather than as the foundation for cultural, social and architectural practices, and a pilot guiding the future evolution of urban civilisation.

+ Non-place vs. Place - [place = land + society + nation + history/culture + religion] [CTW 2010]

> A Future ‘Place’?

In contemporary society, place has become the sanctuary of the regular user of non-places. The relentless and regular loss of identity is having a profound effect upon the nature of the city and its inhabitants. Non-place is exclusively lived in the present moment – a perpetual present, and we exist in “a world thus surrendered to solitary individuality, to the fleeting, the temporary and the ephemeral.” Unfortunately, having to experience non-place has become an essential and unavoidable constituent in modern urban life, due entirely to the twin phenomena of the acceleration of human history [a combination of social, cultural and technological upheavals], and the contraction of our physical territory [as a result of communications and transportation technology]. It would appear that our urban future will continue to contain a major element of non-places, and that these will remain an essential mechanism for the future functioning of the ‘supermodern’ city.

// DATABANK - 'NEUROMANCER' [W. GIBSON, 1984]

When it comes to envisioning the future, those individuals who are free to dream quite often make the most farsighted prophets. It is in the arena of science fiction that the original vocabulary of a new virtual, digitised urbanity is to be found. Moreover, it has quite often provided a much more accurate depiction of possible urban futures, with authors acting as ‘cyber-prophets’, when compared with the scientific and architectural establishment. Science fiction literature, in particular cyberpunk, throughout the twentieth century, has acted as a very real catalyst in the technological pursuits of the real world; new concrete scientific developments which are arriving ever more quickly on the heels of phantasmal science fiction.

> Digital Dystopia

Quite possibly the most frequently cited example of a fictional urban condition becoming increasingly relevant in the studies of contemporary society is that of the science fiction classic ‘Neuromancer’, by William Gibson. This seminal book was the novel that first coined the term ‘cyberspace’ back in 1984, as well as, rather prophetically, the concept of the arrival of a fully digitally-mediated society. The phrase ‘cyberspace’ was used to describe a virtual construct, within which exists a parallel virtual world of limitless potential, unrestricted by the limitations of the physical world. Cyberterrorism, genetic violence, cybernetic engineering and a dystopian world dominated by a singular digital virtual construct, controlled by a malevolent and mechanically ruthless artificial intelligence, potentially a logical evolution of our own contemporary military-industrial complex; the novel foresees a subjugated human future increasingly fused with, and ultimately controlled by, technology – a digital dystopia and one with the machine taking primacy over the human. The entire novel sees Gibson describe this new digital dystopia; a dystopia laced with veiled warnings concerning the current technological trajectories of the information age.

> Cyberspace: An Urban Reality

The concept of a globally connected virtual construct, a network that is totally ubiquitous and pervasive, and one which controls the future trajectories of that society is a frighteningly similar concept to the condition which pervades contemporary society. Visually, Gibson likens ‘the Matrix’ to the city, which is not unusual given that the city itself is a hive of information and communication infrastructures, and the centre of the vast majority of all human activity. Clearly, he perceived the human future as an urban one, within a domain dominated by an oppressive, highly complex, cybernetic network of sentient technological agents. All of these themes have understandably found renewed resonance in the study of today’s current social climate of pervasive digital networks.

> A Warning from Cyberspace?

Undoubtedly Gibson’s ‘Matrix’ construct bears a startling resemblance to our own internet construct, although admittedly with a much more militant and oppressive intensity. Perhaps the ‘Matrix’ is the logical result of the development of the contemporary internet, foremost of our global digital networks? This may seem somewhat fanciful but when one considers the fact that the internet’s humble origins began as a military experiment with strategic communications networks, perhaps society should take note of Gibson’s warnings and take care when steering the future evolution of our global virtual networks. As with all technological development, the results can be helpful or hazardous – an excellent example would be that of the internal combustion engine, which provided mobility, and relatively reliable, cheap mechanical power, but also produced congestion, pollution and of course, the car crash. The question for the urban planner is ultimately; will the increasing virtualisation of urban metabolisms be helpful or hazardous to the evolution of the city?

// DIGITAL META_CITY

+ Digital META_CITY - dissertation front cover visual

This is an extract from my dissertation produced during 2009/10, entitled the ‘Digital META_CITY’, in which I explore the rise of the virtual urban metabolism, and its architectural, social and cultural impact about the city. It represents a deeper study into issues surrounding the escalating ubiquity and pervasiveness of digital infrastructures and their increasing assimilation into every facet of urban life.

>> Abstract

Contemporary society is in the midst of a massive upheaval; an upheaval of a comparable scale to that of the industrial revolution. Social injustice, poverty, resource depletion, ecological devastation, congestion, terrorism, coupled with the relatively new concepts of ubiquitous instantaneous telecommunications, globally networked economies and institutions, and pervasive mass media; the city as we knew it is rapidly transforming, and the impact of these issues upon the spatial configuration and architectural expression of the city has been considerable.

Society is currently engaged in an evolutionary progression from the industrial age, and as a result, today’s cities are witnessing the formation of an increasing chasm between physical urban processes, mostly dating from the industrial age, and the newly digitised virtual urban processes of the information age.

This state of events is by no means unusual, however. Throughout the ages, society has always been a dynamic evolving entity, with the city, the principal manifestation of human civilisation, acting as the focal point for progression. Ever since the first cities, there has always existed within their internal workings, the potential for conflict between their physical and virtual urban metabolisms. Virtual in this sense refers to dematerialised processes, including the flow of information, cultural symbols or even political power, as opposed to physical processes such as agriculture, energy generation or transportation.

These ‘Analogue Cities’ have undergone spectacular collapses in the past as a direct result of urban metabolic segregation, and a failure to comprehend the importance of maintaining symbiotic connections between physical and virtual processes. The significance of this issue for the contemporary city is exacerbated by the sheer scale of today’s virtual urban metabolisms, and the global power, ubiquity and pervasiveness of the networks within which they operate.

The city is now being infiltrated and consumed by mass digitisation and the rise of the virtual urban metabolism. Urban designers and architects now have the opportunity to engage with the re-modelling of the city, to cast off its predominantly negative industrial age legacy, and embrace the potential of the information age future.

>> Aim

In the twenty first century, the city is confronted with a wide range of issues concerning its physical and virtual processes. Local and global network connectivity, societal inequality, economic instability and political volatility; all pose questions to the would-be urban designer – to what extent has the rise of the virtual urban metabolism transformed the city, and what impact has the digital transformation had upon architecture? How do we assess the impact upon the city of the digitisation of the built environment, in the hope of facilitating and directing future transformations that are required to ensure the functioning of the modern city during the transition into the information age, and its evolution beyond?

The answer to this predicament is an elusive one indeed. A grasp of the complexities of the city’s relationship between its physical and increasingly pervasive virtual metabolisms, and its ever-more significant digitised local-global functioning, is critical. Only with a solid understanding of these connections and processes within the urban domain, and the impact of the rise of virtual urban metabolism upon the urban fabric and architecture, can the true extent of urban transformation due to digitisation be known.

This dissertation will elucidate the impact of the virtual urban metabolism upon the city, and will demonstrate how the future of the city is reliant upon an urbanism that attempts to integrate its physical and virtual processes, via the re-conceptualisation of the city as a metabolic entity. Such a new approach to urbanism could result in a city that thrives economically, technologically, culturally and socially, through an in-depth understanding of its internal processes, and the symbiosis of its physical and virtual metabolisms – the Digital Meta-CITY.

>> Methodology

The dissertation will begin with The Metabolic City, in which the city, as the materialised form of numerous components and processes [or metabolisms] within human civilisation, will be de-constructed as a metabolic entity to illustrate the internal workings of its physical and virtual urban metabolisms. This section will also include a broad, but brief, sweep of the historical evolution of the city as a metabolic entity. The purpose of this is to provide a level of clarity, [beyond the metaphors and analogies often utilised to conceptualise the city], for viewing the city as an amalgamation and concentration of metabolic processes within complex physical and virtual networks. The digitisation of the flows of wealth, power and information within the city, and the rise of the virtual metabolism, in particular its two most influential networks, [that of the mobile phone and the internet], will also be explored. It is hoped that, having illuminated the metabolic evolution of the city and highlighted the recent prevalence of the virtual over the physical metabolism, that the question of the impact upon the city brought about via digital transformation can now be examined in more detail – has digital transformation ultimately had a positive or negative effect upon our urban evolutionary trajectory? And will the potential future intensification of urban digitisation have similar results?

A study of the urban landscape as a Digital Dystopia will be undertaken in the second section of this dissertation. The negative aspects of the digital transformation of the city are numerous but often veiled, and as such they shall be analysed in detail. Issues concerning the segregation of physical and virtual urban metabolisms, the divergent dual local-global functioning of the city, the new social and economic dilemmas due to increased connectivity, and the spatial consequences of the aforementioned will be examined.

To give a balanced perspective of the digital transformation of the city, in part three, the city as a Digital Utopia will be explored. The positive impacts of the digital transformation of the city are often somewhat more conspicuous than the negative, but they shall also be studied in detail. Issues concerning the symbiosis of physical and virtual urban metabolisms, the convergence of the dual local-global functioning of the city, the new social and economic advantages due to increased connectivity, and the spatial developments as a result of these issues will be examined.

In the final section, The Digital Meta-CITY, all of the fundamental issues discussed throughout the dissertation will be reviewed. Conclusions shall be drawn and speculations made concerning the impact of the rise of the virtual urban metabolism and to what extent it has transformed the city. During the course of this section, a tentative proposal for a new approach to urbanism and architecture shall take shape, the aim of which is to provide a useful structure upon which to model existing urban landscapes, and to guide the future transformation of the Analogue City into the Digital Meta-CITY. An important point worth noting is that the objective of this proposal is to construct a theoretical framework to aid the materialisation of a vast array of urban potentials within existing cities, rather than prescribe a physical spatial form – an open process of urban metabolic symbiosis, as opposed to a closed, spatially deterministic urban plan. An urbanism based upon the symbiosis of physical and virtual urban processes, within a metabolic conceptualisation of the city, may facilitate humanity’s transition into the information age and safely beyond into the unknown urban future.

// DIGITAL TERRITORY_WIRRAL

+ Digital Territory_Wirral - masterplan [CTW 2010]

The Wirral has been in a steady state of decline ever since heavy industry began to relocate from its locality. The departure of these key economic, cultural and social drivers left a huge void within the region. Its previous wealth was achieved through the full integration of cutting-edge industrial technologies and techniques into its cultural psyche, which enabled the Wirral to remain at the forefront of global industrial progress.

Could the Wirral regain its industrial-age position as a region of prosperity and affluence if it was ‘plugged’ into the digital world? In order for this strategy to have any chance of success, the Wirral would require a huge overhaul of its digital communication infrastructures, namely those facilitating internet connectivity and penetration. At the present time, the Wirral has some of the lowest rates of urban internet penetration in the country, and is all but by-passed by the current [and projected] digital backbone of the UK, and therefore the world.

+ Digital Territory_Wirral - UK internet connectivity [CTW 2010]

If the Wirral’s connective capacity could be massively upgraded it could acquire a share of the extremely centralised internet data capacity of London, and promote itself as a major new European node within the global information network, thereby gaining all the power, wealth and prosperity that this would entail. The objective of this aspirational project is to investigate a potential future for the Wirral, a digital future; one of digital integration with the global information network and a cultural shift towards the ‘e-lifestyle’ of the ‘network society’ – the Wirral transformed into a Digital_Territory.

// DIGITAL_TERRITORIES

This essay concerns the rise of the digital network culture and society that we are witnessing within our cities, and the subsequent impacts this phenomena is having upon the contemporary metropolis and its future evolutionart trajectory. It encompasses the theoretical postion of my studies into urban utopian models during the first semester of Year 5, and as such framed much of my research and development at the time, and probably will continue to do so for some time to come.

>> Digital_Territories

 

"Globalisation and informationalisation, enacted by networks of wealth, technology, and power, are transforming our world.” [Castells 2010a, p.72]

As society is taking its first tentative steps into the information age, it is increasingly clear that the contemporary city has become a highly contested territory. The rise of the global virtual network has produced the latest manifestation of the struggle between local-cultural and global-technological trajectories. The ascension of the information age, and the increasing impact of the digital urban metabolism, promise to radically transform our current perceptions of not only society and culture, but also our perception of place, and the future function of the city.

New digital technologies and the infrastructures to deliver them are becoming increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous within the city [Varnelis 2008]. The divergence of physical and virtual urban metabolisms, the crisis of global connectivity versus local disconnection, the flow of information and wealth within the globalised network of cities, and their resultant spatial impact upon place, have all become the dominant issues of social and urban discourse.

Cities now exist in two locations simultaneously – the traditional physical landscape and the digital virtual network. This dual identity will have profound effects upon the future form of the city. At present, the city exists as two distinct flows of energy, the physical and the virtual, which has resulted in increasing social, political, economic and spatial fragmentations.

The cities within the globalised network benefit from possessing the means to access all the information, [and therefore wealth], they require or desire. The digital infrastructures they contain are the result of colossal financial investment, and they serve to secure the future of these cities in terms of global financial, commercial and institutional influence. For those cities outside of the global flows of information and wealth, they suffer from massive social, economic and political isolation and exclusion. These urban regions are unable to compete in the globalised network of cities, and as a result they slip further into decline. This urban “tunnelling effect” of digital exclusion can be attributed to a poorer standard or complete lack of digital infrastructure [Varnelis 2008, pp.28].

It can be seen that the future of the networked city rests with its connective capacity, and its ability to integrate virtual-global and physical-local flows of energy and information.

 

>> Digital_Transformation

“Space does not reflect society, it expresses it.” [Castells 2004, p.85]

With this statement, Castells is pointing out that urban transformation and the spatial reconfiguration of cities is the result of cultural and social upheaval, and not the other way around. It can be argued that the rise of a new information age society and culture will undoubtedly result in further changes to the physical form of the city.

In the view of Castells, the future transformation of the city will centre on the main axes of function and form. Firstly, in describing the functioning of the city he states that the,

“Network society is organised around the opposition between the global and the local.” [Castells 2004, p.85]

He points out that although the dominant economic, technological, communicative and administrative processes within the city are organised around global networks, the everyday activities of work, play, culture and political participation are inherently local affairs. Interactions between and within cities have become increasingly multi-layered, with interactivity now being co-ordinated simultaneously within the physical and virtual realms. The scale of this duality of function has been somewhat exacerbated by the rise of ever-more pervasive networks, and the city, in attempting to respond to both conflicting logics, is becoming increasingly fragmented. Castells suggests that the future spatial form of the city will be dependant upon the resolution of the conflict between the ability of the city to connect and communicate digitally with the global flow of information, and to interact physically with its locality and society.

“Cities are structured and destructured simultaneously by the competing logics of the space of flows and the space of places.” [Castells 2004, p.85]

This capacity for dual communication means that the notion of place is more critical than ever before, as it not only accommodates network connectivity and facilitates digital communication, but also provides the physically-grounded traditional social and cultural functions of a city. The new-found dominance of the virtual network has not resulted in the collapse of the city as a built form. According to Mitchell, although forecast to the contrary by many ‘cyberprophets’, the rise of the virtual does not,

“[…] destroy the power of place: local cultures and advantages still matter.” [Mitchell 2004, p.210]

The all-encompassing ‘city of bits’ has not come to pass, and the primary function of the city now in the information age is to fully integrate the “space of flows” with the “space of places” [Castells 2004, p.86]; it has to become a digitally-compatible communication device stitching together both virtual and physical urban metabolisms.

>> Digital_Dilemmas

The onset of a new cultural revolution throws up many obstacles for a society to overcome. With the digital revolution, society will have to adjust to new ways of interacting, communicating, and working. Post-industrial visions of a utopian future based upon the limitless possibilities of the virtual, without the burdens of the physical world have not materialised, and in all likelihood never will. Varnelis is all-too aware of the naivety of the ‘go anywhere, always online’ notion of virtual connectivity.

“Far from the mythical distributed ideal that ideologists of technology claim it to be, the network has its own physicality, its own material presence.” [Varnelis 2008, pp.27-8]

Here Varnelis makes reference to the fact that although digital networks appear to be ultra-modern and ubiquitous, they are completely reliant upon an archaic infrastructural system based upon subterranean or submarine conduits. These cables of copper or fibre optics shuttle all the world’s digital information, and the data itself is concentrated in a highly centralised and vulnerable network of relatively few routes and exchange nodes. If regions are outside of this digital backbone then they will suffer the consequences of economic and social exclusion as Varnelis rather pessimistically states,

“Areas and populations outside of this logic are subject to the tunnel effect: they virtually don’t exist as far as the network and, hence, the dominant world economy is concerned.” [Varnelis 2008, pp.28]

This urban tunnel effect is the result of inequality in the distribution of new digital infrastructure. This is not a new occurrence however. Over the centuries, new technological innovations were more often than not distributed in those areas that possessed favourable characteristics, usually economic and institutional in nature. As an example, the creation of national grids eventually provided the majority of people with a reliable and secure supply of electricity. But initially, the grid was only available in the primary urban centres, such as London. As Castells suggests,

“The higher the value of people and places, the more they are connected into interactive networks.” [Castells 2004, p.84]

Mitchell also advocates the importance of place and proximity to new digital infrastructures to enable economic growth, but also in a rather cautionary tone mentions the need for equality in public policy in the distribution of new infrastructure when he stated,

“It will be economically vital to have […] the high-speed backbone in your vicinity. It will be an increasingly important competitive advantage if you have […] and equity considerations will motivate public policies that encourage wide and even distribution […].” [Mitchell 2000, p.19]

The digital backbone of the world appears to be developing and expanding along a similar vein to the national grid, and consequently a whole new round of social conflict will have to be overcome to resist the spread of digital apartheid. As Varnelis observes,

“[…] the global city’s connections create local disconnections.”

[Varnelis 2008, pp.28]

At the local level, people are increasingly forsaking physical interactions in favour of leading their lives online through social networking websites, mobile phones and television, the so-called “telecocoon” [Varnelis 2008, pp.22].

Despite this inescapable truth, two emerging technologies are poised to bridge the gap between the global and the local – the geospatial web and ubiquitous computing. The rise of Geographic Information Systems [GIS], such as Google Maps and Google Earth, have imposed geographic co-ordinates upon placeless data within the internet, and conversely left virtual traces across physical environments. This meshing of the virtual and physical is intended to reduce local disconnectivity whilst maintaining connection to the global network, through the creation of social connections via mobile networking technology. The convergence of the geospatial web with locative media and mobile networking technology will enable society to read, and leave behind virtual traces on the world, re-creating physical place as a digital map – the virtual has become grounded in the real.

This overlay of virtual data over place will enable society to have access to a whole web of locally applicable information, thus enhancing local connectivity and the social significance of place. However, it could also render place a prisoner of memory and ‘someone else’s’ experiences. It may also exacerbate the issue of digital exclusion for those without network access. And, of course, the rise in locative media will undoubtedly result in an ever-expanding surveillance culture within a ‘virtual police state’ society.

Clearly, the assimilation of global and local networks is a problematic task, and one which requires economically pragmatic and socially sensitive planning and execution strategies to ensure a de-fragmentation of global network cities of the future.

 

 >> Digital_Urbanism

The current global network condition does raise the question of an almost ‘chicken or the egg’ scenario – do cities require digital infrastructural intervention in order to take their place within the global network of information flow and achieve prosperity? Did these cities, by now within the global network, already possess the infrastructure necessary to be globally prosperous and competitive? Can new cities join this elite group? This surely is one of the most pressing issues for all urban planners and policy makers – for the city to survive in the information age it must be connected globally and integrated locally.

So what does the rise of the global digital network entail for architecture in the Digital_Territories of the future? Perhaps a new approach to urban design is required, one which has at its heart the issue of integrating global and local connectivity within the major flows of information, capital and culture. The spatial materialisation of such a city is open for debate. In Castells’ opinion, the information city does not exist as a concrete physical form but rather as the result of cultural transformational processes.

“[…] based upon knowledge, organised around networks, and partly made up of flows, the information city is not a form but a process, a process characterised by the structural domination of the space of flows.”

[Castells 2010b, p.429]

As such, the city is re-conceptualised as a network system of virtual and physical processes [or metabolisms], each working in a symbiotic capacity to enable the city to communicate at both the global and local scales. However, there is a risk inherent in the very idea of a global city – its architecture could become progressively more generic and homogenised. As many architectural and urban design commentators have pointed out over the past decades, architecture has become increasingly banal and predictable, especially in the fields of infrastructure. According to Castells,

“Because the spatial manifestation of the dominant interests takes place around the world, and across cultures, the uprooting of experience, history and specific culture as the background of meaning is leading to the generalisation of ahistorical, acultural architecture.” [Castells 2010b, p.449]

He acknowledges this very real danger, and suggests that perhaps an architecture more rooted in the locale, more contextually driven and reflective of the increasing heterogeneity of the network society can avoid the pitfalls of intensifying issues of cultural identity loss.

“The more societies try to recover their identity beyond the global logic of uncontrolled power of flows, the more they need an architecture that exposes their own reality […].” [Castells 2010b, p.449]

Mitchell, on the other hand, takes a much more optimistic perspective on the new networked city. In his book ‘e-topia’ he proposes a new digitally-networked utopia, one that could facilitate the transformation of society, economy, culture and architecture for the information age. He sets out his manifesto for urban transformation based around five themes: “dematerialisation, demobilisation, mass customisation, intelligent operation, and soft transformation” [Mitchell 2000, p.147]. These themes all have one major characteristic in common – they involve the replacing of outdated industrial modes of communication, infrastructure, design and manufacture within the city with new digital technologies and techniques facilitated by the advent of the network era.

The post-industrial city is already engaged in transformation as a result of the rise of the globalised digital network. The social, cultural and economic value of each individual city will determine its position within the network. For those cities unfortunate to find themselves outside the network, they are caught in a catch-twenty two situation whereby they are denied access due to a lack of connectivity, but yet cannot gain connectivity without access. The only escape is through massive investment in digital communications infrastructure, and the hope that the investment will be returned through the influx of new capital, information and people. The task facing architecture in the information age is to accommodate the mostly invisible functioning of the global network infrastructure, whilst simultaneously facilitating and encouraging interpersonal social interactions, and providing a significant cultural materialisation.

What is certain is that the traditional dynamics and metabolisms of post-industrial place have been irreversibly altered by the folding of power and information flows into the global virtual network. The prospect of a pervasive new urban future, that of a truly global ‘e-lifestyle’, is a very real one indeed.

>> Bibliography + References

> Castells, M. [2004] Space of Flows Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age. In: Graham, S. ed. The Cybercities Reader. London, Routledge, pp.82-93.

> Castells, M. [2010a] The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 2 - The Power of Identity. 2^nd ed. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.

> Castells, M. [2010b] The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 1 - The Rise of the Network Society. 2^nd ed. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.

> Graham, S. & Marvin, S. [2001] Splintering Urbanism. New York, Routledge.

> Mitchell, W.J. [1996] City of Bits. Cambridge, MIT Press.

> Mitchell, W.J. [2000] e-topia. Cambridge, MIT Press.

> Mitchell, W.J. [2004] ME++ The Cyborg Self and the Networked City. Cambridge, MIT Press.

> Varnelis, K. ed. [2008] Networked Publics. Cambridge, MIT Press.