E-mail conversation in progress with Andreas Schneider and Kei‘ichi Irie --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20.04.2000 To: as@gestaltung.com, k@i.email.ne.jp From: kklopf@t0.or.at ... Our sphere of communication functions in a very abstracted level, on which we move in the everyday life. Could you tell something about the effect of communication systems and the design of it‘s tools to the way we communicate today? kh back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 22:04:01 +0900 To: kklopf@t0.or.at, k@i.email.ne.jp From: as@gestaltung.com ... >Our sphere of communication functions in a very abstracted level, on which we move in the everyday life. well, not all of what we communicate happens on a abstract level and its probably worth noting that many of the media we count to the rather traditional/analog sphere have been as perturbating at their times as are "new" media such as eMail, chat etc. at the time of romanticism people ahve been very negative about the possible impact of BOOKS on social life, as it was assumed that it would keep people rather in front of the printed pages than being outside & in direct contact with each other. >Could you tell something about the effect of communication systems and the design of it's tools to the way we communicate today? media such as eMail or chat with their rude level of abstraction lend themselves easily to be perused in rather symbolic fashion. "online identities" are being created with a vast universe of connotations and allusions. the fusion of picture book fantasies with these temporay identity spheres is only logical. interesting to observe though that these symbolic representations begin to reappear as incarnations in the real world ... as back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 19:21:28 +0200 To: as@gestaltung.com, k@i.email.ne.jp From: kklopf@t0.or.at ... I think the "symbolic representation", like in the Manga role-plays or in "online identities", creates a more and more complex being. This new form is very interesting especially when you look back to the history of mediated representations. Substitutions of "old" forms of representation and communication ("physical, direct, genuine, analogue, haptic, ... "), came with the increase of images and their spread in movies, TV and the print media, for example. Movie-like, TV-like, Magazine-like became very common and natural in the everyday. How the world and people are mediatised changes the relation to themselves. It changes the people‘s self-representation. So, I think in this form communication happens at a very abstracted level – it is a re-shaping of the "old" communication. The diving-in into the meta space of the net, its feed backs and "inkarnations" are exciting and in many ways an expansion of the physical and psychological limits. You mentioned the symbolic character of e-mail and chat. I see e-mail provides a big variety of communication forms. How do you see our e-mail exchange in this respect, for example? kh back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 22:04:28 +0900 To: kklopf@t0.or.at, k@i.email.ne.jp From: as@gestaltung.com ... >I think the "symbolic representation", like in the Manga role-plays or in "online identities", creates a more and more complex being. This new form >is very interesting especially when you look back to the history of mediated representations. but let's not fool ourselves too easily. already now we can see, that much more comprehensive models of "role playing" are fed into the <public domain>. when, at times, the craftsmen knew, that they had to be silent about certain knowledge in order to keep it intact/ useful, we are confronted today with the most vivid imaginations, void of the blurred abruptness which make up dreams. piercings whose scars we have to get acquainted to. when it will be possible to not only immerse ourselves in virtual spaces of doubtless realism, but as well carry away items/organisms of these worlds into our "real" environments i am afraid we can not just being fascinated... and i think we need to insist more and more to work on our unbiased understanding. >You mentioned the symbolic character of e-mail and chat. I see e-mail provides a big variety of communication forms. my only concern is, to keep enough of lighthearted scepticism not to expect too much, but then also: grasp more than the few words seem to hold. this is probably not a matter of grammar or form. as back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 May 2000 To: as@gestaltung.com, k@i.email.ne.jp From: kklopf@t0.or.at ... It seems to be a fundamental penetration of the "real", we realize it as "change" and it is doubtless a kind of faszination in that process. In the same time there is still much struggle in the everyday with these accelerations of <new> environments. >and i think we need to insist more and more to work on our unbiased understanding. Unbiased understanding sounds for me like what is very hard to reach. I think few can have it. A goal ... but is it useful or realistic? Do you have ideas? >my only concern is, to keep enough of lighthearted scepticism not to expect too much, but then also: grasp more than the few words seem to hold. this is probably not a matter of grammar or form. it is exciting to observe how such an e-mail dialogue develops, specially if you don‘t know each other very well. you have a presentiment, maybe also an idea, maybe expectations ... but sure, you are filled with curiousity. So, I am curious to know about your experiences of the japanese environment of public information. I had the impression, that the surfaces of urban architecture, print media, TV, fashion, music and net culture in Japan develops into a more and more compact space, where there exists no outside. this space seems to me more hermetic than in Europe or US. kh back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 00:11:27 +0900 To: kklopf@t0.or.at, as@gestaltung.com From: k@i.email.ne.jp ... First of all, I wonder how architecture can be fused with other media? Not as a superficial phenomena, or an emotional effect (dynamic information on a building facade, armed office with it's cables and monitors, exploding shop filled with computer sounds and projected animations?$B!D? (J), but to cross the border between physical world and virtual (this is not a proper ward to express?$B!D?(J) space. Architecture concerns physical space, social relations, community, individuals, and also it is an entity which expands towards abstract ideas. In our real life, physical space, social relations, community, individuals are thrown into the innumerable blinks of fusing media generated by information technology, in which architecture play a part of it. Regarding these, architecture is one of a "passive user" of these development but not a seismic center. As an architect, I always ask to myself, is it possible to make any changes onto the connections of media, new distribution or replacement from architecture, or not. I really hope to find a way that architecture can be a part of whole changes. But in other hand, I am irritating for it's limitation. So called architecture, is still tied up with it's own structure and physical stability. That is the reason why I moved into a new environment from this year, to IAMAS, to find and make experiments with other fields. --- I wonder what is "outside" ? Yes, I can catch what it means in that context. But still, to make our ground clear, I ask. As we know, the division between in/out is always changing, it is not a waste of time to consider, from where this fundamental impression came from. (And also what is the border between real and not). It is not only, or simply caused by the spreading neither seamless media environment, nor the new experiences by them. An episode: These weeks every newspapers and TV are taken over with a criminal, 17 years boy, a bus-jacker, who had killed passengers in a highway bus. His scribbled notes, diary shows the tragic conflict inside the "hermetic" mental isolation. It is a fall, which lacks the landing. It is too easy to tell that he is a victim of the computer game, or the dis-communication by virtual. Losing correct judgment of good and evil, or real and not. Or, it is easy to say that those virtual experience spoiled the understanding and breeds ignorance. Is it an outcome of the dark side of the development, as you mentioned, the hermetic space caused by the fused media environment, or just another insanity which we can find all over the human history? --- I wonder that, the scheme which represented as "inside/out" is one of the apriori, preconception, and if we try to explain any phenomena using strong scheme, what is being described is inevitably distorted with it's force. I mean, can we find a way,not in a hurry, to find out a path, not the result nor a goal, but revealing a fact of our life, society, environment, and push them forward to the edge of the chaos? best, kei'ichi IRIE back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 01:33:28 +0900 To: kklopf@t0.or.at, k@i.email.ne.jp From: as@gestaltung.com ... >this fused space generates to a more and more hermetic space, without an "outside". i think that this is rather a problem of dimensions/relations/scale than one of "space". attitudes of organic/genetic/molecular architecture seem to be the result of this misunderstanding. through history we have been trying to outsource the potential of our senses to devices- these abstractions offered more assuring interfaces as they existed outside the bias of the "subject": we would rather immerse ourselves in the face of a clock than look at the sky to understand the current time. with the refinement of our abilities to handle scale -nanotechnology, genetic engineering, instantaneous global reach in communications and deep space explorations- we had to create interfaces for the expanding and contracting of information to ergonomic dimensions. As the information spaces created through such interfaces demand our exclusive attention we may indeed forget about the "outside". >>I wonder how architecture can be fused with other media? I can easily imagine developments, where, through direct stimulation of our brain, we find ourselves not only wandering around vast informationscapes but as well interacting "socially" with peers, equally connected, and large populations of virtual beings. While "in fact" we may be sitting in a state of narcotic absence in an underground train, commuting to work. the architecture of these environments is -in its first phase- very much a rebuilt of the physical environments we have learned to navigate, but will evolve into experiences where time, dimensions, materials, scales & directions may seamlessly morphe from one instant into another. familiar with such atopic sites, we will grow impatient with the inertia of physical environments. and at times will try to negate its exacting demands ... >>His scribbled notes, diary shows the tragic conflict inside the "hermetic" mental isolation. It is a fall, which lacks the landing. these are certainly not issues of <form> nor <esthetics>. as back top --------------------------------------------------------------- Datum: Samstag, 29. Juli 2000 0:03 Uhr To: as@gestaltung.com, k@i.email.ne.jp From: khk@expand.at ... What is interesting is, that the physical city in many parts often gives the impression of seamless integration into the sphere of the information space. This is a strong feeling in such intense cities as Hong Kong or Tokio. Many of the new public megastructures in these cities are mirroring or expanding such spheres very precisely. Another aspect important mentioning is the fact that these are places which can be perfectly controlled. In consequence the interplay of physical and information spaces can be ideal „places of no escape“ – i.e. this is a central theme in the film „The Truman Show“. Not only the functions of the physical structures are criteria of designing, but also the infosphere more and more becoming part of the design process. Today to design in many ways means to create an extensive living environment with all kinds of substances of spaces. Electronic facilities, light, movement, reflexions of new materials and floating boundaries of space can create feelings like, how you said, „narcotic absence“. It is interesting how people are always drawn to such absences. The dynamics of new technologies seem to provide proper tools for it. There is much faszination in following these terrains of real and imagined expansions. In architecture one strong movement is to design and develop buildings with computer programs, with many results so that they seem to get rid of the physical inertia. Architecture in follow could become an integral element of the natural and artificial organism, a continuous space, in which information, empty spaces, movements etc. appear in different intensity. kh --------------------------------------------------------------- ANDREAS SCHNEIDER (as), information design, Tama Art University in Tokyo, Iamas International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan KEI‘ICHI IRIE, architect, space design, Power Unit Studio in Tokio, Iamas International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan KARL-HEINZ KLOPF (kh), artist, Vienna back top