The Poetics of Augmented Space
The landscape of media is rapidly changing, and with this change comes the cacophony of experimentation and the yearning to keep up. This growth has led to the ubiquity and commercialization of information, to the point where both our urban spaces and our personal lives are covered in screens. Lev Manovich attempts to understand these phenomena by discussing the ‘dynamic between spatial form and the information which has been with us for a long time and… functions differently in the computer culture of today’ (3).
Manovich starts by describing the rise of virtual space. It started in the 1990s with computers and cyberspace. It then moved on to Virtual Reality, inspired by the graphics of complex websites made for millions of users. This led to the subsequent rise and fall of the dot com era, which (around the time of the Y2K scare) in turn created a user landscape that found emailing and downloading MP3s to be quotidian. By the turn of the century, the saturation of the virtual space led to the desire to start exploring the physical space. Manovich then provides examples of tech applications that deal with data management in a physical space.
- Video Surveillance : cameras, microphones, GPS. These take the physical world and translate it to data.
- Cellspace technologies: tap to pay, Siri, email, web surfing. These take data and bring it to the physical world.
- Electronic displays: large scale displays for the public
Manovich then shifts his attention to technological examples that are pushing research paradigms forward. I will only list a few here that I find are the most relevant to our class.
- Ubiquitous Computing: moving a singular larger scale computing to multiple handheld devices
- Augmented Reality: overlaying dynamic information over a user’s FOV
- Intelligent Spaces: spaces that use interactions to create ‘smart’ responses and assistance
These technologies use various techniques to create what Manovich calls ‘augmented space’. This is the process of ‘overlaying the physical space with… dynamic data’ (6). Augmented space is derived from augmented reality and virtual reality, where AR is digital information in a real space, and VR is entirely virtual. The term space comes from the fact that, as Manovich states, ‘we are gradually moving into the next paradigm… augmenting the human also comes to mean augmenting the whole space in which someone lives’ (8).
If we are to start examining the space, there are various approaches to analyze. The first Manovich suggests is architectural theory. He posits the problem with augmented space is the method with which you must overlay the data in a physical space (9). He then uses two examples to illustrate methods that have been effective at creating augmented spaces.
- Janet Cardiff: a Canadian artist who created ‘audio walks’. Using an audio track played on a portable CD player, the user would follow instructions and receive a narrative through dialogue and sound effects. Manovich states that although the technology was basic, Cardiff was able to achieve a truly effective method of layering information over a physical space, by using the connection between audio and visual stimuli.
- Daniel Libeskind: an architect who designed the Jewish Museum Berlin. Libeskind created a map plotting the pre-WWII addresses of Jews living near the museum. Various points were connected and projected onto parts of the museum creating an image blending the past and present.
Manovich then segues into a retrospective of the use of artistic spaces. He starts with framed paintings being placed on walls. This is a simple two-dimensional use of space. This is followed by art galleries incorporating the use of all four walls for various paintings. This culminates in the idea of an art object itself being three-dimensional. ‘Finally, the white cube becomes a cube – rather than just a collection of 2-D surfaces’ (10). There was a clear progression from creating something to look at, to creating something to be inside and now creating a space with contextual overlaid information. While the art scene was making creative strides towards the third dimension, film had already been commercialized. It had been commodified and standardized. Each viewing would have the same environmental features: a dark room, rows of seating and a projector showing a 2D film. Manovich argues that art galleries represented a white cube, a space for a one-of-a- kind highbrow production, constantly pushing against the frame of 2D and stating how the ‘physical appearance of an object and the proposed mode of interaction with an object were open for experimentation’ (12). The direct antithesis is the black box of film, consistent, safe and commercial.
The white cube functions as a sort of contemplative artistic space, but there are new areas of experimentation. These spaces function as the next step for spacial use. They are being integrated and used in conjunction with each other, creating a flow of augmented experiences.
- Contemporary urban architecture
- Video displays in contemporary spaces for public consumption
- Retail environments
- Multimedia music events
The next creator discussed was Robert Venturi. He argued that architecture should be heavily influenced by commercial culture. He saw electronic displays as iconographic representation, a more purist method of using information surfaces. Manovich is quick to critique this narrow vision, as it ignores the totality of the space. There is more to be communicated through the use of the space itself than a pure information surface. The example he uses is a medieval cathedral. A space that communicates ‘Christian narratives not only through the images covering its surfaces but also through its whole spatial structure’ (16). On the opposite end of the spectrum Lars Spuybroek emphasizes the tones of the interiors he uses. By eliminating traditional framing devices, he creates a space that fuses with the exhibition. This however, leads to a more intangible understanding of the space. Manovich describes the information surface Spubroek creates as ‘reduced to abstract color fields and sound’ (17).
Manovich then pivots to discuss clear, functional integration of architectural spaces with electronic displays. ‘Brandscaping’, a term coined by ’Otto Riewoldt, is the process of promoting a brand using a heavily designed space. Rem Koolhaas has applied this philosophy to the Prada store in New York. Using a variety of displays including electronic screens, and glass cages, Koolhaas has created a wholly immersive experience. Users explore a space tonally consistent and visually stimulating, their desire to purchase clothes evolves into the need to maintain a lifestyle. Riewoldt states he ‘has learnt two lessons from the entertainment industry. First: forget the goods, sell thrilling experience to the people. And secondly: beat the computer screen at its own game by staging real objects of desire – and by adding some spice to the space with maybe some audio-visual interactive gadgetry’ (19).
Manovich concludes the essay by restating the importance of seeing electronic media as more than a screen. He urges architects to go “beyond the ‘surface as electronic screen paradigm’” and consider the space of data flow as tangible and something to be studied (20).