Digital Theory (2003)
article⁄Digital Theory (2003)
abstract⁄The computer has gone from being an isolated box to become part of a gigantic digital network of networks that shapes our collective future. The way and pace at which we connect, communicate, memorize, imagine and control the flows of valuable information have changed forever. There are at least six digital phenomena that directly affect the architectural world miniaturization of all that can be shrunk, ubiquity being everywhere, global, realtime communing globally in realtime, which is 110th of a second, noospherization networking everything, virtuality all that is solid melts into knowledge, and anamnesia inability to forget. Temporal contiguity and temporal connectivity have taken precedence over spatial and geographical contiguity. The strands that animate our life today emanate from spatially distant but temporally contiguousconnected places. These phenomena have squeezed, stretched, restructured, reconfigured, and redistributed most major human institutions. Consequently, the built world’s role, importance and nature have changed. Architecture as traditionally understood has become more marginalized than before. Many practices, however, have been repositioning themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities beyond the bounds of traditional architectural practice. Design, practice, fabrication and construction are increasingly becoming networked affairs. The new measures of architecture are connectivity and speed. The architecture of a new world needs to recognize these transformations and think differently.
