Thursday, January 18, 2007

Evolution of Information Distribution


The notion of information distribution, and how this distribution is perceived at the user level, is inextricable with the concept of the interactive park. So far, I have envisioned it to be a real-world, a physical (or at least quasi-physical) YouTube, if you might, where video content, instead of being viewed and interpreted from a computer screen, becomes projected on-screen, or displayed on an installation such that it becomes immersive to the user.

The possibilities of having the architecture act as an infrastructure for themed content, or as a means of engaging the public to understand their city, and the myriad range of cultures within that city, underpins my thesis. The setting up of this infrastructure is of prime importance to REMAP as well, and will be briefly described in a future post.

The series of diagrams above depicts the evolution of the distribution of information. The diagram labelled '1' shows a hierarchical distribution, where information is distributed from a central source, and then sub-distributed, possibly through multiple layers and censures, before it reaches the 'grassroots' individual. This would also reflect the state of Negri and Hardt's 'Imperialism'.

The subsequent diagrams represent the decentralisation of the source of information, which creates different patterns in the way information is received, and therefore interpreted. Levels of censures will be lower (which may or may not be beneficial), but the individual begins to gain more autonomy in the amount and nature of information he receives.

Diagram '3' would be the stage at which the 'Empire' is.

As it were, the hierarchical distribution of information will become more indistinct, resulting in a constant flux of information distribution, redistribution and exchange, through multiple channels. The individual begins to gain power as he becomes the giver of information, as much as he is the receiver. This mirrors the condition of the 'Multitude'.

The same diagram can be used to illustrate the evolution of role of the architect - or any other profession - as one moves from an expertise-specific, closed environment to a multi-disciplinary environment. The architect becomes a node in a flat hierarchy, in a non-predefined system where "separate melodic lines in constant interplay with one another." (Gilles Deleuze, 'Negotiations'.)

Each node, in itself, becomes a rhizome. In taking away one node, another will emerge, and the 'system' will continue to perpetuate.

Yet, the challenge of the multitude for the "social multiplicity to manage to communicate and act in common while remaining internally different", i.e. the quest for diversity within multiplicity, remains.

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