Placed, Between Interface

Abstract

Our society, as it stands today, has undergone many distinct technological advances. These advancements include, but are not limited to, computing devices, smart phones, and the ubiquitous internet. Each of these digital technologies promise an improved quality of life by providing connection to everything one may need and want. This everyday reality is mesmerizing and allows us to disconnect from our immediate environment, to some extent. So, at the same time, we can virtually existing in connection with anything we may be interested in at a particular moment, yet disconnected from our physical existence in space. This juxtaposition of realities is fascinating but today the difference between the two is often blurred. This blurring effect is important to understand because it shows we are no longer living in a society that necessarily treats the physical and virtual worlds as opposites. Now that we operate in the physical and virtual worlds nearly simultaneously, we need to begin exploring and understanding how these phenomena affect each other, as well as the architectural spaces they inhabit. This combination of physical and virtual worlds is also known as the post-digital age.

Post-digital (adjective): of or pertaining to the art forms that address the humanization of digital technologies through the interplay between real space and cyberspace through interaction.

This thesis project involves the study and design of a hybrid space, between physical and virtual space, and physical and virtual entities. This hybrid space is, in effect, an interface between the physical and the virtual. While traditionally we may consider physical and virtual realms as opposites, we have already moved into an age where the two realms have intermingled. The awareness of physical and virtual spaces intermingling will allow for conscious design around this hybrid space, the interface. In order to better understand the interface, in-depth descriptions of physical entities and virtual entities will be given in order to know each component at hand, when interacting with an interface.