Filed under: reflexive architecture
Dusan Writer posted another very thoughtful entry on his blog (link) about Reflexive Architecture. One of the most defining characteristics of the new virtual frontier is the increasingly blurry boundaries between fields of profession, and I’m excited to see the concept of virtual responsiveness reach far beyond the field of architecture.
In fact, only a fraction of the follow-up posts that spun off of the original reflexive architecture entry had anything to do with architecture whatsoever. They were librarians, artists, writers, researchers, educators, and more. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that nothing in the ‘Gallery of Reflexive Architecture’ is actually architecture?
Nevertheless, it seems the idea of ‘reflex’ in a virtual environment is what stirs the most discussion. After all, to what are these interactive ‘sculptures’ reacting? Is it you? Is it your avatar? Is your avatar You? Is your avatar just a puppet? Could reflexivity help bridge the gap between ‘you’ and your avatar, enhancing the sensation of virtual embodiment?
4 Comments so far
Leave a comment
The ARCH 
i find the gallery to be quite architectural–architectural scale examples of uses of the reflexive architecture scripts encouraging fluid motion–not sitting–a true exploratory architecture
Comment by toph November 15, 2007 @ 2:13 am[…] Architecture: The Prokovy Neva Thumb-Sucking Test January 22, 2008 — dusanwriter Reflective Architecture contributes less to an avatar’s experience than buildings that give good camera, in Prokofy […]
Pingback by Reflective Architecture: The Prokovy Neva Thumb-Sucking Test « Dusan Writer’s Metaverse January 22, 2008 @ 4:55 pmNo, it’s not likely architecture, even though it may be a valid aesthetic experience — for you. And while Dusan is working overtime to try to portray me as low-brow and mass culture with my concern about “buildings that give good camera,” there’s nothing like a roof beam in your eye to disrupt that um aesthetic experience in SL…
I don’t care if you want to have fabulous experiences watching changing lights and colours and shifting prims and even be able to manipulate them with your voice or your mouse click. It’s fun. It’s like getting to press *all* the keys on the piano when you’re little! But don’t impose that on everyone as their living and working arrangement, that’s all.
Your concern is not to be oppressed by McMansion bad taste and the Babbitry of Second Life, that’s fine, but that’s not out to get you on your private sim. Meanwhile, we live in real life with the results of your hard-edged aestheticism everywhere we try to move, a sculpture literally slices our hand as we try to sit down for lunch in one of the gaping modern atrocities of urban architecture…
Comment by Prokofy Neva January 23, 2008 @ 2:00 pmHow is this Gallery, 600 meters in the sky on a private sim, “imposing that on everyone as their living and working arrangement?”
When did I say I was concerned about being oppressed by McMansion bad taste and the Babbitry of Second Life? I’ve always said there is a place for those projects in the collective learning curve.
Surely there is room for both?
I think the Society of Virtual Architecture should hold a debate on the subject. It’s been a while…
Comment by keystonesl January 23, 2008 @ 5:11 pm