DISRUPTING THE FEEDBACK LOOP: RETHINKING THE CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL: Digital Feedback

In its broadest sense, this research investigates how one should design the physical environment for the contemporary subject of the Digital Era. The ease and immediacy with which one can access the preponderance of information available through digital and electronic media has complicated the development and understanding of self-identity in popular culture, and by correlation how one engages with society. The significance of the public institution as a center for information exchange and civic engagement has diminished in favor of new media , which has become a staple at home and is trending increasingly mobile.

While architectural investigations of the past two decades contemplate the formal possibilities of digital technology and the affects of new media on physical objects, few architectural proposals consider how the proliferation of these media and technologies directly affect the subject in society. This project rethinks the design of the contemporary upper school as a model for considering the affects of new media on individual and community interaction, the dissemination of information and the evolution (dissolution?) of public institutions.

This thesis challenges contemporary formulations of identity and societal engagement in an age increasingly dominated by the proliferation of digital and electronic information and interaction through the proposition of an architecture which fosters critical awareness of the (re)presentations of actuality in new media and directs critical engagement between the new subject of the digital era and the public sphere.

My complete thesis preparation document can be viewed here: Rethinking the Contemporary School

Friday, March 6, 2009

Digital Feedback

Prior to the advent of electrical and digital technologies, physical and spatial boundaries limited the individual's ability to acquire and exchange information. The individual had to navigate the physical world in order to participate in society.

Digital media eradicated physical and spatial boundaries in terms of information exchange, promising the decentralization of power and the democratization of information. However, digital technologies also allow for enhanced control of environments.

New media devices allow us to interact in society without physically engaging it. They haven't replaced physical contact, but surely that have altered its nature. Confrontation in the world is inevitable, but new media allows us to engage it at a distance with no real personal investment.

As television and new media become central components in our social world, individuals increasingly turn to them to compare, evaluate and validate their own experiences. Formulations of cultural and individual identity through these media reflexively influence one another.

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