So, is the Web spatial? Yes, that is the fact of our experience of the Web. But if we think of Web space in terms of the measured space of the real world Ð or as the even more abstract notion of a universal grid work of uniform units Ð we'll go hopelessly wrong. In fact, the Web feels spatial because it is a linked assemblage of places Ð meaningful, significant spots, each different.

David Weinberger, Small Pievces Loosely Joined

 

 

 

If we pay close attention to the significant works of the last two centuries, we will realize that the architect has indeed become a writer, implicitly or explicitly, a narrator of events disclosing fictional modes of dwelling by deconstructing and twisting the language of technology both in his constructions and through his words.

CHORA AS ARCHITECTURAL MEANING: The Space In-Between and Its Disappearance in Instrumental Representation Dr. Alberto Perez Gomez

 

 

 

 

 

 

A typical memory palace icon

Placing objects in places to find them again is the very essence of how we navigate the real world. Memory palaces are maps of thoughts and are used to navigate the world of ideas just as cartographic maps are used to navigate the world of things. With our modern computer networks, the imaginary and the real world merge into a new place, the Internet.
Carl Malamud Memory Palaces A Millennial Metaphor?

 

A metaphor is an invisible web of terms and associations that underlie the way that we speak and think about a concept. Metaphors are so much a part of the way that we think and express ourselves, that they are normally invisible to us. Metaphors allow us to apply already known and understood modals to new situations to more quickly understand them, or think about known situations in a new light, thus developing fresh insight and renewed possibilities. Metaphor seems to be hardwired into our brain as an essential aspect of language acquisition and expression. Perhaps part of what allows the human race to be innovators, discoverers and inventors is our ability to understand the new by comparing it to the known.

Architecture and the visual encoding of information have been linked throughout history. Architecture is a spatial interface with which we are all very familiar. Every building communicates information about its purposes and usages; it defines users' experiences and allows a limited number of activities to take place within it. Architecture can be considered an information storage device which predates written language let alone computers. Celia Pearce, in 'The Interactive Book, argues that architects and builders were amongst the first producers of interactive interfaces and that their activity should properly be defined as the design of experiences rather than the construction of shape and volume or the provision of utilitarian services such as shelter, storage, etc.

One of the most enduring examples of this linkage between architectural space and information space has been the Memory Palace. This was a feature of the mental technology invented by the Ancient Greeks to store and access, at will, the facts and the arguments needed by the orator. Throughout the continuing history of Ars memoria, the core technique has centrally a vividly imagined architecture. Within this virtual space, the information was arranged in 'chunks', often encoded as unusual visual icons which summarized the information or jogged a chain of associations which would bring it to mind, through which the user would move in a predetermined route, 'collecting' each piece of information as needed.

Ars memoria has remained extraordinarily robust, still forming the core of memory-enhancement miracles promised by infommercial spruikers, because it seems to tap into core human realities. Most of us know buildings and rooms better than anything else -- we live, work and play within them -- and a picture is 'worth a thousand words' when it comes to jogging a chain of associations.

Much of what we normally see on our computer screens is metaphorical -- graphic images alluding to the computational processes going on under the surface. These interfaces are intended to both make them easier to learn, real-world behaviors providing clues as to the function of application and system software, and easier to understand and remember. Apple Computers, for example, building on Xerox PARC research, was a pioneer in implementing metaphor-based GUIs (graphic user interfaces). It was their use of point-and-click images to navigate their operating system, rather than command-lines such as those needed in the DOS environment, which quickly gave their computers a competitive reputation for user-friendliness. Users easily understood how to use the computer's features based on their prior understanding of real-world usage.

Among Apple's GUI innovations was the 'desktop', based on the metaphor of an office environment, rather than an alienating operating system or directory. The Apple desktop includes icons for 'files' and 'folders' (calling on our knowledge of hardspace filing systems), and a 'trashcan' to delete unwanted files. Apple's success quickly persuaded other operating system developers to implement their own metaphor-based GUIs. Occasionally the metaphor breaks down and loses consistency -- ejecting CDs by 'trashing' them, scrolling through the 'pages' of a document -- but users seem to take this in their stride if the larger metaphor -- the office -- is strong and comfortable enough.

Muriel Cooper, of MIT's Visible Language Workshop, coined the term 'Information Landscape' ... She contrasted this with the 'Information Highway' which is linear whilst

...a landscape is an environment for information. It provides a continuum of paths from one place to another. A landscape reveals itself slowly. Approach a valley and you first make out the shape of the hills, the path of the streams, and fences. At closer range you distinguish a maple from a pine. The journey itself begins to have meaning. Also multiple scales are constantly available -- an individual flower or petal is visible close at hand while distant peaks and slopes provide a sense of place.
(Cooper, M. & Small, D., 'Visible Language Workshop', in Wurman, R. S. (ed.), Information Architects, Graphis Press, New York, p.202.)