"A world governed less and less by boundaries and more and more by connections requires us to re-imagine and reconstruct our environment and to reconsider the ethical foundations of design, engineering, and planning practice."
William J. Mitchell in: "Me: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City.", MIT Press, Cambridge/Mass. 2003, Jacket
Physical space is converted into a multiple interspace of artificial realities. The electronic interface gives way to a multidimensional perception, in which the former partition between the virtual and the real world becomes blurred and subjectively controlled experiences take over objective parameters.
Space converts into a system of visual signs, which interacts with the public through specific effects: the correlation between information and time comes to the fore. Choreographies of temporary spaces are being constructed for the duration of an event.
Kinematic strategies change the concept of authenticity to produce a series of atmospheric spaces and virtual effects, which require active participation of the public. The 'everyday' is staged, short-lived and image-conscious. Our understanding of spatial experiences is based on a mix of architecture, advertisement, and electronic effects.
Interactive membranes are responsible for an annulment of the figure-ground phenomenon. Urban space is increasingly being manipulated through the public via the Internet. Concepts of hybridity and interactivity are crucial to evolving cityscapes.
Due to new modes of production, user-specific (customized) products can be manufactured more economically. The current catalogue of new materials, including recycled industrial waste products and high-tech materials, encourages innovative ways of collaboration throughout various areas of design and production. The trend is characterized by a new, anti-ideological, aesthetic appreciation.
 body.guards © Jürgen Mayer H. Rendering: Jan Stockebrand | `body.guards´, Jürgen Mayer's fictitious communication system seems interesting in this context. In our everyday interactions, we are furnished with an almost invisible particle cloud, a sort of external immune system, through which we can prevent pathogens and perils. In addition, it can also be used to communicate, read inclinations and interests of other people at an early stage. |
 | `Blur Building´ developed by Diller & Scofidio for the Expo 2002, illustrates context sensitive aspects of architectural space: a building consisting of water-vapour is regulated in real time by a computer to be able to resist external forces, such as wind. |
