1950 University Ave, Suite 200
Berkeley, California 94704

Free and open to the public - and followed at 4pm with a Social Jam that includes refreshments - and beer. It would be helpful if you mark attending/watching above.
- - -
Ambient Interfaces:
What Pervasive Computing Can Learn from Architecture


"Architecture is a diagram of everything."
--Rem Koolhaas

ABSTRACT:
As “the web” migrates from desktops and laptops, slowly forming a landscape of pervasive computing, new interaction design challenges emerge that invite (even demand) further integrations of disciplinary approaches. The (social) success of pervasive computing will depend on a convergence of information science, sociology and architecture. Through such an approach, different programs –computational programs, habitational programs, and architectural programs- mutually support and volatize each other to produce active space.

Pervasive computing will engender different agendas for interaction. Instead of pushing messages or focusing data-filing, the critical challenge is to design something more foundational, more literally grounded: a complex of ambient interfaces:. In essence, pervasive computing will share and augment not only the site on which architecture sits, but also the job that architecture does; that is, to provide an active frame for specific social activities.

The web is a “lean forward” medium. It is blindingly fast. It is kinetic, visual, and increasingly so. Whereas, architecture is a “distracted medium.” It is slow and sensual. It is meta-contextual. One is a loud foreground. The other is a quiet background. However, in important ways pervasive computation may perform more like today’s architecture than today’s web. It too will be more a frame for activity than a centralizing focus of visual attention.

Furthermore, many contemporary architects have enthusiastically embraced the design potential of pervasive computing. For them, “data” is a another material –like steel or glass—with which to realize a compelling spatial system. It is perhaps to their stages that information design will turn. If so, how can these disciplines not only co-exist, but reinforce each other?

This talk will consider these problematics in relation to,
--Contemporary theories of architectural program and architectural interfaces
--Examples and critique of architectural integrations of computation as a spatial medium
--Implications of architectural thinking for digital media design
--Implications of ambient/architectural digital media for Yahoo!

I will show and discuss related projects by several design studios, including, Art+Com , OMA/AMO, , Diller + Scofidio, Thomas Leeser, Antenna, Imaginary Forces, Christian Moeller, Asymptote, Francois Roche, REX, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Tronic, UN Studio, MVRDV, Dunne+Raby, and others.

BIOGRAPHY:
Benjamin H. Bratton is Director of the Advanced Strategies Group at Yahoo! where he works to define and develop innovative cross-network branding opportunities with Yahoo!’s biggest brand and agency clients. He teaches design and theory at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and co-directs the Brand Lab at UCLA Dept. of Design | Media Arts. He was also co-chair of the 54th Aspen Design Conference. Research and publication areas include the sociology of technology media architecture, software studies, and contemporary architectural and design theory.

- - -
Yahoo! Research Berkeley's Brain Jam is an "almost weekly" speaker series on topics related to media, social media, mobile media, media annotation, and the leftist media. Well, maybe not the last one. To join our mailing list, please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yrb-bj

Official Website: http://whyrb.com

Added by berkeleybohemian on February 16, 2007