Cyburbia

[avad]

Been meaning to post this for a while- this is an artist statement I wrote up for the Cyburbia series:

CYBURBIA: Feedback from the Virtual



As I write this, real estate is booming and dream homes are blossoming - in cyberspace. Projected human desires mingle in this shared playground, connect, overlap, clash, merge, vanish, replicate, or die off; a primordial soup of immersive spaces combining and competing with one another. In the next few years we may watch the microcosms of virtual worlds as we would Petri dish experiments, learning much about ourselves in the process.

Computer games like Sim City encourage individuals to design and build virtual environments which run simulations of growth and change under their moderation. Massively multi-user realms such as Alphaworld and SecondLife when mapped, reveal the growth patterns and sprawl of these collaboratively built virtual worlds. Zoom to the details and back out again. Create your utopia.

I am inspired by the thought that with the continued progress and eventual integration of mapping tools such as geographic information systems with computer gaming technologies, we just may be able to evolve the needed feedback to recover from what seems to be a dangerous myopia. Aerial views never cease to amaze me, unmasking the familiar real-life towns, cities and roads I live within to be the internal structures of some large and complex organism. In both virtual and real worlds, we are learning how much our collective behaviors generate the structures and patterns we live amongst, both those we praise and those we condemn. How do we measure the health of our overall organism? What must we tend to in order to sustain ourselves and our environment?

As we become more and more aware of our interconnectedness, there is both hope and responsibility in the power of the individual to affect change. With the gradual proliferation of tools to view and simulate cumulative effects of our individual behaviors, one of our largest challenges will be to learn to live with the Bigger Picture in our daily lives… and to use this knowledge to better inform the choices with which we create our joined future.

Comments

[bibble.livejournal.com]

i sure fucking hope so

[avad.livejournal.com]

:)

[absentmammoth.livejournal.com]

this is great, thank you for sharing it ^_^

[avad.livejournal.com]

yay. glad you like!:)

[redlectroid.livejournal.com]

This is very, very good!

[redlectroid.livejournal.com]

also, lady > I posted a musical meme challenge to *you* in my journal.

[avad.livejournal.com]

oh no you Didn't! eep a challenge! *sigh* ok, I'ma gonna have to hold this baton here for a bit...I'm not quite back yet- (move's not over) and that there's a take-time-Thinkin meme. But I will get back to you soon.

Glad you like the cyburbia blurb.:)

[redlectroid.livejournal.com]

Like it? I think it's fantastic. Beauty, brains and style?!! Dang, you should sell your DNA!

[avad.livejournal.com]

LOL! awwwmaaaan...*blushing/beaming/ flattered/pleased as punch*:)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Just a proofreading point: partway through the third paragraph, first sentence, "we just may able" should read "we just may be able."

Fascinating, lots of thoughts provoked!

[avad.livejournal.com]

ooh thanks for that! I never caught that one...
Vaneramos, Eye like Hawk!;)

YES!

[eyeclectic.livejournal.com]

"Aerial views never cease to amaze me, unmasking the familiar real-life towns, cities and roads I live within to be the internal structures of some large and complex organism. In both virtual and real worlds, we are learning how much our collective behaviors generate the structures and patterns we live amongst, both those we praise and those we condemn. How do we measure the health of our overall organism? What must we tend to in order to sustain ourselves and our environment?

As we become more and more aware of our interconnectedness, there is both hope and responsibility in the power of the individual to affect change. With the gradual proliferation of tools to view and simulate cumulative effects of our individual behaviors, one of our largest challenges will be to learn to live with the Bigger Picture in our daily lives… and to use this knowledge to better inform the choices with which we create our joined future."

    Eye've always seen cities as grand collages, collaboratively created by (seemingly) separate minds. Or ant hills, same thing. This is how We should be using computers, as simulation, to better learn and understand our connection--how no island is an island, Everything is Everything, and ~!nspiration~Connects~Us~ALL~, and then to apply the practice in REAL physical world environments. Eye also believe that when we fully realize Truth and LOVE, we'll find that we are already connected, and the computer will seem like an old eight track compared to our collective mind. Though the computer can be an asset in education, there is still as much to learn from those who continue to Live and Communicate without. Eye know kids that can't make a pizza without a computer? Truly, we don't Live in a driving simulator, we get out and drive~>

    Positively,
    JS : )

Re: YES!

[avad.livejournal.com]

YES back!:):)These are my hopes!

[chaizzilla.livejournal.com]

http://www.digitalearth.gov/VP19980131.html

oh boy did i want this guy to be president

[avad.livejournal.com]

Me too!!!!
And mostly for just that! I remember that, posted it, held it dear...felt ok, wow, here we will have a truly forward looking president.
*le sigh*

[chaizzilla.livejournal.com]

i never actually went to look for what sort of ideas he was talking up as an advisor (consultant? i frgit..) to google.com

[unluckymonkey.livejournal.com]

VERY well written and inspiring! So good to see you here again also. I've missed ya girlie. Is the boy doing better? I've been really worried that this is the cause of your absence. You don't ahve to say if it's private jsut know that I'm thinkin about ya and I care.

As for the write up it's amazing. If I read that at a gallery or with pics of your work I would not think "artistic bullshit to sell paintings" which I think all too often when I read the writings that go with the works. Yer a good writer and a super smarty-pants. You make me want to see more and read more. I do believe this means you've accomplished your goal in spades. :)

>ahem< SO SHOW ME MORE! Whatcha been up to? WHY!? as is my usual cry WHY!?! must you live so very far away? I would love to work with you eventhough our works are none too similar. I can see overlaps in thought despite different subjects. But then again maybe my scatterbrained-ness would drive you to chop me to bits and use cross sections of my bones for land markers in your amazing scenes. Reall, an acceptable way to go out if you ask me. ;)

[avad.livejournal.com]

hee tell me about it.
we'll be lookin for a third roomie in the new house...and dangit I want a craftygirl like you!!!!!
Twould be so inspiring and fun. but NOOOOO you have to have your OWN life and hometown znc boyfriend and goals...instead of just catering to My whims.
Dang you.
*makes sticker labels for your littlest bones*

[unluckymonkey.livejournal.com]

yes yes yes if only I could jsut give up and cater toy our every whim I really do believe all would be well. But I've got these nagging desires to accomplish my own things and have a boyrfriend etc. So very terrible of me! Oh if you find a crafftygrrl like me I shall be jealous to the very end. I shall whine, complain and cry even as you label my teensiest bones in my toes!

[avad.livejournal.com]

oh and as for pics, gimme a week or two. we don't have anything set up yet. But I can't WAIT to get back to work and show ya.:) I missed you too hon.
Brent is feelin fine.:)

[shamira55.livejournal.com]

Beautifully said! I can't wait to own my own AvaD piece one day........... :)

[avad.livejournal.com]

woohoo I'll keep workin on them!:)hehe

[anztac.livejournal.com]

And we have the beginnings of Bucky's World game.

Here's a thought. With accurate topographical data, GIS data, Satilite imagery (World Wind, and maybe at some point.. real time), cross-referenced with the digitized architectual plans, City planning, et all from all the libraries. In other words I don't see what you are implying as being too far off. A government intiative would make it possible. OTOH, I wonder how much venture capital it would take to get this rolling.... As the baseplate information for different game engines this amalgam of public information would be quite a gem...

Ok.. so it's more then just one thought...

Somehow I feel the above synergizing with flash mobs... festivals like burning man.. politcal protests.. spontaneous restructuring..

Such spontaneous events with proper numbers might make it an economical necesity for Bucky's empemeralized temporary housing technology to take off. Imagine a whole super-structure of geodesic domes, hanging housing matricies... forming spontaneously on a previously barren stretch of land.. and then dissolving again and reappearing in peices elsewhere as needed..

The implications of having an accurate realistic looking model like that and being ablle to watch history unfold on it, or see a simulation of the effects of a proposed legislation, or housing project.. or simulations of what the naked eye can't see such integrating our current and future sensor nets into the simulation..

And I think it's increadable because we're evolving there almost subconsciously. At the rate of technological advancement it isn't too far off to think we might see this relatively soon (5-10 years?)

Ok, that's the end of that rant... Hope some of it caught ;o)

Mmmh, love inspirational people =D

[avad.livejournal.com]

yupyupyup!:)
It's wonderfully on its way.- and I agree, part of the wonder is that it's happening so subconsciously.