by Eden Muir and Rory O'Neill, 1995
Electronic communication has been evolving so rapidly that, practically overnight, the Network seems to have become as important as the air we breath. In some ways the phenomenon of digital networks is analogous to the system of Roman roads which defined the growth boundary of that organization, or the telegraph system that linked remote outposts of the British Empire. The cyberneticist tells us that the scope of the organism extends to the limits of its internal, instant communication ability. In this light, we may be forced to reexamine certain aspects of architectural education and practice, as well as our notion of what constitutes 3D space designed for human experience.
An increase in network bandwidth is making instantaneous two-way visual communication feasible. The demand for such communication in our visually-based culture is skyrocketing. But we are more than visual creatures; we are spatial. Our cognition is rooted in millions of years of human evolution in a three-dimensional world. Our mental energies are supported by 3D calculations that are streamlined to allow us to survive in space.
There is growing evidence that our new visual communication capabilities will enable us to effectively communicate spatial experiences over distances. But there is much work to be done in understanding cyberspace and what its program will be. What is it to be used for? How is it designed? What makes it effective? What makes it memorable, or beautiful?
Architects tend to look at visual computing as mere representation and overlook its possibilities as an end- user space. In the world of virtual design, the representation of the space is in fact the final incarnation of the space. To date, most discussions by architects of the perils and promises of digital technology have revolved around the issue of the production 2D documentation for real construction. But the revolution in digital telecommunications will force architects to face issues which are, culturally, economically and professionally, far more fundamental and problematic.
The quality of instantaneous communications provided by fiberoptic networks will force a rethinking of the physical structures and spaces needed for living, working and learning. In a digital, information-based economy, more and more of what goes on in schools, businesses, and places of recreation will occur in front of a computer screen, a screen that could be located anywhere. There will be less need to be in any particular physical location. What kind of spaces will social, educational and professional organizations require for activities which depend only on the presence of a fiberoptic cable?
Over the last decade, digital technologies changed the rhythm and culture of the workplace with voice mail, beepers, email and fax. The design office will soon undergo more fundamental transformations. In some design fields, we are already beginning to see telecommuting arrangements with remote employees, digital design and transmission of drawings directly to the field, rapid- prototyping output of scale models, video conferencing with clients and consultants, and the use of electronic "white boards." As always, the compelling argument for these technologies will be speed and cost effectiveness. But we should note that it is also environmentally preferable to send a complete set of working drawings across the country in a few seconds by fiberoptic cable, rather than consuming paper, jet fuel, and gasoline at each end of a physical delivery. However, the obvious corollary and problem for local architects is that we are entering an era of global competition for design work, even as the need for physical space is itself transforming in unpredictable ways.
However uncertain the outlook for traditional architectural practice, there are now signs of new professional possibilities for 3D designers who are "digitally prepared." The concept of 3D space has begun to play a significant role in the design of interfaces to electronic education, business and entertainment products. While the current Internet is a crude and early prototype of the coming high-bandwidth Information Superhighway, we can already find in it some promising signs of new professional possibilities and a new role for architects in a digital age.
The significance of the recent sudden growth of the Internet is often misunderstood. Consider a recent discussion of the Net and related phenomena, "What are we doing on-line, (Harper's Magazine, August 1995) with John Perry Barlow and three fellow writers, one a determined Luddite, another a receiver of electronic soul-data, and another who has decided to refuse the Internet. The Net is compared to television, in that it involves people staring at glowing screens, sharing experiences, real and imaged over vast distances and contrasted to TV in that it is decentralized, interactive and based on the written word.
The last phrase reveals a common misreading of the sudden popularity of the Internet. The Net had been functioning quietly and unfashionably for over 20 years based on the written word. It still can be navigated by means of obscure file transfer protocols and cryptic command languages. But a large portion of the Internet has finally been liberated from the written word. It is the new graphical and hyperlinking capabilities of the Internet (the World Wide Web) that have suddenly made the global network palatable and accessible to a larger audience, and given it commercial potential.
Without friendly point-and-click navigators such as Mosaic and Netscape, the Internet would still be the domain of hackers and techies, and could never have crystallized in the popular imagination as a precursor to the digital superhighway. By means of these Web browsers and "servers" and HTML (HyperText Markup Language), any computer hooked into the global network can be accessed by any other computer, by simply clicking the mouse on hyperlinked images or words. Anybody with an Internet connection and computer can, literally overnight, become an electronic publisher of high-quality color images, sound and video clips. In addition, the hyperlinking features of the Web means that text and graphical information can be presented and experienced in non-linear ways--in fact every person on the Web follows a unique path through the data. In short, the Internet has become a friendly multimedia environment. What is remarkable to architects is that space can also be delivered on the Web.
The success of the Web, as well as its multimedia capabilities, have made it suddenly attractive to business. Cyberspace has become the hot new frontier, perhaps one of the last; as John Barlow put it: There is very little economic room in the physical world these days. A measure of the growth of the Web is the proliferation of its addresses or URLs (Universal Resource Locators); their number is doubling every few months. The URL statistics for businesses rose by over 80,000 from July 94 to July 95 (New York Times, Aug. 14, 1995). Another significant part of the growth comes from the academic community which often enjoys free high-speed links to the Net. For example, Columbia University's home page indicates that over 1500 web sites have been created, most of these in the last year. While it is clear that a large portion of the Web is nothing more than a vanity press operation, the numbers alone prove that it will be a significant cultural phenomenon. The large private online services such as Prodigy, America Online, Compuserve, and Microsoft Network are now offering Internet access to their customers, bringing millions of newcomers to the Web. A recent survey indicates that 36% of Americans homes are equipped with computers, and 18% with modems ready to connect to the Net. (LA Times, Oct.17, 1995) These numbers will continue to rise, as prices fall for computers and digital services, leading us toward an era of ubiquitous networked computing. Some estimate that by the year 2000, 1 billion people will be connected to the Internet. (Negroponte, Being Digital, Knopf, 1995, p. 182)
The networked computer will not only be as common as a telephone or TV, it may in fact be the TV. Cable companies are now testing distribution of the Web on cable TV lines. This system provides high bandwidth, a huge installed base, and the convenience of being able to switch from one-way television to two-way interactive Internet content on the same appliance. Television and the Internet are converging, transforming themselves into a new digital-delivery system, not of passive viewing, but of interactive online experiences with access to extensive multimedia content. It should not be lost on architects, that the full-screen, real-time graphics of TV, when combined with the interactive, feedback and hyperlinking, and multi-user features of networked computers, could be used to create a new medium for three-dimensional experience.
The drive to develop virtual 3D experiences is accelerating even before the tools and delivery platforms are totally in place. Early examples of Virtual Worlds appeared on the World Wide Web in 1995. While limited in their image resolution and slow to navigate, these projects used rendered, hyperlinked perspectives to allow users to explore and learn a 3D space. (see QIN and S.P.Q.R., at http://pathfinder.com/twep/) There are many flashier examples from the entertainment industry, such as Virtual Reality games, VR rides, 3D CD-ROM games, and feature films which are completely computer-generated.
A new and striking example of a perceived need for a Virtual World comes from one of the least likely sources, the banking industry, which has been redefined by digital technology in the last decade. Banks were once distinguished by imposing facades and memorable interior spaces. With their physical architecture now irrelevant, banks have an identity problem. For many customers, the only thing that distinguishes banks is their software -- the color of the touch-screen buttons and the number of taps it takes to view a checking balance.
Banks are beginning to see the need for a new kind of 3D space to define their corporate identity and attract consumers. A major banking corporation recently announced a deal with Worlds Inc. to design a virtual online bank. Worlds, Inc. is not an architectural group, but an online interface design firm. They use the architectural metaphor of rooms and corridors to organize the electronic banking experience. These virtual spaces will be navigated daily, and learned intimately, by millions of consumers. But will these spaces benefit from the skill and imagination of a trained architect?
Architects are used to asking what digital technologies can bring to the profession. At the Digital Design Lab (DDL) at the Graduate School of Architecture, we are asking what architecture and virtual space can contribute to the online and multimedia experience.
Several research projects at the DDL have investigated the role of 3D space in memory, by examining how architectural metaphors can affect information retention and retrieval. The art of memory was a necessity before the era of cheap paper and printing. To a Greek or Roman orator, memory was power, and the most powerful memory techniques were spatial. The ancient technique of spatial memory is surprisingly straightforward. One systematically plants memory objects in memory locations along a familiar route that can be visited in the mind's eye. Later, these objects are recalled in sequence, forward or backwards, as one mentally revisits the route. Precise instructions for constructing a personal memory palace appear in three classical sources: Ad Herrennium (anonymous), Quintilian's Insitutio oratorio, and Cicero's De Oratorio.
These ancient techniques were tested recently at the DDL, in an effort to see they could play a role in 3D multimedia. In one experiment, a long list of randomly selected names and topics was compiled and shown to test groups. The goal was to quickly memorize the list and to be able to recite the list from any point, backwards and forwards. This appeared at first to be impossible, but despite initial skepticism, almost everyone was able to complete the task in a few minutes, using a multimedia memory technique.
First, the Columbia campus was selected as a memory palace. The chosen route lead from Broadway, past Low Library, to Avery Hall. This path generated a series of memory loci at roughly 30 paces from each other, which were documented photographically. Memory objects were selected, according to the ancient criteria. Meant to jar the memory by association, humor, contrast, or alliteration, these objects were photo-montaged into the memory loci. The route was rehearsed on screen as an empty memory palace, then replayed, as a space filled with its memory objects. Later, the memory palace was "revisited" and the memory objects triggered a recollection of the actual name or topic. Months after the experiment, many reported being able to recite the list perfectly, forwards or backwards.
Architects know intuitively that one becomes deeply involved with information that is presented in a rich three-dimensional experience. Design a memorable space as a gateway to information and the Roman orator, the modern student, or the Internet or CD-ROM game enthusiast will remember how to access that information.
Other DDL experiments, including the HyperHouse, the Information Corridor, and the Amiens Trilogy are described in the DDL Research Report and are documented at the DDL Web site (http://www.arch.columbia.edu) Common to all these projects is an investigation of the possibilities of embedding information within a computer-generated virtual space.
These DDL experiments suggest that there are profound and ancient reasons why we are drawn to 3D. Our mental hardware is optimized for 3D. The flat, desktop metaphor popularized by the Macintosh served us well during the first decade of personal computing when processing power was too precious to squander on 3D effects, but 3D is no longer a luxury. In fact, because of digital information overload in our globally networked future, it may become a necessity.
The move toward Virtual Worlds is accelerating and there is increasing evidence of their commercial viability. VRML (virtual Reality Modeling Language) has become, almost overnight, a de facto standard for modeling and publishing of 3D spaces, which can be experienced in real-time over the Internet. AT&T unveiled a new technology that vastly increases the transfer of data through ordinary copper phone lines. Software companies Macromedia Director and Netscape announce that they would team up to bring true interactive multimedia capabilities to the Internet. The financial world took note of these developments and Netscape, a company that had never had any significant income, saw a 500 percent rise in its stocks on the strength of a perceived superior graphical interface to the Internet.
Meanwhile, their were big announcements in non-Internet systems which can be used to deliver Virtual Worlds. Philips and Sony announced their Multimedia CD (MMCD) format which will increase the capacity of CD-ROM disks by a factor of 11. Viewpoint Datalabs announced the acquisition of the Avalon 3d archive, making it the largest digital catalog house of ready-to-go 3D models of objects and buildings which the designer can simply plug in to his Virtual Worlds. Nintendo began to ship its Virtual Boy, a Virtual Reality system for the home market that uses twin LED displays to create an immersive 3D experience. Microsoft announce the release, for the IBM PC, of its newly acquired Softimage special effects software, marking the first of the leading high-end 3D modeling and animation packages to be aimed at the wider PC market. And "Myst," a $60 CD-ROM mystery game set in a 3D Virtual World, approached sales of 1 million per year, exceeded only by faster 3D Virtual Reality games such as Doom. Perhaps most significant of all, Microsoft released Windows 95 with an Microsoft Network button on the desktop. With a single mouse click, millions of people will be online.
Each of these developments signals the maturing of 3D computer graphics, a field which always been, and remains, notoriously computation- and bandwidth- intensive. With the rapid evolution of network systems and software, CD-ROM technology, 3D viewing devices, and personal computer systems, it will be relatively easy and inexpensive to support the phenomenon of digital space. The electronic infrastructure is almost in place for an explosion of 3D Worlds and 3D interfaces for communication, business, entertainment and education. Will architects be able to respond to the challenge? Architecture has always involved intensive study of tectonic, technical, historical, cultural, and aesthetic issues. As the digital world emerges we find that the study and practice of architecture becomes even more complicated. A rigorous investigation of the architectural possibilities of digital space requires an understanding of the Network and trends in 3D computing. One can confidently forecast an era of turmoil for the profession and architecture schools, as divisions grow between the digital haves and have-nots. All the rules will change in the accelerating conversion to digital design, forcing a reevaluation of the role of the architect in a digital age. As our culture expands its notion of what constitutes space for human experience, the architect can find some comfort in the realization that one constant will be the demand for the ability to design three-dimensional space.