Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby ... Fields and Thresholds ... Doors2
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E l e c t r o m a g n e t i c C l i m a t e s a n d A m b i e n t P r e s e n c e
For us, the communication aspect of telecomputing is less about finding ways of `inhabiting' abstract digital `space' than the exploration of new situations arising in physical space. We are interested in what happens when places become linked up within a vast field of telecommunicative possibility.
- We want to move away from existing person-to-person and computer-to-computer connections that isolate the person from their physical environment. And extend the pleasure that comes from connecting to another part of the world and hearing a greeting or accent that suggests another time zone or culture. This is not about a nostalgia for differences that no longer exist. We are looking to explore new forms of `difference' and possibilities for new aesthetic qualities. A celebration of difference rather than an eradication.
- For example, telecommunications could provide a sort of 'window' or `filter' on to other places. connecting the place you are in to other places, replacing familiar local sounds with strange sounds from elsewhere. Working late in London to a faint backdrop of the Tokyo rush hour. Besides sound, differences in temperature, light levels and other environmental qualities, both natural and artificial, could also be transmitted, creating an awareness of another place through a subdued background ambience.
- The informatic atmosphere of telecommunications has its own `electromagnetic climate' related to an `electrogeography' defined by wavelength, frequency and bandwidth. The microwave medium of telecommunications is only one small part of our radio frequency environment. The mix of this environment varies widely between rural and urban areas, country to country, and time zone to time zone. There is enough variation to provide interesting regional differences, not only in the form of remote local broadcasts, but also in the form of `noise'.
- As the emphasis here is not on communication between people, but on creating a `sense' of another place, it is differences in occupation and usage of space in terms of numbers of people, degrees of activity and movement that need to find forms of expression through the system. Perhaps this could take the form of almost subliminal changes in levels of acoustic, thermal or visual ambience.
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