as architect consider “software” of space (sounds, smell, light, temperature, electromagnetic fields, social relationships, etc) rather than “hardware” (floors, walls, roof, etc) | The City… takes everything explored in Everyware as a given, and a point of departure | not just a social networking project for sensor data | emphasis on contextually specific “environments” rather than object-centric “sensors” | Extended Environments Markup Language (EEML) | backend capable of handling millions of users | internet of things | technologies of “extreme connectivity” | ‘eco-system’ of conversant devices, buildings & environments
Pachube evolved out three strands of thought:
1) the geographical non-specificity of architecture these days as people live their lives in constant connection with people in remote spaces
2) a desire to open up the production process of “smart homes” in reaction to current trends for placing the design and construction process solely in the hands of knowledgeable others.
3) an emphasis on contextually specific “environments” rather than object-centric “sensors”
– environment is a construction process and not a medium; nor is it a state or an entity
– one of the major failings of the usual ubicomp approach is to consider the connectivity and technology at the object-level, rather than at the environment-level. It’s built into much of contemporary Western culture to be object-centric, but at the level of “environment” we talk more about context, about disposition and subjective experience.
I asked Bruce Sterling to be a “visionary” adviser because he was one of the people early on to envisage the concepts and ramifications of “spimes” (his neologism for ’space-time objects’). While I agree that “spimes” are directly relevant, what I found most important from his conception was the concept of “wrangling” – being actively and productively engaged and responsible in the development of spimed environments. I think it was a crucial leap: to talk about “wranglers” rather than “end-users”.