Into the digital era: A liminal journey through a networked society

Abstract

Digital technology has triggered the start of the Information Age in the twentieth century. We currently live in a society which has been shifted from the traditional industries established during the Industrial Revolution, to an economy based on the manipulation of information also known as the Digital Revolution. Replacing analogue mechanical and electronic systems with digital technology is drastically changing our everyday lives in this new Digital/Information Age. These changes range from simple new conveniences at a domestic scale to major breakthroughs at a global scale. Formation of a global network has spawned the growth of online communities, allowing people to be constantly connected to each other. A growing number of routine tasks are continuously being simplified using shrinking personal devices, bringing portability to service which previously required a more anchored approach. Personal handheld devices collaborate with social networking communities. This has the way we relate to other people as well as redefining our perception towards architecture and the city. Our engagement with electronic media and technology is placing us in contact with virtual worlds on a daily basis. The rapid activity of people in society mirrors the constant flux of information in the digital world. The augmentation of one world with the other is diminishing the boundary between the realms and interweaving all the spaces we occupy. As digital technology integrates human society with the virtual world, urban environments become hybrid spaces possessing both physical and digital qualities. The synthesis of new and old, existing and non-existing redefines the past, present and future. This thesis will explore the points of contact between the real and the virtual, as well as the merging of the two realms. It will examine the impact of social networking and media technology, and what this implicates to the public space and architecture. Furthermore, this thesis aims to explore the possibility of creating hybrid environments that establishes the strong connections between digital and physical space. By introducing interventions to transform these spaces and buildings, the utilization of new technologies can create environments representative of a contemporary community. Finally it foresees the future person as living in a liminal world; the threshold between real and virtual.