Network Landscape Interaction Typology
The key to expressing a design intent with digital media is to understand the impacts of networking on landscape as either projections of digital content into space or the sampling of attributes of a certain place for representation online. Although designers must understand the technology they are working with, the point of this chapter is not to break down the essential characteristics of different technologies and techniques (i.e. an identification guide for network technologies). Communication technologies are evolving swiftly. The task is thus to describe the more fundamental forces at work in network activity as it relates to shaping urban sites and the activity within them.
The typology is organized on two axes. The boundaries between types of interaction on this axis are somewhat more flexible than the first axis. The methods for augmented reality and geotagging, for example, often require both specific forms of physical infrastructure and a framework to structure commons-based activity. Overall, in fact, it is best to view this typology as an evolving organizational structure—this conceptual framework will change and expand to accommodate new technologies and new network-landscape interaction. Nonetheless, for designers this framework is helpful for understanding opportunities to design with networks and digital media.
The typology is organized on two axes. The boundaries between types of interaction on this axis are somewhat more flexible than the first axis. The methods for augmented reality and geotagging, for example, often require both specific forms of physical infrastructure and a framework to structure commons-based activity. Overall, in fact, it is best to view this typology as an evolving organizational structure—this conceptual framework will change and expand to accommodate new technologies and new network-landscape interaction. Nonetheless, for designers this framework is helpful for understanding opportunities to design with networks and digital media.