P L U G G E D Z O N E D

an architectural dissertation synopsis by Jia Jian, Saw, 11080450 U 3 0 0 9 9

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a study on the implications of social media on public space

"The spectacle corresponds to the historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life. It is not just that the relationship to commodities is now plain to see - commodities are now all that there is to see; the world we see is the world of the commodity ... social space is continually blanketed by stratum after stratum of commodities." Guy Debord, 1994

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Co n t e n t

Part I

Part II

Part III

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Personal Motive p. 4

Outline p. 5

Introduction p. 6

The Fall of Public Space p. 8

The Rise of Digital Space p. 9

The Retreat p. 10

Politics & Power p. 12

The Tuning of Social Space p. 13

Digital Space: Enhancement or Destruction to Public Space? p. 15

Conclusion p. 16

Bibliography p. 17-19

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these new forms of social networking and media have enabled such movements to occur, eventually altering the nature of public space. Digital space has become so pervasive that it eventually becomes our second nature.

Public space is a sacred arena; where in the present day is becoming increasingly hostile. Any political demonstrations would be deemed illegal in my home country of Malaysia, however with the Internet at the public's disposal, alternative forms of digital media (e.g., online blogs, independent news portals) has enabled people of various backgrounds to share information, discuss political views without the constant scrutiny from authorities. This cultivation in cyberspace eventually became a reality when it attracted 80,000 people to hold a peace rally in Kuala Lumpur on the 28th April 2012. The perceptions of public space have changed drastically. Public space symbolically upholds its true values of democracy, yet its taboo when dissatisfaction or protest occurs. I was also interested in how

Figure 6: Bersih Rally, Malaysia

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p. 149). Digital space emerged as what could be considered a replacement to the loss of public space, satisfying our social cravings in a more free and dynamic network system, as well as a looser framework for political indifferences to be intellectually debated without the constraints that modern public spaces are accompanied with. Its accessibility and pervasive nature has caused us an undeniable dependency in our modern day lives, changing the way public space is perceived and used. Such a phenomenon requires the re-conceptualizing of the roles of public spaces in both political and social aspects, which are essential to traditional city spaces. This dissertation will begin by exploring the extent of decay in public spaces under both political and economical influences, followed by theorizing the shift of social space from the public domain to the online domain. By studying how these pervasive changes have altered the way political and social events occur, I wish to arrive at an understanding on the implications of digital space on existing public spaces.

Changes in public spaces have occurred rapidly in the twenty-first century following the economic and social restructuring of the working class, as cities move from a 'supply-side to a demand-side (Smith, 1996, p.113). With gentrification efforts closely following the privatizations of public spaces, private property owners are turning our once democratic cities into sterile consumer based environments; as Anna Minton (2009, p.20) describes as the death of the city where we experience a reversal of the democratic achievements of the Victorians when we start to hand back the control of the streets to the estates. The rise of the Internet is perceived as the paradigm of an emergent, selfregulating, self-organizing structure that can develop and thrive without governmental intervention (Gere, 2002,

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space in the context of both political and economical reasons, in order to gain insight on reasons of its demise due to the deactivation of social activities. This will lead to the analysis behind the rise of digital space in its effectiveness in materializing current social movements against authorities.

Public spaces in cities represent a platform where civic society utilizes as a meeting place and marketplace, providing opportunities for people to meet and greet each other, a place to exchange information about the city and society (Ghel, 2000). The traditional idea of the public sphere as a socially constructed space, is unfortunately no longer relevant in most modern cultures where the idea of place is trivialized or ignored (Zukin, 1991). This drift towards consumer based cities have led to the privatization of the public sphere, where democratic space is replaced by a sterilized space lacking in life and excitement with profit at its heart. loss
Part I will begin by studying the of democracy in existing public

Part II will focus on the implications of digital space on both the political and social aspects of public space. Part III will question the possibility of a replacement of physical space with digital space through its ability to envisage a social agenda or political motive.

Figure 7: The Tahrir Revolution, Egypt.

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Instituted by the declaration of rights of man, public space's intent is to extend to all humans the freedom that Hannah Arendt calls a right to have right (Deutsche, 1998, p. 274). However its importance of being a source of limitless democratic platform has been challenged with its appropriation towards a conservative site with regards to political activities. The privatization of public spaces has brought the democracy of space under risk; with tactics of exclusion and control, individuals considered unprofitable are unwelcomed. This chapter of public space is of quality of life in reversal. The issue the existing low
will argue that the fall not entirely the decay the city, but rather the of gentrification, where income communities

are evicted in exchange to upgrade its conditions to allow for higher profit value as described. As such, this perhaps has given rise to what Guy Debord describes as social space being continuously blanketed by stratum after stratum of commodity (Debord, 1994).

The erosion of public space has reduced the public realm to merely shopping malls, undermining its role as political and social platform, which brings us to the next chapter of The Rise of Digital Space as a response to this scenario.

"New Architecture and urban forms are, moreover, produced under nearly the same social conditions as consumer products. They increasingly follow similar patterns of both standardization and market differentiation." Zukin, 1991

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The computer presented itself as a counter-cultural and even revolutionary device. It enabled the rise of the Internet where it is seen as the paradigm of the emergent, self-regulating, self-organizing structure that can develop and thrive without governmental intervention (Gere, 2002). Unlike social networks formed in traditional physical spaces which are limited to existing social networks among individuals with the same/similar jobs, or belief/religion, or similar interests (Lim, 2012), new forms of social media spaces such as Facebook and Twitter, allows users to fill the social gap which they have been deprived of. This chapter aims to study its ability to transcend localities and boundaries, allowing ideas, information and knowledge

to penetrate spatial barriers with speed and effectiveness.

This mix of digital media with social groups has enabled the transformation of powerful social movements to happen within modern society which will be further elaborated in the next chapter.

Figure 9: The Occupy Movement, London

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Chapter 3 will elaborate the digital counter-culture as described by Charlie Gere, taking on computing subcultures like hacking as well as the so-called cypherPunks to gauge how the use of the Web has transitioned from mass media and communications towards a kind of virtual disputed territory, over which government forces of repression and the supporters of liberty fight for control (Gere, 2002, p.142) The Occupy Movements and Egypt's revolution, have both shown digital space's ability to organize and nurture social movements without the watch of its oppressors, which then transpires in physical space, exercising their rights in the public realm. The extensive use of digital space in materializing the struggle for democratic

means is effective to a certain level, but it still suggests that without public demonstrations, social movements on the Web is obsolete as it's not effective in portraying the majority's dissent, which will be further questioned in Chapter 6.

"Social movement effectively consolidates by its invisibility (to authority); the vast and convivial digital media provides the space for this mechanism. In contrast, it must claim its power with visibility, which can only be done by either 'occupying' public space and/or 'opening' public space." Merlyna Lim, 2012

Figure 10: Still from "Triumph of the WIll"

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2007 in Tokyo Metro Grid

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The ability of digital space to reach out to a more extensive network has undermined the role of the public realm as a political site which supposedly promises openness and accessibility. This is made worse especially since it is increasingly subject to private interests governing its conditions. Chapter 4 will study the Occupy Movement in London to understand how the making and materialization of political movements are influenced by digital media. This chapter will then analyze how increasing restrictions on individuals are carried on from public space into digital space. With the privatization of public spaces as mentioned in Chapter I, foreign capital and expertise are poured into the development of communications infrastructure. However, the irony behind this development is that they are facing

a growing community from individuals to nongovernmental organizations who utilize these infrastructures to engage in a very energetic use of cyberspace.

As a result, government authorities increasingly enforce control over the Internet through technical standard setting for both hardware and software, as well as the registrations of domain names and firewalled intranet systems. This increasingly unequal geography of access in digital space would only increase the distance between the technological haves and have nots (Sassen, 2007).

Figure 12: Occupy Movement, London

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The pervasive nature of electronic media has changed the way we perceive space. Globalization, ubiquitous communications, and digital processing in general, has potentially rendered an alienated view of place by solely associating them with merely cherished views often without its immediate contextual understanding. Host of The Secret Life of Buildings, Tom Dyckhoff investigates how Stonehenge drew the community to experience its role as a public space. Today, people flock there closely attached to their digital guides, following designated pathways around it, essentially not experiencing what it was built for. Jan Gehl (2006) claims that cyber space may not have replaced public space as prophesied, but it has enticed digital users by imagery and information,

encouraging them to step out of their homes and participate in public space events.

"Digital technology's ubiquity and its increasing invisibility have the effects of making it appear almost natural. The tendency to take it for granted can easily attenuate into a sense that it has evolved into its present form naturally, by ways of a kind of digital nature." (Gere, 2002, p.198)

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Chapter 6 will question the possibility of digital space rendering public space no longer relevant. The chapter will begin by drawing on fictional stories portrayed in films (e.g., The Matrix, Bladerunner) to discuss modern society's dystopian vision caused by technology. Digital space has brought back the unpredictable element into public space which Jan Gehl (1996) describes as essential, through its ability to organize the masses "invisibly in an increasingly controlled environment. With increased appropriation of public spaces with 'wifi' cafes and even buildings which incorporate technology to break social barriers (Fig. 14), perhaps this overlapping of spaces has brought upon new forms of excitement within existing public spaces. This chapter will then study the importance of the concrete settings of

physical space in the making of civic life, and how digital networking would therefore bare little significance if excluded from the nondigital world

Figure 14: Interactive Media Facade at Medialab Prado, Madrid

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wo r d s ) enhanced communications, far surpassing traditional forms of public spaces ability in terms of speed and range of participants, but has caused the loss of trust with our immediate neighbours and sense of place often traditionally associated with public spaces. Despite its shortcomings in meeting social needs, the conclusion will highlight digital space's ability to cultivate political reforms relatively unseen, enabling it to successfully take place even in our increasingly privatized cities. This will then question the true threat to public space which is still the privatization and its exclusionary practices as mentioned in Chapter 1, which would only redirect the use of the internet as a resort to conduct political reform. However, one must realize that the practices of exclusion and control are increasingly moving into digital space as authorities recognize it as a threat to them.

It is important to note that the digital and the social work on each other, but they do not become hybrids in this process. Each maintains its distinct irreducible character (Sassen, 1998). The conclusion will argue that with the incorporation of alternative expertise or "spatial agencies, new designs in public spaces will be enhanced; generating new forms of social networking, which would allow the widespread of information regarding these places, thus attracting a wider crowd. Guy Debord's (1994) description of The Society of the Spectacle could provide a reflection on digital space's competence in replacing traditional forms of social spaces, where he describes that the spectacle (mass media) unites what is separate, but it unites it only in its separateness. Digital media has

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Ann o t a te d Books

B i b l i o g r a p hy

Zukin, S. (1991). Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
This analyzes the struggle of urban communities under economic and political power, giving insight to how these factors influence the construct of its urban landscape.

Minton, A. (2009). Ground Control: Fear and happiness in the twenty-first-century city. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
The portrayal of the extent at which modern cities are sold off to private companies are revealed, which also studies its effects on the public and built environment.

York: The New Press.

Saskia Sassen critiques the increasing control by authorities over the Net, raising various examples to discuss how restrictions are being placed in digital space and its implications.

Smith, N. (1996). The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the revanchist city. London: Routledge.
This provides a different perspective towards issues regarding gentrification and discusses various political and economical reasons which allow it to happen.

Coyne, R. (2010). The Tuning of Place: Sociable Spaces and Pervasive Digital Media. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
This book discusses the incremental adjustments within spaces enabled by the introduction of electronic gadgets which alter our sense of place.

Gere, C. (2002). Digital Culture. London: Reaktion Books. Debord, G. (1994). The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books.
Charlie Gere's chronological depiction of the rise of digital culture provides an understanding of how its formation is influenced by the social needs of its time.

Debord, G. (1994). The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books.
Debords theoretical approach towards contemporary capitalism and commodity is highly appropriate in describing a society which is torn apart under the influence of mass media.

Sassen, S. (1998). Globalization and Its Discontents. New

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Exte n d e d Books

B i b l i o g r a p h y

Sassen, S. (2007). A Sociology of Globalization. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Gehl, Gemze, Kirkns, J., L., S., Sndergaard, S. B. (2006). New City Life. Copenhagen: The Danish Architectural Press. Hill, (1998). J. Occupying Architecture: Between the Architect and the User. London: Routledge. Awan, N., Schneider, T., Till, J. (2011). Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture. London: Routledge. Lantham, R., Sassen, S. (2005). Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in the Global Realm. New Jersey: Princeton University Press Deutsche, R. (1998). Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics. New York: The MIT Press. Gehl, (2001). J. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Copenhagen: The Danish Architectural Press.

Gehl, J. (1996). Public Spaces, Public Life. Copenhagen: The Danish Architectural Press. Gehl, Gemze, (2000). J., L. New City Spaces. Copenhagen: The Danish Architectural Press. Online Lim, M. (2012). Reality Bytes: The Digitally Mediated Revolutions. The Architectural Review. [Online]. Retrieved on 29 August 2012 from http://www.architectural-review.com/ view/broader-view/reality-bytes-the-digitally-mediatedurban-revolutions/8629140.article Film Triumph of the Will, 1934. Film. Germany: Leni RiefenstahlProduktion. The Secret Life of Buildings, Episode 3. TV, Channel 4. 2012 Aug 15.

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Re f e r e n c e s Fig 8- Abandoned city space. Gehl, J. (2006). pg.110 Fig 9- Occupy Movement at St. Paul's Cathedral. Available at http://thinkjamesphoto.com/2011/10/20/protesters-byst-pauls-cathedral/ (Accessed on 18/10/12) Fig 10- Still from Triumph of the Will. Triumph of the Will (1934). Still image. Fig 11- Web Trend Map. Available at http://sparklette. net/lifestyle/event/web-trend-map-vs-tokyo-subway-map/ (Accessed on 3/10/12) Fig 12- Occupy Movement, London. Available at thttp:// thinkjamesphoto.com/2011/10/20/protesters-by-st-paulscathedral/ (Accessed on 18/10/12) Figure 13: Guys using iPads at cafe. Available at http:// naistemaailm.ee/elustiil/uskumatud_uudised/2DCA/ (Accessed on 1/10/12) Fig 14- Interactive Media Facade at Medialab Prado, Madrid. Available at http://www.lighting.philips.co.uk/projects/interactive_ media_facade.wpd/ (Accessed on 16/10/12)

Fig 1- 'Front cover to The Society of the Spectacle. Debord, G. (1994). Front Cover. Fig 2- Bersih Rally. Available at http://andrewlza.wordpress. com/ (Accessed on 12/10/12) Fig 3- Abandoned city space. Gehl, J. (2006). pg.128 Fig 4- The image of the Internet. Available at http:// chrisl1818.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/week-2-what-isthe-internet/ (Accessed on 16/10/12) Fig 5- Google tag icon. Available at http://www.actioncoaching. com/tag/local-search/ (Accessed on 23/9/12) Fig 6- Bersih Rally, Kuala Lumpur. Available at http:// borneoherald.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/for-society-civil-anddecent-interview.html (Accessed on 19/10/12) Fig 7- Tahrir Square Revolution. Available at http://www. architectural-review.com/view/broader-view/reality-bytesthe-digitally-mediated-urban-revolutions/8629140.article (Accessed on 1/10/12)

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