Commonroom discusssions held at the end of December 2004

I have taken some comments made from the last 3 common room chats concerning Andy's task on visualising Camberwell. Some comments are taken out of their full context, so best to read the Virtual Classroom archives.

Unit 2 task set by Andy Stiff

On 13.12.2004, Andy set the following task in the online chat:

"I have a little task for you and the 1st year part time students to think about over the Christmas break. In January (I'll confirm the date) I have to give a presentation and set some examples of dealing with virtual environments to some Architecture students at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Can you all start to think about what the nature of virtual environments is? For example can you build a picture of Camberwell? What is your experience of this college as a space?

Also what is the relationship with each other, and hopefully with the part time f2f students? Its not so much imagining the space, but finding an image / text etc that describes what the space you engage in; anything that indicates your relationship to a space - that space being Camberwell/Blackboard/our chats etc."

The ideas below were raised by students during the chat session, (as well as subsequent chats in the common room). Note: Some typo's were amended and some of the comments are taken out of context, so it would be best to read the full chat in the Common Room Virtual Classroom archive area.

1. Mark Hopkins
I think virtual space exited a long time ago. It's like when I was in the US Navy we use to send electronic messages to one another. I think that. Could be concerned virtual space also; (an) example is my digital camera virtual space; the card that images get store on.

2. Colin Eyre
(It could be) more like a central nervous system or a river with tributaries. We could re-look at space/distance. What if we stretch the idea - take an entity ("an idea") and send it down the pathways of "the brain/nervous system" (Camberwell in all is forms) like the old Chinese whisper game; move the 'video' through the brain and see what comes out the other end.

I was thinking after the last chat about the DNA double helix and the way it's joined. The thing about DNA I liked is that it's constantly developing and morphing, not a constant structure - very fluid - like the course.

Camberwell DNA: ideas, concepts, experience structure: network, internet, computers (the glue)
Affects: teachers, students, lectures, life, chaos, coffee, TV etc

3. Jem MacKay
Jem referenced work called 'Valence' by Benjamin Fry which dealt with 3D representation of information. View at: www.medienkunstnetz.de/work/valence

I was wondering whether the college actually is not the centre of it all at all.

I'm interested in the non-structural element of it [the DNA analogy] which I understand happens when cells reproduce that's when the random factor comes in.

4. Claire Morales
I'm thinking communication like the way we are on MA and language and interpretation and how we do/don't. The methods we're choosing in our work and presentation in space - the way we're close yet so far.....

I'm seeing it as the communication between us all in 'virtual space as the most exciting thing about the course; solely reliant on our input and how we use it. I don't think we [should] centre on Camberwell as a geographical place but concentrate on head-maps.

5. Janet Nabney
By using digitally manipulated imagery, an imagined reality can be created which is idealized and contains elements that cannot be found in reality, but only imagined in a virtual space.

back to home page | back to Barlett page