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Abstract
This article considers the manipulation of physical environments by what Lev Manovich terms “cultural software,” computer programs we use to generate culture. Utilizing case studies from teaching workshops, I examine methods for interrogating the logic underpinning the software of global imaging, virtual construction, and video games to understand their effect upon physical environments. These are proposed as ways for architects to engage with the layered condition of what “environment” constitutes today. I conclude that the logics we carry from design software into reality must be scrutinized so that we do not fail to see the ideology our digital tools transported into physical conditions.
Notes
1 Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), 21.
2 Ibid., 27.
3 Ibid., 31.
4 Alison and Peter Smithson, “But Today We Collect Ads,” Ark Magazine, 1956.
5 Reyner Banham, Design by Choice (London: Academy Editions, 1981), 110.
6 James Bridle, “The New Aesthetic,” The New Aesthetic, May 2011, http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com (accessed December 10, 2016).
7 Sam Loveridge, “GTA 5 sales top 54 million,” Trustedreviews.com, August 11, 2015, http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/gta-5-sales-top-54-million (accessed December 16, 2016).
8 Manovich, Software Takes Command (note 1), 88.
9 Ibid., 96.
10 Ibid., 91.
11 Ibid., 142.
12 “The Render Ghosts—James Bridle,” Electronic Voice Phenomena, November 14, 2013, http://www.electronicvoicephenomena.net/index.php/the-render-ghosts-james-bridle/ (accessed February 10, 2017).
13 “WAF Podcast: Charles Jencks on Generic Individualism, ‘the Reigning Style of Our Time,’” Architects' Journal, May 17, 2016, https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/culture/waf-podcast-charles-jencks-on-generic-individualism-the-reigning-style-of-our-time/10006523.article.
14 Lebbeus Woods, “Zaha's Way,” http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/zahas-way/ (accessed January 12, 2017).
15 Manovich, Software Takes Command (note 1), 113.
16 “The Totalitarian Buddhist Who Beat Sim City,” Vice, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-totalitarian-buddhist-who-beat-sim-city (accessed September 18, 2016).
17 Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2007), Kindle for iPad edition, Loc.84.
18 McKenzie Wark, Gamer Theory (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), n. [030].
19 Daniel Reynolds, “Virtual World Naturalism,” Fiberculture Journal, issue 16, Counterplay (2010), http://sixteen.fibreculturejournal.org/virtual-world-naturalism/ (accessed December 20, 2016).
20 John Sharp, Works of Game (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2015), 14.
21 Patrick Klepek, “Grand Theft Auto V Looks Incredibly Creepy without Textures,” Kotaku, January 29, 2015, http://kotaku.com/grand-theft-auto-v-looks-incredibly-creepy-without-text-1682545969 (accessed December 10, 2016).
22 Mark Dorrian, “On Google Earth,” in Seeing from Above, ed. Mark Dorrian and Frederic Pousin (London: I. B. Taurus, 2013), 299.
23 Ian Bogost, “The Cathedral of Computation,” The Atlantic, January 15, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-cathedral-of-computation/384300/ (accessed December 5, 2016).
24 Clement Valla, “The Universal Texture,” Rhizome Blog, July 31, 2012, http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/jul/31/universal-texture/ (accessed December 5, 2015).
25 Alexander R. Galloway, The Interface Effect (Cambridge: Polity, 2012), 25.
26 Marcus Stokton, “Importance of the Block: Why Minecraft Matters” (MArch diss., [name anonymized], 2015).
27 “Make Things with Minecraft,” Printcraft, http://www.printcraft.org/ (accessed January 15, 2017).
28 Stokton, “Importance of the Block” (note 25).
29 Ibid., 63.
30 Bogost, “The Cathedral of Computation” (note 22).
31 Michael Nitsche, Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3d Worlds (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2008), 221.
32 Tom Sofield, “Police Log: Gnome Stolen, DUI Arrests and More,” LevittownNow.com, April 27, 2014, http://levittownnow.com/2014/04/27/police-log-gnome-stolen-dui-arrests-more/ (accessed December 20, 2016).
33 Galloway, The Interface Effect (note 24), 135.
34 Erik Kain, “Massive ‘EVE Online’ Battle Could Cost $300,000 in Real Money,” Forbes, January 29, 2014, https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/29/massive-eve-online-battle-could-cost-500000-in-real-money/#5bc6d0606877 (accessed February 8, 2017).
35 Bogost, “The Cathedral of Computation” (note 22).
36 Galloway, The Interface Effect (note 24), 121.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Luke Caspar Pearson
Luke Caspar Pearson is a designer and lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL). He is coordinator and co-chair of Drawing Futures and is a founding partner of research practice You+Pea. He was part of a team from UCL that built the Universal Tea Machine for the London 2012 Olympics commissioned by the Mayor of London. He has previously received an RIBA Bronze Medal and a Leverhulme Trust Grant, and he currently pursues a PhD funded by a UCL GRS Grant. His research has been featured in publications such as Architect's Sketchbooks, ARQ, Interstices, RIBA Journal, and CLOG:Sci-Fi.