Major Studio Interface Final Project Proposal

The prevalence of IT in modern life has had a transformative effect on human interaction in an unfathomable number of ways. It has eliminated some forms of communication almost entirely while giving birth to others. We are now able to interact with other people thousands of miles away without ever leaving our doorsteps. This has led to a speculation that we are now living a “post-geographic” existence in which our actual locations have become irrelevant due to the possibilities afforded by new IT – a new global era. There has been much research done on this topic, with some writers such as Frances Cairncross, author of “The Death of Distance”, being of the belief that the effect of this trend on how we work, play, and live will be absolutely revolutionary. Others, such as geographer Mei-Po Kwan, acknowledge that while IT is definitely having a considerable impact on how we live our lives, the result will not be in a complete elimination of our daily patterns of travel, but rather a restructuring thereof. For my final project, I intend to use questionnaire data to create maps illustrating the effects of ‘living post-geographically’ as it plays out in regards to our scope of daily interaction via the internet and other forms of technology vs. our scope of daily travel. My presumption is that for most of us, the range of people we interact with on a day to day basis via phone, email, social networking, etc. may span many countries and continents, while the extent of our travel over the same period of time may only span a few square miles. I also hope to address one of the criticisms of the “death of distance” theory – that it addresses only those of us lucky to have access to IT. Such theories have no bearing whatsoever for the billions who have no access to IT in their daily lives – the majority of the earth’s population. Data from such individuals in my project will be difficult to obtain due to the obvious aforementioned reasons, but I feel as though having even one or two examples will illustrate my point. One of the exciting aspects of this project is that based on how the questionnaire is structured, it can allow for further exploration into a variety of directions, such as analysis of the data based on location of the participant, their modes of communication, time of day, etc. At this point, I am using Python and the Google Maps API to create maps for each individual, with the intended modes of dissemination being through a website and an interactive display in a gallery space. Due to fascinating and incredibly pertinent subject and the variety of ways in which the project can be expanded upon, I definitely intend to pursue it beyond this semester and possibly as a springboard for my thesis.

http://a.parsons.edu/~dasga383/week2.ppt