Angela Pablo and I collaborated on the first assignment for Urban Computing. The assignment was to create a proposal or prototype that dealt with the scope of the ideas currently discussed in class, walls, windows and doors. Angela and I were both interested in focusing our idea on the level of an urban apartment building and specifically on the concept of the door. We both came to this idea from slightly different places but our thought process was somewhat similar.

An apartment building is a uniquely urban artifact and it encompasses concepts of anonymity and density that are unique to living in a city. Both of us have had the experience of living in a building where we did not know or did not have strong ties to our neighbors. It is interesting to me that these nodes of private space that are so close in proximity to each other do not in fact promote any kind of social interaction and in fact, at times, discourage it. In suburban or rural areas, proximity is extremely relevant. As children in such an environment, most of our social lives are played out within the context of those that live in proximity. And even as adults living in such environments, the concept of representing ourselves as absent from our past history and actions is almost non-existent. This is part of the attraction of living in a city; being able to be amongst strangers, to re-invent oneself, to explore different contexts and relationships that do not function on the level of coincidence. But that does not necessarily mean that we should abandon the entire concept of maintaining ties with those that live near where we live.

This is interesting when considering the way we interact in virtual space. Virtual space completely abstracts the idea of proximity. We can connect with anyone, and those that are in proximity exist as such because of desire or pre-existing social relationships, rather then because of necessity. In virtual environments we are better able to negotiate the concept of being amongst strangers because we can chose this proximity and subjectively decide who enters our 'homes' (at least to the degree that we have to acknowledge their presence). The absence of privacy also creates an absence of responsibility. As Kevin mentioned in class, when someone knocks on our apartment door we have to make a significant decision to either remain silent and hide our presence or let them in. In virtual space this relationship is not binary, we not either there or not there. To a certain extent we are always there and simultaneously not there. It is a gray area.

This leads directly to the reason why we were interested in dealing with the concept of a shared and yet not shared living space. Physical doors imply a binary relationship, but they don't necessarily have to. A closed door is not necessarily a locked one or one that doesn't want to be opened. And, as mentioned in class, entrance to private space is relative; some people we want to enter and others we don't.

Neighborspace (working title) was our original idea. We wanted to use a tool (the mobile phone) that is ubiquitous and familiar and create an environment that would promote the discovery of proximity.Here is some stuff we wrote about the subject.

After feedback in class, however, I think we both realized that the project needs a physical iteration. I have been interested for a while in exploring the concept of a physical representation of social networks because I think it is an idea that has not been fully explored. If we could find a way to create states of a door, to use it as a real permeable membrane rather then a binary object it would be very interesting. I have been looking a lot at bluetooth code in my Cell Phone Studio Class and somehow I think this could be the beginning of a idea. Angela and I are going to discuss this further next week (after the insanity of the approaching Xavier University students and the freeFormed launch on Monday pass). This could be a new project.....more to come.