Between Mediation and Making CIMSp: A Technoetic Modus Operandi

Abstract

The following paper describes an ongoing research project whose goal is to define a scalable, hybrid production and deployment protocol (CIMSp) for the creation of virtual environments (VE). Ultimately, the aim is to establish a creative workflow and infrastructure that embodies architectural and urban design activity as practiced by the research unit. The objective of the present paper is to schematically outline the current state of the research and its practical and theoretical context for further development. A theoretical position will be stated which assumes that the content, tool, epistemological, and speculative realms are consubstantial (technoèsis). The practical endeavour is to create the informational and embodied temporal--spatial condition of possibility for the imaginative production of cultural artifacts. It must accommodate varying individual and collaborative forms and styles of making and no presumption of a self-enclosed and referential system is made. A critical position is particularly compelling when this production is immersed in technological modalities of making where information and embodiment are inextricably intertwined. CIMSp is based on the workflow from acquisition and creation to output and storage. The work environment is comprised of a select set of software applications and visualization technologies. Secondly, an XML-based content and information management system is under construction to ensure project quality control, rigorous documentation practices, and bi-directional knowledge feedback procedures to enable an effective and resource-full workflow. Lastly, scalability of output modalities for use in the design process and for final presentation from WWW deployment to a high-resolution collaborative work environment (CWE) is being developed. The protocol is a multiuser mode of creation and production that aims to transform the technologies and their interrelation, thus dramatically impacting the creative process and intended content. It is a digital production workflow that embodies intensive visualization criteria demanded by the end users. The theoretical and practical intention of CIMSp is to provisionally structure the collaborative creative process and enable a choreographed movement between the realms of the technologically mediated and made in the pursuit of significant digital content creation.