Project Matrix: a Virtual Experience Platform for RE-Conciling Human Ecology & Urban Ecology

Abstract

A flashback to previous centuries testifies extraordinary human-lead technological prowess; from the invention of the telescope in the 17th-century, the telephone in 19th-century, the Worldwide-Web and technological revolution of 20th-21st century; it is undeniable that Humans constantly strive to overcome challenges through technological innovation by empowering/advancing humanity. Yet, we’ve witnessed a global disruption by a pandemic that exposed unforeseen weaknesses and exacerbated existing issues (human negligence or not). Suddenly all well-structured and reliable system-organization failed, exposing inadequacies, causing chaos and harmful damages of interconnected components including the flows of people, health, matters, information, economy, politic, materials, communication networks, deadlines, etc. Covid-19 spread across the globe defeated technological advancements. How could that happen in such technological era? Is Human in control of digital evolution or is the technology we invent holding us on leash? Was technology in place to leverage and tackle risks? Where we not prepared to it, or were we focused on the wrong tracks? In any case, whether by failure or negligence, Covid-19 has made history and will continue generating ink flow for decades to come. It is to help address these multi layered-multidimensional and highly complex socio-technical and temporal systems that this project intends to develop a series of applications in alignment with the SDGs. The focus is to blend the capabilities of environment scanning Apps with that of the human habitus-emotions capture, tracing and feedback collector in time and place. It requires advance analytical studies to fully understand interdependencies while respecting the relationships of all subsystems.