Reflexive design of the recursive space of virtual worlds

Abstract

This article considers the intersection of urbanism and digital culture to theorize a model of mediated urbanism and its application to a designed virtual world for artistic and scientific collaboration. Historical precedents informing the current research include artist networks of the late 1960s and early 1970s that sought to bridge and democratize scientific, technological, and artistic endeavors. The author proposes that mediated urbanism in the reflexive recursive space of virtual worlds references and reworks embodied forms of urbanism and fosters the development of new urbanite forums. The awareness of the nature and history of this articulation may be productively used to inform the design of these emerging virtual forums of knowledge production and artistic creation.