On this month's (May 2002) cover of the magazine ARTFORUM (www.artforum.com
<
http://www.artforum.com> ) is a picture of the Altar of Zeus from Pergamon
as it is presently in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Not only is this
architecture that has moved, but the (now over a century old) installation
is a true example of the composite of the real and the virtual. A whole new
virtual Temple has been reconstructed utilizing fragment remains of the
original--a part real, part virtual building in a sense, or is it now a part
Greek, part German building? For sure it is a mostly virtual building within
a real building. It is also a part real, part reenactment building within a
real building.
www.quondam.com <
http://www.quondam.com> began as a further extension of
the above real/virtual lines, yet also took it to the real/virtual to an
extreme in that the virtual buildings in Quondam's collection are all
virtual and kept within a completely other virtual building, ie,
www.quondam.com <
http://www.quondam.com> itself.
One advantage that fully virtual buildings have over real buildings is that
virtual buildings can move around this planet with relative ease via the
Internet. Moreover, virtual buildings digitally made 'physically' come to
you rather than you 'physically' going to them.
S
all right, all right!!!!
after all it's just a question of definitions of terminolgy, isnt ? (and
going "to" or "from" is always in reference to a predefined starting block
you decide to place where you want.)
meaby someday the virtually constructed buildings could have their "steins"
physically transferred or installed somewhere.... after beeing conceived,
created, designed virtually on some desktop... some personal
"steinification" at a distance...
( funny : steinification><scenification)
( years ago holography permitted some virtual but extremely significant or
efective visualisations) ( too costly now)
if de<materialization could happen someday such buildings could be
re>materialized from such a virtual to a physical way. Just a question of
choosing in the future the 9th or the 13th dimension instead of the
habitual set of three we all know. wait and see...
[Imagine what Hearst ( or some Citizen Kane-like magnate) would have been
glad to spare in shipping materials from Europe to build his castles in
California.]
Just dreaming of course.
That remembers me some futuristic visions in the Home/Kitchen department
(at the USA pavillion) of the International Brussels expo - 1958.
Why not , now, imagine already such de/re-materialization of concepts or the
possibility for such concepts to be realized "artificially" in the next
future ?
Remember the Life magazine pictures of futuristic cars, available during
the same era (and of wich none actually worked, btw)
So then such kind of "materialization from a virtual concept" is probably
very far away.
But on a parallel theme : after conceiving a project, why not order all
steps of the construction processes (after virtually designing forms on the
Autocad/cadintosh or similar) -- so to avoid all the problems with the
engineers.....???? -- from your desktop ?
Video cameras on site would check the results. A robot would work or perform
in situ resistance control and send results to your working place. Making
digital photos you could enhance on your screen to see the quality of the
cimentations made the day before. a.s.o.
Working at home.... no physical "to or from"... except electrons moving on
your phone line or "electronworks" of bits send via satellite , and photons
or waves via digital fiber or DSL?
There was a wonderful movie from Yves Robert, a recently deceased french
director, named " Alexandre le Bienheureux", with Philippe Noiret, in which
such actor is living all his life in his bed, completely equipped even with
the pastis de rigueur, and having all his daily activities "commanded"
from there.
Un-really happy ??
¼?ß
