A virtual city4/20/2023 ![]() The virtual world is similarly populated by millions of people, most of whom are strangers to each other. This continuous exposure to unknown persons, of diverse and often unfamiliar backgrounds and habits, has been cited by many urban theorists as one of the most salient characteristics of city life ( It is different even from life in the classical cities - the polis whose agora and civil life are so often cited in discussions of electronic community. This is very different from life in a village. Modern cities are filled with strangers, huge crowds of people one passes on the street but does not know. One of the strongest parallels between the city and the virtual world is their immense populations. My focus is on the cultural and social parallels: on how the structure of the city affects the life within it and how cultural vocabularies and social institutions evolve in response. His analysis highlights the key points of comparison in a series of analogies: ``Muscles / Actuators'', ``Facade / Interface'', ``Territory / Topology'', ``Enclosure / Encryption'', etc. (Mitchell 1995), William Mitchell surveys wide range of them, examining the city metaphor in roles ranging from the aesthetic and physical to the economic and political. Many points of comparison can be drawn between the physical and the virtual city. The whole communication structure and the means by which human beings are represented must be designed it is as if an architect was responsible not only for making a building, but also the organs of sight by which the inhabitants viewed it.Ģ.1.1 Parallels: the real and the virtual city ![]() In the virtual world, the designer is working with very different materials and with a much more encompassing task. In the real world, the designer creates a solid infrastructure of buildings, streets, etc., around which people and objects move. But there are also important differences. The designers of both urban spaces and of virtual system are creating environments that influence the interactions that occur within them and the culture that grows around them. Both real-world and virtual cities are (or should be) vibrant gathering places of people, centers of commerce and entertainment. ![]() There are parallels both between real-world cities and virtual environments as well as between real-world architect and virtual system designers. The spatial world makes such metaphors both powerful and pervasive Metaphor makes the abstract comprehensible: our constant experience of ![]() While the net is ``fundamentally and profoundly anti-spatial'' Using the metaphor transfers the meaning of ``city'' to the abstract Helps shape our conception of what this new world should be like The cultural and symbolic meaning of ``city'' Particular, metaphor is useful (and arguably essential) for thinkingĪbout abstractions. Here I will look at some of the key parallels between real cities and virtual spaces and between city architects and on-line system designers.Ī metaphor is a cognitive tool, a way of structuring thought. The virtual world is abstract and unknown the city is physical and, though very complex, better known. The metaphor of the city is a very useful tool for thinking about the virtual world. Its infrastructure is in constant flux: these people are communicating through channels that were non-existent five years ago and which are likely to be superseded in the next five. Its features are unprecedented: millions of people worldwide are able to communicate with each other and share information, transcending the accustomed limitations of time and space. There is neither an inherent form nor much history and shared culture on which to base a design. In its newness and abstraction, it presents a nearly blank canvas to the designer. Inhabiting the virtual city: The city and the bodyĢ The city and the body 2.1 The metaphorical cityĭesigning the virtual environment is a challenging problem.
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