Cyberspace: An Approach from Spatial Praxis
Manuel Martinez · 2011
Nowadays, the concept of space has become increasingly important. ‘The spatial’ is the conceptual model that frames our understanding of the world. At the same time, the space is no longer related only to the physical place. The development of ICTs and, above all, the possibility of interaction with them, has given rise to the emergence of new virtual and metaphorical spaces. These Technospaces are the realms where the human being intersects with the machine and are characterized by generating, besides, an spatial praxis. Cyberspace is not only a new means of communication that emerges from the interconnection of computers, but also the infrastructure for numerical communication and the universe of information it contains. From this perspective, Cyberspace is a paradigmatic example of Technospace. As a virtual space of communication, it has no shape or size. Therefore, the only way to access it is the device through which we display the information (the computer screen, for example). However, Cyberspace –within this conceptual framework of spatiality- is conceived as a place, where we ‘navigate’, that we can ‘explore’ and even ‘inhabit’. The aim of this chapter is to think of Cyberspace -from its genesis and etymology to its development through the emergence of new interfaces- as a Technospace, establishing relationships between its ontology and the spatial praxis that it generates. To that end, we will analyze both the practices developed ‘inside’ Cyberspace (virtual communities or tele-job) and how virtual information is displayed. The goal is to provide new analytical perspectives to processes such as dissolution of boundaries between public/private or real/virtual, or the growing trend of designing interfaces that spatialize the information -from the ‘desktop metaphor’ to 3D browsers.