Corridors of Cyberspace
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 6:01PM As familiar as we are today with the concept of a corridor, it is interesting to note that corridors did not exist before the late 17th century and only became widely used in the 19th century.
“Before their adoption, circulation flowed from one room to the next, forcing interactions and confrontations between the occupants of rooms, and those just passing through. Largely determined by socio-economic factors, political upheaval, and changing approaches to morality, corridors were invented to serve a very specific purpose. They were developed as a tool to separate different groups of people - the servants from the served, the jailed from the jailors ........” (Tad Jusczyk in Consider the corridor: lessons from architectural history)
Although people could now move more efficiently through buildings, rooms became a series of dead ends. The inventions of architects have social implications and the corridor has greatly influenced how we live, work and communicate.
The study of the architecture of cyberspace is both relatively new and exciting.
The minute we make use of a system which enables us to communicate despite our physical location, we enter the realm of cyberspace. In this plane, information is stored, processed and passed on. Inhabited by both machines and humans, time in this realm is otherworldly. Cyberspace cannot be seen with the human eye as it cannot be physically located.
Cyberspace is experiential, and its energies are mostly intuited.
Words which make sense in the land we have come from, are often used to describe the architecture we find when we begin to explore cyberspace. However, because this new “territory” is experiential rather than actual, we often need new words to allude to that which cannot be seen or existing words take on new meanings.
The term “corridor” has been used to describe the pathways filled with electricity that connect communication systems, but when it comes to the individual moving around in cyberspace the concept of a corridor becomes interesting.
The experience of cyberspace is very much more one of connectivity than separation. After spending some time there the individual gains the feeling of being a node on a hologram. One feels part of a whole, but at the same time gets the feeling that the whole enters oneself. Individuals come right into one’s mind-space via word and image, and we enter theirs. People, places and happenings arrive before one’s eyes in realtime and sharing is key.
And whereas each web page is a separate room and can be just that if the one entering it so wishes, it is simultaneously a corridor with many other rooms opening off it via the links it offers. The choice lies with the user who becomes the chief architect of that space and moment.
The clicking of a link can be equated to stepping into a corridor, but the end destination of the corridor is not necessarily fixed or known upon entering it. Its length is not fixed either. Reading something can be abandoned midway to answer an incoming mail or check on a social media site filled with an exponential number of connections and available links. Time seems to fly in this plane and one can get lost in the same sense one used to do when reading a good book.
Corridors in everyday architecture have become associated with mystery and sometimes danger. Online “corridors’’ have their lurkers too and obviously vigilance is required when navigating cyberspace.
“Corridor” has a root meaning of running, but cyberspace is associated with incredible speed. If its corridors exist they flash by.
Online “corridors” are like the arcades and passageways of malls which offer merchandise, entertainment, and places to meet and spend time together. As cultures meet in these spaces, they stop to chat and share worldviews, and the world suddenly becomes much smaller. Expansion and contraction happen simultaneously.
I am by nature rather curious and love investigating new areas (see Linda in Wonderland). Words fascinate me (see Langu age). Until a new term for it is coined, and even if it is not, I am happy to be a digital nomad, an online surfer, a cybernaut or whatever else I might be named, in the realm referred to in this blog as the “Corridors of Cyberspace”.
Related articles:
Social Media - Bridging Cyberspace
Light Through - Electronic Stainglass
Whirling Dervishes - Lessons for Cyberspace
PRT, Paternoster Lifts, Cyberspace And Mindfulness
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