Digital is physical
the future of user agency and design within the public domain
ABSTRACT: The idea of user agency and control in the context of digital media, specifically the subset of social media, has become an increasingly popular debate within culture and society centered around rights to privacy and regulation. This project aims to expand that debate by exploring the future of the design of the public domain and the relationship between physical space and digital media in cities. Technology companies use rhetoric centered around convenience, personalization, and community, but their outcomes have led to control over users, a loss of identity, and isolation. As the urban ambitions oftechnology companies become clearer, it seems necessary to speculate on the future of user agency and question of control, not only on digital mediums, but the physical environment.
Through an understanding of the evolution of the public domain and communication technology, the fundamental ideologies of Silicon Valley, and three major company case studies of Apple, Google, and Facebook, this research is then able to speculate on a projective future where technology companies have full control over the design of the public domain. By using parody, appropriation, mimicry, fictions, and irony this project will shed light on fundamental questions of the future of the public domain.
Through an understanding of the evolution of the public domain and communication technology, the fundamental ideologies of Silicon Valley, and three major company case studies of Apple, Google, and Facebook, this research is then able to speculate on a projective future where technology companies have full control over the design of the public domain. By using parody, appropriation, mimicry, fictions, and irony this project will shed light on fundamental questions of the future of the public domain.
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